One place that writing happens in modern computer RPGs is in character dialogue. There are as many ways to do this as there are CRPGs, but your goals are the same; reveal character, without resorting to exposition, and still provide an interactive experience. Doing Dialogue Two prime modes exist for dialogue in CRPGs; cinematic, and …
Specialty retail appeals to people into whatever it is you sell. If it’s horseback riding, it sounds cool to run a barn. If it’s fly fishing, it sounds cool to sell specialty lures. If it’s gaming, it sounds cool to own a game store. However, specialty retail is, by definition, so specialized that there is …
Like it or not, the game industry suffers from an image problem. It doesn’t take much to fix your email. Here’s why you should. Credibility You have a home repair project, so you search locally and find 2 plumbing companies. One has an email address called “Bob@BobsPlumbing.com” and the other is “JoePlumber14565@yahoo.com.” Given no other …
Read more “Why your store should have a custom email address”
As part of building a class on writing for game design in Fall of 2017, I’m creating a series of assignments here. Some will end up in the course, no doubt, and some won’t, but I think my teaching is better when I echo chamber my work far in advance and then go back and …
Today a customer who was in town for work, who had previously patronized the Game Universe chain of stores I managed in Milwaukee, stopped by my new store in Rochester NY. Unfortunately I was not there, but the staffer commented that he had mentioned how he often got things cheaper online, then proceeded to drop …
In fall of 2017 I am teaching a class at St John Fisher college titled “Writing for Games.” The course description I have cooked up goes something like this. “In this course students focus on the practical and artistic writing elements of game design. This includes writing dialogue scripts for video games, understanding the part …
Marketing, real marketing, is the single most important part of your budget in a game store. I’m not talking “oops I ran that event below cost let’s write it off as marketing” screw ups, I’m talking about genuine “get people in your door and excited” marketing. If you read around the game industry, and retail …
In business and in life I spend a lot of time looking ahead and projecting. Will big box retail hurt my sales? Will my staff perform above average, or just average? Will I remember to order playmat tubes if I leave myself a 5th reminder message? Whatever it is I’m dithering over, 90% of the …
Part of running a game store, or any business, is customer acquisition and retention. One of the big struggles a game store faces is, somewhat counter-intuitively, what kind of customers to pursue, charm and win over to their fold. Some of this is based on the demographics of a stores’ region, but much of it …
Read more “3 Game Stores in the Wild and How to Identify them”
I see a lot of store owners sweating their competitors. Mostly the ones who apparently operate without business sense or an infinite advertising budget. Or a trust fund. There’s lots of those, in every industry, but far more important is to recognize the good, healthy competitors you have and work with them. Aren’t your competitors …