Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Marketing yourself
Creating the correct image as a professional games writer is important. The
industry as a whole is worth billions and individual projects can have develop-
ment budgets in the millions, so it is essential that you give the impression
that you and your talents fit into this big money industry.
Everything that has a connection to you is potential marketing for you
and your work and should reflect your professionalism at all times. Your
business card, stationery, promotional leaflets, web site and weblog all speak
volumes about the kind of person you are. A simple business card may be all
that you require - something that states who you are, what you do and gives
clear contact details - but if it looks like it has been put together from stock
clip art or on a machine in the local train station, then it may be working
against your intentions.
Branding
Something you should consider is whether you should to market yourself as
a brand. Business consultants will tell you that it gives a more professional
impression if you operate under a company name, even if that company only
consists of one person - you. It can show that you are completely serious in
your intentions.
You can also use your own name to combine the professional feeling with
the personal, so that if I operated under the name 'Steve Ince Scripts', for
example, it would not only put over what I do, but also who I am.
A colleague, thinking along similar lines, felt that I should go for something
more catchy and suggested 'Ince Perfect' (from inch perfect, of course), which
appealed to me in principle. However, I'm always wary of using a word like
'perfect' as I think that in doing so I could be setting myself up for a fall.What
the suggestion did, though, was to kick off a train of thought which led me to
the point where I branded myself under the name of 'INceSIGHT', something
I felt had the potential of being quite memorable. Having made this decision I
then bought the domain name, incesight.co.uk, which established that I was
based in the United Kingdom for anyone that considered visiting my website.
One advantage of using branding in this manner is that it allows you to
separate different aspects of your professional life, should you wish to do so.
