Over the past few years, those in game development are facing some pretty tough competition.
As more game companies start to branch out and create their own products, it seems as if the video game marketplace is saturated with new content being pumped out every single second.
So what does this mean?
Well, for one, it means that mediocre games are going to have a lot harder time standing out in the eyes of gamers, as there are just too many other options for games to play.
And secondly, even if you have made a great game, marketing that game and growing your user base is becoming (and will become) more difficult as time passes.
Luckily, there are a number of growing platforms that all game developers need to be aware of to properly market their games and spread their word via social transmission.
Now, we can’t tell you how to fix your game if it’s broken/mediocre. That’s up to your feedback to let you know.
However, we can tell you about how to make use of those growing platforms we mentioned to kick start your sales and spread your word.
This post, in particular, is going to focus on a platform that we feel has the most potential for your marketing efforts: Twitch.tv.
If you haven’t heard of Twitch before, we’ll give you a short rundown: It’s a site where millions of people go to watch other people play games. In other words, if you have a target audience in mind for your game, Twitch is the place to find that audience.
Over the past few years, Twitch has grown to be a massive platform, even being acquired by Amazon. So massive, that over 241 billion minutes were streamed to the platform in 2015 alone.
Now, If you’ve dabbled a bit into new age marketing, I’m sure you’ve heard all about the wonders of influencer marketing for your brand. However, you might not have realized that the greatest influencer marketing platform for game developers has been right in front of you this whole time.
So in this post, I’m going to shout off some reasons of why we think that Twitch should be a strong focus in the minds of every game developer looking to promote their game.
Let’s get right into it:
The connection between streamer and viewer.
On Twitch, the connection between the viewer and the streamer can allow a targeted ad to perform with much greater results than if you were to target cold players.
Reason being, people are more willing to listen to someone that they have a relationship with.
Picture this scenario in your head:
Imagine you’re walking down the street in the middle of the day, when suddenly someone comes up from nowhere and taps you on the back.
You turn around, face this unknown person, and ask, “Hey, what do you want?”
The unknown individual responds with, “You should really try this new game, World of Warcraft! It’s an awesome MMO experience with intense leveling and tons of depth. Give it a try!”
Confused, you stare blankly at the individual as they run off after spouting a quick promo for their favorite game.
Now, later in that same day, you’re hanging out with some friends playing a card game or watching TV. During a break, your friend asks, “Hey, have you played World of Warcraft? It’s a really awesome game. You should try it, we can even play together sometime if you’d like.”
Think for a moment; if both of those people were representatives for World of Warcraft, which individual suggestion would you take more to heart?
Chances are, you’re going to listen to your friend. Why? Because you trust them since you’ve known them for a long time.
You see, on Twitch, when a viewer has been a fan of a streamer for a long time, the connection between the two is very similar to the connection between two friends. With the ability to chat directly with one another, talk about your favorite games, and more, there isn’t much of a difference.
However, with a blind advertisement on a website (even if it’s in a community directed towards gamers), the experience will feel much like the first encounter with the unknown individual.
Don’t be that unknown individual. You can even try a platform like PowerSpike to easily get in contact with a ton of popular streamers to get you started.
Advanced social transmission.
When talking about games, there isn’t a better place to spread the word about a new game than Twitch.
If we think about the fundamentals of what makes products or services catch on, there is one big reason that can be contributed to the success of a game or product:
Social transmission.
If people have the ability to talk about your game and share it with others that they know, the rate at which your game will spread will be infinitely greater than if they did not.
When every single user on Twitch can see a streamer that is playing your game, the chances of users socially transmitting your message goes through the roof.
Furthermore, with the ability to talk and chat with others directly about the game their favorite streamer is playing in the Twitch chat, that will only reinforce the decisions of some players to try your game.
Think about it this way:
In a regular social setting, you might have the opportunity to suggest a product or game to your group of friends. This group might range anywhere from 3–10 people.
