The Game Outside the Game (Social Media and CC)
*MMS
Member
TL;DR at the bottom. Post includes some pretty graphics too :)
I think social media now, more than ever, is an integral part of attracting new players while keeping the current players engaged (and possibly even bringing old players back).
The game is thriving content-wise: I was pleasantly surprised with how many new items/mechanics were added. However, I don’t feel like this is properly being leveraged on social media.
This post will be about Instagram since it’s the platform I’m most familiar with, and the one that I think has the most potential for growth (most of this could probably be applied to other platforms though).
- space_fetus, if you’re reading this, I think you’re amazing. I haven’t been back to the game for long but it’s obvious that you do so much for the community, thank you :D
- I don’t work in marketing professionally - I'm just an amateur graphics designer with a little experience in marketing.
- I stumbled upon IcyTamTam’s incredible post from 2019 about this topic while writing mine. I agree with all her points. I did not reference her post when writing this though. Looking back, some ideas are similar - great minds think alike https://forums2.cubiccastles.com/discussion/comment/268727
- Average over the latest 9 posts, not including the video: 57.22 likes
- 2015-2016: ~150 likes per post
Occasional posts will have garnered nearly 100 likes, but those are spread pretty far and thin.
This section will not cover solutions/improvements: that will come in the next section.
Tacky Title Cards
If someone showed me any of the titles highlighting an event, contest or result from the Cubic Castles Instgram page, I wouldn’t give the game a second look. Here are some examples:
From a graphics design standpoint:
- The text isn’t aligned
- There are filters added to the picture that take away from the image.
- The backgrounds are black screens, a carpet or a wall (none of which are related to CC)
In addition, the title card often says “visit the forums to see what I’m talking about”, which doesn’t bode well for an Instagram post. As a viewer, I want to see the thing now, not have to go to an external site to know what the post is talking about.
However, I think that posting pictures only using Skycam makes Cubic Castles seem like a voxel editor. Here’s a comparison of a random image I found on Google made using a voxel editor compared to the Skycam photo of one of the winners of the Easter Building Contest that was posted on Instagram:
The builders in Cubic Castles don’t work in these sorts of editors: they place and pull each block with their Qbee. I feel like only showing the Skycam view takes away from that, while also giving the wrong impression of what the game is about.
Lack of Gameplay Footage
The majority of photos on Instagram suffer from the Skycam photos mentioned before, which leads to the lack of actual gameplay footage.
A major part of Cubic Castles is building, but that’s far from all this game is about. It’s also about community (contests, games, and events), economy (buying/selling those rare items), and mini-games within realms (parkours, adventures, puzzles and stories).
Currently, I don’t think that these aspects of the game are displayed at all on the Instagram page.
Gameplay Footage
Show pictures of Qbees in game! Whether it be roaming through a realm, doing a parkour, building or mining, I think gameplay footage is a must on socials. Ideally these would be short videos, but still photos work as well.
A skycam photo for builds would be cool to add at the end, but I feel like game footage should take priority. After all, that’s where most of us spend our time.
Here are two potential examples (this is the Cubic Castles Town Center built by space_fetus and a photo I got from the CC Home page) with a little graphics design flair:
Monthly Realm Spotlight
Showcase a cool realm, and follow a Qbee as they (shortly) venture through it! It would also be great to have a link in-game to this realm so Qbees could check it out. Here’s a potential example (this room is the Vertigo maze in the realm Hinter’s Amazing Amusements):
Photography Contests
Let Qbees submit photos to be used on Instagram - and maybe give a cubit prize for the selected winner. Here’s an example of a potential photo contest post (I took this photo ages ago, and I forget who owns the realm. If you know, please let me know so I can attribute it)
Improved Graphics for Announcements
Contest Announcements/Results
I think some text over a nice themed-background would look great. The Fishing Tournament graphic is (in my eyes) perfect. It’s fun, and flexes some Cubic Castles graphics.
Here is another simple concept for the Easter Building Contest Results title post:
Game Updates
I think the Yule Pack 2020 post is near perfect too - the graphic is fun and legible!
The one thing I would add is a slide with a quick preview of the fanciest items to get people who see the post excited about the pack. Each update has such cool items that would be great to preview a few.
Fan Art
Flex the fan art! One look at the forums and the official Discord channel tells me that we have a lot of talented artists that would be great to feature on our socials.
