Day 8460

EGX rezzed 2018 talk notes.


PR for indie games panel talk.

- Keys to PR is to get people to find your game, play your game and buy your game.
- The sooner you start the better, think of PR like sound or graphics
- Ideally you want to get your game on sites that people trust
- Right now the consesns from the panel that at least 60% of their effrors goe's into finging streamers
- Jounralisists and streamers feed off one another, everythones looking for views, more people stream more people want to write about it, more people write more people want to stream etc...
- Keep in mind journalists/streamers are going through 100's of games and maybe only make 10 posts a week tops, you need to target the right people and make sure it's going to reach the right audience
- Plus side to Twitch

Day 8385

Games forum 2018 VR Notes

AR - How to unlock AR's Business potential

Will Freeman @spadgy_OTA- game journalist. Phil Charnock @Phil_Charnock- Draw and code. Russel Harding@russhar - Conspexit. Travis Ryan@travisxuryan - Dumpling Design.

- More humans use AR in Snapchat daily than use Twitter
- More humans viewed the super bowl Snapchat add than watched the game live.
- 5 years 2 billion regular AR users
- Pragmatic to work on mobile VR which has the audience but future proofing for glasses/headsets is a good idea. Just takes Apple or Google to make the leap
- Snapchat and Pokémon has helped create an investment buzz for selling products
- How to get people using the technology without forcing, they out a tower in the middle of the level and then people naturally leaned and learned for themselves
- Key things to consider for AR is Camera, battery power, fun.

AR  101 - Oliver Clarke, Modern dream (Awesome talk o3o)

@OllieClarke

- We have created a range of inter-subjective ideas to interpret our world. Road signs for example
- Exciting is digitising our reality, e.g photo > digital currency> AR digital reality
- Intersubjectivity - unique ability to share something created and believe it is real e.g money we believe it is real for the purpose of accountancy.
- AR has so many possibilities,  picking up on light we can't see, facilitating productivity, potential for experiences new ranges of emotions to name just a few
- AR/VR can be used for Science! Visualise the microscopic and macroscopic. In medicine, it can be very difficult to train surgeons introducing the VR cadaver~ More outside of just marketing and entertainment
-Andrew Lacey VR/AR world 2016 chart, predicts that in 2022  is when everything really starts to take off
- What's great about AR is you can do things now,  we are in an experimental stage before exponential growth in 2021 mobile, AR especially, the rules have not been written yet
- Solving clunky problems will be when it takes over (e.g holding your phone to look at a map)
- Stats a wonderful chart that I didn't take the name of... Premium VR 1.3x increase. Mobile VR 4x increase in 2021
- Untethered is the most compelling, powerful features are great but ultimately performance is key
- If it runs well on a smartphone now then it will work wonderfully with the tech to come
- 100-150 max keep draw calls, batch as much as possible, atlas textures. (what they currently use)
- To keep in mind: Scale is an issue in AR, often things are gigantic when assets are taken in first. (Physics don't scale very well, especially in unity that works on real-world scales)
- Goo.gl/KPDNU3 - books used for the talk
- Things of the future/now~ High fidelity texture, haptic feedback, real-time collaboration, machine learning, blockchain

Design and Art in VR games  (50% great talk >.>)

Anna Hollinrake@AnnaHollinrake - Dream reality interactive. Russ Earwaker @climaxstudios- Climax

- Scale and movement are key to great art
- Tiny animated characters feel great, simple interactions (just picking it up) feel cool
- Negatives to consider: Motion sickness - restricted audience - still developing - space, wires, heat and weight
- Don't scare off new players bridge accessibility gap, keep the excitement with clear ideas
- No standardised controller (though really there is more than controller buttons to work with....)
- Gestures for tutorials/actions should be natural to real life movements
- Give players time to get their VR legs
- Make speed constant and avoid turning too quickly, the acceleration is the sickening factor
- Scale camera and move in closer for more toy-like view
- Restrictions to keep mobile VR running nicely: Low poly, no alpha, no particles, few bones(blend shapes instead)
- Include artistic rhythm
- Silhouette interesting from all angles, pull out edges, remove chunks, add kinks don't have overly thin else you'll have flickering, sweeping curves, no chamfering, every loop and vert say something
- Atlasing - one 4k texture per environment
- Keep in mind headsets get hot - use light baking and be careful with bright colours and things that will overheat
- Second UV texture of paper over the top of all to tie it together

Surviving and thriving in the VR market 

Vincent Brunet-Dupont @trebuchetvr- Trebuchet. Tanya Laird @TanyaLaird- Digital Jam. Fernando Montalvo @ferm3ogs- 3OGS. Erik Desiderio@Erik_Desiderio - Erik Desiderio music.

