Giving & Gaming

People volunteer for a wide variety of reasons, especially wanting to help others. But it’s also OK to want some benefits for yourself from volunteering.

Susan J. Ellis, President of Energize, Inc explains that some people are uncomfortable with the notion that a volunteer “benefits” from doing volunteer work. There is a long tradition of seeing volunteering as a form of charity, based on altruism and selflessness. The best volunteering does involve the desire to serve others, but this does not exclude other motivations, as well.

Instead of considering volunteering as something you do for people who are not as fortunate as yourself, begin to think of it as an exchange.

Read the full, updated article at SamuelAsherRivello.com/playing-good-time-volunteer-teacher/

 

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Giving & Gaming

Philosopher Albert Schweitzer shows us “No matter how busy one is, any human being can assert his personality by seizing every opportunity [to give back] for the good of his fellow men.  He will not have to look far for opportunities. Our greatest mistake, as individuals, is that we walk throughout life with closed eyes and do not notice our chances.”

Author and video game advocate Jane McGonigal explains her #1 goal in life is to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She forecasts that this will happen by the year 2023.

Read the full, updated article at SamuelAsherRivello.com/video-game-related-charities/

 

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Game design is the game development process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The designer of a game is very much like the director of a film; the designer is the visionary of the game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision. Game design requires artistic and technical competence as well as writing skills.

Game designers will use a Game Design Document (GDD). The GDD will be the bible which your team follows during pre-production and production of the game.

So What Is Inside A Great GDD?

In the Anatomy of a Game Design Document Part 1, Gamasutra explains it all for us;

The purpose of design documentation is to express the vision for the game, describe the contents, and present a plan for implementation. A design document is where the producer preaches the goal, through which the designers champion their ideas, and from which the artists and programmers get their instructions and express their expertise. Unfortunately, design documents are sometimes ignored or fall short of their purpose, failing the producers, designers, artists, or programmers in one way or another. This article will help you make sure that your design document meets the needs of the project and the team. It presents guidelines for creating the various parts of a design document. These guidelines will also serve to instill procedures in your development project for ensuring the timely completion of a quality game.

The intended audience is persons charged with writing or reviewing design documentation who are not new to game development but may be writing documents for the first time or are looking to improve them.

In Part 2 of Gamasutra’s article, we learn that size does not matter;

[GDDs] are often so full of ambiguous and vague fluff that it was difficult finding the pertinent information. So why does this happen? Because the authors didn’t follow guidelines. This article is part two of a two part series that provides guidelines that when followed will ensure that your design documents will be pertinent and to the point. Unlike the authors of those prodigious design volumes, I believe in breaking up the design document into the portions appropriate to the various steps in the development process – from concept and proposal to design and implementation. I covered the first two steps in part one of the article, providing guidelines for the game concept and game proposal. This part will provide guidelines for the two heaviest undertakings – the functional specification and technical specification, as well as some guidelines for the paper portion of level design

References

You can follow Creating a Game Design Document advice or start with an existing GDD template. Here are some great examples. Take your time and look over each. Craft your own template that works best for your needs, and the needs of your client/boss/team.

• ModDB’s Template
• LDD Edition of a GDD on Google Docs
• Runaway Studios GDD
• Many more Game Design Document Templates

As consultants we choose to do client work. The client has the idea (complete or vague), and the budget, and we help them realize their dream. With game projects, determining what will be engaging and fun is a welcome challenge. Many game developing consultants also create their own internal projects. In both cases understanding the principles of good game design can turn a good idea into a great game.

What is Game Design?

Game design is the game development process of designing the content and rules of a game in the pre-production stage and design of gameplay, environment, storyline, and characters during production stage. The designer of a game is very much like the director of a film; the designer is the visionary of the game and controls the artistic and technical elements of the game in fulfillment of their vision. Game design requires artistic and technical competence as well as writing skills.