Memes
I believe that the community can come up with memes for this game, and I’d love to see them pop up in my feed.
Comic Strips
I saw there was one comic strip a while back, and I think more would be cool! They could be released monthly (or less often, I’m not sure how long they take to create) issues with 3-4 panels per post.
Contests and Giveaways (with engagement from social media)
A frequent tactic used to improve an Instagram page’s reach is to have a giveaway for liking, commenting and sharing a post. I think this would be a great way to get our content out there!
For example, 10k cubit giveaway where liking and commenting your favourite item in CC on the post is 1 entry, tagging a friend is an extra 3 entries and sharing the post on your story is 5 extra entries!
Whenever someone comments something positive, replying to them will not only make them feel great, but will also show other viewers how friendly and welcoming this game community is :) This includes the posts on the official CC instagram, but also replying to posts that tag the account.
Using Instagram stories would also be great for engagement - posting stories with polls and sliders and buttons!
More social media content => more engagement => more players => more social media content
Once again, this is not meant to be a personal attack against anyone.
(Hey reader, if you’re reading this you should also read my other post titled “The Difficulties of Discovering Parkour, Adventure, Puzzle and Story Realms”): https://forums2.cubiccastles.com/discussion/32129/the-difficulties-of-discovering-parkour-adventure-puzzle-and-story-realms#latest)
I think social media now, more than ever, is an integral part of attracting new players while keeping the current players engaged (and possibly even bringing old players back).
The game is thriving content-wise: I was pleasantly surprised with how many new items/mechanics were added. However, I don’t feel like this is properly being leveraged on social media.
This post will be about Instagram since it’s the platform I’m most familiar with, and the one that I think has the most potential for growth (most of this could probably be applied to other platforms though).
Disclaimers
- This is not meant to be a personal attack on the social media manager, the developers or Cosmic Cow as a whole. It’s meant to be a suggestion on how to improve the current Cubic Castles social media situation.- space_fetus, if you’re reading this, I think you’re amazing. I haven’t been back to the game for long but it’s obvious that you do so much for the community, thank you :D
- I don’t work in marketing professionally - I'm just an amateur graphics designer with a little experience in marketing.
- I stumbled upon IcyTamTam’s incredible post from 2019 about this topic while writing mine. I agree with all her points. I did not reference her post when writing this though. Looking back, some ideas are similar - great minds think alike https://forums2.cubiccastles.com/discussion/comment/268727
The Problem
Without access to analytics from the account, I’d have to manually get the likes from each image. I’m too lazy to do that so here are my rough estimates:- Average over the latest 9 posts, not including the video: 57.22 likes
- 2015-2016: ~150 likes per post
Occasional posts will have garnered nearly 100 likes, but those are spread pretty far and thin.
Current Content Issues
The following are all personal opinions. Once again, this is meant to be constructive criticism and not a personal attack of any sort.This section will not cover solutions/improvements: that will come in the next section.
Tacky Title Cards
If someone showed me any of the titles highlighting an event, contest or result from the Cubic Castles Instgram page, I wouldn’t give the game a second look. Here are some examples:
From a graphics design standpoint:
- The text isn’t aligned
- There are filters added to the picture that take away from the image.
- The backgrounds are black screens, a carpet or a wall (none of which are related to CC)
In addition, the title card often says “visit the forums to see what I’m talking about”, which doesn’t bode well for an Instagram post. As a viewer, I want to see the thing now, not have to go to an external site to know what the post is talking about.
Overuse of Skycam Photos
I want to preface this by saying Skycam is super cool. It was one of the features I liked most after returning to the game. You get to see so much detail in the builds!However, I think that posting pictures only using Skycam makes Cubic Castles seem like a voxel editor. Here’s a comparison of a random image I found on Google made using a voxel editor compared to the Skycam photo of one of the winners of the Easter Building Contest that was posted on Instagram:
The builders in Cubic Castles don’t work in these sorts of editors: they place and pull each block with their Qbee. I feel like only showing the Skycam view takes away from that, while also giving the wrong impression of what the game is about.
Lack of Gameplay Footage
The majority of photos on Instagram suffer from the Skycam photos mentioned before, which leads to the lack of actual gameplay footage.
A major part of Cubic Castles is building, but that’s far from all this game is about. It’s also about community (contests, games, and events), economy (buying/selling those rare items), and mini-games within realms (parkours, adventures, puzzles and stories).
Currently, I don’t think that these aspects of the game are displayed at all on the Instagram page.