- All of the areas, don't be prudish and stick only to games, explore! Defence industry (synthetic) medicine, housing,  larger markets that can pay
- Many big cooperate brands don't understand narrative design
- They don't understand the return they get, helps if you can show them and compare audience reach mobile app Vs VR experience. A lot of the people who are in charge of paying and deciding where the money goes haven't tried VR - educate all of the humans
- Still very much a VR bubble - people in shock over having to have a pc/laptop shock and horror ensues
- Current gen VR is very much a family set up ( like how it used to be one shared TV, then one shared pc etc.)  Keep the spectatorship in mind
- When it comes to marketing -  explaining the tech. Then explain the game.
- Game arcades talk to them about the game VR arcade Facebook group - far East arcade culture still there
- Shareable as well as playable - key to getting people to know your game/experience 
- Circus, theatre, magic - reference for VR staging

VR esports  - Patrick@ndreams-tea-.com

@patrickol

- 3million high-end VR
- Oculus go, give pro, Santa Cruz coming soon~
- VR arcades lots of money
- Echo area, the unspoken tournaments already in place
- Interactive spectating twitch and YouTube, voting for harder easier play, food drops, take part as otherwise ai like a zombie
- 350k peak watching a match
- Seeing Dota 2 final from inside VR
- VR very exciting to watch. Throwing, moving, sneaking, jumping, finding, cover, etc
- SOS interesting game and a new idea

Creating content that matters - Ben Maltz Jones - rewind

@V_Ben 

- People 100% focus and engaged, making people feeling in VR makes them act
- People feel more in VR 15% more donations
-  Immersive, memorable, impactful
- 100% attention, more emotion and a physical connection memory, will last longer

Day 8384

Games forum 2018 notes!

Video games with mum - Rami Ismail Vlambeer & Alysia Judge IGN 

@tha_rami & @AlysiaJudge

- Choose game for mum based on narrative
- Option of just holding attack, someone new to controller and gaming is like learning a new language
- Shopkeeper concept XD (in ff, human at night selling weapons...)
- Often in games now it shows you how to do a mechanic but not explaining why you should use it
- Often hearing from audience that they don't like tutorials - elegant solution, tooltips coming out if you have difficulty, ff18 at start a mini-match/skills test to assess player and adjusts difficulty accordingly 
- Achievements straight out the gate, make a couple casual gamer explosion trophies
- Cuphead a good example of accessible to many people (Teaching wise at least)
- Don't perfect what already exists add value by incorporating other perspectives outside of gaming (Someone who has never played a game is very valuable)

Understanding desire - Kirsty Rigden (Awesome talk o3o)

@KirstyRigden

- Future lab creating Tiny trax VR game
- What do players want? Power
- Power comes in different ways = Creation, destruction, control and knowledge
- (Creation) Individuality, and exploration satisfaction, customisation of character, vehicle, environment, names.
- (Destruction) Humans love breaking stuff, interesting to watch and visually stimulating seeing things break in different ways, destruction is a complete goal, it's easy to understand and a repeatable task
- (Control) 3 ways humans like to learn: Jump right in with instructions to refer to - humans who like their handheld to make them feel fully in control - and humans who like to try as they go and just mess around.
- In their game, had 3 core tutorial stages,  then optional stages from each with low risk
- Reasons to play - Status (high score and streaming), collectors, exploration, completionist
- Incorporating different levels to cater to different needs: Speed levels, multiple route collection levels, puzzle efficient areas, thoughtless smash and get through it levels.
- This also allows for peaks and troughs in intensity catering to different playstyles
- Time, collectables, points - rewards at the end of a level, enough from different individual tracks to progress to next level
- Key is to let the player know what the goal of the game is at all times
- Provide all the information to the player, how far through the game, how much is collected, what to do next etc.
- Plant seeds, items that they can see but can't get to, very early on in a level
- Can use collectables as breadcrumbs to steer player (banjo and Kazooie)
- Add rhythm, jump jump slide, jump jump leap etc.
- Either have the player: I know what I to do but not if they can OR I don't know what to do but once it's been figured out it'll be easy.
- New mechanics wait a bit, then give humans the new one, doesn't overwhelm and keeps the game fresh.
- Rewards make people feel smart and powerful, turns mediocrity into magic
- That amount of congratulations makes you feel like you've done something wonderful, all adds up and makes people feel they've done well
- Empathy - Remember people who are not you will be playing your game
- When adding something ask, will it benefit the player or is it just cool?
- Analyse media that doesn't appeal to you, try to find what others enjoy in them and why
- Look at game reviews for what people like - the most positive or negative and analyse
- Personality tests - life motivations and communication styles
- Playtest - Sure listen to what they say, but also watch them play, this will help you truly understand
- As long as a player is comfortable with everything that has happened, then allowed space (almost like starting a brand new game) for player to readjust, adding a twist to the game style can be very powerful