Game designers will use a Game Design Document. The GDD will be the bible which your team follows during pre-production and production of the game.

Update: My new article launched on “Game Design Document Theory” and sample templates

Gamification?

Separate from games and game design is gamification. Its a newer buzzword in the industry and many clients, big and small are clamoring for this ‘new shiny thing.’ Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.

Update: My new articles launched on “What is Gamification?“.

Have Fun With It!

I am constantly dreaming up new ideas for games. Sometimes I think about it for just 5 minutes, and then the itch goes away. Other times an idea stays with me for years. I’m often just as excited to see someone else create the game (so I can play it!) as I am to create the game myself.

In the near future, I’ll publish a few of my game idea prototypes to share my concise process game game design.

Update: My new articles launched on “Game Design Prototypes“.

Game designer John Adamus describes the The Three Act Exercise For Game Design.

You’re going to want a piece of paper for this. I like legal pads, but you’ll definitely want to see the work outside of a monitor. Divide the paper into thirds (horizontally); Act 1, Act 2, & Act 3. Start simple.

We’re going to chart the basic player’s (ideal) experience in-game.

• Act 1 – This is all things creation and introductory. Players should in theory develop themselves (conceptually, and mechanically) and learn about the basics of the world. Immersion here is critical, as no one wants to play a game where the rules are either too vague, too restrictive or too discouraging (i.e. railroading). In story context, this is where adventure/campaign plots are hatched and world-base concepts (“the feel of the world”) is born. Act 1 ends when the Players enter the most intense and forward-progressive drive in the plot.
• Act 2 – Characters by this point are INTO a plot/campaign, and are developing forward according to their brought-in goals (things they brought to the table) as well as open-goals (things the game offers). Combat here is more common, and risk is also introduced. This is also the largest Act of play, generally being 1.5 or 2 times larger than Act 1. Should the game be episodic, serialized or weekly, it will be so because of a long Act 2 that offers either complexity (lots of small steps put together) or intensity (there’s so much to do and it takes time) or potential (lots to do, of mixed length). Act 2 ends when they feel prepared to finish the plot or wrap up significant material in the campaign.
• Act 3 – This endgame is the shortest but is often the most mechanically driven of all the acts. It begins when the characters make that final push towards resolution, and ends when the conflict(s) introduced in Act 1 are resolved. They may not, and need not be resolved in a way satisfying to the character, (although the player will be satisfied in all but the most power-gamer circumstances).

Like any good creative process, we work iteratively with these ideas. Create TONS of ideas. Some are best fit to stay on the drawing board. Other ideas show enough promise to be prototyped. With limited time budget a small team can communicate the bare essence of the game in a simple, concise, playable demo.

Ludum Dare is a well known incubator for game designers to brainstorm AND implement new game ideas. It is a regular accelerated game development Event.  Participants develop games from scratch in a weekend, based on a theme suggested by community. Ludum Dare was founded by Geoff Howland, and held it’s first competition in April of 2002. Since then the community has run more than 22 regular Events, several dozens of practice competitions, collectively creating many thousands of games in just a weekend each. The event attracts developers from all sides of the industry. Students, hobbyists, industry professionals from many well respected game studios, as well as many independent game developers. For many people, it can be difficult to find or make the time create a game or prototype for yourself. We’re here to be your excuse.

References

Here is an AMAZING COLLECTION of  game design information. It is very thorough. Start there.

And here are some helpful links courtesy of The Upside Learning.