However, on Twitch, this group of friends can range up to 40,000 at once, or even more.
Feedback gathering through Twitch chat.
When you first release a new game, you probably don’t have many users who are actively playing your release.
And when you don’t have many users, it can be hard to extract feedback from those users.
You may get a few steam reviews here and there, but it’s not much information that you can use to improve your game or change it based on what your players want.
However, with your game being broadcast to Twitch, you can directly observe the opinions of thousands of people in real time as their favorite streamer plays your game.
On Twitch, voicing opinions for most users is a thoughtless action. If they like something in the game or think something is really cool, you’re going to see a flood of “PogChamps” in the chatroom.
However, if users don’t like something about a game or feel that a certain aspect is ridiculous, you’re going to hear about it.
Not only can you collect the mass opinions of your target audience through the Twitch chat, but you also can gather feedback from the streamer themselves.
A lot of the time, while a streamer is playing a game, they’re going to give bits of information on whether they’re enjoying the game that they’re playing.
And even if they don’t give that information, you always can observe the reaction of the streamer while playing certain parts of your game.
Ability to target micro influencers.
In business, and in game development, there’s a good chance that your target user base or player base is not going to be the entirety of the PC audience or console audience. Unfortunately, we just can’t get lucky enough to have everyone want to play our game.
But don’t fret!
On Twitch, there are countless communities that are centered around any game genre that you can think of.
For instance, if you’ve created a game centered on pixel art and dungeon crawling, you have the ability to work with streamers who play Binding of Isaac or Rogue Legacy.
Furthermore, within these niche communities, the audience tends to be much more engaged and interested in games similar to the ones that they love playing and watching themselves. Therefore, targeting this audience is a lot more effective than simply listing your game under the “Indie” section on Steam or somewhere similar.
Traditional ads just aren’t as good.
Now, throughout this entire post, you might have been thinking to yourself, “Why don’t I just use traditional advertisements? It’s probably cheaper anyway.”
You may have even tried posting advertisements on other sites centered towards gamers.
While in some cases these ads can perform well for specific target audiences, there’s one thing you need to understand when working with gamers in particular:
This type of audience isn’t going to be affected by traditional ads.
Most gamers nowadays range in the 12–30 year old range. A large majority of that audience is considered to be “millennial”.
When you think about a millennial audience and advertisements, the two just do not mix.
Think about it this way:
If you’re watching your favorite TV show or game on Twitch, and you’re hit with an advertisement, which option are you more likely to perform?
a) Sit and watch the entire ad
b) Open your phone and browse social media until the ad is over, or just exit the page all together
We would go as far to say that 90–95% of everyone in your target audience is going to go for option B.
According to Daniel Newman of Forbes,
“Millennials communicate with each other far more than any advertising campaign can. When trying to figure out whether something is worth buying, millennials will go to their friends and social networks to see what people think.
They use this collective filter to sort out research and other word-of-mouth style information when making decisions.”
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/04/28/research-shows-millennials-dont-respond-to-ads/#b3631bc5dcb2)
Furthermore, the target audience that you’re working with is most likely quite experienced on the internet, and knows their way around the block.
What does that mean?
Well, to put it simply, a great majority of users who are on the internet for long periods of time have AdBlock. If you’re not familiar with AdBlock, it’s a plugin that makes all of those traditional ads you’ve spent money on disappear.
Ad Block is especially prevalent on Twitch today. A large majority of users even boast about having the option to skip when a Twitch partner runs ads, simply because installing AdBlock is so easy and effortless.
However, when working with influencers, you don’t have to worry about whether your ad is being blocked or paid attention to. If the streamer is playing your game, that’s what the viewers are there to watch.
And that’s all for now!
A quick note before we go: This is far from the only advantages of using influencer marketing to promote your game. In fact, it’s one of the most blogged about topics that you can find in the marketing niche online.