What price is right?

Stewart Rodgers@TheRealSJR - Venture beat. Alex Moyet @AlexMoyet- Curve Digital. Mike Bithell @mikeBithell- Bithell Games. Mark Sorrells @Sorrell - Rovio. Alex Moukas @wappier- Wappier.

- Mostly a free to play and mobile talk
- Something that costs more can appear more valuable, especially in countries that are more cost elastic.
- International audience, variance in price, based on how good they think it is (is game as good as a trip to the cinema or compared to another game etc.)
- 1/3 budget on advertising 2/3 marketing to existing customer base
- Demand and supply, selling umbrellas is all well and good but making it rain is also important (Value and price)
- In game bundle deals create a higher pricing sense, keep in mind game economy but upscale value (50% of etc.)
- Honesty with user and transparency is key, especially in freemium games, world is connected and can compare notes

Good news and bad indie talk - Phil Elliott (Also an awesome talk o3o)

@Sly_Rebirth

- 250 games per week released steam 2017 (something like 25pw 2016), growing, even more, every year
- Media channels are also flooded - sites give everyone love
- They want things that are going to generate clicks and views - drive traffic and excite people
- Fighting against the pile of shame on steam - people have accumulated so many games that aren't played
- There is also the expectation of promotion, there is a value proposition waiting in wishlist
- enough user reviews to justify? Overall humans are being taught to wait
- It's no longer so much the spike at launch but more so is normal for over time and in updates and sales
- 50k-100k year 1 sale opportunities for steam are still there
- Forecasting - Steam spy, understand data for what it is (Mike rose on twitter, rave of Ravensdale)
- Ignore data more than 3/4 months old - proportion of revenue, promotions/humble bundle, don't look at games you've heard of either
- Costs to consider - Localisation, age rating, UI restrictions etc. for different platforms, consider these at the very beginning and plan for them in your game
- Leave at least 3 months for submissions and QA
- No substitute for a thriving community - small polished gameplay is much better than an hour of dullness
- Choose your audience, then how to get them excited
- Key art, grab attention, generate awareness, most people will only see this as a thumbnail though so make sure that looks good, needs name of game and recognisable art piece
- Events are great for feedback but limited sales impact
- Wishlist > pre-orders. Algorithms for steam spikes something to look into, but spikes are better overall

No filthy casuals - Dirty Mitchell 

@SpaceApeGames

- Cookie and radish test - ego depletion 
- Better to make fell good than know they are good, keep in players favour, it is better for your player to feel mastery instead of actually having it
- Provide your team and player base with transparency, build knowledge based on previously learnt things 
- Tension with experience = excitement, tension with casual = stress 
- Include small doses of tension even with a super casual experience, it adds context and consequences 
- Keep humans motivated in your team, give them the autonomy to get the game done and then trust them to get things done, if there are any problems and humans don't believe in the game early on it's best to address this then and talk it out rather than have it as a sideline
- Small well-knitted teams are a great place for creating teams 

Original IP 

Sean Lee @wargaming_net - Wargaming, Calgar Eger@CaglarEger - Goodgame, Sebastien Kriese@FoxNext - FoxNex, Monty Munford@montymunford - Game industry Journalist 

- Brands often sell on a case by case basis, it's no longer about the highest bidder but about what a company can bring to the table, for example, past experiences and quality are key to costs
- 10-day turnaround on approvals 
- Easier and Quicker to create your own IP
- A good game will be easy to market - Do you know the right people? "Trivial marketing costs" publishers have the money out there, it's just about the quality of your game and getting it noticed
- Best ways to talk about IP are reaching out in person at conferences, having a meeting or a drink is the best way to go