Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
China's Social Gaming Landscape: What's Coming Next
" In 2009, China's online gaming industry earned nearly $4 billion, growing 39.5% from 2008".
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/china_social_gaming_landscape_whats_coming_next.php
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/china_social_gaming_landscape_whats_coming_next.php
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
GDC 2010: Communication scaling – how to keep people talking to each other
View powerpoint presentation: http://www.gdcvault.com/free/category/
This talk was an overview of rapid team growth from a producer's perspective. Gave example of organizing bigger teams over various projects. Used Fear 2 project as the example project. Overnight, it went from a team of 22 to a team of about 60.
Having middle producers in a large team "can create a bad Chinese whispers-style communication line".
Core rule set for effective communication
· Know your subject
· Being efficient
Example of team; "Fear 2"
- identify features (audience ambience, weaponry etc)
- identify strike teams (and each strike team lead)
What did they learn?
This talk was an overview of rapid team growth from a producer's perspective. Gave example of organizing bigger teams over various projects. Used Fear 2 project as the example project. Overnight, it went from a team of 22 to a team of about 60.
Having middle producers in a large team "can create a bad Chinese whispers-style communication line".
Core rule set for effective communication
· Know your subject
o Don’t bullshit
o Facilitate the people who know the subject to communicate with each other
· Trusto No trust, no listening, break down in communication
o Build trust by being honest. Even the painful stuff.
o Be as transparent as possible. News filters very quickly – let people understand how you got from point A to point B.
o Treating everyone with respect.
o Follow up – make sure if you task someone to do something, that it’s followed up.
· Consistency o Getting communicators on the same page.
o Be consistent with communication and be on message.
o If there are disagreements make sure you come to consensus and then run with that.
o When there is huge dissent make sure you talk through it and come through to some sort of understanding.
o Inconsistency is one of the easiest ways to break trust.
· Up & Down communicationo You need people in the trenches moving forward at all times, so you need to make sure they are in the information loop.
o You need upper management in the loop so they don’t keep messing with you at the last minute.
- Forgetting to effectively communicate upwards is the #1 issue many producers screw up.-
- A friend described working with upper management as trying to "Avoid the Eye of Sauran" In other words this guy’s management group wasn’t effectively managing upwards.
· Core RulesAdapt – as a producer you are dealing with lots of different types of people. For example. People who don’t open emails – if you know he doesn’t have email open you need to find another way to adapt and communicate to the people you have.
o Get to the point as quickly as possible
o Summarize at the start when presenting or in meetings, move on to the meat later.
- This is important when managing down since you don’t want to waste the time of the doers in your team.
- Equally important is communicating upwards, as the amount of data grows hierarchically when moving up the ladder. Sumarize!
· Full team involvemento Make sure your team know why descisions are being made
o Include many people in the descision process where possible.
- Doesn’t mean giant meetings.
· Targets?o Identify core communicators in your team.
- These are the conduits for communication to flow up and down. Use this to your advantage. People who have trust with team.
o Communication must start and end with the people who are getting the work done. These are the ones you really need to ensure are being communicated with.
· Classifying Communicationo Active vs passive (push) communication.
- Active is when the user is pulling data and getting data for themselves.
- Push is when data is getting sent to you (eg. IM, email). Push becomes noise super fast (eg.email)
· Types of Communicationo Face to face
o Larger meetings
- Ensure they are goal oriented
- Send out agenda first
- Keep them short. Anything over an hour is painful!
- http://tobytripp.github.com/meeting-ticker/
- Must ensure there is FOLLOW UP
o IM
- All external IM clients are not secure.
- This speaker uses ‘spark’ – internal IM client.
o Prioritized hit lists
- This project created a bunch of strike teams – figure out what you need to do for that day or week and will post it to the wiki. So everyone at a glance can see what everyone across the department is working on.
o Game play throughs
- Goal oriented
- Send out agenda first
· What are we playing?
· What are we evaluating?
· What type of feedback is required?
· keep them as short as possible.
