Tex Pine

Here’s a very interesting idea from Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup. Start-ups often mix them up but there are fundamental differences between Product Launch and Marketing Launch.

Product Launch is:

1. Making your product available.
2. Use SEO tactics to acquire users like SEM on $5 a Day.
3. Use analytics to understand from real-world user behavior, understand what your fundamental driver of growth really is.
4. It’s not a Beta test or limited launch. Your goal is not to test your software with a limited set of users – you are really going public. (Of course, you can still call the public version a Beta, but that’s another thing.)

Marketing Launch is:

1. Announce a new product.
2. Spend a lot of money in PR, promotional actions, ads.
3. PR with blogs, magazines and newspapers to get Media Coverage.
4. Buzz/viral marketing activities.

Eric is saying startups should not Marketing Launch until having a solid understanding of how their products retain and monetize, which is only really discovered after a Product Launch with real-world users.

Could that be applied to games? 

Now consider each game is a Product or even a startup all by itself (for many small studios, the company is the game). Could this tactic work?

Recognized IPs can’t do that. Marketing Launch will occur spontaneously the moment they Product Launch. Portal is a big franchise, a media powerhouse, and media will swarm to cover availability of the next installment. Less-known IPs which caught media attention in the past will also naturally draw awareness, such as the next Scribblenauts or World of Goo.

It also looks nearly impossible to operate such tactic on consoles. You must be able to update your game fast. Not only there’s the retail problem but the platform-owner also impose a lot of barriers through approval policies and fees. Even with online stores and online updates, those things constrain developers quite a lot on frequent updates.

Finally, it looks like it would work a lot better for free-to-play games than for premium, pay-to-download games. Maybe you can still go premium and do a trial-basis or shareware-basis thing, but you won’t get all of the benefits as your players will inevitably quit after a limited time.

Online Games

This tactic is perfectly possible for Desktop, Browser-based or Facebook online games. In these platforms, we can update the game daily to optimize the user experience. Development teams will already be prepared to implement user analytics and some BI to support Live operations. So we’re just changing the context of Launch a little bit.

Some people still think games can’t be saved after a Product Launch, even online games. If the DAU goes downhill after launch, it’s doom. In fact, in 2011 we saw many companies like Atari giving up from Facebook initiatives for not showing results early. They expected big launches that make a lot of money, just like old retail days.

But look how Playdom did the opposite: using the experience with real-world users and investing in a re-design of a game already Product Launched, the team of Wild Ones showed impressive increase in retention and turned into a successful product.

Mobile Games

Some people in mobile games are also pursuing big launches. Part of this is because the iOS App Store, the main Mobile revenue source of today, operates in a way to favor you to download the next cool thing. There are the Genius helper, there are the Top downloads charts, and there are the Featured tab and banners.

But take a look at Tap Paradise Cove: launched in March 2012, the game went reasonably well on downloads upon launch but quickly dropped. Pocket Gems ran a few marketing campaigns to put the game back in Top 100 Free downloads but nothing impressive. It’s been very low on downloads for the past couple months. However, it’s far from dead - Tap Paradise Cove climbed the Top Grossing charts and stayed there. The game is acquiring fewer and fewer new users, but optimizing itself for more and more retention and revenue-per-user.

The thing about Product Launching before Marketing Launching with Apple (and now Microsoft) is approval times. You need to account for the fact a binary update may take from 1 to 3 weeks to be approved. Just because of that you will likely need months to get good improvements. Android doesn’t have this problem, but if you’re using Android to optimize you app after a Product Launch, always remember Android is different.

Conclusion

I think it’s perfectly possible to Product Launch first on games, optimize the product with fewer users, get more and more of revenue out of them, and then Marketing Launch using ad networks, social networks and good old PR. In online games it looks like a very good fit. It’s also possible for mobile games.

And remember, we’re not cutting Marketing Launches altogether, as it is still a very good thing when done in the right time. We’re just making it differently.

References

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/03/dont-launch.html

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/three-drivers-of-growth-for-your.html

http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2008/09/sem-on-five-dollars-day.html

http://appdata.com/

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134856/interview_the_secrets_of_woogas_.php?print=1

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/12/ios-revenues-vs-android/

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134731/redesigning_wild_ones_into_.php?print=1

http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2012/05/03/zynga-com-2-8-million-mau/

http://gigaom.com/2012/09/16/563158/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2012/jun/10/apple-developer-wwdc-schmidt-android

http://www.appannie.com/app/ios/tap-paradise-cove/ranking/history/#store_id=143441&device=iphone&view=ranks&start_date=2012-03-07&end_date=2012-05-31

For nearly 4 years many mobile studios in Brazil have been investing in games or apps for the smartphone era. Early games such as PoChickenPo (Tectoy Studios) and Drums Challenge (MusiGames) earned good results but in the last couple years between 2011 and 2012 more companies in Brazil are getting significant traction in Apple’s App Store.