To save some space, we didn’t throw in any of the basic reasons that influencer marketing is a great tool to leverage. If you’d like, check out some of these posts to find out why others are such a fan:
‘Love It Or Hate It: Influencer Marketing Works’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnewman/2015/06/23/love-it-or-hate-it-influencer-marketing-works/#3336223a150b
‘Why Influencer Marketing Will Explode In 2017’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/12/27/why-influencer-marketing-will-explode-in-2017/#7406742220a9
‘11 Essential Stats for Influencer Marketing’ https://www.ion.co/11-essential-stats-for-influencer-marketing-in-2016
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Why Twitch Influencers Should be on Every Game Dev's Radar
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How do i rank up?
On my profile page i see i am a member with 2 dots so how do i rank up and what are the dots, also are there benefits of ranking up?
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Could the push for diversity lead to unwanted results?
Okay, I'll start with the disclaimer first: Please, PLEASE refrain from derailing the thread, trolling attempts or starting flame wars. This is NOT meant as a troll bait, or anything like that. I would like a honest discussion of the subject matter as I am truly interested in other peoples thoughts on the matter. Please don't get this thread killed like many others before.
Thank you.
I guess I am not the only one who got wind of this new controversy surrounding CoD:WW2... that in the multiplayer part, you can end up on the german side even if your character is black.
Now, don't get me wrong, the whole thing is completly blown out of proportion by people with an agenda for controversies sake. After all, multiplayer never is the most historical accurate part of any game, Call of Duty never was known for ANY kind of historical accuray. And lets be honest, this is an industry full of corporate scumbags making the shots, so this is a rather mild controversy compared to what else they might come up with *cough*releasing unfinished games*cough*.
But it got me thinking: BECAUSE its often guys who know nothing about games and history, just about how to print money who make the shots in this industry, BECAUSE gameplay often trumps story or historical accuray, BECAUSE history itself has for a long time not been the kind of utopia that some people think games should now promote... could it be that the call for diversity in games, which IMO is a righteous call (because games have been and still are sometimes a pretty undiverse environment), leads to unwanted, and maybe even harmful results?
I mean, if you want to show an utopia, if you want to allow for diversity in player characters and storys, you can always do that in a fantasy setting. To be more precise, a black woman as a Wehrmacht soldier (lets be precise here, because the derogatory n4zi term the german soldiers get rolled together under is disrespectful to the wehrmacht soldiers that died trying to end the regime) is perfectly fine in an alternate reality setting... hell, I wouldn't be surprised if one of the upcoming Wolfenstein games would feature such a character (maybe it already did, didn't complete the first reboot after getting grossed out by the QTEvent-Fest at the start).
Now, these games can clearly get away with it because they don't claim to depict reality thus they can do whatever they want with the realistic elements they use as base (but still could get called out for the result which might still be inapropriate).
But when you call your game "based on reality", you might want to put historical accuray before some agenda you try to push with your story. More often than diversity, that agenda is nationalistic propaganda, and we have WAY more of these games since like... the dawn of time. Especially war games. This is also something I think is inappropriate. Because all of this serves one purpose, intended or not: warping the image kids and young adults have of history. Because as much as WW2-history was drilled into our heads when I was in school... is it still today? And that history we got drilled into us was maybe not completly wrong... but the amount of things left out was just staggering. I blame my teachers subconscious agenda for this as much as anything.
So if even the official history you learnt in a country with a pretty good school system 20 years ago was not really good enough to give the full picture... how bad will information on WW2 be learned 20 years from now? What about all the kids that sleep in history lessons because "history is boring" (I was always finished with the book before the semester was half over. I loved history books)?
Now, if most youngsters will never learn the true history behind an event like WW2... and then play stupid "historical" games like CoD. And then get confronted with a historical fact. Will they be able to tell fact from fiction? Or will they believe the nonsense these games fed them?