· Documentation o Everything they do is on their Wiki. Great way to communicate to those outside the strike teams.
o They use ‘CONFLUENCE’ which works well with JIRA
- Forums
- Push notification
- Can embed and edit excel and word documents.
· Status updates (weekly)o It can be really long, but keep simple and break it down. Mostly combine all related updates from teams.
* Executive summary
· Key personnel
· Key dates
· Upcoming dates
* Updates
· Main things changed from past week
* Issues and risks
* Key Dates
· Milestones etc.
* Discipline updates
· Updates divided by physical groups
* Strike team updates
* Fully fleshed out risk list
· Go into much further depth for risks
* Deliverables
Example of team; "Fear 2"
- identify features (audience ambience, weaponry etc)
- identify strike teams (and each strike team lead)
o strike teams take full ownership of feature
o smaller more manageable teams
o decisions were not bottle necked with a few key individuals
o not everyone created equal – there was an approval process.
- Main push o 4 level strike teams
o floating content strike team to supported other teams. Acted as consultants.
o Also acted as ‘contractors’.
o A good mix of junior and senior folks. Had to be self sufficient and self motivated. One person who knows the technology and also understand how the team works.
o Approvals process
* Play throughs of level at predetermined intervals or when the team asked him.
* One on ones with principal designers if issues popped up
* Each week a level was singled out for the team to play.
· There is no stronger motivation than peer disappointment! (peer accountability)
· Empower people to push their peers into a better place
· Anything that could be broken down into functional group we broke it down
o Weapons
o Characters
o UI
o Core Combat etc.
· Had owners called Strike Team leads
o Had a face to face each morning with each other to triage bugs and issues across all of the strike teams.
o Figured out who was finished and what was needed.
· End Game
o Still level based
o Polish team
o Performance
o Memory certification
o End of game had DAILY PLAY THROUGHS from 4-5
What did they learn?
· Empowerment!
o Give people tools and support they need to make cool shit.
o Identify core individuals as shit filters and course correctors.
· Identify and rely on key individuals
o Trusted by rest of team
o Small leadership roles
o “Pony express”
· Trenches-style camaraderie and ownership = high moral on a project that could have been painful.
GDC 2010: Bootstrapping Games on Android
Chris Pruett – Developer Advocate Google Japan Overview of Android * Linux based OS * First released Oct 2008 * Today 26 devices in the world * 60,000 sold daily * Android Market re: apps market for compatible devices Tech Specs * Open GL * Java shell also C++ or Java (custom VM which is called Dalvik) * Resolution is HVGA 380x320 * Media has various formats such as AAC, AMR, MP3 etc. Also H.263 format. Device Classes * How to make work on all devices? Devices break out to two or three classes – first generation, second generation and other (gaming device) As game developers, speaker recommends to concentrate on first and second generation devices. * Most First Gen devices are pretty much the same hardware. This first gen is about 78% of the market currently. Android 1.5 and 1.6s Second gen devices cover around 21% of market currently, and is Android 2.1. The first device was shipped in December 2009. Screen Size QVGA – WVGA API provides tools such as runtime scaling, resource filtering. In worst-case scenario they suggest you can letterbox for compatibility. You can also choose which markets you don’t want to include, though they don’t specify compatibility filtering options. Real Device Differences * Some have trackball, D-Pad, keyboard, milti touch – but there is a standardized API for input events. Everything is a motion event or key event. * All devices have a touch screen, accelerometer and orientation sensor. * OpenGL Driver – different platforms support different OpenGL so need to check that out. Real Device Differences - OS Android OS version - 1.5 has all basic functionality - 1.6 screen size support - 2.0 has OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Simple 2D games might not need Open GL. Recommend to make sure you build for 1.5+ (1.5 and 1.6 have most devices in market). Minimum spec 1.5 and target spec 1.6 Market Filtering * Look up AndroidManifest.xml. You can filter OS / version easily in this apps market. * You can also filter by country. Localization * Devices – you can program a game to auto detect localized version dependant on what language the user has set device to. You can do this for other things like, does this device have a keyboard ? Size Limit * Currently the size limit for Android is 25 megs or less. If it’s more you need to break up into different content packs. Or on first start up download materials off the web and on to SD card. They’re working on the size limit but for now this is it. Sound tools * MediaPlayer – plays everything as it streams * SoundPool – pool of short samples * JetPlayer – tool for syncing an event track to music eg. Rhythm games. * Best results with Ogg Vorbis – best compression to quality ratio. * Java-only interface Links developer.android.com code.google.com/p/apps-for-android replicaisland.net (test game build by speaker) |
GDC 2010: SERIOUS GAMES GO MOBILE (some use case examples)
Game example “LIT” – how to harness mobile technology for smoking reduction?
