Sivak: Game studios should use existing community platforms over proprietary forums
Seth Sivak · From Unknown Title to Viral Game: 12 Growth Lessons From Spellbreak · Sep 2, 2020 · at 25:29
Seth Sivak, CEO of Proletariat, shares community management lessons during an a16z Q&A session.
0:00 / 0:06exact quote · 6.0s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“And more and more, I think you're better off choosing an existing platform than running your own forums.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Seth Sivak
Sivak: Video Games Compete Directly With Netflix, Facebook, and TikTok
“You're competing with everyone. You know, you're competing with Netflix, you're competing with you know, with Facebook and TikTok.”
Proletariat Released Spellbreak Pre-Alpha After Failing to Secure Publishers
“We made the decision to go out in a pre alpha because we were not really getting anywhere with potential partners and publishers. We knew we had to show traction and it was way before any of us were comfortable having players in the game.”
Sivak: Early-stage game developers should prioritize high-upside viral channels
“The number one thing I think everyone should be doing right now is focusing on their high upside channels.”
Sivak: Game word-of-mouth happens via social media GIFs, not office chatter
“The water cooler moments that people used to share in the office, where they would say like, hey, you know, I was playing this cool game, or I fought this cool boss, no longer exist. They're all getting shared as animated GIFs now, whether it be through TikTok…”
Sivak: Discord Is Far Superior to Email or Social Channels for Community Building
“And we knew that discord was going to be really useful for us because we could engage directly with them and be able to tap in to that audience and much better way than we could through any other social channel that was currently out there or through email.”
Sivak: Controlling pre-launch information creates content scarcity and drives engagement
“So I think controlling this is, is really important because it allows you to build a lot of interest around anything that you're going to put out, and there's a real scarcity of content that you keep control over, and that becomes really valuable for every pie…”