Reality Panic

Admittedly, I thought Martin was crazy. A charity driven publisher? It was crazy enough that I wanted to get behind the idea, and I’ve been an advisor for OneBigGame since the start (though, I say that while at the same time not taking any credit for what’s been accomplished).

Anyway, OneBigGame’s first game, Chime, has been released on Xbox Live Arcade, with 60% of proceeds donated to various children charities. The game was developed by Zoe Mode out of the UK. Massive kudos goes to the Zoe Mode team for making this happen.

Chime is a mesmerizing little game that absorbed me for a few hours the first time I booted it up. Definitely reminds me of Lumines, and related beat/block matching games… Very polished and fun overall.

Admittedly, my favorite part was getting the 50 point achievement “gift” when starting the game for the first time. A truly nice gesture, especially for GamerScore whores like me ;)

Divide By Zero’s James Portnow recently visited Brazil to scope out the game industry and whipped up an excellent analysis for Gamasutra.

Having visited Brazil recently myself (to keynote at the annual SBGames conference), I share many of the same observations and conclusions. Though, sadly, I wasn’t able to make it out to the Oi Futura Nave school.

Of all the challenges and obstacles listed (ie, piracy, taxes, lack of funding, etc),  the most potent problem in my opinion is a complete mismatch of creative vision and business opportunity.

As James mentioned, “game makers in Brazil expect to jump in and start making AAA experiences like those they play.” Indeed, it was amazing how many indie/amateur/student developers I met who wanted to create the next Halo, WoW or GTA.

I kept telling them to stop looking towards America/the West for inspiration, and rather look to Korea. While the variables/conditions were obviously different, Korea had similar challenges. And yes, perhaps more so through business innovation, the industry evolved and prospered.

There are many opportunities to be had in Brazil right now, in spite of the current obstacles. It’s just hard to see them when you’re trying to code up your epic Halo killer idea.

Quality is taking a beating!

First, I accuse developers of focusing too much on their ideas, and not enough about the business and marketing aspects. But, then Erin reminds us that all of our ideas suck anyway.

Then Jesse from EEDAR reveals that marketing spend has a much higher correlation to sales than quality (as gaged via review scores). And, more recent research from the Cowen Group reveals that review scores are the least important factor for game purchases.

So, is the best strategy to just put whatever crap in a box and market the hell out of it? Of course not. This is a complex system and it is hard to predict the effect of any single factor… Maybe publishers put more marketing dollars behind the games they believe will sell well to begin with. Perhaps a quality game is what’s needed to drive word-of-mouth referrals. Etc.

Thus a key challenge is finding the right balance. It’s not just about making an awesome game, and it’s not just about salesmanship.

I’ve often been critical of developers who are too focused on their “awesome idea”, or more generally, lack all-around knowledge of more than just production. Namely, business/financial aspects and marketing/PR. Today, more so than ever, your business model is going to drive the kinds of games you’re going to make, how you need to deliver and market them, production process, etc.

Luckily, there’s a niche conference focused exclusively on finance and biz in games. The GameON: Finance program looks at emerging business models, biz stats and trends, public and private funding, etc. For studios that are just starting up, or scrambling for funding - or even just trying to wrap their heads around the fact that running a studio is more than just worrying about production - this is a must attend event.

I’m somewhat biased as I was part of the advisory/program committee, and I’m moderating the closing panel. But still…

Erin Hoffman’s blunt “Why Your Game Idea Sucks” article in The Escapist serves as a nice complement to the “Your Ideas Don’t Matter… Much” piece I recently wrote for GamesIndustry.biz.

Her piece looks at the topic more so from a designer’s perspective, whereas mine has more of a business angle (ie, when pitching to investors, etc). But, both fundamentally conclude that an idea in and of itself is pretty worthless.

Gotta have the courage to execute, baby…

I popped down to DC last week for a photo shoot with Associations Now, a magazine for association leaders. I wrote an article on all of my radical approaches to running the IGDA, and they wanted to do a fun photo concept to compliment the article. In short, have me stand in an elevator with a bunch of stuffy status quo suits.

What I thought would be a few minutes to stand there and smile, took a full two hours. Turns out lighting an elevator is quite a challenge. By the time all was said and done, they had a good half-dozen different lighting rigs hooked up and had taken well over 200 shots.

Will be interesting to see what the end result will look like.

Plaque on the ASAE building.

Photographer Mark starts setting up some lighting rigs.

Magazine staffer, photo assistant, Mark and art director Beth Lower evaluate the initial results.

Stuffy suited models set up in the elevator.