PR_Flak’s Postmortem on MavPR’s First Swag
Posted by PR_Flak in 
Over on PR_Flak’s Flak Attak, I look back at the process and fun of creating MavPR’s first item of swag — the [Skullcap of BUZZ] winter beanie. From failed designs to some rules that YOU should should use for determining whether to proceed with spending money on creating swag for a game, it’s a fun and informative read.
A SNIP:
“Swag can be really great and impactful, but swag can also be a colossal waste of cash — cash that could otherwise be budgeted towards PR activities that have a chance of producing tangible results.
You don’t NEED swag, folks. You DO need product tours. I really hate to see PR or marketing create swag just to fulfill a bullet point from a PPT in the hopes of generating “coverage.” There won’t be coverage from your swag, people. No one is going to do a cover story on your custom-molded USB key, OK? Get over it.”
Head on over and check it out! And don’t waste money on swag that doesn’t work!
- PR_Flak
Kotaku on Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Factions
Kotaku recently highlighted the various factions players will encounter in the upcoming Puzzle Quest: Galactrix from D3 Publisher and Infinite Interactive. The story includes breakouts of the various faction classes from Humans to Aliens and even Enemy factions.
Hit the jump for the full story — Kotaku on Galactrix.
A few additional folks ran similar stories, you can see them here:
-Grok
PQ: Galactrix on Destructoid
Steve Fawkner over at Infinite Interactive — the folks behind the fabulous Puzzle Quest franchise — made an appearance on Destructoid this week to discuss the upcoming Puzzle Quest: Galactrix.
Here’s a snippet:
Colette:
I got more than 60 hours out of the original Puzzle Quest. Do you think I’ll get the same amount out of Galactrix?Steve: Yeah, definitely. To get through the main story in Galactrix I think you’re looking at 20, maybe 30 hours if you just did the main story through. There’s a bunch of side missions, like in Challenge of the Warlords. Also there are areas where you can mine, trade, and build new ships. It’s a lot more of a sandbox deal, this one. There’s easily more stuff to do and collect. I can see people playing 90 or 100 hours, including everything.
Colette: Well, there goes the rest of February.
Nick: Yeah, thanks a lot Steve. Now Colette’s not going to get any work done.
Steve: Affect global productivity, that was our aim with this game. Plunge the world into a deeper financial crisis.
Feel free to check out the interview in all of its glory here.
-Grok
THE ART OF THE SCREEN SHOT: Video Game PR Needs to Step Up
IF YOUR SCREEN SHOTS AREN’T WORKING FOR YOU AND
DOING MORE THAN JUST LOOKING GOOD,
THEY’RE NOT DOING ANYTHING AT ALL.” – Me
More than anything else, screen shots are the ubiquitous calling cards of a video game. Typically, hundreds are released for each upcoming title through general screen shot “updates” or targeted shot releases that focus on specific features and help a writer illustrate a story.
We all use them. We all rely on them… and heavily. But the truth is, quite often, PR isn’t stepping up and fulfilling their responsibilities.
Here’s the thing — many PR people mistakenly look at screens as simply an “asset” or a means to an end — an item that shows what the game looks like. But screen shots can — and should — be so much more than that! And it’s on PR’s shoulders to make it happen.
DON’T BE SO LAZY – STICK TO IT AND GET THE GREAT SCREEN, NOT THE “OK” ONE…
Wanted: Weapons of Fate on Destructoid
We’ve been working with the teams at Universal and Warner Brothers supporting the PR launch on Wanted: Weapons of Fate. It’s been a fun and challenging assignment for us, coming from the licensor side for the first time, and it’s especially satisfying to see the game start to get the kind of coverage it deserves.
Wanted: Weapons of Fate is a great game that just happens to be based on a movie. Looks like Destructoid agreed with that statement too, in their look at the game we arranged on the side 
:
“What’s most impressive about the game, though, is that it’s … impressive. Forget the fact that it’s associated with a movie for just one second; Weapons of Fate seems like it’s provide the kinds of third-person shooter thrills fans of the genre crave.”
Check out the full story HERE.
There’s a lot more coming on W:WOF these days…
- PR_Flak
PQ: Galactrix on Wired’s Game|Life
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix landed in the news on Wired’s Game|Life this week. The story included a number of new screensshots highlighting the differences in the new game from Infinite Interactive and D3Publisher.
Here’s a snippet:
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, the followup to D3Publisher’s massively successful Puzzle Quest, promises to transplant its predecessor’s addictive puzzler action to a decidedly more action-oriented gaming mainstay: Outer space.
Whereas Puzzle Quest lifted Bejeweled’s puzzle mechanic, Galactrix seemingly lifts ideas from Hexic. It’s a bit less intuitive, but as you can tell from this Flash demo, the game is still quite addictive.
Like the original Puzzle Quest, the game wraps the addictive puzzle elements in roleplaying game storyline traditions. You won’t get 12 minute masculine-yet-sensitive cutscenes reminiscent of everything Square Enix has done for the last decade, but the talking heads you see in some of these screens certainly offer the average gamer more of a reason to repeat the same puzzles ad nauseam.
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is scheduled for release on Nintendo DS on February 24, and on the PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network later this year. Expect Galactrix to be ported to even more platforms once the game proves a success.
Follow the link for the Wired story and check out the new screens!
-Grok
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