1. 13Summer 2015 THE QUARTERLY
Growth in the games industry has
always excited me but never so
much as it did when I was in Beirut for
MENA Games 2015 and in Dubai for
Step 2015. Both events did a great job of
bringing international attention to the
fast paced growth of game development
in the region. Still, in a region whose
games industry needs more schools,
investors, accelerators, mentors, and
local experts, it can be challenging for
developers to make a breakthrough, but
it is certainly possible.
As a career advisor with a special
focus on the gaming industry, my
particular approach with individuals
and companies involves making them
more aware of the opportunities to learn
and, more importantly, of their personal
responsibility to grow. While waiting for
the right combination of stakeholders to
fall in place, developers in the MENA can
focus on the home front and make sure
they have what it takes to start building
up their exposure externally.
The global game industry was still
tiny when I joined it in 1992, but it wasn’t
new. I’ve seen the majority of its growth
from inside a couple of great companies
(including Origin Systems and 3DO) and
6 amazing cities in the USA and Europe.
Every one of these places started out
without any of the infrastructure that is
present today.
Exposure: Getting the Facts Right
Exposure for your company mainly
involves external business development,
marketing (traditional or guerrilla), and
leveraging social media presence for
promotion or crowdfunding.These are
the pieces you need to build your business
externally through clients, customers,
investment, or other creative means.
1. Focus on external business
development
The higher the profile of the MENA
THE MENA:
AN EXCITING PLACE
TO BUILD GAMES
Does the Gaming Industry Have What It Takes to Level Up?
By Mary-Margaret Walker | @mmwalker

2. USEFUL APPS FOR TRANSPORTATION
A Round-Up of Taxi-Booking Apps for Residents in MENA
14 THE QUARTERLY Summer 2015
TECHNOLOGY
region’s gaming industry, the more
investors will be interested in game
development there. Whether to work
with investors or not has been an ongoing
discussion in the tech and games field,
but it is still a decision that all developers
have to make on their own. Every
company must also be ready to build
without external investment if they are
serious about their goals. A winning
business development strategy involves
creating a business plan and sharing your
message externally. One tactic you can
use to increase your revenue sources is by
promoting and selling (or licensing) tools,
software, or intellectual property that your
company develops.
2. Traditional marketing: are you
there yet?
Creating a market for a company’s
services through the use of traditional
marketing sources (print,TV, web
banners) is not very popular among
smaller companies and in less developed
markets, due to budget and size
constrictions. Notable exceptions
include the Scottish Games Alliance in
the UK, a coalition of Scotland-based
games developers who founded their
own promotional group.This group
eventually morphed into a much larger
media initiative, Scottish Development
International, that still supports the
gaming sector, as well as digital and
trade enterprises. Another example is the
Nordic Game Community that shares
news about the industry and provides
support to game developers. Established
in 2004 with €12M (around $1.5M at
the time) from Nordic governments, the
community offers grants programs and
funding support platforms for developers.
In any case, traditional marketing
for gaming companies almost always
involves an internal marketing expert or a
consultant. Its tactics include: attending,
sponsoring or buying booth space at an
event; advertising in print magazines,
billboards, buildings or online directed
to your target audience; and sponsoring
industry organizations.
Once you have sufficient revenues,
you might consider more traditional
marketing channels. For example,
developers of massively multiplayer
online role-playing games (MMORPGs)
such as Supercell (Clash of Clans) and
InnoGames (Forge of Empires) can afford
to produce and place TV advertisements
on TV and satellite channels.
3. Get creative with guerrilla marketing
This is a more common choice for small
businesses with restricted budgets and a
lot of imagination. It is just as important
here to have someone with a marketing
background or a great flair for marketing
success leading the initiatives. For the
best results, you should still formulate a
plan regarding the message that is being
delivered and the best locations and
formats for delivery. It is also necessary
to understand analytics and know how to
tweak your output for better performance.
Practical examples of guerrilla
marketing include using YouTube or a
website to post a video trailer. Surgeon
Simulator 2013 (developed by Bossa
studios), for example, has a game play
that lends itself well to the creation of
viral videos (hilarious surgery mishaps
due to complicated controls).These
videos are shared massively and help
attract new players.
Some developers propose a demo
of their game and call on Beta testers
to sample it.There is a strong chance
that these testers will then become
ambassadors of the game in their
respective gaming communities. Before
it launched its new racing game, Nitro
Nation, game developer Creative
Mobile gave only 1,000 users access
to its beta version.These users started
bragging about it on social media and
created a hype around the “exclusive”
nature of the game.
Contests are also a good tactic; they
can involve any aspect of the game, from
naming a character in the game (with
company approval) to designing clothing,
fan art or signed posters. Giveaways are
always popular.They can be promotional
goods as well as less “tangible” things such
as extra game content that either won’t be
for sale in the game or will be for sale as a
purchasable add-on.
