1. Twitter Research (Statistics taken on 28/05/2014) Team Meat This twitter account is for a game studio; the makers of Super Meat Boy. Followers: 99.1K Following: 22 Quite a low amount here, Team meat only follows other people in the industry, e.g. artists or musicians. This creates a little network of game developers on twitter, which could potentially get each other followers. It also helps the account look legitimate, as it follows other members of the same industry. Tweets: 10K Whilst a lot of their tweets are promotion, advertising merchandise or upcoming events, Team Meat also share updates on game development. Joined: 2009/09/12 Release Date: 2010/10/20 They joined twitter a year before the release of their game Super Meat Boy, giving them enough time to build an audience and spread word of the game, but its not so long a distance that the hype will fade and people will forget. Angry Birds The official twitter for Angry Birds, an app store game thats hugely popular and has lots of merchandising around it. Followers: 627K Following: 9,168 This account has the highest following rate of the accounts Im looking at. This tells us a lot about what theyre trying to do. Angry Birds want to build a community of players, and so gathers them around the account by following them. Unlike other accounts they are following just players of the game, people who are talking about Angry Birds on twitter. Tweets: 57.7K Angry Birds do a wide range of tweets, from promotion based updates and offers, to retweeting fan tweets, to humours little cartoons. They will tweet for just about any reason, often posting pictures just because its a certain day of the week. This variety

2. and volume is why Angry Birds has so far tweeted the most of all of the accounts I looked at, even though theyve been online for roughly the same amount of time. Joined: 2008/11/12 Release Date: 2009/12/11 Again, Angry Birds launched their twitter account almost exactly a year before their initial release. Pixel Spill This is the account for a very small indie game studio, and although they havent had a big release yet, theyre building up to a release with Kattak a game being developed with youtuber TomSka. I thought it might be good to look at as its a game studio just starting out, and beginning to get out on Twitter, so their methods of going about that would be interesting to look at. Followers: 206 Following: 131 Mainly follows other game developers, some high profile, but mainly indie games and studios and artists. This places them within the game development community, and also gives them credibility; they know whos who. Tweets: 196 They dont tweet often, but all their tweets show progress on a game, so an animation, or a piece of concept art or a small update. All the tweets have interesting content. They also use tweets to stay part of the game development community, retweeting other game makers updates, or talking about game construction theyve seen and been interested in. Joined: 2013/06/03 Temple Run The account for the very poplar app store game. Followers: 630K Following: 58 The account mainly follows accounts of famous companies, films or celebrities, as well as other people associated with the Temple Run game. Following all the people who worked on the game creates a little network on Twitter, whilst following popular and high profile accounts will do a little to advertise the game, but will also 3. show potential players what the makers of Temple Run like. For example they might think, I like the movie Brave and these guys follow it, so they must think along the same lines as me. Tweets: 1,187 Temple Run tweets mainly for promotion, advertising offers or running small competitions, as well as updating on any new purchases available related to temple run. They also will try and use it to connect with fans, retweeting or replying to player tweets. Joined: 2011/11/29 Release Date: 2011/8/4 This one is slightly different, as it came out after the release of the game. This means that the account wasnt used for any pre-release marketing or such, and is more support for the game. Indeed, most of the tweets are promotions or replies to questions from players. Analysis and Lessons There is a correlation between the amount of tweeting and the amount of followers. This is pretty logical, as the core reason you would follow someone is because youre interested in what theyre saying. The content of the tweets is also important, Team Meat will actually update on game developments, and Angry Birds make announcements and hold promotions on their account. In marketing terms its about establishing a relationship. A year before intended release seems like a good time to start up a Twitter account. Its the perfect period of time so that you can get people talking but not have interest fade. Setting a goal to getting popular on twitter thats any shorter than a year would be unachievable. Who you should follow using the account is an interesting point. Most accounts like to create a more professional image and distance themselves from players by only following users who work in the same industry, like other game developers or games artists. This gives of a look of credibility, and also could bring the game to attention of these other users. However there is also the relaxed, causal community approach taken, where the account will follow almost anyone who talks about the game. This system works too, as it rewards people talking about your game. Another interesting thing to note is how you can use Twitter to tap into other communities or audiences that already exist. For example theres a community of game developers that Team Meat have made themselves a part of, and Pixel Spill are also getting into that area. This is done through a mix of talking with a following other members of the community, and tweeting content that would interest members, like concept are, or stuff about coding the game, or simply using established hashtags. 4. Angry Birds more goes the route of building its own community, making up its own hashtags and events, and following users who join in. Obviously the game is already hugely established and has been around for a while, so its had time to do this. Using the one year time limit, there wouldnt be time to do this to its full potential; however the groundwork could be put in place. Pixel Spill also has the good fortune to be actually working with a Twitter user who has a large base of followers; Tomska. Through their work with him they can gain more exposure and followers, as they tweet at each other. Whilst we are obviously not working with anyone popular, this is a good idea, and we could go about it by targeting high profile Twitter users we think would be interested in our game, and sharing it with them.