Nikko Koruna
Summary
Florida, USA
Marketing and social media wiz with a proven track record of success with 6 shipped titles and work on 17 more. Years of experience growing communities around games with the passion to help inspired projects find forever fans.
Work Experience
Midwest Games
Marketing Manager
July 2024 - Present
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Developed marketing strategies for games portfolio, increasing Steam Wishlist additions by 34% for entire portfolio against previous quarter after joining.
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Oversaw marketing production from internal departments and external partners to keep deliverables on track.
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Designed and managed Reddit Ad campaign for our portfolio with $60K budget, bringing our cost per Wishlist down by 45% against previous quarter after joining.
Titles
En House Studios
Marketing & Community Manager
Lead Developer
2017 - Present
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Designed and executed social media strategy & marketing plan with no marketing budget.
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Earned 23,000+ Steam Wishlist additions for GLITCHED.
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Created and led online marketing efforts which resulted in a successful Kickstarter campaign, raising over $70,000 with 3,000+ backers.
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Managed and grew active Discord community of 1200+ members.
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Secured spots in showcases such as The Escapist Indie Showcase, Gamescom, Indieland, Tiny Teams by YogsGames,
Title
Joystick Ventures
StarVaders Marketing & Community Manager - Freelance
January 2024 - July 2024
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Designed and led marketing plan for StarVaders resulting in 25,000 Steam Wishlist Additions in five months.
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Ran a booth at PAX East 2024, greeted and talked to fans and interviewed with press about StarVaders.
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Lead both an organic and paid influencer campaign with a six-figure budget to promote StarVaders.
Title
Astra Logical
Marketing Contractor - Freelance
January 2024 - July 2024
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Managed and coordinated event and festival submissions for multiple titles in Astra Logical’s portfolio.
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Provided research and guidance for influencer marketing by finding, analyzing, and contacting relevant creators.
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Worked to help re-name and reposition two titles.
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Wrote Steam store page copies for multiple titles.
Titles
Alter Staff
Social Media Manager - Freelance
May 2024 - July 2024
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Designed and led social media campaign for TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, providing leadership with a detailed content calendar.
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Created short-form video content which resulted in nearly 1K YouTube subscriber growth in 45 days.
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Generated 200K organic views on short-form content during a 45 day period.
Title
Elsewhere Communities
Marketing & Community Manager - Freelance
January 2024 - July 2024
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Established social media presence and created a comprehensive marketing plan to bring first title for development studio to market.
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Led research in marketing positioning and led interviews with target audience to create player personas.
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Help grow Twitter presence to 650 followers during pre-alpha period.
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Created short form content during pre-alpha period, with best performing video earning 25K views.
Title
Astra Logical
Social Media Content Strategist
June 2023 - December 2023
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Owned the social platforms of Astra Logical’s Publishing efforts including Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit and more.
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Created social media content for every individual game in our portfolio.
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Grew Astra Logical’s social media presence from scratch, resulting in 2,100+ Twitter followers for the publisher page.
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Provided PR & Communications support by writing Steam Page copies, creating Steam Page assets like GIFs and headers, and editing PR copies.
Titles
NetherRealm Studios
Quality Assurance Analyst
August 2022 - June 2023
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Created test suites & cases in TestRail to lead and organize content sweeps with a strong focus on UI/UX and character model quality. Led and mentored new testers to ensure test sweeps were effective.
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Reported test suite progress to Leads through Jira.
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Communicated with Production and UI Leads, often representing QA to deliver content concerns to other departments. Provided actionable feedback while respecting relations between departments.
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Worked on Certification process for XSX and PS5.
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Titles
Skills
Social Media Content Creation
Indie Marketing & Paid Media
Community Management
Game Copywriting
Video Editing & Live Streaming
Crowdfunding Campaigns
Technical Knowledge
Adobe Photoshop
Used for creating social media assets and all pixel art for GLITCHED.
Notion
Knowledge base and socials calendar while working at Astra Logical.
Adobe After Effects
Title cards for trailers and asset creation for social media.
Airtable
Main day-to-day source of truth at Midwest Games. Built out task management and budget tracking for marketing team.
Trello
Used for task management for the marketing department at Astra Logical.
GameMaker Studio
Developed GLITCHED independently using GameMaker Studio.
Kickstarter
Ran a successful campaign for GLITCHED, wrote update copies, and managed customer support for backers.
Steam
Created store pages, wrote capsule and description copies, and experienced in Steamworks/Backend.
Jira
Bug-writing for Mortal Kombat 1, bug-tracking and task management for GLITCHED.
Adobe Premiere
Trailer and video editing along with asset creation for social media.
ClickUp
Task management and knowledge base while working at Astra Logical.
Sprout Social
Used to manage socials during Kickstarter campaign for GLITCHED and StarVaders.
GameDiscoverCo
Gathering market, genre, and game data on Steam Titles.
OBS
Used to live stream on Twitch for GLITCHED fans as well as capture game footage.
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TestRail
Used at NetherRealm to communicate with developers on state of testable content.
Discord
Built and managed server of 2100+ members and created bots to automate moderation and host minigames.
Projects
GLITCHED
Release Date - Q2 2025
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Independently developed in GameMaker Studio over the course of several years after a successful Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign.
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Programming, design, story, writing, art, and more were all done independently- with the exception of music, enemy/face sprites, and some QA work.
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Created the Essence System, a personality mechanic which changes how the main character acts based on personal decisions.
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Created a complex branching dialogue system that can be edited using Excel for efficient content creation.
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Programmed and balanced a unique turn-based RPG system.
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Developed a 2.5D jumping and depth system to increase exploration experience.
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Planned a wrote a massive, sprawling story along with unique flavor text for every object in the game (10,000+ objects)!
Education
2012-2016
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
Worked towards a BS of Game Design for two years and worked towards a BA of Sociology for two additional years.