News by Jedediah H.
Nintendo’s former Head of Digital Content and Development, Dan Adelman, who spent 9 years advocating – identifying and releasing indie games like BIT.TRIP to major consoles long before doing so was a fashionable industry practice – on behalf of independent developers, has left Nintendo, and plans to work independently with indie developers to ensure success from a business and marketing standpoint.
Placing aside the controversy encircling the relationship between Adelman and Nintendo (he left the company on good terms), let’s focus on indie hardships and Dan’s mission to alleviate them: Indie developers can often have difficulty properly budgeting resources and developing a marketing plan that may maximize press coverage, because hiring a professional to manage these tasks costs money that either the developer doesn’t have or, at the moment, needs to spend on something more crucial, like hardware and programming application architecture.
Dan recognises these difficulties and wants to supply his business expertise to those indie developers who could use his skills and industry insight.
Here are some of the things that he can help with, according to his blog:
Early in the development cycle:
- Develop marketing plan to serve as living document
- Provide game feedback
- Determine out how best to budget resources
Mid-dev cycle:
- Work with the different platforms to maintain support
- Prioritize platforms/partners so you allocate your energy correctly
- Negotiate contracts
- Train you on how to conduct media interviews and give presentations
- Prepare for different conferences
- Help put together Kickstarter campaign
- Figure out merchandise plan
Launch time-frame:
- Maximize press coverage
- Help with community management
- Develop the post-launch strategy
Post launch:
- Refine post-launch plan to make sure the game is still generating income
I hope Dan finds as much success with his independent venture as he did with Nintendo, because without indie games, the industry would, to me, lose a bit of its passion and experimentation. If you’re an indie developer who could use Dan’s skill set, contact him via Twitter (@Dan_Adelman) and at his blog: http://www.dan-adelman.com/.
-Jedediah H.
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