44.5 million smokers in US (20% of population)
40% of this population want to quit. Last year 17.8 million tried to quit.
How does mobile technology support this? Convergence of existing therapy and new technology. Their example is designed around breath therapy, with a breath interface that substitutes for smoking. This was clinically proven as an effective intervention for smoking.
You train people to breath in patterns that simulates the effects of smoking. If you have urge to smoke, you can smoke to get sensation you are speaking, (perceived rush or perceived sedative effect).
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Accessibility –> cheap or free –> self administered
Lower barriers –> easy to use –> software adaptive
Context-sensitive –> ubiquitous –> Smart phone goes everywhere with you
Motivation –> playful –> is a game
Two modes of the game – Rush Mode and Relax mode. (first replicates the rush, second replicates sedative)
* Rush – space pilot, breath of fire. Must hyperventilate into it.
* Relax – breath slowly and deeply, goal to life a spark from ground and blow it up into the sky.
Multi-touch capability enables haptic input. Gives sense of engagement.
* Rush – selection of objects.
Accelerometer
* Rush – fast paced motion
* Relax – slow paced motion
Graphics and Audio
High quality as smart phones can provide.
* Rush – warm colors, fast tempo
* Relax – cool colors, slow tempo
TEST CASES
After playing the game, does the player have a similar effect to smoking? They are looking at the physiological responses, heart rate, skin conductance
GDC 2010: Producer Boot Camp
Notes taken from Games Dev conference session with Rod Fergusson
About ROD FERGUSSON – worked with Microsoft for 10 years, produced Microsoft training simulator (1 million in sales), Xbox games, most recently with Epic doing Gears of War for Xbox and PC
What is the definition of ‘Producer’ ?
- Trip Hawkins established the title when he founded EA in 1982
o Compared Producer as a meteorologist – aka paid to predict the future.
o Risk assessment, risk management.
o Barometer indicator of future state.
o Thermometer indicator of current state
o Producers sometimes don’t understand changes are based on where oyu are in the project.
o Preproduction establishes risks, allows you to add remove resources. (Covered the basic 101 iron triangle of scope, schedule and resources).
o It’s not all about the schedule. Schedule can sometimes slip months in a single day.
o If you have 12000 bugs in database, and you think you are on schedule, you are on crack. You are not on schedule!
In any schedule Rod creates, he pads a week within each milestone to sit back and identify issues and future risks.
Need to avoid the LA story effect (pre-recording the weather) – don’t lose site on the bigger issues such as the quality of your project.
Probability of Precipitation!
• Confidence that precipitation will occur and the percent of the area that will receive it.
• Use the past to try and predict the future.
• Evidence-based scheduling. Looking at the time it takes from start to end, account for all the distractions (meetings, sick days) and treat it as part of the task. After this they come back to a confidence factor. Eg. There is an 80% chance we’ll make our date.
Long Range Forecast
• Current state of the art for weather is 10 days. What about producer? For Producers it is 9-12 months.
• Longer the duration of a project, greater the uncertainty. That is why we use milestones to chunk it up into safer project achievements (eg 4-6 weeks).
• Buffer the heck out of the dates! Compared it to asking a weather man what the weather would be in 3 months time. He is adding padding to give room for error. Longer the duration of schedule you need to add buffer. Allow for variables.
Cut Early, Cut Often.
• Due to unknowns, teams tend to underestimate effort.
• Every feature takes polish time away from other features.
• If a game has a thousand features you have to concentrate on too many. If you reduce your feature set, you actually have time to concentrate on more features.
