Special Thanks to PlayFirst for setting up this interview and a few other upcoming interviews...they provided excellent developers and allowed them to share some really useful information...
0:00 - 5:00 Wadget Eye Games
Works on casual adventure games. Inspired by the old Lucas Arts Adventure Games
Shiva Took a month to finish
Released it for free. Then decided to sell it. Worked on improving the game, added some polish to the game.
5:00 - 10:00 Blackwell Legacy
Learned a lot more about team management.
Had little money to work with...
10:00 - 15:00 Have to look for team member loyalty...and have to let undedicated people to let go... For the folks that stuck with him, they are getting paid more...
List of warning signs to let folks to let go... cannot keep in touch with contact
As a team leader, needs to definitely touch base with them
So it's not just them, you need to keep in touch with them
All use MSN...chat on MSN, etc.
Be friendly, etc. with folks working with you
Doing outsourcing ... doing it with local people.
15:00 - 20:00 Released the game and slept for a week
Be pleasant to people even when they criticize you
Be nice, because if you're not...can come back and haunt you
Finishing the game is not the end
That is only half the battle...
25:00 - 30:00 Approached by Playfirst to do an adventure game for the casual game market
Benefits of partnering with Playfirst... Immense resources Whole staff doing art Whole staff doing PR Whole staff doing engineering
Can now make the games he wants to make
Now has extra money coming in so can fun Blackwell while doing the game
Game doing for Playfirst is NDA...cannot talk about release date either
30:00 - 32:00 Future of Studio... Wants to get into publishing Wants to help other people doing indie games
Top suggestion for aspiring indies... Just start on a game, get it out there Uses AGS (Adventure Game Studio) to make adventure games...
Special Thanks to PlayFirst for setting up this interview and a few other upcoming interviews...they provided excellent developers and allowed them to share some really useful information...
Show Notes: Founder of Kat Games (www.katgames.com) and developer of Dream Chronicles 1 & 2
Made an adventure game in the casual games genre
Played adventure games in the 90s...those were more challenging.
Had to find a way to make a new adventure game that is simple enough for the casual gaming audience
Went through PlayFirst
Before they pitched the game, had a prototype done in Director
Challenge was how to make an adventure game that was easy to start and fun enough to keep people playing.
People compare hidden objects with adventure games.
Design Suggestions: Make sure there is little text Make sure there is eye and ear candy Have an uplifting experience from the first click
Had extensive play testing when developing the game
Avoided text by making every level self contained
Had to make sure the story elements were split properly to appeal to Casual Game audience...
Playfirst helped them get solid Audio
The studio is based in Spain...and PlayFirst is in San Francisco...so some challenges in working with PlayFirst.
How PlayFirst helped the game: a) Offered Professional Usability Testing
Did user testing through game
Benefits of going through a publisher vs. self-publishing... Did self-publish previous games. But this case, the project was more expensive, so risk was higher.
Hopes that current adventure games will expand the adventure game market for casual game players
Feels adventure games are more gratifying than hidden object games. With adventure games, there is more of a hook.
Show Notes: Simple Flash RPG...won Best Browser Game award Star Control 2 Paper Prototyping First tested out paper prototypes on self Casual RPG Try to be able to level up in 10-15 minutes Idea is to have players have quick success and quick action If you die, that's ok...equipment is still persistent
Did some rough prototypes in Flash Worked on converting in-browser game...into .exe version
Current goal is to finish up Iron Dukes and get out to market...
Looking to do online and multiplayer capabilities of flash
Advice for other indies... Start small Smaller design is much more effective Start small and continually expand from there Can give players something loose and allow folks to create their own story :)
Show Notes: Based on the Fairy Tale of Little Red Riding Hood... But altered and a little darker.
Have an MMO called the "Endless Forest"
This is a "Short Horror Game"
Making a rich environment and dropping the player inside it...and not force-feeding the story
First two games made were very light.
No games out there to satisfy emotions they wanted...so they made this game to fulfill desire to see games that cover emotions not yet expressed in other games.
Big challenges to game....decide on what to do and what to outsource to others.
Looking for folks that they don't have to manage.
IGF useful for play testing a game
Things they will change baed on feedback at IGF... Find better ways to communicate thing without text
Next Steps: Improve the game
About to release another game. A small experimental game...called "The Graveyard"
Nuances of these types of games... It isn't a casual game, but do value casual gameplay Casual Gameplay with Mature Content Have fun ways to convey gruesome things without violence It's more about a psychological story that is in your head...so play with interactivity to inspire the player's imagination
It's important that a work of art is about the player...so leave things open enough to interpret things for their own lives.