MobJoy was founded in the city of Campinas around 2009. Early success with an iPad-exclusive title Undead Attack! Pinball enabled the company to raise investments and make more iOS games. Road Warrior was launched in November 2011 and topped #18 position at Top Free downloads and #13 in Free Games, but consistently held positions on Top 200 Free Games charts for over an year now. On revenue, Road Warrior topped #97 Grossing among all apps but held positions on Top 200 Grossing for several months.

Top Free Games is another mobile games studio from São Paulo, developer of Bike Race, a major iOS hit with consistent performance. Launched in April 2012 the game took off and held the #1 position in Top Free for several days. Henceforward it consistently held positions in Top 100 Free but climbing to Top 50 Free in several occasions. On revenue, Bike Race held in Top 200 Grossing for over 8 months, peeking on #16 Grossing in November 2012.

Top Free Games is also developer of Penguim Race and Mouse Maze. Launched mid-2011 and an immediate Top 25 Free hit for 2 months, Penguim Race held positions among Top 200 Grossing apps for several months. Mouse Maze was also a quick hit, topping #4 Free downloads upon launch and #19 Grossing couple months after.

Unlike the examples above, Movile is a traditional mobile company in Brazil with a huge history at the feature-phone apps market and solutions for carriers. In the last couple years Movile started to invest in smartphone publishing, focusing first on entertainment apps instead of games. In the last 3 months alone, n Photo and Video category ZeeweTV topped #10 in Photo and Video apps and PhotoFun topped #7.

As the user base for smartphones and tablets rapidly expands in Brazil several game studios are finding new opportunities in work-for-hire and advergames. WebCore and Jynx Playwere, the best known advergames studios in the country, have been steadily expanding the portfolio of sponsored tablet and smartphone games. Such is also the case for Tectoy Studios.

Blood & Glory

In November 2011 Glu Mobile launched Blood & Glory worldwide to be the fastest-grossing game of the company in Q4 2011, quickly climbing to #6 Free downloads and #8 Grossing. Marketing campaigns and item promotions in the months ahead made the game top at #3 Free downloads and #6 Grossing.

Blood & Glory was developed by the studio in São Paulo, which I was proudly part of. Public statements accounts for a first-month revenue of roughly US$ 2.4 million plus US$ 2.7 million more across the first quarter of 2012, making it one of the most successful Brazilian games ever.

A sequel, Blood & Glory Legend, was launched 9 months after in August 2012. Albeit not as big of a hit as the first installment, the game still topped at #4 Free downloads and #52 Grossing, making nearly US$ 800,000 in the first month after launch according to public statements. However, unlike the first game, Legend has a lot more features for Live and promotions teams to explore in the months ahead.

Unfortunately last week Glu decided to shut down its São Paulo studio. It was very sad for all of us, but it’s not necessarily a terrible thing for Brazilian mobile games in the long run, as I’ll discuss in a future blog post.

Keep hungry!

References

http://www.appannie.com/

http://www.appannie.com/app/ios/blood-glory-2-legend/ranking/history/#store_id=143441&device=iphone&view=ranks&start_date=2012-08-26&end_date=2012-11-23

http://seekingalpha.com/article/348651-glu-mobile-s-ceo-discusses-q4-2011-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

http://seekingalpha.com/article/971841-glu-mobile-s-ceo-discusses-q3-2012-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single

https://itunes.apple.com/app/pochickenpo/id317220802?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drums-challenge/id317080099?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/blood-glory-2-legend/id496748308?mt=8

http://deixadenerdice.com/2010/11/12/jogos-made-in-brazil-entrevista-com-a-mobjoy/

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Road+Warrior/news.asp?c=35783

http://www.movile.com/pt/mobile-marketing/

http://www.webcoregames.com.br/cases.html

http://www.jynx.com.br/wordpress/?page_id=15&cat=advergames

http://www2.portodigital.org/portodigital/imprensa/entrevistas/40529;46573;0802;4693;18290.asp

http://www.tectoystudios.com/

http://www.musigames.com/public/

This is why.

Virtual goods buyers are of all genres and ages, not only teens & tweens as many people think. Of course there are tweens-centric sites, but there is also a large chunk of 35 and older customers buying at other sites.

Since casual games are oriented towards a broad variety of customers, this is great for developers and publishers inasmuch as many kinds of audiences can be monetized.

