1. A Videogame Industry Exploration

2.  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

3.  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

4.  Longterm & Short Term Goals
 Work-for-Hire
 Original IP Generation
 Specialization versus Generalization
 Commercial Enterprise versus Funded Hobby
 VISION!!
What’s Your Game?

5.  Founded in 2000 in Seattle, WA USA
 Known for Bewjeweled, Plants Vs Zombies
 Sold to EA in 2011 for $1.3B!
PopCap

6.  Founded in 2003 in Espoo, Finland
 Known for Angry Birds
 2012 Revenues = $203M
 Over 2X their 2011 revenue!
Rovio

7.  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

8.  Design Approaches
 Knowing Your Audience
 Monetization
 Pro Tips!
Game Time!!

9.  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?

10.  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?

11.  What does it all add up to?
 What will excite people?
 What’s NEW?
 Secret sauce!!
 MAGIC!!
Why Should I Care?

12.  App-roach
 Free-to-Play
 Premium
 Paymium
 DESIGN for monetization before you are made to!
 Publisher perspectives
How Will I Make Money?

13.  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!

14.  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

15.  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

16.  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

17.  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

18.  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

19.  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

20.  Banks
 Schools
 Advertising agencies
 EVERYONE!!
Who Else Needs Games?

21.  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!

22.  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…

23.  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

24.  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?

25. And Here You Are!