Reality is a Game

Game thinking from Adam Clare

Category: BusinessPage 15 of 44

The Canadian Video Game Industry is Doing Well

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On 06/06/2013

In Business

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) recently released the results of a survey they conducted in April and things look good. In Canada the video game industry continues to grow with most companies aiming at mobile. With larger companies like Zynga recently announcing layoffs hearing that Canada is doing fine overall is rather nice.

“Video game developers and publishers have a positive outlook on the future. Four out of 10 respondents expect to grow by over 25% in the next 24 months, while 17% expect to grow by 15-24% in the same period,” said Hilchie. “Although there have been studio closures and shifts in the types of games produced here, there is an optimism about the future of the industry in Canada.”

Over 84% of Canadian video game studios are now working on games for mobile devices (phones and tablets), while just over 48% of studios are devoting some of their resources to console games. Studios in Canada are also developing PC games (66%) as well as games for the Web (46%) and for social networks (29%). Although the overall Canadian industry is shifting more of its attention to mobile or casual titles, bigger-budget console games are still receiving the lion’s share of resources. Companies report that the average budget for console games is $8.7 million, produced by an average team of 65 persons in 583 days, as compared to an average budget of $300,000 for mobile games, a team of 7 persons and 156 days of production.

Read the full press release at their site.

Free to Play or go Paid? Mobile Game Business Decisions

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On 26/04/2013

In Business

A writer at Gamasutra decided to ask some mobile game developers about their business models for their respective games. Some of them chose to go free to play and others went the fully-paid route. Their responses to the questions provide some insight into their decisions. However, like most decisions it comes down to the kind of game you’re trying to make.

Here’s one of the many responses:

I still think a F2P puzzle is a lot harder to monetize than other F2P genres, mostly because the content is limited and requires a lot of level design.

Candy Crush is the best example of highly successful F2P puzzle. They have more than 250 levels and are still producing a lot of content and find new gameplay mechanics with every update to keep their current userbase. That’s a lot of content, 2x more than what Angry Birds has.

The other thing that’s hard in general with an F2P game is balance – to monetize you have to create gameplay mechanics which involve timers, and some developers will also play with frustration to push the player to buy bonuses or boosts.

Read more at Gamasutra.

To augment the information gleaned from the Gamasutra article I suggest reading about the challenges of marketing a game. It’s not what it used to be at all.

Overall, ZeptoLab says it will spend around $1 million launching “Cut the Rope: Time Travel,” which traces the adventures of the green monster Om Nom as he meets versions of himself in time periods like the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. On top of that sum, which includes the costs of animation, the company is counting on some free help by promoting the game inside its other titles.

It’s essentially to think about the business plan and the game design concurrently.

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