But as Einstein and others said, every problem in fact presents a hidden opportunity. The fact that most business practices of major global market players can’t succeed on a hostile, piracy-filled environment, doesn’t mean the market itself can’t be successfully explored using new approaches.

So this article is all about how Brazilian companies are fighting back where Edge Online once called the Lost Continent.

Brazilians do play games (a lot)!

Brazilians do play a lot. In fact, Brazilians are amongst the more enthusiastic video-game players and web surfers. Even without official distribution of all consoles but XBOX 360, Tectoy estimates more than 2 millions Playstation 2 on Brazilian homes, and Microsoft estimates 500,000 console units of various brands are sold every year.

Consoles are popular considering their high price tags and have growing sales, even if nearly all units are black-marketed or gray-marketed. Tectoy still successfully sells SEGA’s vintage consoles Master System and Genesis with tons of games bundled.

Round 1:  Multiplayer Games + Micropayments

Social networks are incredibly popular in Brazil. Nearly 54% of Orkut users are Brazilians, the share of web time dedicated to networks and blogs is the highest of all countries, and the invasion of Brazilians in other social networks like Fotolog originated the term “Brazilian Internet Phenomenon“.

 Hence the success of LevelUp!. LevelUp! has been consistently offering new and classic massive multiplayer games over the last years, successfully monetizing with pre-paid credits system. Each credit grants a player an amount of gameplay time in any massive game.

A big launching during 2008 was Taikodom. A top level MMO project, Taikodom understands the public and the shifting market practices across the world, offering free accounts and monetizing the user base by selling premium accounts and credits to buy in-game stuff.

Round 2: Outsourcing & Exporting

Many game studios in Brazil sell game development as outsourced services to other companies and publishers. While some have broad spectrum, with projects for many platforms and markets, others are strictly focused and specialized. For example, Webcore Games on advergaming, Gestum for serious games and e-learning, and Interama for casual games.

Exporting is also very important for many studios. In fact, according to Abragames, the national association of game developers, 43% of all game production is exported.  Southlogic was a major exporter of products and services -  such a  good one that in January 2009  it was bought by Ubisoft.

Round 3: Zeebo

The platform have support from main publishers and their studios, and Tectoy Digital is one of the most important Zeebo developer.

Round 4 (Extra Round): Government support

Last, but not least, the official government support for the game industry through the Department of Culture and its BR-Games contest is key to trigger new studios and new products. Specially in a country where venture/angel investment money is a relatively new concept. Interama itself was founded with a sponsorphip from the first edition of the BR Games contest.

K.O.

2008 and those first few months of 2009 had good news for the Brazilian game industry. The Lost Continent has chances to develop and grow from now on. Many Brazilian game developers,  including myself, have turned from pessimists to believers. I hope many more will follow.

Yeah, “Games Produced’ page desperately needed to be updated. So I wrote about my other projects besides Lex Venture, including both Interama projects and Zeebo projects I’m doing for the past months at Tectoy Digital. Interesting stuff there now, and not the complete list – there are a couple more projects I can’t talk about .

Check it out!

And yes, I know I haven’t updated the blog for too long. But I’ve been preparing interesting articles that I hope to share with you all soon enough.

Today Tectoy is announcing a major breakthrough for the Brazilian game industry: the Zeebo game console. Zeebo is one of those rare systems released outside USA or Japan. This is exactly why it has a high chance of success.

Introduction to Zeebo

Zeebo is a game console based on Qualcomm technologies for high-end mobile devices. It has a nominal processing power somewhat equivalent to a PSP, OpenGL|ES 1.0 hardware compatibility over a dedicated GPU and is capable of 3G mobile network connection (HSUPA), scaling back at 2.5G (EDGE) or 2G (GPRS) where necessary. It features BREW 4.0 as the operational system, three USB ports for joysticks and accessories, one SD card port, and composite video output along with stereo audio. There is no media – games are downloaded through ZeeboNet network, making Zeebo the first of the forthcoming download-centric generation of game consoles.

Clearly the specs of the system aren’t designed to match the technology of the current seventh-generation. But this is not the point. The goal is rather to implement viable solutions for two major problems of the console business on developing countries – price and distribution -, while presenting good value for players.

The Problem on Price

As I once wrote Brazilian game market suffers greatly from piracy. The first major reason is price.

Due to heavy taxes and high logistical costs, an official console game costs around US$ 110 and PC games around US$ 70. Considering the per capita income is US$ 9k against US’ US$ 47k, one could argue that buying official games is not only 2-3 times more expensive in absolute price, but also 19 times more expensive when income is factored in!

But Zeebo games are downloaded using 3G networks. As a mobile service instead of physical units, taxes are much lower and logistical / manufacturing costs are non-existent. Therefore, games can be priced from US$ 4.45 to US$13.10.

