FGS 2011: So You Want To Make A Facebook Game?

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Building Successful Social Games for People Who Hate Social Games but Didn’t Know Who to Ask
Will Harbin, CEO
David Scott, Executive Producer
Paul Preece, Executive Producer

Legacy Flash Games
Strong early, but fading usage
Poorly monetized through ads
Few engagement tools
You don’t own the users

“Social” Games
Scales relative to marketing (or virality)
Leverages social graph
More opportunity to monetize
Multiple engagement tools
You own your users (ex: capture email addresses)

Product Model
Unique, Engaging Game Design
Virality
Monetization
Paid User Acquisition

Gameplay
Persistence
Give the user something to invest in and build upon over time
User Expression
Allow users to customize content and express themselves through your game to other users
Allow users to compete with one another to encourage more playing time and/or spending
Leader boards work
Competition
Fun Factor
More on this later…

Virality
Key for profitable user acquisition
Helpful for growth, but not necessary if your game monetizes and retains users
Stream posts result in more installs than invite requests
Viral hooks should be integrated into core components of gameplay:
Build true multiplayer experiences
Game mechanics should be naturally enhanced with the more friends you have playing

Monetization
Our games are completely free to play – all content can be unlocked over time
Impatient users will always pay if they are engaged
Game gets increasingly harder to play for free – don’t disappoint users early

UA: Sample Campaign Metrics
19.2mm Impressions

UA: Virality is Key to Profitability
With no virality, primary installs costing $1 (that have an ARPU of $0.75) equate to $0.25 net loss per install
With strong virality (K factor ≥ 1) however, the ARPU of $0.75 has a multiple of 2, essentially doubling revenue with a net gain of $0.50 per primary install

Backyard Monsters
Disappointed with the shallowness of the base building and the poor fighting mechanics in traditional RTS web games.
We asked ourselves:
“Why can’t a Tower Defense maze persist and become the base, and what’s stopping us from making and sending creeps to other peoples mazes?”And so Backyard Monsters was born

BYM: Execution
Where I put my buildings has to matterIf I put cottages next to the front door and barracks at the back I should be punished!
Defensive buildings have to actually defend Not just count towards some sort of global defense number
If I want to attack someone I should be able to attack them instantlyNo waiting hours for my army to march from A to B
I should see the battle, guts-n-all! I mean, that’s the best part of an RTS right?

Unique Gameplay = Defensibility
Many studios are setup to make light-weight social games (farming, gifting, collecting, rinse, repeat)
The attitude in the industry is one of fast following, innovation = risk
Kingdoms of Camelot
Dragons of Atlantis
Glory of Rome
Not everyone can get 100’s of monsters to attack and navigate a free-form base while taking fire from defensive buildings and units ;o)
We’ve had plenty of practice making Flash based TD gamesFlash Element TD 1 & 2, Desktop TD, Desktop Defender, Circle TD, Vector TD I, II, X, The Space Game, TSG: Missions.
As traditional Flash Game Devs YOU can make the next big hit because you are the ones making real games.

Battle Pirates
What is BYM missing? How can we make it more epical?
Moar guns?
Moar multiplayer?
Moar customization?
All of the above! Plus natty hats.

Battle Pirates
We learned from BYM how to create a solid base building game. This time we wanted to create a true MMORTS:
Synchronous multiplayer battles.
Individual unit control, meaningful tactics, online/offline support.
Persistent world of players and enemies.
Fog of war, AI fleets, resource contention.
Tech tree + customizable combat units.
Multiple weapons, armors and upgrades.

Battle Pirates
Defensibility
Core multiplayer mechanics require finesse in balancing.
Experienced in creating strategy games such as DTD, The Space Game, Minions & Backyard Monsters.
Pushing Flash to deliver 'proper' game experiences.
Real-time multiplayer, full-screen isometric engine, AI enemies.
Prioritizing engagement and fun above virality or monetization.
No locked content, no check-pointing, play your way to the top.

Q&A
Questions?
Contact info:
Will Harbin (will@casualcollective.com)
Dave Scott (dave@casualcollective.com)
Paul Preece (paul@casualcollective.com)

FGS 2011: So You Want To Make A Facebook Game?

by mochimedia on Mar 11, 2011

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FGS 2011: So You Want To Make A Facebook Game? — Presentation Transcript

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