FestiCrowd is a festival management tycoon game for PC where the emphasis in the design is on fun. The idea is that people are free to build their very own festivals while managing the visitors needs such as food, drinks, health, bladders and the parks income. The game provides goals to the player in order to guide them through the build system, and to help them expand their festival.
Pomegranate Games is my game company which published an early state of FestiCrowd. To gain a better perspective on managing a business I followed a minor called Startup Business at Saxion. During the minor I’ve learned a lot about businesses, tax, marketing and funding. I attended lectures about running a company with various topics such as funding, team building and pitching. The game did not enjoy commercial success but remains a passion project.
A retrospective on the commercial aspect of FestiCrowd:
- When there are no funds, make sure you’ve got a team which contains at least the art and programming roles. Good visuals are a must to impress people online to follow or invest in a game, especially if people don’t know you personally.
- Social media works great to promote your game. Especially websites such as itch.io and Reddit were useful to gain a new audience. Instagram and Facebook were mostly very supportive friends and family members, although those platforms could be used for advertising.
- Most importantly: A thorough plan is needed for the game, what are ‘musts’ to release it as early access and what could it contain if more investments can be gathered.
