GDC San Francisco Report by Darko Milivojevic
From March 9th -13th 2010 I was fortunate to be able to attend GDC San Francisco. It was five days of lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts.
GDC San Francisco is the largest of the GDC conferences in the world, with an estimated 18,000 attendees, 400 lectures, and many panels, tutorials, and roundtable discussions.
As I have seen at the past two GDCs, many VCs and Developers still see Ontario, Canada as having an advantage over other countries due to our favorable tax credits, but also due to our creative work force. I talked with several VCs and a few publishers and they all showed extreme interest in reaching out to the video game community in Ontario. They want our games on their platforms, they are in need of good content.
For the purpose of this paper I will be looking at two sessions and the benefit of the information provided to companies and organizations within Ontario and Canada.
Each breakdown will be followed with a quick Summary of findings.
Session: Investing in New Game Companies: How to Get Funded Now and Bought Tomorrow
Moderator: John Welch (CEO, Making Fun)
Gus Tai (General Partner, Trinity Ventures)
Tim Chang (Principal, Norwest Venture Partners)
Mark Jung (Chairman, Epic Advertising & Songbird)
Evan Wilson (Senior Research Analyst, Pacific Crest Securities)
The panel discussion covered what is getting funding and what the development industry needs to look at to get their game noticed above the competition and establish a base of players. According to the expert panel, triple A title game funding is no longer the focus, we must look at Smartphones, and browser based games.
Furthermore the investors on the panel say that the traditional gaming industry may have seen its peak in 2008. It is now three times more expensive to develop a video game than it was in 2005, while revenue projections are not forecasted to grow as much.
The panelists say premium social gaming is the current and next focus of development and investment.
Currently many investors are looking at Social games, says Tim Chang. But are developers trying to advance the genre? Developers should also look at older games and see what mechanics you can reinvent. Will 2010 and 2011 be the year of the branded IP?
Gus Tai points out that the build it and they will come mentality does not always work. Especially since you have to compete with the large publishers and they can brute force a game out. So conversion may be steep; you need to consider the cost of acquisition and it needs to be built into the game.
Evan Wilson pointed out that larger companies will lead the 3rd party wave by buying out smaller companies and developing their own games, however non traditional publishers are taking the chance and trying new innovative projects out. Where traditional publishers tend to stick with the safe route.
Keeping in mind that Kids are learning on the portable device, and they are they new market.
No one dominates the iphone yet, notes Gus Tai. However the more the iphone and smartphone industry grows the less time people spend on a console. So consider this in building your next project for a console market.
You only have limited time to get found in the iPhone, app store and discovery is very important if you want to get your development cost back. Selling games as impulse buys is also trending so utilize this.
As the national gravity of price points goes to free then in game micro transactions become the way to recoup costs and make a profit, but how do you rebuild your game for that? In Asia 8% of consumers will engage microtransactions however in the USA only 2% will.
The panel went on to mention that more point-based systems should be in place, i.e. feedback points and game points, to keep an audience and give them a life beyond the game. Keep in mind that no user is useless; you may not always monetize a user, but they can bring more people in through word of mouth.
For social games, it would be very hard to beat someone like Zynga as they can leverage their eyeballs and market power when releasing games. If a user sees a free game, how does a user know if it's a better game, if they see marketing for a particular game all the time, then the chance that they will try the free game out increases. Thus larger developers can put out mediocre games because they can market them better.
In the end, hardcore gamers are harder to please, the broader casual and social gaming market is easier to reach and they don't care about graphics as much.
Seminar summary:
Knowing that social / casual gaming is the direction to move in and that it is easier to build games for the social users than traditional hardcore gamers, developers should look toward the social/casual industry if they are not already. There is tremendous opportunity to grow within this industry and the ability to try new ideas out. Look to the past for game mechanics and IPs for future games as low hanging fruit.
Keeping in mind that the North American conversion rate for micro transactions is low, make sure to utilize your audience, get them to invite friends and your percentage will grow, while tempting them with impulse buys. Learn to control your eyeballs and you too can grow your specific market.
As a developer you don't need to compete with larger publishers as long as you have a solid plan to market and support your game. Look toward newer platforms like Android while utilizing the iPhone and browser based networks.
Session: The Psychology of Game Design (Everything You Know Is Wrong)
Speaker: Sid Meier (Director of Creative Development, Firaxis Games)
Anyone who has a long record of playing video games or has been in the industry for a while knows the name Sid Meier the man behind Civilization, so when I had the opportunity to hear a session by Sid on Psychology it was one not to be missed.
"Gameplay is a psychological experience" Meier began. "You must keep in mind that gamers want a challenge, they look for a satisfactory conclusion, but generally they expect to win."
Keeping this in mind, gamers have an ego, they will take what is given to them throughout the game and always feel it was their strategy that accomplished the tasks. Developing a system that lets the player feel that they are above average especially during the start of a game is a great way to hook players and keep them playing.
"You almost cannot reward the player enough in the first 15 minutes of a game, in order to get them hooked," Meier said.
What I assume he is referring to is the Virtual Skinner box.
Many MMOs have been using the Virtual Skinner box to addict players to a game and keep them playing.
Skinner claimed that the frequency of a given behavior is directly linked to whether it is rewarded or punished. If a behavior is rewarded, it is more likely to be repeated. If it is punished, it becomes suppressed. This deceptively simple and straight-forward theory may explain MMOs are so addictive and why games that adapt this way of thinking will have a users that play more and more often.
Meier points out that "consistency is also very important in a game as it puts the player at ease. Use things like music and atmosphere to be consistent and keep the player in your world." If you use too much randomness then you have paranoia set in. This will cause the player to feel like the computer/game is being difficult. On the flip side as long as you keep the randomness fair the player will not feel cheated.
Seminar summary:
Knowing your player/user is very important to understanding their psychographic profile. Once this is established you should be able to develop a game that appeals to the majority of your users, and you can design the game to appeal to their ego while balancing the proper rewards and random factors.
Following Meier's advice while developing the game will lead to a happy player/user and hopefully a long lasting relationship between the user and the game's IP.
Conference Summary:
While there were many seminars, panels and keynotes at GDC this year and I did attend many of them there where a handful of takeaways that were drilled throughout the conference.
- Renting items may be the way to go. You keep the user happy during a specific time.
- Best customers are usually women middle age
- For virtual items you should have a larger ticket item, so mid range look better, and larger purchases will pay out well.
- Sponsored virtual goods are a new trend...again
- Know your audience and you can turn a bad experience into an improvement that will keep your users.
- It's hard to compete against larger companies that already have marketing and eyeballs, so see how you can utilize tools and methods that are out there to your advantage. Facebook Connect is a great example of bringing a large user base to your game, tool, or app without them having to re-register.
- Digital Delivery systems are on the rise, including streaming consoles like OnLive that do not rely on the user having the hardware upgrades or buying a new console.
- There's a renewed focus on both same-screen and social network based play, including an introduction to country based social networks.
- Triple A titles are becoming more expensive to make, yet the return is not equivalent to the cost increase.
- Cloud Computing and Cloud development is here.
