[casual_games] ActiveX Install Success rates?

[John Welch]

At PlayFirst, we use ActiveX for web versions of C++ downloads (our
preferred technologies) but we also use Shockwave for web versions of
games created in Macromedia Director. This strategy reflects what we see
in the market from the big game portals - most are now taking (or soon
plan to take) Shockwave games (with a few notable exceptions, e.g. Pogo
and AOL), but there will always be some that do not. I don't know of any
major site that won't take an ActiveX game. We do not wish to limit who
we can work with based on the choice between Director and C++, and the
reality is either technology is (currently) fine.

The big issue we see is that there are many developers who strongly
prefer Director/Shockwave technologies because of the lower technical
hurdle, cross platform support, and rapid development capabilities. Many
are not capable of making the switch on their own because of the huge
investment required to become proficient at C++. A critical factor is
that the amount of QA a Director developer will need to put into his/her
first C++ game is easily 2-3X or more, as you will be dealing with
video/sound bugs that Macromedia solved for you in Director. 

Like PopCap, PlayFirst created its own framework for abstracting the
nastiness of DirectX and for providing many Director-like convenience
tools, and we're almost finished porting it to OpenGL so we can
cross-compile onto both PC and Mac (an advantage of Director that is
lost w/ C++ if coding to DirectX). With the first title we created on
our platform (Chessmaster Challenge) QA was very focused on technical
bugs. The second title (TriJinx) is about to ship - there was a HUGE
difference in that most of the technical bugs had been squashed, so
we're spending a far greater % of the QA time on art/logic/tuning. Our
hope is that our platform will give novice C++ developers who wish to
work with us an easier "on ramp". We don't distribute our framework
broadly, but developers who work with PlayFirst will find that it offers
many of the advantages of Director, including a scripting language that
lets you create a cross-compiled C++ game w/out necessarily writing a
line of C++.

I believe that this approach will become quite common - even for C++
savvy shops the advantages to this sort of framework are numerous. My
strong recommendation is to either build one or use someone else's. 

We haven't checked out the PopCap framework because we have our own, but
I would encourage people to do so. One factor there might be support - I
don't think they offer any (unless you are publishing w/ them), but
since it's source then maybe this isn't an issue. In terms of available
"off the shelf" licensed/supported technologies, the first question you
need to ask is about *distribution*. It doesn't matter how great the
tech is to work with if you cannot get strong distribution for your game
(unless you are just playing - I'm making an assumption here, I know). I
have seen great games AND good distribution with Torque games from
various developers. WildTangent's stuff isn't used broadly by people
outside of WildTangent, but several of their games also have extremely
broad distribution. If you care about distribution, you can probably end
your search after checking out these two technologies.

In conclusion, if making $$$ is a priority, make sure your technology
choice is "blessed" by the big game portals. That means
Director/Shockwave, WildTangent, Torque (where you would also use
ActiveX for the web game), or C++.  

-John W.


-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Juan Gril
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 7:40 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] ActiveX Install Success rates?

Hey Brian. Yep, definitely Raptisoft's solution is pretty good too. I'd
say that your success rate is tied to several different factors, and it
would be difficult to get a precise prediction. I think an important
factor in this case is completely non-technology dependant, and that is
how well known the brand of the site is. From the end user point of view
I'm sure that downloading an active-x control from kelloggs.com is more
reassuring than joescereal.com.

I personally believe that the Active-X control is a solution that over
time will be understandable by the majority of casual gamers. However,
the brand factor will affect everybody and specially the smaller sites.

Cheers,

Juan
 

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Brian Robbins
Sent: Sunday, August 07, 2005 7:28 AM
To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [casual_games] ActiveX Install Success rates?

Thanks Juan,

Raptisoft (www.raptisoft.com) I think also does a very good job of
"handholding" through the install process, and it's definitely something
that we'd need to do. I imagine that without anything like that the
success rate is very small (<5%?). I'm hoping that by doing a decent job
of guiding the user through the process, that success rate would be much
higher. I just don't know how high we could expect/hope for (15% or 50%
or 85%?)


  Brian Robbins
  Director, Online Gaming
  <http://www.fuelgames.com/>

  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
> [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Juan Gril
> Sent: Friday, August 05, 2005 7:50 PM
> To: 'IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List'
> Subject: RE: [casual_games] ActiveX Install Success rates?
> 
> Hey Brian. I don't have much statistical info, but I can suggest to 
> look to korean sites such as www.hangame.com or www.nexon.com. All 
> their games use ActiveX controls, and they detect when a user has SP2 
> install and redirect the user to a page with screenshots and 
> instructions how to install the control.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Juan
>  

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