April’s Indie Icons!
Hey you! Yeaaah you… Are you done playing your big AAA titles already? Conquered the Wilds of Monster Hunter? Lived a full life in InZOI? Nuked half the Fallout 76 map? Because it might just be the perfect time to get some bitesized indie games in! If this Month in Review is anything to go by, Black Soup’s got it covered.
It’s with genuine pleasure I introduce this smattering of absolute gems; Koira, Synergy, and Memoriapolis. Seriously - working on big games is nothing short of awesome, but anytime we get to dip into the smaller but dedicated communities of games, we feel just a little bit #blessed. Plus, we’ll dive into our new Black Soup team members as a little special extra bonus treat. Come on, you deserve it!
Koira - Studio Tolima & DON’T NOD
Campaign timeframe: April 1st - April 7th, 2025
Are you crying yet? Because our creators certainly were. Koira sees you and your bestest puppy buddy embark on a heartwarming, hand-drawn adventure together, full of puzzles, mystery, and beauty. It might not have a difficulty-slider, but hardcore mode here is keeping it dry.
Where to start on bringing such a gloomy game to light? DON'T NOD reckoned the first step would be to get Black Soup involved. This is where we had to shine a light through some bright and awesome creators, and find a nice balance between fit and vibe. That brought us to a select few who we reckoned would bring Koira to the right audience: mid-sized streamers from across the globe with a chill vibe, who could translate the distinct atmosphere to a live audience.
Elisa Waves - Instagram Reel
No small feat, but due to our prime benchmarking and target audience research, 16 creators - including (but not limited to) Hankstergirl, Evan & Katelyn, Ultia, Elisa Waves and HinaBoBina - made Koira’s launch a wonderful success. Not only were our estimates for almost all streams on-point, Koira hooked more than half of our creators to such an extent that they finished the game in the same sitting, which would explain the 44 minutes average overtime and 1.5 million total minutes watched! On top, our efforts in organic outreaches landed an additional 18 creators to cover the game for another half a million minutes watched!
This Twitch campaign can be checked off as our first success of April, with only more to follow. Plus, it always warms our hearts when we can bring a truly touching game into the hands of caring creators. Massive thanks to DON’T NOD and Studio Tolima for entrusting their wonderful debut title in our hands. We’ve stocked up on tissues, and can’t wait for the next one!
Synergy - Goblinz
Campaign timeframe: April 16th - April 23th, 2025
We’ve worked with Goblinz Studio - developers & publishers of unique and often beautiful looking indie strategy hits - on many occasions in the past, so we knew what we were getting into: a stunning new game that’s doing something new. Well gosh-darn, doesn’t Synergy just fit that bill exactly? Developed by Leikir Studio , Synergy is a city builder that forces you not to exploit your environment, but to adapt to it, learning to live and grow with it in… well, synergy. After releasing a demo, being in Early Access for a year, and running a prior campaign with us in November 2024, the time has come to release Synergy in full! So we got to work.
A visually appealing game like this was asking - nay, begging - for TikTok coverage, so this was one of the first things on our radar. While we have worked with many talented TikTok creators before, finding just the right crossover with the right audience is a puzzle, especially in the indie space. Its semi-cozy and laid back nature eventually led us to reach out to Kimchica and Cozy Tea Games!
CozyTeaGames - TikTok
That’s short-form sorted, but a strategic city builder often benefits from evergreen YouTube coverage as well. Hence the main course consisted of a variety of talents to cover all grounds; Aliensrock took care of the puzzle-like research system, ConflictNerd gave an in-depth showcase using his many years of strategy experience, JubileeWhispers translated all those cosy vibes, Wanderbots whipped up an expert indie playthrough, and Maxim hit it home with the indie-oriented German audience.
Those are some great ideas; now let’s see if we can back those up. Let’s check those TikTok results first, and I’ve gotta say, it’s a good day when just two videos bring in 300.000 views. Sprinkle in a little over 140.000 YouTube views as well, with 4 total hours of long-form content being published, and we have ourselves a pretty proud campaign - especially considering that only 7 creators were activated!
By putting in a lot of thought upfront, and understanding the audience, we hope to have given Synergy exactly what it needed: lovely creators who like the game creating good content with good numbers to promote a great game. Thanks Goblinz, we can’t wait to see what’s next!
MEMORIAPOLIS - 5PM Studio
Campaign timeframe: April 30th - May 1st, 2025
Don’t pretend that you’ve gotten enough of City Builders, and definitely don’t act like you weren’t waiting on this one like the rest of us. That’s like saying that Metallica and Slayer are the same band. In fact, the only thing you should consider here is how freaking awesome this game is. Developed by 5PM-STUDIO for the past few years, Memoriapolis takes a surprisingly rare step into complete ages of development. Spanning 2,500 years of history through a number of ages, the amount of turns this game takes to continue surprising you makes you wish you had a pair of blinkers attached to your PC.
But how does one cover 2,500 years of world history, packaged into a video game? Through long-form video & streaming content of course! Channels like PotatoMcWhiskey, AmbiguousAmphibian, The Yogscast’ Civilization channel, ReneeSky, & BurkeBlack were all in a perfect position of getting the right eyes onto the game. Especially after an Early Access period, getting people to know that it’s ready to be experienced in full is a top priority, and so these deep-rooted channels were top picks right from the start.
And though core audiences are often defined by benchmarks, content type, or maybe even age, their place of residence will always play a factor. Some games just perform well in certain regions. Enter Germany, where Writing Bull, Nils Bomhoff and Radlerauge are at the absolute forefront of the strategy genre. Pepper in Heyar, Sir_Thomas, Bill Silverlight & Pressea for the wider French audiences as well, and there ain’t no way that you, as a strategy fan, will miss out on Memoriapolis!
And miss out they didn’t! If we count in Writing Bull’s spree of Organic content, we net nearly 1,5 million minutes watched on Twitch from our sponsored creators. In addition, our YouTube results are well above expectations, with 200.000 YouTube views on both VODs and long-form gameplay. Nice!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when you’re given a game like Memoriapolis, you’ll need more than just a lemonade glass to contain the hype. Thanks too to our friends at Not A Shark Company for including us in the marketing campaign for the launch, and above all else, thanks to 5PM Studios for making a great game.
New fighters have appeared!
Timeframe: For the rest of their lives! (If they want. It’s honestly up to them, but we certainly hope so.)
The Black Soup Team grows! We have not one, but two new hires that we’d love to introduce to you. Deciding who comes first is always dangerous, so we’ll sort by the second to last letter of their first name in descending order (as is normal).
With already a solid amount of experience under her belt, Marie Leblanc will be supporting our creator management team as well as our French squad. Plus, she will be doing so from our office in Berlin. Welcome Marie!
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him: Aidan Kessell 🔜 TwitchCon has graced us not only with his absolutely wonderful facial hair, but also his Business Development expertise. If anyone knows who to get into your LinkedIn DM’s, it’s this guy. Want to learn more about Black Soup? Aidan's who you need.
Welcome to the team you both!
You wouldn’t believe it, but that’s the end of our edition this month! Not to worry, we already have the next one written in advance (believe it or not), as it’s a chunky campaign that spans multiple months. We can’t wait to talk about it, and you’re definitely going to want to catch it.
Can’t wait for more influencer marketing news? Why not create your own, and run a campaign with Black Soup!
Stay soupy!
— Black Soup’s newsletter monkeys