1. Learning From Game Design: 11 Gambits For Influencing User Behaviour
   Dan Lockton about 11 ways to increase engagement using ‘gamey’ ways.
2. Katie Salen on Game Design and Learning
   Here is Katie Salen speaking about how game design can be applied in the classroom.
3. Learning The Rules
   An older but still relevant article about learning curves in games.
4. Thoughts On Learning In Games And Designing Educational Computer Games
   Again an older but comprehensive article that gives great ideas on where to use learning games. Note the references.
5. An excellent article on Creating Flow, Motivation and Fun in Learning Games.
   Was printed as a chapter in The Design of Learning Games Springer-Verlag, 2011
6. Educational Game Design Model (NMSU Learning Games Lab)
   Barbara Chamberlin, with the NMSU Learning Games Lab, shares the Educational Game Design Model developed at NMSU. Addresses various aspects of the process of game development.
7. Improving The Way We Design Games For Learning By Examining How Popular Video Games Teach
   This paper from UCLA focuses on how to effectively integrate teaching “how to play a game” with teaching an “instructional domain” within a game for learning. Has many interesting details relevant to game design, recommended reading.
8. ‘Narrative’ in Serious or Learning Game Design Research
   This is a great article on the use of narrative in learning games. Describes narrative approaches, some of which are appropriate to learning.
9. Feedback Loops in Games and Learning
   This is a nice paper on feedback loops in learning by Bert Snow and Matt Seegmiller. There is a bit of a marketing slant, but interesting points about which technology to support a feedback approach.
10. Learning Game Design: Lessons From The Trenches
    An interesting presentation from Sharon Boller, great advice from the trenches of gamification.

PROJECT-REQUIREMENTS

In software development, the focus is to offer value to the end users; to include features for their eyes. These are the functional-requirements of the project. But of course there is much ‘under-the-hood’ that the end user never sees. This includes content management systems (CMS) that administer the data, servers that provide that data, and developer tools and architectures to help organize the code-base. We call these ‘under-the-hood’ needs ‘non-functional’ requirements.

This quick primer answers “What non-functional requirements are necessary?”.

NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

In each project, in addition to serving the end users goals, we must serve the needs of the development team; creating a realistic workflow for all team members, allowing for an extensible architecture for current and future functional-requirement features.

My point in writing this article was to get to a list of what non-functional requirements I setup in my apps or game needs. If you are already doing all this, great. MANY mistaken teams are doing NONE of these. Here is the list I use;

My Recommended Non-Functional Requirements

• Coding & Documentation Standards: Create a plan for coding standards and commenting practices. The plan should include a ‘bible’ written record of (what to do), the process and workflow to write the code as well as peer-review for compliance, and the buy-in from management to place priority (i.e. time in the calendar). Here are examples of my AS3 Standards and (in-progress) C# Coding Standards and recommended best practices e.g. Unity default folder structure. Consistency, pragmatism, and adoption are fundamentals here. Implementing such a plan is EXPENSIVE, so be sure everyone is on board. The benefits to readability, maintainability, and scalability are well-worth the effort.
  
• Configuration File – Upon project start-up, load an externalized set of name/value pairs (typically XML). This allows for developers (and others) to tweak values and reduces the need-for / frequency-of project recompilation. A huge side-benefits is that this ‘light and playful’ environment encourages experimentation.
• Localization – Even for English-only project, centralize (put all together) and externalize (separate from code – typically in XML) all display text. This allows for easier edits and translation to other languages if/when needed.
• Architecture – Sure, smart developers can create their own architectures, but smarter developers choose an off-the-shelf, 3rd-party architecture. Pave the cow-path, point your developers to 3rd party documentation and forums for help, and hire new staff (with experience in that architecture) more easily. If your team is not using ‘any’ architecture, that is probably a huge mistake. There are many available and are often specialized for each platform and project type (i.e. Flash Platform for Game project type)
• Restart Functionality – The app or game should have a restart button. This may be a functional-requirement. If so, great. If not, do it anyway. By requiring your team to implement restart (and garbage collection) your project will probably be far more efficiently written. This is an expensive feature to implement, but if done at the beginning it is very manageable.
• Zero-Memory-Leak Policy – The app or game may be ‘too simple to warrant optimization’. Regardless, do it anyway. Once you have the ‘Restart Functionality’ added, run a memory profiler tool on your project and ensure that with each restart the RAM usage properly reduces to zero (or whatever benchmark you set).  This is an expensive feature to implement, but if done at the beginning it is very manageable.