Now, this problem is nothing new, and these new push for diversity is not the cause of it. But could it be that the more people start to ask for things that the game developers think they need to cater for (not pissing off the nationalists in a big market, thus leave out the juicy bits of history that paint that nation in a bad light, not pissing off the advocates of diversity, thus adding ethnicities and genders that do not fit the historical setting, not pissing of the religious groups, thus leaving out the juicy bit painting that religion in a bad light, or cut down on swearing, not pissing off the prudes and violence-haters, thus cutting out sex scenes and gimping violence to comical level), the more a "historical" game becomes a weird alternate dimension fantasy story loosely based on real events?
Now, I might blow this out of proportion too. What I have problems with though is that weird chimeras like the new COD:WW2 Multiplayer mode gets made when you could add in diversity in a way more "historical" fashion. It would fit the setting, it would please the history buffs, and it wouldn't be that much additional work in the end. There have been black people fighting in WW2. They were grouped together in their own units. But as far as I recall my history, they had a great track record, and would rightly deserve their time in the spotlight, just like all the other brave souls that fought in WW2. There have been female soldiers fighting in WW2, mainly in the Red Army. AFAIK in russia they are a symbol of national pride to this day. Worth creating a game featuring a female red army soldier as protagonist any day of the week. Then there is the fact that without the help of millions of female workers that replaced the men in the factories, WW2 would have come to a grinding halt midway (not the worst outcome if you ask me... question is who would have had the upper hand by then). Maybe put these unsung heroines of the homefront in the spotlight for once?
You could create a historical game that promotes REAL diversity by picking a story that oftentimes got brushed under the rug at the time, and show what women, black or asian people DID do in WW2. They all have a story deserving to be told. And I am sure most players would be grateful for getting a different take on an already done to death conflict. If Battlefield 1 showed one thing, its how little is needed to completly transform the way people perceive a story campaign, and that MOST people like the different expierience (talking about the first level here, not the unhistorical garbage that follows of course).
But no, we have devs that take your bog standart multiplayer, skin it with a WW2 Theme and call it a day. And then wonder when their plan blows up in their face because the history buffs don't like it (and join the ranks of the anti-diversity crowd).
What are your thoughts on this?
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Charly Men's BIZARRE - Game | Book Development
Watch the game Charly Men's BIZARRE come alive!
The #WORDSproductions team is a group of German game developers working on a horror mobile action-adventure, and author Charly Men, the inventor of this game, will write down the story simultaneously to the development.
The story of the game will be published as a book when the gamedev is almost finished.
More information:
http://charly-men.de/de/game-blog/
https://twitter.com/Charly_Men_Book
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The concept art of the first game scene.
Made by our concept artist, team member of #WORDSproductions.
The first scene of the game: The appartement of main-character Charly Clearwater.
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The gamedev on YouTube.
Watch the game come alive! Charly Men's BIZARRE on YouTube!
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The game deployed on mobile phone.
Charly Men's BIZARRE deployed on mobile phone.
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[revshare] Mankind Reborn - MMORPG - Recruiting!
Mankind Reborn is a first- and third-person sci-fi MMORPG set in a dark cyberpunk future where life is cheap and corporations fight for power and resources on Earth and the far Frontier. Eight player run factions compete in the political and economic arenas. The proud defenders of the Terran Union, the Terran Defense Corps and Civil Protection Commission struggle to contain the tide of lawlessness and to protect humanity from the mysterious Xenos threat. Corporations beyond compare, North Star Mining, Avalon Enterprises and the Oda Zaibatsu, follow the only line that really matters, the bottom line. Deviants, anarchists and mercenaries, the Syndicate, the Followers of Eternity and the Military Affiliates Group, work from the shadows, preying on citizen and corporation alike – some seeking to collapse the Union others to make a quick buck. Choose your path, follow your destiny, earn your place among Mankind Reborn...
GAME FEATURES
Persistent Universe. Your actions have a lasting effect within the game world, even when you log off.