• Avoid sunk cost fallacy by looking at opportunity cost. Don’t get caught up in what it cost or how long something took to create, what is the cost of it in the future? Don’t keep a feature hanging on just because it was expensive or time intensive. It costs you in the future and across all the other features.
Fixed Ship Date Mindset
• Whole team must agree that this is an achievable date. Then hold it as unchangeable and fixed.
• It provides an END DATE for the team.
• This provides a clear goal, they knew it was going to end.
• This forces prioritization and creativity.
• The belief that the ship date is both realistic and unchangeable.
• Date can change but MUST be justified.
• Date not actually fixed until very confident.
Lead From the Front
• To be a leader means to be involved all the time and lead by example.
• When you first come to a project it is important how people perceive you.
• Some producers can be schedule nazis, too involved with red tape, but not actually helping the team.
• Your role is to do whatever is required of you to make sure the job gets done.
• Your job is to ensure the team can ship a game. A producer's job is NOT about overseeing a schedule.
• Never ask anyone to do something that you are unwilling to do. Eg. Don’t ask someone to work weekends if you aren't willing to be there on the weekend yourself.
• There is a difference between responsibility and authority. Lead with a carrot not a stick.
• Build respect and trust by adding value. Managing spreadsheets, helps you but not the team. This perceived value from the team is different. What can you do for a team that can add value to their job?
• Moral support counts. Simple as being there, getting them a coffee, ensuring they get sleep!
• Eg. Rod's policy they must spend at least 8 hours out of the office. Personally kick them out of office!
• There’s nothing too small you can do for your fellow team member.
Facilitate Communication
• Don’t facilitate meetings just for your needs, you must judge if it is valuable for others too – perhaps their time is better spent working than meeting.
• Get a base knowledge of other disciplines. Understand what they do.
• Listen more than you talk. Adapt to your team’s skillset, needs, what is going on in the team.
• How is this project needed to be run?
• Represent clearly what you know and what you don’t. Don’t be shy to say if you don’t know something. Helps you learn! Don’t pretend to be something you are not.
• Communication can be as simple as walking from desk to desk. Don’t assume your team are talking to each other! It’s not all about moderating large meetings, it's about facilitating communication.
• Adapt communication style accordingly. Not everyone communicates the same way. For example some people are fine in larger meetings, but others do better with one on one chat and analysis. Some people need information pulled out of them, others need to be corralled!
• “Straw Man FTW” – an attempt to pull information together with as much info as I have to distribute to other people
• Eg. Brainstorming – have base knowledge with conversations I have already had and then type up a proposal. Suggest the content. Email or propose to group then get them to discuss. At the same time they can comment and critique and you can learn.
Manage Expectations Along the Way
• Set clear expectations – difference between what you deliver and what you expect to be delivered.
• Don’t promise ten features when you actually deliver two.
• Eg. Don’t cut out 8 at once, manage expectations by cutting 2 at a time, so by the time the project is delivered people expect only two features. (aka keep people in the loop!)
• Constant two-way communication. Empowers the team to help make decisions.
• Choose milestone ‘spirit’ over ‘letter’. The whole reason for a milestone is to achieve a top level goal. By meeting the letter, it means you are paying it later and not now.
• Don’t exaggerate, stick to the facts. Exaggeration is the crying wolf syndrome. Focus on the facts and present those.
• Don’t overact. Always look for the compromise. Don’t be a chicken little!
Maintain Your Perspective
• One of your unique strengths is your ability to see the big picture.
• Don’t get passionate or flip out. You are the moderator, and your job is to resolve conflicts.
• Microsoft project and excel are your friends – they are your reality check.
Q&A's after presentation:
Question: Difference between technical project manager and producer?
A: One involved in creative, one involved in process. He says sometimes when you combine into one role only one of these perspectives will win. Epic only has one producer though.
Q: Ever looked at using Scrum?
A: Yes they can add sets to process. He bought a hybrid waterfall model.
Q: As an EP what’s your role in creative side? Are you moderating creativity or making game design decisions?