Game-specific Non-Functional Requirements

• The list above, plus…
• Pause Functionality – A fundamental test of good gaming architecture is ‘can it pause at any time?’. Even if ‘pause’ is not offered to the user, this requirement is helpful.
• Time-based animation – Your game algorithms should be infallible regardless of a faster-than-expected or slower-than-expected frame-rate.

CHAMPIONING DEVELOPERS’ RIGHTS

Depending on your team structure, you may have your software team developing the product ‘for’ the business team. Treating each department within your company as ‘clients’ helps to decouple the responsibilities and make hand-off of project tasks more clear and distinct. However each team, naturally defends their own interests, often at the expense of others. Within this setup, I’ve seen countless times that the dev-team must fight for the time to create non-functional requirements in addition to the functional requirements, where-as the business team’s focus is solely on the functional requirements. The business mind is concerned with ‘add a new button that does X or Y’ and to them that sounds simple. The Dev-team knows there is indeed a quick and dirty way to add that feature but also a more manageable, scalable, well-architected solution. It is a typical time vs quality discussion. Except the business team may not understand why spending more time (and money) is valuable when they don’t see more value in the end product.

Addressing developer’s needs helps to reduce burnout of your team. Happy developers are productive developers. Unproductive developers leave your team. Also an objective development leader can add ‘just enough’ non-functional requirements to respect the long-term plans of the project. Obviously a project with a long development cycle (days until launch) and long shelf-life (days between launch and unlaunch) benefits most from good non-functional requirements.

Arguing for the additional time needed to ‘do things right’ is a common struggle as dev teams champion their rights. Depending on the project, I can be on either side of this discussion. Generally I try to create an environment that makes the developers comfortable yet gets the job done. To facilitate that, I recommend separating time-estimations for functional-requirements from non-functional. One methodology is to take the total time estimate for the project or milestone’s functional requirements (including buffers for unknowns) and then calculate 20% additional. I offer developers that 20% to use as they see fit.

For example the business team can offer to the developers; “Ok, we all agree that our next milestone will take 400 man-hours; so you (developers) will get 480 and can allocate the 80 hours to improve code quality (beyond our minimum standards) and build-out the architecture (beyond today’s immediate needs).” Over-architecture and over-planning are dangerous, so giving free-reign to developers to ‘make it perfect’ is not cost effective, nor does it really improve the project or product. If developers feel they are hitting some (80% perhaps?) level of comfort with their code-base, that is a good balance. This is my personal opinion based on years of experience on hundreds of small to mid-size software projects.

Flash emerged as the king of casual game development platforms in the early 2000’s. After 2 key stumbles (Apple iOS announces no Flash Player in iOS browsers) and industry-wide confusion about the ‘death of Flash’, Adobe is marketing furiously to offer value to developers and spread the word.

The Life Of Flash;

• Flash Player Running in the Apple iOS browser, is not possible. This is the ONLY segment where we saw a ‘death’ of Flash, so far. However, Flash-created apps in the iOS app store are possible, powerful, and popular.
• Flash Player Running in the Android browser, is possible on many devices. In my opinion, it will become less popular as HTML5 matures in the next few years. However, Flash-created apps in the iOS app store are possible, powerful, and popular.
• Flash Player Running in the PC computer browser, is popular on PC, Mac, & Linux. In my opinion, it will be continue to be popular.
• Flash content via the computer desktop (as ‘apps) is popular on PC, Mac, & Linux. In my opinion, it will be continue to be popular.
• Flash content via other devices (Smart TV’s and more) will continue to be popular.

The most recent effort by Adobe to push its Flash Platform technology is Adobe Game Developer Tools, announced in December 2012. Here is a recap of the highlights.

Adobe IDEs

From Adobe: You have great ideas for cool games. Now, we’re providing you with the essential tools to rapidly build, optimize, and deliver your games to iOS, Android™, Windows®, and Mac OS.

