In this episode, hear an AI summary of the latest Star Atlas community event. Full video recordings can be found on the YouTube channel of Star Atlas TV at https://www.youtube.com/@staratlastv.
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Podcast Transcript
This “Atlas Brew 168” video transcript covers several exciting updates and strategic shifts for Star Atlas, focusing heavily on community engagement and a renewed emphasis on marketing.
The discussion begins with an introduction to Community Week, highlighting that it will be a super engaging event with many different prizes, including $15,000 in Star Atlas assets and an exclusive badge for attending all events. Participants can earn tickets by joining events, participating in daily activities, and through extra surprises. A new feature for Community Week is live betting with golden tickets on team versus community games, where winning earns more tickets and losing results in losing all tickets. There’s also a daily “dijon spin” where tickets can be placed with different odds, and a one-on-one rock-paper-scissors challenge for community tickets, enabling PvP. The entire carnival is described as purely participation-based, aiming to move away from being a “whale game”. The community is encouraged to get the “community week roll” to stay updated and not miss events. Guilds that made it to the finals may also receive tickets for their members. The kickoff event for Community Week is also noted as important, with Michael Wagner expected to attend.
Another key reveal is atlaspace.io, a new page developed by Ronald Funkracker and APIA, allowing users to track team messages and find Star Atlas meetups around the world to register for them. Specific European meetups are announced for Valencia (August 6th), Utrecht (August 15th), and Cologne (August 24th), with the Cologne event coinciding with Gamescom and promising merch and prizes.
A major topic in the video is the strategic shift in Star Atlas’s marketing efforts, marked by Dominic Bane’s move from the community team to a marketing manager role. This move is seen as a crucial step to “break the echo chamber” and improve outreach. Historically, Star Atlas made a strategic decision not to spend money on marketing, focusing instead on development, which was deemed the right move at the time. However, it is now recognized as time to aggressively market what they have built, as it is genuinely impressive.
Several key marketing initiatives are outlined:
- Revamping staratlas.com: The website’s homepage will be made more practical, aiming to serve as a better “top of funnel” to capture emails and provide clear calls to action, addressing the current issue of losing many potential players who visit the site and don’t know where to go next.
- Email Marketing: Star Atlas has a large list of captured emails that have not been fully utilized. They are setting up an email marketing funnel to regularly send updates and engage with these contacts.
- YouTube Channel Focus: The YouTube channel is identified as a large untapped platform to build trust with the broader space game and traditional gaming audience, especially as replayable content for UE5 and Sage C4 are becoming available.
- Content Creator Relationships: Star Atlas is now actively working with content creators, including both crypto and non-gaming YouTubers, to spread awareness and build trust.
- Game Nights: A new initiative, game nights, has started to get people to play the game. There are plans to work with the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) to create a budget for external groups and guilds to host game nights, incentivizing them based on player participation (e.g., $500 in Atlas for over 100 players). This is seen as a direct way to encourage player acquisition and engagement.
- Star Atlas Summer Campaign: This is described as a huge campaign, featuring a three-part town hall series with significant releases planned.
The video also announces the Joy Awards voting going live soon, revealing the finalists for several categories: Community Member of the Year (Neil Armstrong, Gindo, Bruo, NDR), Content Creator of the Year (Beyond the Horizon, Neo Armstrong, Sigi, Rasputin), and Most Popular Guild of the Year (Aphia, Rome, Coexist, Vanguard, Kimera, Agura). The Best Community Tool of the Year finalists are Shadow Loyal Assistant (SLY Assistant), Atom, EVI, and the APIA data dashboards.
Finally, there’s a discussion on marketing objectives, with the opinion that the best approach to attract more people is through content creation and building trust, rather than solely focusing on direct advertising or token price increases. The importance of having a great game that people want to play is emphasized as the primary driver for attracting and retaining players, with the web3 game retention mechanism (ability to earn) being a significant advantage. The team expresses a desire for more collaboration with the community and guilds, encouraging them to bring forward their ideas and initiatives.
