Life as a Product Marketing Manager at Big Viking Games

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Our series of Viking Profiles aims to shed some light on the some of the lesser-known roles in the gaming industry. Today we’re talking with Viking James to learn more about what it’s like to be a Product Marketing Manager at Big Viking Games.

What is your role at Big Viking Games, and how long have you been with the company?

James: I’ve been with Big Viking Games for over two years as a Product Marketing Manager for two of our titles YoWorld and Fish World.

What does a Product Marketing Manager do at a games company?

James: I work with the rest of the team to promote new features, events, and content that gets released into the game. We also work on the monetization aspects of our games, how to get new and lapsed players playing, and we analyze the team’s decisions to see what worked and what could be improved next time. It’s not all business though. We also do loads of fun things like put together email newsletters for our players, make trailers for exciting new features, produce fun social media content on Facebook, and conduct player feedback surveys which help us determine what our players like as well as what they want to see next.

What does an average day look like for you as a Product Marketing Manager?

James: The first thing I do is look at revenues from the previous day. I look at what went well and what could be improved. The rest of my day is dedicated to a variety of things such as planning for future releases and marketing campaigns, implementing these plans, or doing analysis on past marketing efforts.

“As soon as we started adding incentives like free items for returning, the click-through rates on the ads doubled.”

How did you become a Product Marketing Manager?

James: I went to university for business specializing in marketing. After completing the program, I started out my career as a Product Marketing Analyst at another games company called Magmic. There, I worked on mobile games like New York Times Crossword, Rubik’s Cube, Scattergories, and Apples to Apples. After a year or so I owned the marketing strategy for all of Magmic’s Mattel branded mobile games as their Product Marketing Manager.

How has your career progressed at Big Viking Games?

James: I started at Big Viking Games as a (lonely) team of one. Over time and as responsibilities increased, I was able to grow the team and we have since added six fantastic members across the Marketing and Content Marketing Teams.

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What it Means to be a Producer in Video Games

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Our series of Viking Profiles aims to shed some light on the some of the lesser-known roles in the gaming industry. Today we’re talking with Viking Robyn to learn more about the process behind game production and what, exactly, is produced by a Producer.

What does a Producer do

What is your role at Big Viking Games, and how long have you been with the company?

Robyn: I was hired to be an Associate Producer (on both YoWorld Mobile and Tiny Tappers for Kongregate), and when one of those games wrapped I was transferred to the other full time. After shipping both, I was promoted to Producer.

What does a Producer do at a game company?

Robyn: One the favourite jokes of my developer friends is “a Producer doesn’t actually produce anything!”, which is hilarious to devs, but less funny to Producers. Producers are responsible for making the hard decisions to keep everything on track and make sure a game ships.

The role varies from company to company. I’ve had it be a catch all, where I, as the Producer, did everything except code or draw, including marketing material, community outreach, and social media. I have even been responsible for video editing!

Thankfully at BVG it is a very defined role: managing the team and working with the Product Manager to deliver a game. The Product Manager handles the creative decisions of what goes into the game, and the Producer decides how we execute on that vision, which involves a lot of planning and scheduling of sprints.

So, though a Producer might not produce anything, they do make sure that everyone else is producing on schedule!

“Producers are responsible for making the hard decisions to keep everything on track and make sure a game ships.”

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Want to work in Canada? We want to help!

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Move to Canada work at Big Viking Games

The Big Viking HR team has been receiving a lot of questions from talented professionals located outside of Canada who are interested in joining the horde. Big Viking Games is a proudly Canadian-based company, and a big part of that identity is being welcoming to talent from all over the world. In the hope of answering any questions you might have about immigrating, or what it’s like to live and work in Canada, we’ve put together the following site: Work in Canada

With more than a dozen positions currently open, and plans to hire for many more, we’re eager to hear from you!

Galatron Launches on Facebook Instant Games

By | Announcements, Games, HTML5, Instant Games, Tech | No Comments

facebook_horizontal_banner001Galatron, BVG’s fast-paced space shooter, launches today on Facebook Messenger’s Instant Games platform.

Galatron puts players in the pilot’s seat of the Valkyrie: a sleek, powerful starfighter with the most advanced weaponry in the fleet. It’s up to you as pilot to blast through waves of alien ships, dodge devastating meteors and battle epic bosses in a quest to save the galaxy. Players can upgrade their weapons, customize their ships and rack up bonuses for obliterating whole waves of invaders as they work to achieve high scores and climb the ranks in order to become the best fighter pilot of all.

Play Galatron HTML5 Instant Gaming Big Viking Games

Galatron coming to Facebook Messenger’s Instant Gaming platform means that you can play the game right now: on any device where you’re already using Facebook messenger. We created the game in HTML5 to make it instantly playable, but another benefit is that you won’t ever have to download, install, or update the game. Just open it on Facebook Messenger, and play!

This is precisely why BVG has invested so many years of work in HTML5 instant gaming. Our CEO and co-founder Albert Lai explains it best:

“Big Viking Games has been at the forefront of HTML5 development, and with Galatron we’re able to really showcase that technology and show what a game on messenger can look like. Galatron has features and gameplay that many thought were impossible in an instant messenger game so we’re excited for players to see that and realize that this is really a viable platform for quality games.”

To play Galatron today:

1. Join any chat in Facebook Messenger

2. Tap the Instant Games icon at the bottom of the chat

How to play Galatron

3. Find Galatron and press PLAY

How to play Galatron

Our official press release on the subject of the the Galatron launch can be found below:

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Valiant Partners with BVG for First Major Content Partnership

By | Announcements, HTML5, Instant Games, Partnerships | No Comments

valiant_logo-horizontal

We have some amazing news to share today about our first major content partnership. Big Viking Games has signed a five year mobile content partnership with Valiant Entertainment, the award-winning comic book publisher. As you know, Valiant has a library of more than 2,000 characters, including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Harbinger, and Shadowman.

The partnership with Valiant will focus on combining their best-selling collection of superheroes with our own industry leading HTML5 development and publishing ability to deliver the Valiant Universe to existing fans and new players alike through a completely new medium.

Our CEO Albert Lai said it best when commenting on how excited our Vikings are to be working with a leading comic publisher.

“We have always been huge fans of their comics, and the executive team has done an incredible job bringing Valiant to the forefront of the comic world over the years. Valiant and Big Viking share a very similar core ideology, which is to ‘make fans,’ and I believe this partnership will make millions of new fans for both companies”

Valiant Entertainment will be bringing their content to a number of new platforms in the coming years. Just last year Valiant announced a five-film deal with Sony Pictures to bring both their Bloodshot and Harbinger franchises to life on the big screen, and they are looking forward to the promise of the ground-breaking new medium that is instant gaming.

“Big Viking is poised to enter the market on the cusp of a game-changing moment for the whole of mobile gaming and, together, we look forward to engaging a massive new audience for Valiant’s incredibly rich universe of characters,” said Russell A. Brown, President of Consumer Products, Promotions & Ad Sales for Valiant Entertainment.

For full details on the Valiant – Big Viking Games partnership, read on to see our official press release.

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