Here are the IDE’s to help you create your projects;

• Adobe Flash Builder – Build amazing games and applications in ActionScript for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac OS X platforms using a single cross-platform development environment. Now with support for Adobe Scout. In my opinion, its best just for creating and animating assets.

• Adobe Gaming SDK – Adobe Flash Professional software is a powerful authoring environment for creating rich, engaging games and interactive content that reaches desktops, tablets, and smartphones with unparalleled consistency. In my opinion, its best just for coding and integrating existing assets.

What is Adobe Gaming?

• Create games faster. Reach over 1.3 billion people. – Only Adobe® Flash® Player and Adobe® AIR® let you deliver your game to 500 million iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Kindle Fire, and NOOK mobile devices and 99% of connected computers — with no additional install. One codebase. Use amazing tools and take advantage of simple, powerful APIs and frameworks enjoyed by a large and growing game developer community. In my opinion the cross-platform nature and existing community of developers are the most compelling reasons to use Flash Player & AIR.
• Cinematic graphics. Console-quality games. – The Flash runtime now delivers GPU accelerated graphics across browsers and mobile apps for 1000x faster, stunning 2D and 3D games. Craft amazing gameplay with native mouse, multi-touch, accelerometer, camera, and mic support. Code with human-friendly ActionScript®. Or take your C/C++ or Unity games and easily target the Flash runtime. Play beautifully. In my opinion, the quality of graphics & audio what Adobe now offers is first class.
• Make more money. And make more fun. – In my opinion, this is just marketing-speak. However there is a HUGE amount of existing Flash developers (i.e. better talent at lower costs) and the SDK’s exist to make your projects social and sales-friendly.

What are Adobe Game Developer Tools?

You have great ideas for cool games. Now, we’re providing you with the essential tools to rapidly build, optimize, and deliver your games to iOS, Android™, Windows®, and Mac OS. To get started, all you need to do is download the Adobe Game Developer Tools through a free Creative Cloud membership. If you already have a Creative Cloud membership, the Game Developer Tools are included!

Here’s what you’ll get when you download the tools:

• Adobe Scout – Adobe Scout is a new profiling and optimization tool for Flash Player on desktop and mobile to help you get the best performance possible. (Free now, premium later, TBD)

• Adobe Gaming SDK – The Adobe Gaming SDK gives you a complete collection of frameworks, code samples, and learning resources that work together to help you accelerate your productivity.

• Flash C++ Compiler – Cross compile C/C++ to run your game in Flash Player with GPU acceleration. Deliver your back catalog of games to target 1.3 billion connected desktops.

What are Adobe Game Developer Tools? (Really)

Adobe is now attracting non-Flash game development companies. For that market the AGDT is a well-marketed introduction to Flash. Newbies can hit the ground running; (theoretically) using any legacy C++ code, getting started with the frameworks in the SDK, and doing powerful profiling with Scout.

For existing Flash developers perhaps none of this is interesting. There are many Flash experts who use no C++, who already have access to the frameworks in the SDK. Scout is very powerful, and indeed is worth the (unannounced) price of entry. But not every game developer profiles his or her projects or knows the great value in doing so. However, I do think that Adobe’s increasing powerful set of tools, and energized game-specific marketing will help focus the game industry on Adobe’s tools, and too, Adobe-centric game developers. That is great.

Next Steps

• More about Adobe Gaming (Marketing material)
• More about Adobe Gaming (For Developers on Devnet)
• See a HUGE showcase of Flash Games for Browser/Desktop/iOS/Android/More.
• See the Best Gaming Sessions at Max 2013 article
• We at RMC are excited to collaborate with you. We are experts in Flash Platform Gaming, and more. Not sure if HTML5, Unity, or Flash is right for your next project? Just ask!