A: Epic is unique – recent game was created by a design committee – it’s about key stakeholders, and he is one of them currently. It comes down to trust and respect. You can’t assume you have that responsibility.
Q: Difficulties of upper management and producer?
A: He hasn’t – he likes staying hands on, not just watching other producers make games. Best way to form a bond with your team is to be in the trenches with your team.
About ROD FERGUSSON – worked with Microsoft for 10 years, produced Microsoft training simulator (1 million in sales), Xbox games, most recently with Epic doing Gears of War for Xbox and PC
Martin Luther King Junior: “a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus”
What is the definition of ‘Producer’ ?
- Trip Hawkins established the title when he founded EA in 1982
o Compared Producer as a meteorologist – aka paid to predict the future.
o Risk assessment, risk management.
o Barometer indicator of future state.
o Thermometer indicator of current state
o Producers sometimes don’t understand changes are based on where oyu are in the project.
o Preproduction establishes risks, allows you to add remove resources. (Covered the basic 101 iron triangle of scope, schedule and resources).
o It’s not all about the schedule. Schedule can sometimes slip months in a single day.
o If you have 12000 bugs in database, and you think you are on schedule, you are on crack. You are not on schedule!
In any schedule Rod creates, he pads a week within each milestone to sit back and identify issues and future risks.
Need to avoid the LA story effect (pre-recording the weather) – don’t lose site on the bigger issues such as the quality of your project.
Probability of Precipitation!
• Confidence that precipitation will occur and the percent of the area that will receive it.
• Use the past to try and predict the future.
• Evidence-based scheduling. Looking at the time it takes from start to end, account for all the distractions (meetings, sick days) and treat it as part of the task. After this they come back to a confidence factor. Eg. There is an 80% chance we’ll make our date.
Long Range Forecast
• Current state of the art for weather is 10 days. What about producer? For Producers it is 9-12 months.
• Longer the duration of a project, greater the uncertainty. That is why we use milestones to chunk it up into safer project achievements (eg 4-6 weeks).
• Buffer the heck out of the dates! Compared it to asking a weather man what the weather would be in 3 months time. He is adding padding to give room for error. Longer the duration of schedule you need to add buffer. Allow for variables.
Cut Early, Cut Often.
• Due to unknowns, teams tend to underestimate effort.
• Every feature takes polish time away from other features.
• If a game has a thousand features you have to concentrate on too many. If you reduce your feature set, you actually have time to concentrate on more features.
• Avoid sunk cost fallacy by looking at opportunity cost. Don’t get caught up in what it cost or how long something took to create, what is the cost of it in the future? Don’t keep a feature hanging on just because it was expensive or time intensive. It costs you in the future and across all the other features.
Fixed Ship Date Mindset
• Whole team must agree that this is an achievable date. Then hold it as unchangeable and fixed.
• It provides an END DATE for the team.
• This provides a clear goal, they knew it was going to end.
• This forces prioritization and creativity.
• The belief that the ship date is both realistic and unchangeable.
• Date can change but MUST be justified.
• Date not actually fixed until very confident.
Lead From the Front
• To be a leader means to be involved all the time and lead by example.
• When you first come to a project it is important how people perceive you.
• Some producers can be schedule nazis, too involved with red tape, but not actually helping the team.
• Your role is to do whatever is required of you to make sure the job gets done.
• Your job is to ensure the team can ship a game. A producer's job is NOT about overseeing a schedule.
• Never ask anyone to do something that you are unwilling to do. Eg. Don’t ask someone to work weekends if you aren't willing to be there on the weekend yourself.
• There is a difference between responsibility and authority. Lead with a carrot not a stick.
• Build respect and trust by adding value. Managing spreadsheets, helps you but not the team. This perceived value from the team is different. What can you do for a team that can add value to their job?
• Moral support counts. Simple as being there, getting them a coffee, ensuring they get sleep!
• Eg. Rod's policy they must spend at least 8 hours out of the office. Personally kick them out of office!
• There’s nothing too small you can do for your fellow team member.
Facilitate Communication
• Don’t facilitate meetings just for your needs, you must judge if it is valuable for others too – perhaps their time is better spent working than meeting.
