[casual_games] Business Models

Wed Aug 31 07:00:36 EDT 2005

John, 
How do we get Gamefiesta listed as a publisher?

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From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of John Welch
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 4:25 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Business Models

Brent,

There's a middle road - work with a publisher who will fund a serious
project (take all of the risk) and give you far more exposure (it's not just
about development) as well as ongoing participation (upside far better than
work-for-hire). Ideas are cheap - execution counts. If you can do it well
once, you can do it better the next time. So, get a publisher deal and use
it to learn the ropes, build your business case, and get some name
recognition in the casual space. If you like what you see, think about
self-funding your next project. Talking from experience, starting from
scratch isn't easy - but once you have some momentum it's a heck of a lot of
fun. 

There aren't many publishers in the casual space, but there are a few of us,
and terms are currently a lot better than "traditional" developer-publisher
contracts. Each publisher has its personality and benefits, but I don't
think you could go wrong with any of them. There's a list of publishers
addressing this space in the SIG's 2005 white paper: www.igda.org/casual. 

-John W.
________________________

John Welch, President & CEO
PLAY:   <http://www.playfirst.com/> www.PlayFirst.com
________________________

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From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Brent Lowrie
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2005 12:09 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List; IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Business Models

See, this is why I joined the IGDA! thanks everyone for the replies. 

It was before I discovered the IGDA and its Casual Games SIG that
researching the industry was difficult. without friends and connections in
the industry, we found getting feedback, let alone, finding answers to
simple questions like the one I posed impossible. I can only speculate as to
the reasons because we never once got a response. Seriously. Now, we were
obviously knocking on the wrong doors and calling the wrong numbers.
Contact-envy aside, I appreciate the candidness of the members here and find
the dialogue refreshing.

Brian, I definitely wish we could commit the time to cranking out a game a
week. If it were our own games, perhaps, although our games tend to be
pretty ambitious. however, our clients just don't move that fast. I think we
actually spend more time waiting for feedback and approvals than we do in
development.

My question was perhaps worded poorly as well. I wasn't just curious about
how to fill our portfolio, but rather how studios are funding their
development and the percentage of IP vs. "work-for-hire" games in their
portfolios. I am building a case for our company executive to invest heavily
in R&D (game engine development as Brian points out and new technologies
like mobile game development) and our own commercial IP games and I find
it's a "cart-before-the-horse" kind of issue in a publicly-traded company.
Rather than a "build it and they will come" mentality, it is more a "find me
a funded project and we'll let you build it" sort of deal. Your comments are
all very interesting. thanks

Its late here so I hope I am not blithering. thanks again for the insight
folks and I look forward to future conversations here and at one of the many
new (and established) conferences. cheers

Brent Lowrie

Games and Animation

RARE METHOD

500, 1812 4th Street S.W. Calgary AB T2S 1W1

P. 403.543.4500 x341 F. 403.532.3004

www.raremethod.com

games.raremethod.com

Strategic Interactive Marketing

Provoke Thought Direct Action Get Results 

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From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org on behalf of Brian Robbins
Sent: Tue 8/30/2005 8:32 PM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: RE: [casual_games] Business Models

I agree with Wade on this, the purpose of this group, and the IGDA in
general is to encourage open communication between developers. While on some
level we're all competitors I hardly see enough head to head competition to
warrant any kind of over the top secrecy.

Having myself worked both for a tiny casual game developer, and now growing
the game team at a leading advergame developer, the best way I've seen to
develop a library of games is to dedicate yourself to doing it. At
CleverMedia we had a long standing production cycle of a new game EVERY
week. We missed a week occasionally for holidays, etc. but for several years
we released a new game every Thursday. The result is that CleverMedia now
has one of, if not the, largest 1st party catalogs of games anywhere.

Here at Fuel our strategy is to develop our own games as customizable and
open as we possibly can. In essence we are not building a game, rather we
are building a game engine and a game utilizing that engine at the same
time. Once we have a solid engine, and a wicked game developed using it, we
can leverage both to become profitable. Perhaps one of the best examples of
this is Laser Envy (http://www.fuelarcade.com/laserenvy/) and another game
utilizing the same underlying engine we built for MegaBloks
(http://www.megabloks.com/en/kids/dragons/game/fire_and_ice.php).

This can be a bit risky in that it takes a good deal more effort to build a
game engine than it does to build just a game. However when it works right
it can be very successful and rewarding for the team and the company.

--
Brian Robbins
Director, Online Gaming
http://www.fuelgames.com/blog/
Chair, IGDA Online Games SIG  & IGDA Casual Games SIG
http://www.igda.org/online/     http://www.igda.org/casual/

-----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org [mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org]On
Behalf Of Brent Lowrie
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:44 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: [casual_games] Business Models

I know this is a topic that many are interested in but few are really
willing to talk about. We are all competitors after all.

We are a relatively small game development group fighting to establish some
independence within an interactive marketing firm. As the group leader, I
have been putting together a business plan of sorts and would like to field
some questions for those established developers with many games in their
portfolio. How did you go about producing so many games? That is, was it
self-funded internal development in the hopes of licensing them? Were they
games developed for clients that you retained rights too and now offer a
non-branded version for licensing? A combination?

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