Foursquare, Zynga, Nike+, and Groupon are some of the brands who use gamification to deliver a sticky, viral, and engaging experience to their customers. Each understands how core game mechanics such as points, badges, levels, challenges, and leaderboards will engage your consumers with reward structures, positive reinforcement, and feedback loops. Combine game mechanics with social interaction for activities such as collecting, gifting, heroism, and status.

Advergaming – combining advertising and gaming – has been in heavy use for over a decade. It is generally a fun game with ads thrown on top. Gamification suggests a something deeper.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the use of game design techniques, game thinking and game mechanics to enhance non-game contexts.

The term is used more and more as the mainstream accept gaming as a defacto form of media and many look to see how it can be used outside of pure entertainment. The discussion reminds me of serious games. A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The “serious” adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and politics.

RMC is available and excited to collaborate on more gamification projects. With over a decade of gaming experience on browser and mobile, RMC can successfully combine the wining formula of gaming with your educational, marketing, or training needs.

Here is some more great information.

Watch Slideshow 1

[slideshare id=4363720&doc=devdaysengagementthroughgamification-100531081027-phpapp01]

Watch Slideshow 2

[slideshare id=7862680&doc=gamification5desire-110506100535-phpapp02]

Watch Videos

• Gamification Theory and Practice: Fun is the Future. Wow, this is one is fantastic!
• Gamification in Education: Gamifying The Classroom
• Gamification in Marketing: American Gamester: Jay-Z’s ‘Decoded’ Gets Gamified 

Links

• Article – 3 Things I Wish I Knew About Gamification

Next Steps

• Download PDF on “Gamification Helps 3rd Grade Students To Learn“
• RMC is available and excited to collaborate

So…

On March 28th, 2012 Adobe Announced “Adobe Flash Player Premium Features for Gaming“. Adobe will have new pricing for those creating certain types of advanced content. Content that is much more performant and of much higher quality than what developers (and their end-audience) are used to seeing in the browser.

It is my estimation, that the amount of current projects that this pricing will affects is very small. The amount of developers now or in the future that this pricing will affect is very small. However overreaction and misunderstanding about Adobe, this announcement, and the last 6 months of related news does have a negative affect on public perception, business owners, and the technologies chosen for new projects.

Before the community takes it out of context that “Adobe explains that in the near future, some developers will be required to pay Adobe on royalties from their projects” and overreacts about it — here is a clear programmer-friendly explanation shown below.

Who Pays?

Image URL: http://www.RivelloMultimediaConsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/adobe_flash_player_premium_v1.jpg

How Much?

Let’s assume a company (or individual) creates a royalty-applicable project (see above). Here are a few sample payment scenarios to Adobe. If my math is wrong, please send a comment below. Prices are USD$.

• 50,000 revenue (or less):  Payment to Adobe = 0
• 75,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 2,250
• 100,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 4,500
• 500,000 revenue:  Payment to Adobe = 40,500
• etc…

Community Reaction

Using Google, Twitter, and Facebook we see the reaction of the community over this announcement. The gross majority of media, bloggers, and developers are exaggerating the effect of this announcement. I appreciate the anger, but not the libel. Many err to say something like ‘all Flash developers will pay Adobe soon’, which is as we I’ve outlined here, not true.

The few balanced reactions to the announcement are here;

• Rob Rusher’s –  Adobe Flash Player licensing doesn’t apply to you!
• Lee Brimelow’s – Quick comments about Unity and premium features 
• Any more?

Full disclosure: Some of those listed are of course Adobe employees or have an otherwise vested interest in Adobe’s side.

Related Posts

• Setup Flash Builder For AIR 3.2 Stage3D for iOS/Android
• FlyerGame – One Game, Many Many Frameworks
• Angry Birds’ Screams on Facebook with Flash
• Considering Flash-To-Mobile Development

Stay Tuned

• Sign up for ‘Free Member’ level of this blog now. Its free!
• Like RMC on Facebook. We like likes!
• Follow @srivello on Twitter.