Wants to take interactivity to enhance that
Suggestions for indies... 1) Make what you want to make 2) Make what's inside you 3) A game is a conversation...try things out
Show Notes: Fez is a multi-dimensional platformer... IGF Finalist
Won award for "Excellence in Visual Art"
Visual Arts inspired by Spirited Away
The top challenges while developing the game... a) Optimization issues...ways to optimization of pixel rendering b) Getting it done even while doing the project on the side
Expect to release the final version within a year.
Suggestions for indie game developers out there... a) Make it...find the right people and get it done b) Show it to as many people as you can, listen to them and act accordingly :)
Show Notes: 0:00 - 5:00 Josh from Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab An experimental gameplay lab Focuses on interesting games that couldn't exist in the market yet Created a Facebook game Has a resource management game Having an ant colony and resource management Did a paper prototyping
Design Process principles is... "Fail Early, Fail Often"
Started with paper prototyping early on.
Wrestled with whether should have public or private information.
Tested people in the lab, classmates, etc.
Do a search for "Eat Wars"
5:00 - 10:00 Issues with designing for Facebook... There are people with varying levels of commitment Have to design for people and their friends
Need to design for multiple play styles
Have room now for players that are more aggressive and cooperative
Looking for ways for players to be more social
Get more points for convincing players to bring friends in
Accomodating people's natural habits on Facebook
In the future... May work on other game platforms Looking into Flickr Games Opportunities for different types of games is very exciting
Sychronous vs. Asychronous gaming... Need to have a balance between letting folks advance and letting people grief their friends at 3 AM in the morning
Systems where you can plan ahead and moves at one time and it acts that way later on in the game
10:00 - 11:30 Favorite Game on Facebook... Scrabulous Parking Wars
Show Notes: 0:00 - 5:00 Joe Lieberman VGSmart Guy Does marketing for arcadetown.com
Oppotunities for indies... always need to find the new thing and getting to the new thing first
Indies have been pushed out of the match-3, Diner Dash, games, etc....
So find new markets for competition
Suggestions for where indies can compete... Lots of genres and old games that can be rethoughts and reskinned... Like bringing a casual adventure game onto the market Bringing casual sim games and casual RPG games Make something new and original that has already been done
Indie MMO opportunities... feel it is viable to make an indie MMO
But odds are that indies will do it wrong
Not going to compete with World of Warcraft
You can make money as an Indie MMO...as long as you don't try to compete with those guys...
Ways to do Indie Marketing... 1) Grass Roots 2) Blogs 3) Can still get into magazines and newstands
Here's a quick interview that happened at GDC 2008...
Justin, from GameLayers and the founder of the Passively Multiplayer Online Game (www.pmog.com) talks about developing and designing the unique game...
Show Notes: 0:00 - 5:00 Two developers from the Ego City mobile game an IGF Mobile finalist
Started into mobile games at the beginning of the industry in North America
Challenges for the initial mobile games...was developing for handsets with very limited capabilities
Also, did not realize how difficult it would be to port games to mobile...and making them work across many handsets
Did a multi-player title with Box Sports Racing...did this a few years ago...and realized how hard it was to do multi-player in mobile. Gave a reality check
The main challenge was to figure out how to get networking to work across different handsets...because networking worked differently on different handsets
Also, was hard to network across different carrier networks
After that first multi-player games several years ago, came to conclusion to focus on more single player games...did feel that community games would be the future, but would immediately work on single player games...
There are a lot of large business challenges in the space...the marketing and sales channel is very challenging to overcome...because carriers control distribution Carriers are more into taking already-successful brands and bet on them...they do not want to risk effort on new titles, etc.
5:00 - 10:00 Tried to do another multiplayer game before ego city...did something that worked with bluetooth...but by the time got to market....bluetooth devices needed to make the game work were not available...
Design goals for Ego City was to leverage the mobile space...and focus on the strengths of mobile...mobility and connectivity So the goal was to focus on a community game
Question was... How do you create a social game in mobile space that allows people to social/connect with each other? So developed a system so that when communicated or interacted with other people in the game...would create a change on your ego as well as theirs
Asynchronous gaming vs. synchronous gaming and how it relates to Ego City design...focus on PASSIVE multi-player design. So when you are off-line, your ego can interact with others...the AI your ego gets is based on the stuff you did in game earlier.