• Get a base knowledge of other disciplines. Understand what they do.
• Listen more than you talk. Adapt to your team’s skillset, needs, what is going on in the team.
• How is this project needed to be run?
• Represent clearly what you know and what you don’t. Don’t be shy to say if you don’t know something. Helps you learn! Don’t pretend to be something you are not.
• Communication can be as simple as walking from desk to desk. Don’t assume your team are talking to each other! It’s not all about moderating large meetings, it's about facilitating communication.
• Adapt communication style accordingly. Not everyone communicates the same way. For example some people are fine in larger meetings, but others do better with one on one chat and analysis. Some people need information pulled out of them, others need to be corralled!
• “Straw Man FTW” – an attempt to pull information together with as much info as I have to distribute to other people
• Eg. Brainstorming – have base knowledge with conversations I have already had and then type up a proposal. Suggest the content. Email or propose to group then get them to discuss. At the same time they can comment and critique and you can learn.
Manage Expectations Along the Way
• Set clear expectations – difference between what you deliver and what you expect to be delivered.
• Don’t promise ten features when you actually deliver two.
• Eg. Don’t cut out 8 at once, manage expectations by cutting 2 at a time, so by the time the project is delivered people expect only two features. (aka keep people in the loop!)
• Constant two-way communication. Empowers the team to help make decisions.
• Choose milestone ‘spirit’ over ‘letter’. The whole reason for a milestone is to achieve a top level goal. By meeting the letter, it means you are paying it later and not now.
• Don’t exaggerate, stick to the facts. Exaggeration is the crying wolf syndrome. Focus on the facts and present those.
• Don’t overact. Always look for the compromise. Don’t be a chicken little!
Maintain Your Perspective
• One of your unique strengths is your ability to see the big picture.
• Don’t get passionate or flip out. You are the moderator, and your job is to resolve conflicts.
• Microsoft project and excel are your friends – they are your reality check.
Suggested read: “Dynamics of Software Development” by Jim McCarthy
Q&A's after presentation:
Question: Difference between technical project manager and producer?
A: One involved in creative, one involved in process. He says sometimes when you combine into one role only one of these perspectives will win. Epic only has one producer though.
Q: Ever looked at using Scrum?
A: Yes they can add sets to process. He bought a hybrid waterfall model.
Q: As an EP what’s your role in creative side? Are you moderating creativity or making game design decisions?
A: Epic is unique – recent game was created by a design committee – it’s about key stakeholders, and he is one of them currently. It comes down to trust and respect. You can’t assume you have that responsibility.
Q: Difficulties of upper management and producer?
A: He hasn’t – he likes staying hands on, not just watching other producers make games. Best way to form a bond with your team is to be in the trenches with your team.
GDC 2010 - How Friends Change Everything - Facebook Connect
Gareth Davis, Platform Manager, Facebook
Related articles:"GDC: Facebook hasn’t found its Mario"
"GDC: Facebook claims 'revolution' in game design"
Overview
* Gave overview of desktop games with Facebook connect – social desktop game experiences such as Diner dash 5 Boom. Boosts in-game capabilities by posting games to wall
Related articles:"GDC: Facebook hasn’t found its Mario"
"GDC: Facebook claims 'revolution' in game design"
Overview
* Gave overview of desktop games with Facebook connect – social desktop game experiences such as Diner dash 5 Boom. Boosts in-game capabilities by posting games to wall
* Facebook connect for iphone – thousands of games use it to make their games more social. We're also starting to see some social gaming experiences on the iphone app.
* Beginning to implement location and augmented reality into games.
* Facebook is currently the number 1 repository of photography in the world.
Consoles
Working with console makers to integrate Connect – such as DSi.
Working with Xbox to intergrate Xbox with facebook – a specialized application – update status from living room, view photos from your TV, and find new friends to play with on your xbox – can bring more friends into the gaming experience.
Working with Sony on PlayStation 3. Can share out trophies. Also any console game on pS3 publish info on facebook. Eg Buzz! Quiz World – when you win you can share out score with friends.
