Miikka Luotio, Flaregames
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Rethinking Mobile Games Publishing for Small & Lean Teams (White Nights Conference Helsinki 2016)
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Miikka Luotio, Flaregames
- 1. Rethinking Mobile Games Publishing for Small & Lean Teams
- 2. ICH BIN MIIKKA! • 10+ years of XP • Certified Non- Asshole • From Finland! • Senior Producer
- 9. OVERVIEW • Disclaimer & The Case • Expectations • Reality • Lemons > lemonade • Regrets • Learnings • Q&A
- 10. DISCLAIMERS • The Case • Superweapon • Dawn of Steel • Tiger Team
- 11. What‘s a „Small Team“? Superweapon • Location: L.A • Size 7 • Milestone sprints • Tasks > Asana Brainz • Location: Bogota • Size 30+ • 1 week sprints • User Stories > Jira KeenFlare • Location: Frankfurt • Size 20+ • Milestone sprints • Post-it! Limbic • San Francisco • Size 9+ • 2 weeks sprints • User Stories > Jira Emerald City Games • Vancouver • Size 18+ • 1 weeks sprints • Tasks > Asana Subatomic • Boston • Size 25+ • Milestone sprints • User Stories > Jira TBA Studio • Classified • Size 6 • Classified • Classified ?
- 12. EXPECTATIONS • Developer Thoughts? • Publisher Thoughts?
- 13. REALITY, SOFT LAUNCHED • Developer wakes up • Publisher wakes up • The Problem
- 14. LEMONS INTO RADLER! • Tiger Team FTW • Android • Windows • Features • Submission Manager'less
- 15. REGRETS, I HAS SOME • Wish we had not • Pushed to Soft Launch too early • Waited too long with the Tiger Team • Wish we had • Kept the original publishing team • Free exchange of know-how
- 16. LEARNINGS – PUBLISHER • Tiger Teams aka Crazy Ass Plan-C • Value in platform • Chemistry is key • Build teams not games • Don't rush to Soft Launch • Don't try to change them • Be a Frequent Visitor • Get them a room! • THANKS!
Editor's Notes
- Mic Test Let’s start! 2015 was a big year of learnings for Flaregames: One of the biggest ones – how to work with small teams who want to stay lean and small
- 10 years of XP Worked as a Producer for 10+ years on Mobile Games Of 8 with internal productions & last 2 with external Non-Asshole Because you can almost get that as a certificate in Germany Due to Flaregames non-asshole hiring policy promoted by our CEO Klaas on his presentations usually From Finland But living and working in Germany Senior Producer Work at Flaregames with in publishing managing external productions Also a Destiny addict
- What is Flaregames? We are a mobile game publisher and developer based in Germany. We publish and develop games on iOS, Android & Windows HQ in Karlsruhe & 100 people large at the moment. Flaregames was founded in 2011 & we have raised $23 million in venture backing.
- We have our own dev studio - Keen Flare in Frankfurt We eat our own dog food in that sense We believe in co-development above all Our goal is to do all the boring important stuff so developers can focus on the fun We develop and publish Multiplayer Games for Gamers We prefer to work with Mobile games that have Multiplayer Are F2P Editor’s choice quality
- Our flagship title Developed by our studio KeenFlare Over 20 million players so far.
- A Modern take on Mobile RTS - Developed by Supeweapon Games Out on iOS in since last Autumn – rated 4.5 stars in AppStore We are working with NetEase to bring Dawn of Steel to China this year
- • A F2P successor to a the successfull premium Fieldrunners game Developed by Subatomic RTS base builder mobile game • Currently in iOS Soft Launch (You can download it from Canadian AppStore)
- Zombie Gunship Inc. will be a F2P successor of Zombie Gunship, a #1 grossing title in the USA 2011. Plus other exciting titles from Emerald City Games and Brainz
- Quick overview of each section Audience query How many developers How many publishers How many all the other industry related companies?
- Superweapon is based in L.A we signed with them to publish Dawn of Steel They had already been in development nearly a year SW = 7 game industry veterans with background on C&C Red Alert – Lead by Amer Ajami Development fully funded development by Flare Notice the Germans in the Photo (Well there’s one Spaniard also) I worked with Superweapon games as a Publisher Producer – so there’s some bias.
- Usual Team size has been 10-20 with our external developments SW was a new thing for us as a publisher Started working with another small developer – TBA in Casual Connect
- Developer wanted to focus as much as possible on the game itself, so signing with a full house publisher made sense. Publisher wanted the development team to expand rapidly after Soft Launch These expectations were not explicitly synchronized early on
- Right after SL1 Developer realizes they need to scale up by a couple guys at least, otherwise explosions will follow. As Publisher - In terms of production risks we identified that the developer needs couple additions to their team The Problem It’s not easy to hire more people in the L.A. - fierce competition over talent (Silicon Bay) Requirements for the roles at SW were high – very senior positions (SW guys are all industry veterans) Production at full speed. Problem had to be solved within months and time was running out If there’s no fix – we are looking at massive delays and possible quality could suffer also
- Tiger Team Problem: Team wanted to stay small & issues growing the team. Solution: Send a team of Flare developers to L.A for 3 months We sent our most experienced devs – frontend engineer, backend engineer, designer & a QA guy. The developer loved the solution & chemistry worked well - productivity ensued Still today the Tiger team has expanded and keeps working at Flare offices remotely Helped with porting the game to Android and Windows. Tiger team even helped implement some features to the game! Took a lot of the overhead from SW in porting the game to Android and Windows Going Submission Manager'less Submissions were not as agile as the team was – timezone difference and a dedicated submission manager. Solution: Allow Producers and PM’s to self submit while on-site
- Wish we had not Soft Launched too early - don't rush to it This slowed our feature development down too much and caused delays – this matters a lot with small teams. Chasing learnings from KPI’s can also distract the team from completing key features. Wish we had Kept the original pre-SL publishing team We changed our key publishing team members around too much This caused communication overhead and more work for the already burdened developer. Be able to provide a free exchange of information between devs We should of bridged our developers to talk to each other in a more proactive way
- Tiger Teams / Always have a crazy ass plan-C. Something will always explode. We were lucky to have developers at ready to be used. Value in platform Everyone want’s to have their own platform – I know. But it really makes sense especially when you work with smaller teams. Chemistry is key We are all professionals but the truth is – great games are build with a healthy potion of good chemistry and constructive creative friction. Build teams with the Developer, don’t force feed people from Publisher side. No, really. Build Teams not Games Developer should be the one making the game, Publisher should focus on having the best possible team for the job Don't rush to Soft Launch Especially important with small teams, this cannot be overstated. Launching too early with a small team will slow down feature development Chasing after KPI learnings can distract the feature development Don't try to change them Instead of trying to make the developer do things differently Focus on adapting publishing processes to cater for a 360 degrees of ways to develop games Be a Frequent Visitor Jump on the plane every month! No really. Skype is great but does not beat figuring stuff our over a cold one. Get them a room! We realized that instead of trying to be the master of all knowledge, we should just stop being a broken telephone and let our devs talk to each others directly. There’s great value in that especially when the games in our portfolio share a lot of similarities. Onwards to 2016 & thanks Working with another small developer – TBA next week. Going to be another year or learning and exciting adapting our learnings from working with Superweapon. Thank you!