Play How YOU Want. Factions are given the tools required to enjoy ultimate freedom and pursue their goals.
Player-Controlled Economy. Mankind Reborn features a completely player-controlled economy. Purchase from and sell to other players on the Global Markets or build a brand and start a shop. Every item in the game is made by another player.
Player vs. Player. Enjoy a hardcore, addicting combat system where every second counts and full open PVP combat creates consequences that ripple throughout the game. Whether you can kill your enemy however is up to you.
Player vs. Environment. Fight against adept machines or Xenos as they threaten Mankind.
Political Desires. The game features a complex government system where anyone can rise the ranks and even become President of the Terran Union.
Top-Notch Graphics. Unreal Engine offers a wide variety of graphical options, allowing us to create beautiful environments for you.
Reveal Trailer:
We are currently looking for a 3D Modeler and Concept Artist to join our staff team. We currently have five game writers who are doing an excellent job at writing the game lore, one community manager (me) to manage a solid community (two weeks public and 133 members on the forums and 286 people in our Discord), one backend engineer, one experienced C++ developer.
The game has been in development for the past two months in spare time and we have made quite the progress! Interested? Send me an email, along with examples of your work @ gianni@mankindreborn.com
Website: Mankind Reborn - Main Website
Forums: Community
Thanks!
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The main-character of the game.
May I introduce you to Charly Clearwater? The main-character of Charly Men's BIZARRE.
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What is VoCM
Born from a passion to have a quality farming game on the PC, we bring you "Valley of Crescent Mountain". However, why stop with farming when you can add espionage to the mix, throw in some magic and perhaps a dastardly deed or two and what you have is our game!
As a newly graduated Spy, you have been dispatched into the world to make a difference and benefit the kingdom. Your first post is to the north near a neutral town settled deep within Crescent Valley. The village is in the middle of the only mountain pass between your kingdom and the neighboring nation. A small plot of land has been purchased on your behalf for you to establish your deep cover identity as a new farmer to the area. Your mission is to engage with the locals, watch for incursions by the opposing kingdom, sway opinions to your advantage and find new opportunities to push your country's agenda. Amidst all of this, unsettling signs of darkness are making themselves known.
WHERE CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE GAME?
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/vocmain/
TWITCH: https://twitch.tv/riuthamus
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/user/riuthamus
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/riuthamus
INDIEDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/vocm
WHAT IS THIS GAME ABOUT?
Inspired by previous games such as "Neverwinter Nights", "Harvest Moon", and "Witcher", we wanted to bring a game to life that did justice to the Farming genre and its RPG elements. This is where our game comes in. We are putting a heavy focus on roleplaying events that will define and change how you play the game. Add a unique starting point for the storyline and you have what I call "winner winner, chicken dinner!". Speaking of chickens:
WHAT ARE SOME THINGS WE CAN DO IN THE GAME?
FARMING:
In our game you will be farming on a grid. This grid based system will notify you via visual cue on the status of your crops and the tiled land. Everything from water saturation level to plantable tilled land. If you want to know the status of every tilegrid on your entire farm you can press q and it will quickly show you the status of all tiles on the farm you own. Want to go back to less information, just press the tab key again and it will all be removed and brought back to normal.
You will gather seeds from quests, events, the world, and from other plants. Use these seeds on the tilled land to start creating the birth place for your plants. Once your crops have been brought to adulthood you can harvest them. If you are unhappy with the crop you can throw it away, or if it fits your needs you can store it in your backpack.
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Mobile Game Reviews: Let's Flipping Legend
In this daily blog (and video)-series I take a first impressions look at the best mobile games that I come by. Be sure to share your favorite mobile game with the rest of us in the comments below!
Looking for an endless runner with several unique characters, RPG-like skill progression, and sweet pixel art played on a chess-like flooring where you have to flip diagonally to kill enemies and collect gold and chests (that was oddly specific, huh :p)? That's exactly what Flipping Legend has in store!
