Welcome to FGS 2012 by Josh Larson of Mochi Media

Editor's Notes

1. Welcome to the fourth annual FGS!I have to tell you--we started this conference at 8:30 in the morning on a Sunday last year, and the #1 piece of attendee feedback was—too.damn.early. So we’re starting at 10am this year so hopefully we’ve already improved the event for you.I’m Josh Larson, President at Mochi Media, and it’s our privilege to organize this event every year. Welcome to the hundreds of you here in person at Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. And welcome to those of you watching online … thanks to our friends at Adobe, we are live-streaming the entire conference from flashgamingsummit.com.I have a few words to say in welcoming you to the event.
2. First off, we have to acknowledge all of the groups who make FGS happen—Thank you to our sponsors, including our Premier sponsor Adobe, and Platinum sponsors Kixeye and FGLThank you to our speakers & presenters today. In a minute I’ll give you an overview of what’s in store for you from content standpoint.Thank you to our Advisory Board, who reviews the speaking submissions and determines what you are seeing & hearing today.And thank you to all our the attendees, including many of you who have covered great distance to be here. A lot of you are game developers, and you’re the reason Mochi does what it does, and why FGS exists. Here’s why you are so important to us and the entire games industry …
3. This community of developers is at the heart of innovation in games. You are the true innovators in games. And what you create sends ripple effects across the industry:For example, …
4. There would be no Angry Birds without a Crush the Castle.Another example, …
5. There would be no Plants vs Zombies without a Desktop Tower DefenseAnd one last example, though there are countless ones …
6. There would be no Zynga … without the “inspiration” from every single game idea from you, your friends, your mom, your high-school Algebra teacher, your pet hampster, etc etc. have ever had.So to this community of developers, thank you for continuing to inspire.Now what’s happening in our market …
7. Every year we conduct a survey, called the Flash Games Market Survey. And what you tell us directly guides the content—the topics and speakers—that we program into FGS.We survey over 1,000 developers from multiple community sites, and you tell us about your games, your business, and what you care about, and here are a few of the highlights of what is happening in this developer community--
8. #1) you are truly global. In fact, 4 out of 5 developers from the survey are outside the US.And that ratio has only increased in past few years.
9. #2 – mobile is top of mind.83% of you are either creating mobile games today, or plan to in next year. And for many, a popular formula has been to first create games for the web, and then take the hits over to mobile.When you put this altogether …
10. We find a healthier, more diverse marketplace.Nearly 60% of developers have seen both traffic and revenue increase over past year.Games are getting bigger, and better—So we designed FGS to encompass all this …
11. That’s why the official theme for FGS 2012 is Maximize Your Game. You are doing things on a global scale—with dev teams and projects around the world reaching a equally global user audience.You are designing games for multiple devices and platformsYou are incorporating new tools, new monetization strategies, new social marketing tacticsIn all of these ways, you are maximizing your game.This slide gives a view of the various topics that will be covered today, that all fit this theme of maximize your game.I encourage you to look at the schedule in your conference program and also the summary schedule in your badge holder and note the sessions you want to hit as the day moves pretty fast.
12. Now for a bit of logistics—Upstairs-We have sessions in Robertson the room we are in now.Outside in the hallway you will find sponsor tables.Downstairs-We will have sessions in Fisher, follow the signs for that room. Sessions begin at 11am there.And you may have noticed after receiving your badge, the art gallery set up there … these images all came direct from the artists for top games of 2011 and iconic Flash games. These are available for purchase and all proceeds are for charity.Some Schedule Notes, so you know where the breaks in the action are—Lunch is from 12:30pm-1:30pm.That will be followed by the Mochis Award Show at 1:30 here in Robertson [trophy?]Note that we’ll have an afternoon break at 3:45pm.And then at the end of the day, after the last sessions, at 6pm downstairs we’ll have the official after-party, the Mochi Mingle will start and go for a few hours … you don’t need to go anywhere, just head out after last session, and get a chance to catch up with others here in your industry.We have a lot of Mochi folks here, they are wearing Mochi t-shirts and jackets so seek them out with questions on the event.
13. Finally, let’s keep this interactive so we invite you to join the conversation today on twitter.There is a public wifi here at communitycenter.And on twitter look for and use #fgs2012
14. To kick things off, we look to Adobe to give us a view of the next generation of Flash technology enabling games for both the web and mobile devices. Please join me in welcoming Lee Brimelow, Platform Evangelist, and ThibaultImbert, Flash Player Product Manager from Adobe!Brim-lowTee-bow