Games forum 2018 notes!
Video games with mum - Rami Ismail Vlambeer & Alysia Judge IGN
- 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)
- 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)
- 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
- 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
- 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
