Setting up a Community

If you have programmed a game, nowadays it's one the most difficult tasks to make this finally public. The earlier one is working on it, the better the success rate. But before you sacrifice a lot of money and effort for its "advertising" one should initially use a few other channels - Social networks!

Because I care about this blog to accompany the development of dimension Rider, it is appropriate to create corresponding representative pages on Facebook and other networks on an early stage. Theoretically, you can never start too early, unless you want certain strategic advertising effects.

So we begin to create sites or accounts on the most popular platforms:

Homepage:

• Prerequisite:
-  A web space or homepage hosters service must be present.
- If necessary, you have to have the appropriate programming skills.

• Instructions:
- Since this is different for each hoster, I will not go into detail.
• Result: http://badtoxic.de/dimension-rider
• Comments:
There are many free and paid web hosts, each associated with major differences. So it strongly depends on what you want. Should the server can do something specific? PHP? Is a MySQL database required? How much memory, traffic, bandwidth, ...
I opted for https://www.netcup.de. I want no third-party advertising and will be allowed to use my pages for commercial purposes. I also write my own pages with HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript (AngularJS). So you have the choice to do it all yourself or use pre-built packages.
A counter-example (not commercially viable and not ad-free, if you want it for free) would be eg http://de.jimdo.com - can easily and quickly be clicked together without any further knowledge.
Again, I can show a side by me: http://badtoxic.jimdo.com

Facebook:

•  Prerequisite:
  - A Facebook Account must exist and be logged in.
•  Instructions: (Translated from german version of Facebook)
  - The top right -> click on the small arrow to open the menu.
  - Click the "page" button.
  - Now you can select one "main"-categoery (brand or product).
  - And then the actual category (video game).
  - And the desired name (Dimension Rider).
  - Now we have the opportunity to add a description, website
    and an address on Facebook (A new game ... just about to begin,
     http://badtoxic.de/dimension-rider, dimensionrider).
  - Now a profile picture can be uploaded.
  - Then there is the possibility to add that page to your own favorites.
  - Recently, a target group can be set.
• Result:
  - https://www.facebook.com/dimensionrider

Google+:

• Prerequisite: - A Google+ account must exist and be logged in.
• Instructions: (Translated from german version of Google+)
  - On the Google+ page https://plus.google.com at the top left click "Overview".
  - There click "pages".
  - Creating a new page via "Google+ create page" button.
  - Select a category (brand: product).
  - Fill in the form (Dimension Rider, http://badtoxic.de/dimension-rider, product or brand).
  - Click "Create Page".
  - Now can anything be adjusted ... ready!
• Ergebnis:
  - Dimension Rider on Google+
  - See also Fizhy on Google+

Twitter:

• Prerequisite: - A twitter account must exist and be logged in.
• Instructions: (Translated from german version of Twitter)
    - Enter needed data for registration on https://twitter.com (Dimension Rider,
       dimensionrider@badtoxic.de, password).
      (The e-mail address I've applied was also created at the hoster mentioned above.)
    - The data is then confirmed and a username specified (DRiderGame).
      Unfortunately "Dimension Rider" was already taken. :(
    - Now you can provide a phone number (skip).
    - After that you can specify your interests,
    - follow people
    - select a profile picture
    - and get contacts suggestions.
    - Finally, you should confirm the email address,
      by clicking the link in the confirmation email just received.
• Result:
  - https://twitter.com/DRiderGame

So, these should be the main contact points for potential community members.
Creating these is one thing, but it regularly to maintain and fill with people is another.
I'll leave it for a start like that. The first post in these communities will be a reference to this blog or directly to this article.