The Great Northern Games Discord was the place to be on Tuesday 1st April for our monthly AMA chat with a games industry guest – and this time it was Matt Hitchcock from Leeds-based creative agency Other Things!
Matt began with an overview of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025, where Game Republic lead a trade mission with the Department of Business and Trade, based at Werqwise in San Francisco for the week. Matt praised the business development meetings with the likes of Nintendo and ID@Xbox, as well as the facilities at Werqwise – which for him, really felt like they had that personal much-needed support and backing at the event, which is an expensive undertaking.
The AMA then moved onto marketing, and particularly Other Things’ successful campaign for the indie game Squirrel With a Gun. Matt felt that the campaign had been successful because they had the freedom to come up with new ideas and that they also leaned into the game’s silliness, so the launch trailer “amplified the daftness!”
Matt commented that they had a three-month run-in to the launch, which was really helpful, and that the Squirrel With a Gun developer and publisher didn’t micro manage them – just supported them with good assets and video for the promotion. Other Things produced different “beats” for the game in those three months and different content for the platforms – so 16:9 aspect ratio for trailers on YouTube but using portrait aspect ratio and short-form quick video for TikTok. To avoid doubling the work, Other Things tried to ensure the main action of the video was in the centre of the screen, so that it would work in both 16:9 and 9:16 formats.
Other marketing tips included having a website or Discord for your game to build a community and also having an archetype in mind for your typical audience member – don’t be generic.
The conversation then moved on to the imminent pre-order launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, and Matt revealed that he pre-ordered his Nintendo Wii back in 2006 in Woolworths! Worse still, they failed to deliver it on the day, so he had ask a friend to queue for two hours at another shop to get one.
Our next GNGD AMA will be on Tuesday 6th May at midday with a special guest to be announced!
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