The Vocal Minority

Bad press will hurt Flash being chosen for new projects. That I agree with and that is sad. Blame the messenger sure, but also blame the sensationalism of the community.

Truly, relatively few developer’s projects are affected directly by this pricing. And the quality offered by ‘Flash Player Premium’ is different than what is currently considered ‘Flash’ and is so high-quality that there are no rival alternatives to in-browser technologies. Don’t agree..

• Please comment a  link to any ‘Flash Player Premium’ project (Using BOTH API’s mentioned, regardless of revenue) which is in-development or already launched?
• Please comment a link to any in-browser non-Flash project that rivals the quality of a ‘Flash Player Premium’ which is in-development or launched?

What do YOU Think?

• Is this good or bad? Remember taxes pave your roads. Ha.
• Please comment below.

In 2011, I wrote an opus for Adobe’s online Inspire magazine called “How To Make Money With Online Games“. Reading that is really at the crux of this blog article. I recommend reading that before proceeding below.

I am considering my strategy for my next game. I would like to self-finance a game. My goals are to learn more about the business and marketing side of things. I have the technical know-how to develop for computer desktop, computer browser, iOS (iPads, iTouches, iPhones), Android, and Blackberry tablet. I want to assume more risk and ‘own’ more of the profits (or ‘eeek’…, the losses too). Here I complete some research on mobile gaming and plot some strategies.

Where’s The Money? (Click To Enlarge)

Fig 1. (Thanks to TechCrunch)

My Research

I read many articles online and chatted with (just a few) game developers who have proven experience (positive and negative) with game development for mobile. Here are some provoking articles.

GAME MONETIZATION

• I wrote this “How To Make Money With Online Games” and it is awesome.
• Developers spend 100k to make gross 150k with iPhone game
• Revenue potential with iPhone vs Android showing Android wins and android wins (again)

MOBILE GAME CASE STUDIES

• Designer outsources development of Beat The Boss for iPhone
• Dealing with iPhone app piracy
• Advertisers compare ads online vs ads on-mobile
• An iPhone developer’s thoughts when releasing a game fails
• Profits from iShoot for iPhone
• Tiny Tower’s # of gameplays & revenue specifics
• AppData’s stats on Bejeweled Blitz

Base Costs & Sharing

A solo worker who creates his own game can expect these base costs.

• Laptop Computer – 2k
• Software – 0.5k to 2k
• Revenue Share – The major marketplaces (Apple, Android, Blackberry) each take 30% of your game’s price tag. So you take home 0.70$ per download of a 1$ app.

For a solo worker, this really is… it. However its possible to get much more complicated and spend much more on subcontractors, outsourcing, and marketing.

My Next Philosophy

I am an expert at game design and development. However worrying about the profitability has historically been my clients concern. I’m learning how to monetize my own internal projects, to take higher risks, in the pursuit of professional challenge and higher profits.

Game players will respond to a really well polished (loosely speaking) game. However knowing exactly what response is significant, knowing how the game will respond in the marketplace, and how word of mouth will help, are not possible to calculate with certainty.

As of today I think that success with a mobile game takes a lot of luck. Larger game companies can use existing resources to facilitate success (big marketing budgets and cross promotion). Just like a critically horrible, predictable, boring, movie can make 300% profit because of big-name directors and 50% marketing budget, so can a game. The idea of a game that is created by one guy ‘over a weekend’ that makes hundreds of thousands of dollars too.

However the blockbuster game model and the indie crap shoot are not viable for me. No one indie developer sits down with the vision to make such returns. But his success must be compared to the myriad developers who work for a weekend, launch crap, and DO NOT make any profit. The blockbuster game model takes large resources to succeed and the indie crap shoot takes dumb luck or tons of trial and error.

