The Evolution of Developer Diaries and the Multimedia Developer

It is hard to be noticed by the public as a game developer. There are around 150 games released on Steam every week.  Small indie developers and large AAA studios all vie for consumers to notice their games and buy them. As a result, game developers have begun to rely on creating non-game entertainment content to build up interest in their game. I think this is a larger trend of indie developers trying to adapt to a market where more traditional game promotion methods aren’t as effective. Today’s case study in this phenomenon is the Dev Diary. 

Dev diaries are a cost-effective and simple way to involve your audience with your game before it is done. Historically, dev diaries were text posts posted online that detailed the progress on the game and went in-depth on features that would be included in the game. A good recent example of this would be the dev diaries from most Paradox games, like Stellaris. Every week a Stellaris developer would write a post detailing how a feature in the game is designed and implemented. People excited about the game could read about the upcoming features and fantasize about the finished game while also giving early feedback, which kept the public aware of the game’s existence. Written Dev Diaries are a cheap way of generating interest, since all you need is one of the developers to write about a feature for an hour every week or so. What is interesting is that a lot of people just enjoy reading about the development process. So, the blog posts are a form of entertainment on their own. Players are excited to learn about how the games they play were made. This gave some developers an idea on how to stand out from the crowd.

A Stellaris Development Diary on the Paradox Forums about the MegaCorporations feature. Users can make comments and suggestions under the dev diary.

Some game developers took dev diaries to another level: dev diary videos. A good example of this are the Satisfactory development diaries. Every month or so, the developers would record 15 minutes of gameplay of their unfinished game while talking about the features. Again, people would watch the videos to learn about the game but ALSO to enjoy the video by itself. The developer playing the game was likable and created enjoyable content. So, the popularity of the video exploded due to viewers who were interested in the game AND/OR the videos. The downside of the videos was that they had to be edited and took more time to make than a regular dev diary. The studio would need a dedicated video person. However, the videos attracted a huge audience: over 250 thousand viewers. A few developers saw these numbers and realized that making an enjoyable video will bring in a big audience and decided to go even further.

The Satisfactory Development Blog Video is a play-through of an alpha with developer narration, very reminiscent of let’s plays.

This brings us to the newest iteration of the dev diary: a video series on making a game that is heavily edited to be appealing as a standalone video. A great example is the channel Randall. The videos he makes are dev diaries that they detail development of his game. However, the way the videos are structured and edited suggests that they are meant to be enjoyed on their own. The videos feature sketches, non-sequiturs and jump cuts. People enjoy these videos for their humorous nature as well as their look behind the scenes of game development. The author has a Patreon to support him throughout the development and video-making process. This suggests that people are getting value just from his videos. They are entertaining enough on their own to warrant attention. However, the videos require a lot of time spent editing and recording footage. This is not a simple task and it requires hours and hours of work. However, you can’t argue with the results: some of his videos are close to reaching a million views.

Randall’s videos are development diaries on his game, but also feature skits to make the video more enjoyable.

Randall has found a huge audience by creating both a game and a video series. This raises a question for the future: Is this going to be a big way developers get noticed? Will developers have to embrace the multimedia to find an audience?

I think this trend illustrates the way that audience for indie games is changing. People have become less receptive to web ads and traditional promotion (possibly due to the over saturation of game ads). However, people do enjoy watching YouTube videos about games. It makes sense that people would be attracted to a YouTube series about the development of a game. If a developer is able to make enough money from the creation of these videos to fund their game and still have enough time for development, this presents an interesting new funding model for indies. However, there is no guarantee that views on dev diary videos will translate into sales. It could be very likely that people have no interest in playing the game. Instead, they just enjoy learning about game development and seeing the development journey. In that case Randall’s game may not have great sales. There have certainly been many cases of games made popular by YouTube, like Five Nights and Freddy’s or Happy Wheels. I’m curious to see how Randall’s game will sell once it is released into the world. All I can say is that it is fascinating to see how game developers adapt to an ever-evolving market.