Multi Device Platform
Facebook is a ‘multi device platform’ – players can play with their friends no matter the device they are using. You can play with a person who is on a computer, while you are on a mobile, while another friends is on a console.
Multi-platform Social Gaming
Game designers will also tailor the game to your device – eg. If you are on a mobile device you can use localization devices, but if a friend is playing with you from a computer, they play a strategic element. What you do in your own aspects of the game helps your team progress forward – they call it multi platform social gaming.
Next Generation
* New mainstream mass market audience. Will see games with more than a 100 million people playing your game.
* Discovering the language of social gameing as we speak. Seeing games leveraging real identity and real friends. But he feels the iconic facebook game is not yet existing, and is just around the corner.
* Facebook is powering the next generation of social gaming – many facets are coming together at the same time, with friends being at the center of all things.
Questions from audience
Q: what about posting game SPAM (force publish?)
Answer – publish stories only at high emotional points. Facebook have recently restricted low quality forced prompts from games. Eg. Farmville. Encourage everyone to focus on highest quality stories at key points of the game.
Question – a lot of game players like to play games with Fantasy identities, how does new identity play into this?
Answer – people want to play with fantasy and some want to play with real. He thinks we can have both. For any player, the real thing is who is the real player underneath. At the core, everyone has real identity. From day 1 Facebook has always been about privacy and controlling what you share with people.
Q: Submission process?
There is no submission process. They consider themselves an open platform – can be available to anybody.
IN terms of how to know if mature content is ok, they have certain policies that they try to make clear – can’t promote liquor to underage kids etc. Also have enforcement team that does go through all games and apps, in particular if users report issues.
In terms of understanding your exact game, advice is do your best to interpret policies as possible, if facebook sees anything they’ll contact that developer.
GDC 2010: The State of Social Gaming
Justin Smith, Editor, Inside Network
View slideshow here
Social Gaming Market:
2009: $490 million
2010: $835 million
Most companies thinking of themselves of globalized, using advanced localization.
Virtual goods market much more successful in the East. Many are moving over to Facebook and social gaming sstructure.
2008: $ 5 billion
2009: $ 8 billion
Three big players in US:
1. Zynga, 700-900 employees, a few 100m in revenue, growth 50-70%. 3x more DAU than #2.
2. Playfish, 250+ employees, 75m in revenue, purchased by EA in 11/09
3. Playdom, 300+ employees, 50m in revenue, #1 on MySpace
Current App Leaderboard
View full leaderboard
* Farmville
* Birthday Cards
* Café World
* iHeart
others include Fishville, Pet Society, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Restaurant City.
Others companies with quick growth:
* CrowdStar
* RockYou (content distribution, distributing widgets, large ad network)
* Slide (went from advertising and media to a business model)
Loads of interest from overseas, particularly China
Facebook is blocking China right now, but they are able to develop for other asian and western markets such as:
* Rekoo Animal Paradise, Sunshine Ranch.
* Elex – Happy Harvest
* Five Minutes – Happy Farm
* Wooga – Brain Buddies
* 6waves – Adopting a publisher model.
The developer Opportunity and the Social Graph
FACEBOOK
* Facebook continues to grow – is the first truly global social network
* 400 million users and counting, 70% are outside USA. Europe has almost as many users as USA, there is a growth rate of 10% or more.
* Most Facebook users are over 25
* Rapidly evolving platform, with new rules every 6 months.
* Facebook Connect is bringing facebook to every website and device. Referring to this concept as the ‘Social Graph’.
* Facebook Credits are coming soon.
Challenges
* Developers are spamming users too much – need to think their methods of customer acquisition and engagement.
MYSPACE
* Whilst declining, it is #2 social gaming platform. Still has a very good monetary model.
OTHER GLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORKS
Hi5
Orkut
Friendster
Qzone
Bebo
VZ networks
Maktoob
TWITTER
* Justin doesn’t think twitter become a social gaming platform. Though there are some interesting RPG that have come and gone.
RISE OF VIRTUAL GOODS IN THE WEST
* Started to really happen now – now it’s the major revenue model for western social game developers.
