The "SteamWorld Build" Way: A Steam-powered SteamWorld Announcement
Has anybody ever heard of a game called SteamWorld Build?
If not, you've probably heard of the SteamWorld brand in general. The story began in 2010 with the release of the very first installment SteamWorld Tower Defense on the Nintendo DSi. For the following releases the brand expanded to multiple platforms; all SteamWorld Dig, SteamWorld Heist, SteamWorld Dig 2, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech are available on all major platforms.
Above all, the brand has always distinguished itself by being very variable and trying out new things and genres: strategy, platformer, action-adventure, metroidvania and roleplaying/deckbuilding.
And so it was hardly surprising that SteamWorld Build expanded the brand into new realms once more. As the name suggests, it is a construction and management game - or city builder - which pop out of the ground on Steam more often in the last few years. But SteamWorld Build hides a twist under the surface (in the truest sense of the word): on the surface, a SteamWorld-ly western city is being built that is as prosperous as possible, while resources and artifacts are being dug up on several underground levels. So, an Anno-like city builder on the surface, and Dungeon Keeper-esque gameplay under ground.
Actually, as in my previous "The Way" articles, I would have mentioned earlier that SteamWorld Build has X followers on Steam, and is therefore at number X in "Top Wishlists". But in case you looked the game up, you will have found out that SteamWorld Build released December 1, 2023. Another difference is that I am not writing about the announcement/premiere setup as an external observer and analyst, but as the lead and executive mind behind the Steam announcement on January 23, 2023.
So, this is more of a field report: I share my ideas and plans, their execution and evaluate my own work.
Follow me fellas, and let's dig to the deepest levels of the SteamWorld Build announcement.
In late 2022 the planing for the official announcement of SteamWorld Build began. The game should not be announced by press release only, the SteamWorld brand should have its own recurring showcase. Marketing and brand management put their heads together, and that's how the "SteamWorld Telegraph" was born:
And the first issue was to hit with a bang: namely the title-giving announcement of SteamWorld Build as the next release in the SteamWorld franchise. The plan was to wake the SteamWorld community from its slumber with a SteamWorld Telegraph event teaser before the actual announcement event, as the last major SteamWorld release was several years ago with SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech in mid 2019.
At this point I started to think about how the SteamWorld Build announcement festivities could be rolled out on Steam in the most effective way (with followers and wishlist in mind, of course). After all, it's no secret that Steam is a really good breeding ground for city builder games in general. And with four successfully released SteamWorld games on Steam (between 1k and 5k very or even overwhelmingly positive reviews), the solution was obvious: a SteamWorld franchise sale.
Taking into account the upcoming official 2023 events on Steam, one date in particular stood out: January 23, 2023, with the "Basebuilder Fest" beginning at 7pm CET. And it was exactly for this date that I asked Steam for the opportunity of a "Midweek Madness" featuring for the "SteamWorld Build Announcement Sale". And I was lucky enough that Steam agreed.
I immediately started to work on the event page and the assets necessary (my training as a media designer always comes in very handy here), as well as setting up a Steam timeline taking the marketing and social media plans for the announcement into account. And that's exactly how I implemented the SteamWorld Build announcement back in the day:
The overall goal was to push the metrics (followers, wishlists, demo installs) as high as possible. And to make this possible, the aim was to reach as many Steam users as possible. My plan for this was as follows:
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The idea of sharing the announcement update posting of the "SteamWorld Telegraph: Special Broadcast" on January 18 and the subsequent update postings on the four SteamWorld product pages available was simple, and simply logical: Kissing the SteamWorld communities awake again. The followers achieved (as of January 23, 2023, Source: SteamDB) made this endeavour very attractive (and successful):
And so the number of (SteamWorld Build) followers grew to 11,156 in the week of the "SteamWorld Build Announcement Sale" (January 23-30). One month later - on February 23 - the number of followers had risen to 13,429:
The front page featuring of the sale ended on January 26 at 7pm CET (which of course drastically reduced the traffic figures for the event page), but the "Discovery Queue" continued to deliver traffic to the SteamWorld Build product page, resulting in a further increase in followers and wishlist entries.
Albeit much more moderate, of course.
My two cents: Since I stayed in the office longer on January 23, I came in around lunch the day after. And I remember that a colleague welcomed me with the words "Did you see the insane numbers SteamWorld Build did?". I did not till that point, but a few minutes later. And I was really blown away how well SteamWorld Build was received by the players. And proud of how well my plan did work out.
Imagine me as John "Hannibal" Smith: "I love it when a plan comes together!" Without the cigar, but with just as many grey hairs.
Admittedly, the setup for the "SteamWorld Build Announcement Sale" was grateful: four SteamWorld games had already been released very successfully on Steam and had built up a decent number of followers, as well as a community that had been dormant but could be woken up kinda easily. And the SteamWorld community was hungry for more things SteamWorld.
The idea of utilising the power of the brand for the announcement not only in the terms of press and social media, but also on Steam turned out to be fruitful.
And on Steam as significantly more fruitful than on all other platforms. The numbers after the one week sale showed that only a minority of the overall traffic that was brought to the SteamWorld Build Steam page originated from external sources. The vast majority originated from the SteamWorld Build Announcement Sale page and the discovery queue.
The idea of a franchise sale was also a great success in another respect: namely that the revenue generated by the "SteamWorld Build Announcement Sale" far outweighed the expenditure on the high-quality production of the "SteamWorld Telegraph: Special Broadcast" and all other marketing expenditure.
More often I talk about Steam providing opportunities for powerful synergies. What I have described above is an example of exactly what I mean.
_ta