A Videogame Industry Exploration

State of the Industry

Where do you fit in? Really?

Games and Beyond

Pitching

Working with Publishers

What You’re Working on Now

Attract Mode

Why are we doing this and not something else?

To make money?

To innovate?

To honor our favorite games?

To entertain?

To educate?

Game Reset

Longterm & Short Term Goals

Work-for-Hire

Original IP Generation

Specialization versus Generalization

Commercial Enterprise versus Funded Hobby

VISION!!

What’s Your Game?

Founded in 2000 in Seattle, WA USA

Known for Bewjeweled, Plants Vs Zombies

Sold to EA in 2011 for $1.3B!

PopCap

Founded in 2003 in Espoo, Finland

Known for Angry Birds

2012 Revenues = $203M

Over 2X their 2011 revenue!

Rovio

Founded in Jon Burton ~1989 in Knutsford, England

Known for the LEGO video games

Sold to WBIE for $250M in 2007

Wait til you hear what Jon’s up to now

Travellers Tales

Design Approaches

Knowing Your Audience

Monetization

Pro Tips!

Game Time!!

Core Mechanic Simple & expandable

Games as Service Program it like a TV series

Original versus Adaptation The benefit of refinement

Angry Birds Candy Crush Saga Tentacles

Narrative Context Emotional Goals versus Numerical Goals

What Is It?

Identifying your audience

Something for everyone = nothing for no one

Where and when are people playing?

What are your audience’s non-game behaviors?

Game audience versus purchaser

Community building

Who Is It For?

What does it all add up to?

What will excite people?

What’s NEW?

Secret sauce!!

MAGIC!!

Why Should I Care?

App-roach

Free-to-Play

Premium

Paymium

DESIGN for monetization before you are made to!

Publisher perspectives

How Will I Make Money?

Don’t skimp on music and SFX!!

Don’t let any part of your experience be mediocre

Beware of outside influences to your game design

Engine/Middleware

Platform feature integration

Publisher bias

Prototype

Usability test FOR REAL

Pro Tips!

The power of interactive experiences

Changing the perception of the industry

Getting the industry over itself

New audiences

New forms of entertainment

Educational tools

Creating greater opportunity

No More Games

Traditional Publishers Scale Issues Fear of cannibalization Blockbuster Franchise Mentality

Mobile Publishers “Native to platform” Constantly evolving Asian flava!

Social Publisher/Developers Moving from Facebook to Mobile Increasingly license-based

Entertainment Publishers Moving from Console to Mobile Licensing has collapsed More in-house production

The Publishing Landscape

Gree Free-to-play ONLY using their methods

Tencent Chat-based play (WeChat)

Halfbrick Arcade-action, quality art production

Scopely Social games (… With Buddies)

SuperCell Zynga of Mobile

Mobile Publishers

Funtactix Primarily licensed Hunger Games, Mission Impossible Starting to work with external developers

Kabam Broader portfolio, but increasing licensed IP

Lord of the Rings, Fast & Furious

Pushing into Casino Games Primarily internal development

Zynga Original IP Diverse portfolio, from social to casual to mid-core to casino Starting to work with external developers

Kixeye Host their own games Original IP Mid-core games

All are transitioning, some more painfully than others, to mobile

Social Publisher/Developers

Most chasing extending Franchises to mobile EA Sports (Electronic Arts) Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega) LEGO Harry Potter (Warner Bros.) Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft)

Limited original & licensed Smurfs’ Village (Capcom) Hasbro Board Games (Electronic Arts) Addicting Games (Nickelodeon) Nutty Fluffies Rollercoaster (Ubisoft)

Platforms (i.e. MS, Sony, Nintendo) Second-screen focus

Xbox SmartGlass Wii U Gamepad PS Vita

Traditional Publishers

Usually a Mix of licensed and internal production World War Z

Paramount Digital Entertainment

Iron Man 3 Gameloft (licensed from Paramount)

A LOT of reskinning of popular mobile titles Angry Birds Rio Temple Run: Brave Fruit Ninja: Puss in Boots

More deal flexibility Low MGs Rev share deals Co-Productions

Internal Production budgets high But quality expectations are high, near console level Most Studios expect free-to-play and history of monetization success

Digital Entertainment Divisions

Banks

Schools

Advertising agencies

EVERYONE!!

Who Else Needs Games?

Flavors of Potential Partners in Hollywood Entertainment Studios

Some have several divisions Different IP managed by different personnel i.e. Viacom = MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount & Dreamworks

Production Studios Control their own IP

Waterman (Alvin & the Chipmunks) Technicolor SD Entertainment

IP Creators Authors Animators Musicians

Hurray for Hollywood!

IP Immersion Research IP on web Watch episodes/films analytically

Including credits

See “The Matrix” of an IP What are consistent elements of each episode? What do characters NEVER do? What is its core audience?

And what is its audience for different media?

Artist adaptation Be able to reliably replicate an animated style Have POV on adaptation of a live action property Have POV on adaptation related to platform

The Wind-Up…

Presenting Yourself Clear Vision and Value Proposition

Short Presentations Answer 4 questions:

What Is It? Who is it For? Why Should I Care? How will it make money?

Other Considerations Prototype if at all possible Demonstrate your affinity for the IP Ensure pitch materials are IP and audience-appropriate Be flexible but not wishy-washy

The Pitch

Contracts They suck and take a long time Work may start before signed contract

Production Make friends with your producer! Prepare for the review process

Brand management Creators General bureaucratic gang bang

Deliver what you promise Manage your time and budgets properly!

You Got the Gig, Now What?

And Here You Are!