* There are a variety of direct payment methods
* Offers still portion of purchases, but this is declining.
* Went from $300 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2010 (projected)
A RUSH OF COMPETITORS
* It’s a good way to make money off IP online. Seeing new startups and viral thinkers but also seeing huge media companies get into the market. Many are interested in building or buying social games developers or games. They believe they can bring a lot to the table with the brands that people are familiar with. They believe that this gives them a competitive advantage.
* In general we have not seen a lot of casual games succeed on Facebook, they don’t have good monetization principles.
PAYMENTS
* PayPal still dominant
* Mobile is increasingly important. Asia has a commanding lead, with Europe behind. USA is just getting started.
* Other methods include pre-paid cards which are growing with platforms like Zynga PlayFish PayDom. This is arriving to the US retail market Q4 2009.
THE THE BIG ONES TO TAKE NOTICE OF :
* Zynga
* Facebook Credits
View slideshow here
Social Gaming Market:
2009: $490 million
2010: $835 million
Most companies thinking of themselves of globalized, using advanced localization.
Virtual goods market much more successful in the East. Many are moving over to Facebook and social gaming sstructure.
2008: $ 5 billion
2009: $ 8 billion
Three big players in US:
1. Zynga, 700-900 employees, a few 100m in revenue, growth 50-70%. 3x more DAU than #2.
2. Playfish, 250+ employees, 75m in revenue, purchased by EA in 11/09
3. Playdom, 300+ employees, 50m in revenue, #1 on MySpace
Current App Leaderboard
View full leaderboard
* Farmville
* Birthday Cards
* Café World
* iHeart
others include Fishville, Pet Society, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Restaurant City.
Others companies with quick growth:
* CrowdStar
* RockYou (content distribution, distributing widgets, large ad network)
* Slide (went from advertising and media to a business model)
Loads of interest from overseas, particularly China
Facebook is blocking China right now, but they are able to develop for other asian and western markets such as:
* Rekoo Animal Paradise, Sunshine Ranch.
* Elex – Happy Harvest
* Five Minutes – Happy Farm
* Wooga – Brain Buddies
* 6waves – Adopting a publisher model.
The developer Opportunity and the Social Graph
* Facebook continues to grow – is the first truly global social network
* 400 million users and counting, 70% are outside USA. Europe has almost as many users as USA, there is a growth rate of 10% or more.
* Most Facebook users are over 25
* Rapidly evolving platform, with new rules every 6 months.
* Facebook Connect is bringing facebook to every website and device. Referring to this concept as the ‘Social Graph’.
* Facebook Credits are coming soon.
Challenges
* Developers are spamming users too much – need to think their methods of customer acquisition and engagement.
MYSPACE
* Whilst declining, it is #2 social gaming platform. Still has a very good monetary model.
OTHER GLOBAL SOCIAL NETWORKS
Hi5
Orkut
Friendster
Qzone
Bebo
VZ networks
Maktoob
* Justin doesn’t think twitter become a social gaming platform. Though there are some interesting RPG that have come and gone.
RISE OF VIRTUAL GOODS IN THE WEST
* Started to really happen now – now it’s the major revenue model for western social game developers.
* There are a variety of direct payment methods
* Offers still portion of purchases, but this is declining.
* Went from $300 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion in 2010 (projected)
A RUSH OF COMPETITORS
* It’s a good way to make money off IP online. Seeing new startups and viral thinkers but also seeing huge media companies get into the market. Many are interested in building or buying social games developers or games. They believe they can bring a lot to the table with the brands that people are familiar with. They believe that this gives them a competitive advantage.
* In general we have not seen a lot of casual games succeed on Facebook, they don’t have good monetization principles.
PAYMENTS
* PayPal still dominant
* Mobile is increasingly important. Asia has a commanding lead, with Europe behind. USA is just getting started.
* Other methods include pre-paid cards which are growing with platforms like Zynga PlayFish PayDom. This is arriving to the US retail market Q4 2009.
THE THE BIG ONES TO TAKE NOTICE OF :
* Zynga
* Facebook Credits
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)