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Care and Feeding of your Independent Game Studio

Care and Feeding of your Independent Game Studio. By Arthur K. Humphrey. Founder, Lead Designer, Lead Engineer – Last Day of Work. Last Day of Work. Husband and Wife Team, + ~7 contractors (3 engineers, 3 artists, 1 QA, 1 support ) Virtual Office based out of San Francisco

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Care and Feeding of your Independent Game Studio

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  1. Care and Feeding of your Independent Game Studio By Arthur K. Humphrey Founder, Lead Designer, Lead Engineer – Last Day of Work

  2. Last Day of Work • Husband and Wife Team, + ~7 contractors (3 engineers, 3 artists, 1 QA, 1 support ) • Virtual Office based out of San Francisco • 100% self funded, 100% independent • Own all IP

  3. Game Releases • Little Pocket Pet (Palm OS – in 2004) • Fish Tycoon • Plant Tycoon • Virtual Families • Virtual Villagers Series (1,2,3,4,5)

  4. Why am I speaking this year? • Update our perspective of the space • Monetization / Distribution of Indie Games

  5. What am I talking about? • Distribution in a Fragmented Market • Design as a Differentiating Factor • Bootstrapping and Maintaining Ownership

  6. 1) Distribution in a Fragmented Market

  7. Casual digital download no longer one stop solution. • Then (dev costs 25-75k ; rev share per unit ~6$; game released/week 3-5; game profitable ~20k units; smash hit =100k units) • Now (dev costs 100-400k; rev share per unit ~2/3$; game released/week >12; game profitable ~100k units; smash hit=500k units)

  8. Why diversification of distribution is necessary and never has been easier. • Continually expanding HAL. • Multiplatform frameworks are EZ! • New streamlined market places with very low barrier to entry (iTunes, Android Market, Mac App Store etc)

  9. Frameworks • In-house vs. 3rd party. Unity, Torque, etc.

  10. Fragmented Market • Our approach: IP/SKU’s • IP : PC/Mac  iOS (iPhone and/or iPad) Android

  11. List of SKUS • Fish Tycoon • Virtual Villagers 1 • Virtual Villagers 3 in French • Virtual Villagers 3 in Spanish • Virtual Villagers 3 in Italian • Virtual Villagers 3 in Portughese • Virtual Villagers 3 in Dutch • Virtual Villagers 3 in Swedish • Virtual Villagers 1 for Windows • Virtual Villagers 1 for Mac • Virtual Villagers 1 for Mobile • Virtual Villagers 1 for iOS • Virtual Villagers 1 for Nintendo DS • Virtual Villagers 1 in German • Virtual Villagers 1 in French • Virtual Villagers 1 in Spanish Fish Tycoon for Windows Mobile Fish Tycoon for Windows Fish Tycoon for Mac Fish Tycoon for Mobile Fish Tycoon for iOS Fish Tycoon for Android Fish Tycoon for Nintendo DS • Virtual Villagers 4 • Virtual Villagers 4 for Mac • Virtual Villagers 4 for iOS – coming soon • Virtual Villagers 4 in German • Virtual Villagers 4 in French • Virtual Villagers 4 in Spanish • Virtual Villagers 4 in Italian • Plant Tycoon • Plant Tycoon for Windows Mobile • Plant Tycoon for Windows • Plant Tycoon for Mac • Plant Tycoon for iOS • Virtual Villagers 2 • Virtual Villagers 2 for Mac • Virtual Villagers 2 for iOS • Virtual Villagers 3 • Virtual Families • Virtual Villagers 5 • Virtual Villagers 3 for Mac • Virtual Villagers 3 for iOS • Virtual Villagers 3 in German • Virtual Families for Mac • Virtual Families for iOS • Virtual Families for Android • Virtual Villagers 5 for Mac • Virtual Villagers 5 for iOS – in queue

  12. Visibility & Marketing • Cracking top-10 lists on iOS and Android (buying rank, buying installs for your freemium game that will never pay 1 cent) • Arbitrage • Buying customers to climb lists (applies to freemium) • Price Compression vs. price compression resistance on iPad

  13. What about Facebook and Social? • Facebook has gotten very competitive with big $$ • Buying users raises the bar financially to compete • “What went wrong” for LDW in ’10…

  14. Diversifying Business Models! • Freemium backlash, and pre-packaged itemization for customers who hate freemium • Plant Tycoon Freemium on iOS. Initial results and feedback from customers. (specifics to be displayed) • “Coercive Conversion”

  15. Coercive Conversion

  16. Big Budget Games vs. Quick Little Games • Pros and Cons • Selling beta versions

  17. 2) Design as a Differentiating Factor

  18. Design & Indie Spirit • As a company we stand out based on our designs, not our polish. Not our business models. • Eg: Minecraft, LDW games, other games

  19. Innovation • Innovation and the ‘long tail’ • Protection from cloning • Under the hood, emergence and strong story • Media: reviews, accolades, controversy and recognition. Oh, and getting paid. (VF, VV5, other examples)

  20. 3) Bootstrapping and Maintaining Ownership

  21. How to grow without growing • Scaling creativity is hard. Licensing is tricky. • What has worked for us, and what has not?

  22. Risk Factor • Keep it small, keep it all • Slow or ‘no’ growth business model/‘all-in, double-down’ model

  23. Takeaways • Changes in the market have reduced casual portals from a one-stop monetization solution, to simply a piece of the puzzle • Consider your initial release platforms, try to get something on radar somewhere and then leverage that visibility. • Diversification of your IP into multiple skus, and even multiple business models • Keep your damn IP ffs.

  24. Questions? • Questions are free!! Yes free! As ask many as you wish. • $0.99 per answer. Totally optional. Cash jar at front.

  25. THANK YOU! Arthur’s contact info: arthur@ldw.com

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