User Engagement
User engagement seems pretty non-existent at present - I don’t have analytics for the account, but the comments are spread pretty far and thin. I haven’t seen the account reply to others either.Suggestions
Overall, I think that the community should be heavily involved in content creation for social media - everyone loves sharing their cool builds, photos and art! Here are some more specific ideas I had to enhance our social media presence.Content Ideas
I personally love Cubic Castles graphics - and I think we should leverage that on socials.Gameplay Footage
Show pictures of Qbees in game! Whether it be roaming through a realm, doing a parkour, building or mining, I think gameplay footage is a must on socials. Ideally these would be short videos, but still photos work as well.
A skycam photo for builds would be cool to add at the end, but I feel like game footage should take priority. After all, that’s where most of us spend our time.
Here are two potential examples (this is the Cubic Castles Town Center built by space_fetus and a photo I got from the CC Home page) with a little graphics design flair:
Monthly Realm Spotlight
Showcase a cool realm, and follow a Qbee as they (shortly) venture through it! It would also be great to have a link in-game to this realm so Qbees could check it out. Here’s a potential example (this room is the Vertigo maze in the realm Hinter’s Amazing Amusements):
Photography Contests
Let Qbees submit photos to be used on Instagram - and maybe give a cubit prize for the selected winner. Here’s an example of a potential photo contest post (I took this photo ages ago, and I forget who owns the realm. If you know, please let me know so I can attribute it)
Improved Graphics for Announcements
Contest Announcements/Results
I think some text over a nice themed-background would look great. The Fishing Tournament graphic is (in my eyes) perfect. It’s fun, and flexes some Cubic Castles graphics.
Here is another simple concept for the Easter Building Contest Results title post:
Game Updates
I think the Yule Pack 2020 post is near perfect too - the graphic is fun and legible!
The one thing I would add is a slide with a quick preview of the fanciest items to get people who see the post excited about the pack. Each update has such cool items that would be great to preview a few.
Fan Art
Flex the fan art! One look at the forums and the official Discord channel tells me that we have a lot of talented artists that would be great to feature on our socials.
Memes
I believe that the community can come up with memes for this game, and I’d love to see them pop up in my feed.
Comic Strips
I saw there was one comic strip a while back, and I think more would be cool! They could be released monthly (or less often, I’m not sure how long they take to create) issues with 3-4 panels per post.
Contests and Giveaways (with engagement from social media)
A frequent tactic used to improve an Instagram page’s reach is to have a giveaway for liking, commenting and sharing a post. I think this would be a great way to get our content out there!
For example, 10k cubit giveaway where liking and commenting your favourite item in CC on the post is 1 entry, tagging a friend is an extra 3 entries and sharing the post on your story is 5 extra entries!
Engage, Engage, Engage!
I think it would be neat if the official CC Instagram page engaged with comments.Whenever someone comments something positive, replying to them will not only make them feel great, but will also show other viewers how friendly and welcoming this game community is :) This includes the posts on the official CC instagram, but also replying to posts that tag the account.
Using Instagram stories would also be great for engagement - posting stories with polls and sliders and buttons!
Conclusion
(TL;DR) Improving Cubic Castle’s social media would help grow the game, keep current players engaged while also potentially bringing returning players back. I think that the official page should leverage the cute game graphics and creative community that is dedicated to the game to create a stronger presence online outside of the game.More social media content => more engagement => more players => more social media content
Once again, this is not meant to be a personal attack against anyone.
(Hey reader, if you’re reading this you should also read my other post titled “The Difficulties of Discovering Parkour, Adventure, Puzzle and Story Realms”): https://forums2.cubiccastles.com/discussion/32129/the-difficulties-of-discovering-parkour-adventure-puzzle-and-story-realms#latest)
Comments
I don't remember which realm the fire pyramid photo was from - the two other realm photos are from the Blue Course (taken from the official website) and the Red Course (taken by me earlier today)
(To repeat: This entire post is not meant to be a personal attack of any sort. Only constructive criticism and suggestions from an amateur graphics designer and returned Cubic Castles enthusiast.)
Tbh the cc community instagram page is more appealing marketing-wise, it shows the amount of creativity you can apply in game. However, its lacking in constant and up-to-date content...
https://forums2.cubiccastles.com/discussion/28823/a-story-updated-page-13/p1
instagram.com/cubiccastlescommunity is a great example