Hi Dave, <div><br></div><div>First let me say thanks for preparing new activities/information for the SIG. </div><div><br></div><div>As far as things that would be interesting to me (in no order): </div><div> - Postmortems for games released on the major portals</div>
<div> - Sales figures of some sort. We can get sales figs to some extent for almost any platform, at least for top selling games, but getting sales figs for top performing casual games is difficult.</div><div> - General discussion amongst our fellow dev companies on here about tips/tricks/stories/etc. </div>
<div><br></div><div>When BumbleTales launches next month I'll be happy to share as much info as possible. Surely some of the portals will have some info on NDA lockdown, but we're not going through a pub and I'm not afraid to share biz details so I'll be putting my money where my mouth is soon enough. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks again, I enjoy the SIG when it's active...there always seems to be quality discussion happening. I'd also like to say how much I love/respect <a href="http://www.casualcharts.com/">casualcharts.com</a> - what a great bit of info that has been around for years. </div>
<div><br></div><div>-Aaron</div><div><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Dave Rohrl <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:universedave@gmail.com">universedave@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Hi all,<br><br>The IGDA Casual SIG has been going for quite a while. When the SIG started up back in 2003, the most pressing need of the casual game community was clear - to let the rest of the game industry (and the investment community) know that casual games not only existed but also represented an important business and creative opportunity. As a result, a lot of the SIG's work was about information - doing white papers, a quarterly newsletter, and other publications to help share the news and validate the space.<br>
<br>In 2009, the picture is quite different. Casual games are a multi-billion dollar business. The rest of the industry sees us as a key growth driver. There are three annual standalone conferences and a two-day GDC symposium focused exclusively on casual games. Tons of casual content shows up at general industry conferences. There is a strong professional industry association focused on casual games with a great lineup of publications.<br>
<br>So, the Steering Committee of the SIG would like to ask you, the membership, this key question: now that everyone knows that casual games are here to stay, what would you like us to be doing for *you* - the independent casual game developer? How can we help you to build better games, create a better business, or just understand the ecosystem better? <br>
<br>We've been brainstorming ideas on the Steering Committee, and here were some of the ideas we had:<br><ul><li>Monthly live chats (voice or text) on hot industry topics</li><li>Webinars - online presentations by industry experts using web meeting technology</li>
<li>Developer/Publisher "speed-dating" events for quick pitches</li><li>Position papers on key issues for developers <br></li></ul>Is this what you would like to see us working on? Do you have other ideas? Should we keep focusing on the white paper and quarterly, or should we start phasing those out so we can focus on other initiatives that matter more?<br>
<br>Your feedback is important. As a Steering Committee, we can only manage a limited number of initiatives. We want to make sure that we put our energy into work that will benefit and organize the casual game development community. Please reply on the mailing list and let us know what you would like to see us doing in 2009-2010.<br>
<br>Thanks,<br><font color="#888888">Dave Rohrl<br>Chair, IGDA Casual Game SIG, 2008-2009<br>Editor, 2008-2009 IGDA Casual Game White Paper<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Aaron Murray<br>Technical Director, Founder<br>Tandem Games<br><a href="http://www.TandemGames.com">www.TandemGames.com</a><br><a href="http://www.DomainOfHeroes.com">www.DomainOfHeroes.com</a><br>
"Fun for All. All for Fun."<br>
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