4. Understand social media before
using it
Social media campaigns are important
to heighten awareness of the company
or the product and grow a fan base.
Successful social media requires an
understanding of marketing as well as of
the tools that are used to build, connect,
and analyze your network.
The necessary ingredients should
involve one or more of the following:
an aptitude for marketing and a lot of
research; an experienced marketing or
community manager; and/or an external
consultant or service that must still
be overseen by someone sophisticated
enough to understand the process.
Evaluating your social media strategy
involves different elements that are
unique to each company and project. Very
simply, it means determining which social
media platforms are most important to
Mary-Margaret Walker is a gaming
career consultant and a regular
speaker at universities, as well as at
different events and conferences for
the gaming industry. She is an expert
in career development and building
companies using soft skills, social
media and technology tools where
digital entertainment meets high tech
and social change. In 1996 she started
the Mary-Margaret Network that has
worked with companies around the
world, most notably Electronic Arts,
Disney, Microsoft, Sony, Indiagames
and Activision. Walker is also a
charter member of the International
Game Developer’s Association as well
as Women in Games International.

3. 15Summer 2015 THE QUARTERLY
you and finding out the best ways to
utilize them to reach your audience. In all
my research, I have found several articles
that offer valuable insights for creating
your own social strategy plan including,
your goals, the best tools to use, and
a simple to-follow plan. One article I
recommend in particular is How I Manage
a Social Media Platform of Over 11 Million
Followers Every Day, by author and
keynote speaker Peg Fitzpatrick.
5. Should you crowdfund?
The popularity of crowdfunding
platforms makes them an attractive
option for many hopeful young
developers. However, it is not something
you can launch without a well-structured
marketing plan. Your crowdfunding
campaign has a higher probability of
failure if you don’t have a marketing
strategy in place well before you
launch your campaign. You have to
put some time into crafting your story
and convincing people that your game
deserves support.Talking about your
game or showing off its graphics isn’t
enough to land funding, potential players,
or individuals who will continue to pay;
you need a thorough understanding
of the user experience. Harebrained
Schemes is an impressive example of a
game studio with a 100% success rate for
3 games it crowdfunded on Kickstarter.
For its second game, Shadowrun Returns,
the developer had promised to include
an in-game cityscape chosen by backers.
In the end, Berlin won the nomination
but beat Hong Kong by a slight margin.
This led to the third game set in Hong
Kong (Shadowrun: Hong Kong) that was
overwhelmingly funded (totalling $1.2M
out of a targeted $100,000). Additionally,
the cityscape was designed with the help
of Hong Kong natives and expats among
the game’s fan base.
Build a Community to Build Out
Based on my experience, I have found
that community building is the most
critical growth area for each company
and for a whole region - it can also be
extremely rewarding.The best way to
build out a gaming infrastructure is to
create unity, partnerships and programs.
By coming together to create an
inclusive organization you will increase
your own and the gaming sector’s overall
power and presence in many areas. You
will also gain a greater understanding of
what it takes to create, import and hold
on to seasoned talent.
1. Pool your resources
Combining your resources, such as the
Scottish Games Alliance and many other
groups before have done, will allow you
to have a presence at larger global events.
It increases networking opportunities
and access to learning (special seminars
and workshops) that can be shared later.
This generates greater visibility locally
and internationally, which can attract
investors, talent, experts, academics
and, above all, local financial support.
Recapturing local talent that has moved
out of the area by merely showing them
what they are missing.
2. Hold online seminars
This allows you to bring experts and
local developers together and share best
practices without the added expense
of travel. Such seminars can address
subjects in more depth than regular
conferences by opening the way to
online discussions. Involving experts
from the US or Europe and publicizing
such events will create a greater interest
in the region’s gaming industry and a
stronger desire to get involved. If such
events are appropriate for universities
or high schools, they could also be an
ideal way to gather feedback and lobby
to include industry courses and/or
trainings in academic curricula.
3. Invite experts to your region
Apart from the obvious benefits of
acquiring knowledge first-hand, hosting
experts for events in your country
creates more publicity and networking
opportunities. Partnering or collaborating
with universities on that subject could
also bring the industry one step closer to
creating an academic support framework.
4. Create a MENA-centric
gaming website:
A current website and/or social media
presence that represents the area as a
whole is an inestimable asset in terms
of visibility (locally and internationally).
It also serves to increase networking
opportunities.These channels should
also include a login side for internal
collaboration and blogging to discuss
ideas, techniques, tools and anything else
that you want to share.n
Community Building Tool
Co-hosted events/
workshops
Online seminars
Presentations
by guest experts
Industry websites,
groups, forums
Benefits
Publicity, networking,
knowledge sharing,
attracting and recapturing
local talent
In-depth discussions,
greater interest in the region,
collaboration with academic
institutions
Knowledge acquisition,
networking, creating an
academic framework (by
collaborating with universities)
Visibility, networking,
knowledge sharing,
discussions