4k wishlists in 2 days - Crytivo x Huqiao
Half of your game players are Chinese… Although you don’t even have a proper translation yet?
That’s exactly the situation Crytivo and Square Glade Games faced with Above Snakes - relaxing Wild West-inspired worldbuilder, allowing you to freely build and explore your world. After releasing the prologue, they were surprised with over 60% of their traffic coming from China.
Chinese players generated a huge amount of wishlists - that’s why Tobi, founder of Square Glade Games, contacted us in April. Existing organic interest from the market was the best sign the game will do well in the market - and that active outreach can increase them even further.
As the release date - 25th of May - was coming soon, there was no time to lose.
- OVERVIEW
我们的合作从 2023 年 5 月初开始。我们的主要目标是在正式发布之前为出版商提供支持，重点是提高中国市场的销售额。为了借势和炒作，视频浪潮的时间设定在 5 月 24 日--即发布的前一天。。
该项目的负责人是 Aleksander Ptak 我们的初级中国营销专家。
- OUR SOLUTION
快速提升销售额的最有效解决方案是名人推广。在这种情况下，由于所剩的时间不多，我们决定采用爆破支援 - 我们的一次性服务包括联系至少 50 位名人。
开始之前有三个要求：
- 必须至少在发布前一个月，这样我们就有足够的时间规划并联系名人。
- 游戏的可玩版本必须准备就绪，这样他们才能真正玩游戏。
- 最后是翻译汉化 - 因为中国会说英语的人不多，这可以大大增加成功的机会。
We had 3 weeks for influencer outreach and during that time we managed to confirm 20 influencers who were eager to create videos about Above Snakes. What did it look like?
- 一开始，我们 列出了所有为类似游戏创作内容的名人（比如《Timberborn》或《Dinkum》），并将他们输入为 Above Snakes 创建的自定义资料库。我们的重点是轻松和宽容的游戏。
- 然后，我们直接通过出版商的 Bilibili 账户进行联系，这使得接触更加个性化。每位名人都获得了一把游戏的key作为奖励。
- 我们还帮助名人获得正确的游戏版本，以避免任何错误。
然后，我们商定 5 月 24 日为视频的发布日期。
3。成果
封锁结束后仅两天内，我们注意到，小黑盒上的愿望单数量猛增了 4000 个。
在我们资料库中的 62 位名人中，首映后仅 7 天就发布了 49 段视频。截至 5 月 31 日，我们的浏览量已突破 30 万次。
这导致 一个月后，仅在 Heybox 上就售出了 4000 多份。
并且，在 Steam 上有 27% 的评论为中文，和《Above Snakes》在 Steam Spy 上的热度排名第一。
4. INFLUENCER CONTENT
Apart from sales, it’s also important to mention how influencers reacted to the game. Content creators contacted by Olek had very positive feedback for the developer - with comments like “good games should get a lot of attention” and “the game is great and fun”.
Out of videos published as a direct result of our outreach, the most popular one was created by 疯不觉Cool, an influencer with 55k followers. At this moment, his gameplay has reached 101k views and 2387 likes.
Another example is a series of videos by 狗哥yo, another Bilibili influencer with 218k followers, which gathered 74k views.
Not only these videos created a lot of hype during launch, but also have long-term value - as they will continue to attract potential gamers long after the premiere.
5. COMMUNITY PERCEPTION
Just before the release, the most popular thing searched about Above Snakes on Bilibili was “什么时候上” - “When is the premiere”. What was the source of its popularity in China?
In general, casual, cozy games are very sought after in the Chinese market. Many people there deal with stress and pressure on a daily basis, and relaxing games are a popular way of relieving it. Above Snakes is a forgiving game without any time pressure, allowing the players to experience a high degree of freedom and beautiful art style. It’s no wonder that it attracted a lot of attention.
But the popularity didn’t come without challenges. As more people became interested in the title, the amount of negative comments increased. While on Steam, 75% of reviews were positive, Heybox rating equaled 6.5.
Chinese players are often more critical in their opinions. The first thing they judge is the price - as they are used to F2P games, their demands are high when it comes to content and quality of the game. Frequently addressed aspects were also in-game mechanics, for example long respawn times and short story.
That’s why comment moderation and quick response to their feedback is vital during hot periods like the game launch.
6. SUMMARY
Influencer outreach is a proven way to bring sales - the results above are a sure proof of that. Not only is it cost effective, but it’s able to generate results on a small time-window, which can be crucial before any major update.
Influencers can also support you in the later stages, for example by creating more content about the game every time there is a new patch or change - or organising key giveaways for their followers. As they gather an entire community of like minded people around themselves, they are your window to reaching your target audience in a huge market of 660 million Chinese gamers.
Last but not least, a few words from Olek:
“After I saw the game for the first time I thought "I see potential for tens of thousands sold copies - let's make it real".
Setting up over 30 influencers and making sure that they will stick to the embargo wasn't an easy task, but I wanted to deliver the best possible results for the client.
I have set a goal for myself as a specialist - over 200k of views under the videos.
And guess what happened next ;)”
We are definitely proud of the results we were able to achieve! It was a huge pleasure to work with you Tobi and Sasha 🙂
Kind regards from our entire team ~ Contact us in case of any questions!