News

TrailPay's Wachtang Budagaschwili on the value of Facebook, Kongregate and Steam

Patience is key

TrailPay's Wachtang Budagaschwili on the value of Facebook, Kongregate and Steam

Speaking at Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014, TrialPay's Wachtang Budagaschwili explained why launching on overlooked platforms such as Facebook might actually help developers crack the mobile markets.

According to Budagaschwili, it's all about biding your time, playing the long game, and having the patience needed to only strike when the iron is hot.

Of course, if you can sink millions of dollars into UA, then that advice probably doesn't apply to you. If, however, you don't, you should probably listen to what TrialPay's discovery guru has to say.

Fresh audiences

"How are you going to get your game discovered?" asked Budagaschwili, "One answer is, of course, to spend a lot of money, but not everyone has millions of dollars they can spend on UA and promotions."

"So, if you develop a game for Facebook, for example, you can do it in Flash, which is easy, you don't have to submit it to Apple and hope it gets approved, you don't have to update it a lot, so it's very easy to launch, program, and test it.

"It's also easier to promote, because on Facebook, on Kongregate, on Steam, there are a lot of promotion possibilities, which, in some respects, means it's better to develop for desktop, because everyone is in mobile, and everyone wants to do apps."

Can platforms such as Facebook really help devs get ahead?

By tapping into a market others have deemed lacking, Budagaschwili argues that you can actually get ahead of the game. Using the likes of Facebook, Steam, and Kongregate as a springboard to greater things.

Alternative channels

"There are still a lot of people using computers, either at home or at work, and you can reach those people who are looking for some downtime during a lunchbreak, either at home, or at work," said Budagaschwili.

"So, we think that building an audience on platforms with less competition just makes a ton of sense. If you have a game and you want to acquire users, there are a lot of ways to do this.

"Some platforms, such as Facebook, allow you to send your web users to the mobile game using a feature called 'play on phone'. We have been doing this as well, because we are monetising the games on Facebook, and it's working great. People accept it, and it allows you to reach a fresh audience."

You can see all the talks from Pocket Gamer Connects Helsinki 2014 here.

Pocket Gamer Connects is the biggest mobile games show in Europe, which brings together the best speakers and delegates from across the industry and from all over the world.

To-date, Pocket Gamer Connects has been held in London and Helsinki, and the show will be heading back to the UK in January 2015.

To find out more about the latest show, head on over to www.pgconnects.com.

What do you call someone who has an unhealthy obsession with video games and Sean Bean? That'd be a 'Chris Kerr'. Chris is one of those deluded souls who actually believes that one day Sean Bean will survive a movie. Poor guy.