My Dream Team

For ‘a typical iPhone game’ (whatever that is), the team size and set of skills will vary. I’d say at least you need these roles (some can be the same person); game concept designer, artist, animator, lead programmer / integrator, programmer, marketer, project manager, business developer / accountant.  With a BA in art, my own software consulting company, and 12 years experience as a game developer, I can wear all these hats myself. However, subcontracting some things will play off my strengths, downplay my weaknesses, decrease time-to-market, and hopefully yield a better product.

Each mobile platform works on certain devices (such as iPhone), a development path of programming language and tools to create the game, and has a marketplace where the developer showcases the game (for free but with a share of revenue going to the marketplace).  Traditionally a game must be created INDIVIDUALLY for each platform – for instance created first for iPhone, the recreated at additional time/cost for Android. I am expertly familiar with the Adobe Flash Platform. With these tools I can deploy to both iOS and Android from the same development path. This saves some development expenses, but offers the additional challenge of making a game work on a variety of screen sizes and devices.

I do not have one game concept in mind. I have several and must choose. I will lead every aspect of concept, design, development, launch, marketing. I can self-fund, but am open to investors. I will subcontract and pay a fair wage to all. I’ll hire at least one artist. Depending on the concept I may hire more artists, more programmers, play testers, and a marketing consultant.

My Next Game

After preliminary research and reflection, I have several possible strategies to creating my next game. It really depends on the outcome I want. These strategies are NOT a wishlist. I don’t say ‘make a cheap game that is really popular and makes tons of money forever’ and I don’t say ‘make a blockbuster like Angry Birds’.

STRATEGY #1 – Minimized Financial Risk

• Reduce production costs – Shoot for a simple, fast, predictably appealing, & addictive game mechanic. Perhaps that means each user enjoys it then abandons it forever – that’s ok.
• Monetize with in-game ads – Sell the game for 0$ and integrate a 3rd party ad-network. There are no licensors to impress with flashygraphics/gameplay and no marketing budget to overcome the barrier to entry of a $1 or 5$ price tag.
• Target high volume of game-plays – Short repetitive gameplay will increase ad viewing. Deploy to both Android and iPhone to capture a wide market. The game’s marketplace profile (icon, screenshots, title, description, reviews) are very important as is a 0$ price tag to drive high volume of downloads.
• Ideal for – learning the ropes, controlling our losses, setting ourselves up for a follow-up title.

STRATEGY #2 – Build a (Game Development Company) Brand

Here, if we want to make many games under the same label, and potentially offer 1st party ads in one game to ‘sell’ our other titles, we want to emphasize a quality product.

• Moderate production costs – Keep the idea simple to moderate in scope, but use a more expensive process to shape it. Start with several ideas. Develop each conceptual and keep the winning idea. Use iterative development (develop, play, revise, repeat) to put your best game forward.
• Monetization is a longer term goal – Our goal here is not to have a game that makes money. Its to build a brand.
• Target critical acclaim – Our goal is to have a portfolio that LOOKS good and receives GOOD REVIEWS.  Ideal critique could be “This game is incredible fun and polished, however the appeal is too niche for mass popularity.
• Ideal for – Shopping for licensees with a follow-up title. A follow-up that looks sexy, seems massively popular (perhaps unoriginal), coupled with a good brand behind us will attract licensors or sponsors.

What other strategies can we think of?

My Bottom Line

There is much more analysis to be done. Most importantly will be the game concept and target devices. Those factors predicate the costs. Assuming strategy #1 above, a non-scientific estimation would be;

INVESTMENT

• 3 Months from initial concept, through development, to submission to marketplace. Assuming the game concept lends itself to this calendar. Its very possible.
• 5k to 20k per month in total costs. This includes the amount of and opportunity cost of my own time (vs doing paid client work) and depends largely on exactly what staff is needed.

REVENUE

• We’ll go with an ad-based revenue on a game with a 0$ price tag.
• Does anyone know how to calculate # of ads viewed = # of dollars made for an iOS / Android game? Pleaes leave a comment if you do.

PROFIT

• TBD…