10:00 - 15:00 Changes to the initial design of Ego City Development process was challenging because of hardware issues But also found that could put in more customization after initial design Pleased with that Was able to add different features like chatting, blogging, and social aspects End result was way more ambitious than initially started
User testing for Ego City... most important thing is to make sure game is really fun Target demographic was teens on up The biggest change as a result of play testing was... trying to match a social site like Facebook with the mobile experience
Initial idea was to make something that would complement a social networking site But in the end, developing something that was its own social site
Other thing realized was that people wanted to do a lot more things with their avatars
15:00 - 20:00 Empowered avatars to do a lot of interaction with others...like debate with each other, flirt with each other, fight with each other, hug with each other, etc. There is a lot of interactivity between avatars
Borrowing and learning from mobile games in Japan and Asia They do wish North America had the handset capabilities of phones in Japan and Asia could do a lot more stuff with the game
Inspired mainly by Nintendo and most of their games
Games with micro-transactions...inspiring future features for the game
Through actions, can change personality and unlock rewards based on gameplay instead of just buying features
How flirting and fighting works in the game... Can create interaction by doing something
Can always trigger competitions by giving folks gifts ... like if give flowers, triggers a flirt competition.
The website will complement the mobile experience. The flirt and fight club will happen on the website and augment mobility.
Ego avatar helps to express identity and visuals convey what to expect the person
20:00 - 25:00 How does the website relate to the game itself? Helps to extend the initial experience
Is Ego City in the same design space as Facebook ... or is it a different design space? Not interested in building a competing social network like Facebook. It's about gaming...and built a community around that. Wanted to integrate Ego City into current social networks...released a Facebook app to promote Ego city
May eventually allow egos to interact with other Egos on Facebook
Gaia Online released something on Facebook...and it took off. Is the goal to extend Ego City into Facebook and to get folks to join Ego City Yeah, goal is to promote the Ego City...and at the same time, the goal is to allow folks that have egos they are working on... and carry it into other parts of their digital world (like Facebook or other places they hang).
Each platform offers advantages... Mobile allows for quick messaging
Websites have different experience...sitting down and spending more time. So can have a longer game experience
With Facebook, with "Ego Mail" app...a great way to take your ego and share it with friends.
25:00 - 30:00 Are there any nuances and differences to developing a mobile community vs. a web community? A lot of these questions are unanswered...cuz pioneering the space. The main focus is on support once the folks buy the game.
Have a set up where other folks can interact with your ego even when you are off-line...so folks can interact with your ego...and you make friends while you are off-line
Is this a whole new design space ... for mobile vs. developing for the web? It is a little different because your ego can interact with other folks...even though you are off-line. So it was developing an AI personality that allows your ego to interact with others properly when you are offline...
That was the main design challenge.
Learn from game actions you take online to develop a personality ai that gets used for your ego when you are off-line
Also realized that to do a good mobile, not necessarily about graphics...it's about focusing on the FUN factor that takes advantage of mobile features
30:00 - 35:00 Another challenge for mobile is designing a game that works on many handsets
How does Google Android relate to doing mobile games? Google Android is promising...but hopes that it is more than just another platform Will have to wait and see
Where do you see the future of Ego City going? Find more things for the Egos to do That will be more clubs (Fight and Flirt Clubs)...lounges coming out related to having fun and dancing
What about building missions in the game? Is that relevant to the mobile space...or is it too real-time to work in the mobile game space? Well, it's a good time to talk about the other real-time game, Mobile Battles...where you do battle others and do have missions to unlock features. That other game does offer more opportunities for missions
Mobile experience can only offer so many maps or missions. Developed a way to make something that works with mobile and web. So you play mobile...and if liked that, then can continue the experience on the web.
Aside from these 2 games, are there any other games you're working on? There are other games getting done, but these 2 are the main ones we can talk about
35:00 - 40:00 Where do you see the future of mobile game development going? Seeing ports of console games where core experience ported to mobile experience There are 1 or 2 experiences....that are everlasting... You want to be powerful you want to have a social circle, friends
Future of innovation in mobile...is taking those core experiences...and figure out how to make it work in the mobile space Finding that core experience *and delivering it in a new way that is unique to mobile*
Business model challenges for mobile games... cannot offer stuff for free because of carriers
40:00 - 45:00 Their favorite mobile games... Games from Gameloft like Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell that took core experience and ported it to mobile
What are your last suggestions for indie game developers looking to get into mobile... a) There are porting challenges to overcome b) Need to think about ways to get marketing and distribution; hopefully carriers will be more open to innovative titles in the future