The game is feels great to play, is very responsive and overall got me hooked right from the start with its difficult gameplay. Most everything in Flipping Legend is strictly "play to unlock", with the exception being that you can buy chests for $3 for 40 chests, or remove all ads and receive a free chest every so often for $5. No $xxx in-app purchases here.
An easy recommendation if you're looking for a casual runner with some extra depth.
My thoughts on Flipping Legend:
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.noodlecake.flippinglegend&hl=en iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipping-legend/id1218046599?mt=8
Subscribe on YouTube for more commentaries: https://goo.gl/xKhGjh Or join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mobilegamefan/ Or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nimblethoryt/ Or Twitter: https://twitter.com/nimblethor
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Concept art of Clearwaters office.
This is the concept art of the main-characters home office, made by our concept artist on the Tablet.
This is the place where Charly Clearwater will start to write his book Exzess. One of the first scenes within the game.
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Texturing the main-characters appartement.
We just finished texturing the entrance hall of the appartement. The appartement is the first location within the game, the place from where main-character Charly Clearwater will start his journey.
Furthermore, we set the light in the appartement. For our next video, that will be published this week on YouTube, we played God and created a moon. The video is supposed to show our progress in texturing and illuminating the appartement.
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The music for Charly Men's BIZARRE.
Charly Men's BIZARRE is going to be a horror action-adventure. Therefore, Steffen Daum, a composer and artist, wrote some dark and bizarre songs for the game. This is one of them.
His newest song will be published as the musical background for our next video that will air this week. We keep you informed! :-)
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Musician looking for a project
Hello! My name is Mark McCullough. I enjoy writing in a number of different genres and especially love to create music for visual media. I would love to chat with anyone that's in need of music for their upcoming project. You can check out my website for audio samples and also a video game trailer that I recently rescored. Thanks!
Mark McCullough
http://www.mcculloughmusic.com
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Looking for people to help with game
I have been working on some ideas for a game including storylie and lore, but i havent got many people in my team to help produce models, music and art (textures and scenery) and many more things. I am looking to take on some people who would be interested in helping develop an open world adventure game that is inspired by games such as the elder scrolls. This is an unpaid position as of now, but this may change depending on if the game sells when complete.
Email me at 78darknight87@gmail.com if you would like to help develop this unique game. More details will be given if you email for a position, but feel free to ask any questions on this project.
Many thanks and I hope to see some poeple here
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It's magic!
The first time writing code in C++ and, indeed, the door opens!
We develop in C++ mixed with Blueprints but, in the beginning, we mainly work in the 3D Editor and push the polygons later to UE4.
Writing code will increase when the character will finally act and play.
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Inline code styling
Not a big thing, but thought i'd ask about it. could we get an inline code formatting or highlighting?
just for example, you might say:
You need to change the variable [inlinecode]theVariable[/inlinecode] to 42
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Art for your game by Ponylab
Hello!
My name is Serg, and I run a small Art Studio "Ponylab."
We specialize in crafting Awesome Art for Amazing Games.
We're working with 2D and 3D (Low Poly only), UI/UX, pixel-art style and a lot of more styles any game could have.
Please, check our portfolio here: https://ponylab.studio/portfolio
I wanted to share two core Ponylab's features we're proud:
1. We don't design pictures. We're working on creating the atmosphere.
We believe it's a key for a successful players plunge and long-term engagement with the game.
2. Service
Real service. Clear communication, fast responses, reasonable turnaround, extensive reviews, bonuses. We believe in giving, and we're proud of it.
You can find a few reviews from our customers here: https://www.ponylab.studio/
The full portfolio is here: https://ponylab.studio/portfolio
Are you looking for art?
Let's get in touch!
You can contact us here, via our website or simply by writing an email at hello@ponylab.studio
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Polymaniacs
Trailer
Page
There's a short demo at the foot of the page if you fancy trying it out.
Cheers
Stevie
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