


Get the latest Education e-news
  • The Big Game Branding 101

    - Jamin Smith


    This could get controversial; these pyramids take many different forms depending where you look. One publisher's is different to another's, and everybody has their own preference. They all attempt to do the same thing, though: give you a framework for which your game will be defined by in market. 

    Using Headspun (as good an opportunity to plug it again as any) as an example it might look a little like this: 

    Here you can see: 

    • Foundation -  the base/canvas on which your game is based. This can be as simple as the genre you occupy, or the broad narrative set up. It should be pretty literal. 
    • Pillars - these are the features or concepts that hold everything up. Across your campaign, these will form the bulk of your talking points and messaging. They'll often be related to your three key features - in another pyramid they might be called ‘functional benefits', and represent the things that separate you from the competition.
    • ‘X' Statement - this, as you can tell by its home at the top of the pyramid, is the most important part of the pyramid. It's what everything else supports and is generally what all your positioning and brand work boils down to. It's your razor. Your player promise. It's - sometimes - your tagline for the game. It's not a feature, though - it's thematic; the fantasy your game offers to players. Any marketing assets you create should ideally reflect this statement in some form (I've included the Headspun key art below so you can see how it correlates to my pyramid) 

    Note: game designers will, quite naturally, come at this pyramid task with a design brain. Design pillars, however, are different to brand pillars. This isn't about mechanics or systems, necessarily. It can befeatures of your game, but it's always viewed through a brand lens. It's more about feeling than features


comments powered by Disqus