Digital Distribution Is The Key

The other major reason for widespread piracy is the distribution aspect itself. In a country where logistics are expensive due to infrastructural problems and illegal street vendors are commonplace, one just can’t compete on regular terms. Black-market reselers nowadays can get new releases way faster and way cheaper than any regular, tax-payer CD reseler will ever be able to.

But a solid digital distribution model is a viable way to fight back for two reasons. First, new game offerings will be instantly available from ZeeboNet to all players of the country, which is faster than even the fastest black-market reseler. Second, the library available online will eventually feature much more game variety than a street vendor can carry on backpacks. (Also enabling a Long Tail-based strategy.)

Think Global, Act Local

Brazilians do like video-games and play a lot. Despite the fact PS2 never had any official representation in the country, Brazil alone accounts for 2% of all PS2 units in the world. Microsoft estimates over 500 k units of various game consoles are imported every year, and over 300k 3D video cards for PCs are sold every month. But strategies and models of traditional cardboard-and-plastic distribution of global actors have proved again and again to be completely inadequate for the country’s peculiarities.

The game industry needs products and strategies that adapt to local behaviors instead of ignoring them. It needs strategies that treat pirates as the competitors they truly are today and offer sound advantages for buyers of official products.

I firmly believe the Zeebo proposal is a viable business model option that can finally start to monetize and legalize a game market that already exists but is dominated by mafias. No doubt this is a brave move in a country Edge Online once defined as a member of The Lost Continent.

I’ve been working on Zeebo games production for 5 months now and it’s pretty exciting to be a part of this innovation.

UPDATE: also check out my latest post on Zeebo, How To Fight Back at The Lost Continent

The Critical Success Factors (CSFs) are those business aspects of utmost importance for your company survival. They must be considered on every single decision of the company, and if you fail on one of them for too long your business will fail.

CSFs always come in a number of 3, regardless the kind and size of the business. This is an arbitrary number small enough to force you to find and synthesize the very basic needs of your business, and large enough to allow for complex strategy considerations.

What are the most common CSFs?

A generic set of CSFs for most business would be:

• New product development;
• Good distribution;
• Effective advertising;

If any company doesn’t have some degree on those 3 it’s dead right? So why bother? Well, you could use them, but markets always have their own particularities that this generic set might not truly reflected.

What kind of company have a different set of CSFs?

For example, consider corporate attorney firms. Those firms are dealing with clients worth millions, perhaps billions of dollars. They certainly need good advertising (almost always by word-of-a-mouth) and distribution (prospecting potential clients), but the CSFs would be better represented by this set:

• Solidity
• Secrecy
• Trust

Solidity is the first factor: every aspect of the company must be (or at least look like) rock-solid – the office, the clothing, even the graphic design of papers must be very corporative and classicaly designed. Secrecy means details of clients must never leak, and media scandals will end the career of all partners and employees. Trust is the last and most important CSF, and it’s also the most difficult to tackle. Only a “battle-proved” portfolio and back history can truly increase Trust, and that’s why new firms are only founded when the partners bring clients they already have from a previous job.

What about a game development company?

Typically, the CSFs for a gamedev house are:

• Talent (Human resources)
• Capital
• Distribution channels

Talent is the most important factor. As of any software piece, games are a kind of product that demands an intensive intellectual/creative process, for an extended period of time. Without the right people and the right talent, you can’t go – period. So you must invest on finding those people, training them and keeping them excited about your company and your projects.

Capital is key for almost all gamedev houses. For start-ups or big actors, the capital need is of great importance to fund the very extended development and releasing period before any cash from sales arrives at the bank accounts. Hence it’s wise for a game studio to ensure investment streams to compete the project way before beginning the development.

However, there are cases of small studios and indie developers that operates with very few or no capital, and still pull out great games. For those companies, it is likely “Community & PR” would be a more important critical success factor to win with very few money.

Distribution is the last CSF. Final copies are cheap but development to get there is very expensive, so the company has to sell as many copies possible to reach break-even (paying investment). But as a non-essential, non-functional, emotional-appealing product, games need a distribution network that can also allow for impulsive-buying. Placing the box or the game banner at the right place, at the right time, is a form of art itself.

Further reading

For further research on CSFs evaluation techniques, check out this excellent resource. Also, check out these books of Talent Management, Capital Attraction and Digital Distribution.

It was a peasant surprise Tec Toy Digital was looking for a new game producer for their growing operations and projects. It was even better to know my skills could match the professional profile they were looking for. So that’s it, I got a new job, and I’m excited!

Since I’m now hired, I’m not that “indie” anymore, so I changed the subtitle of the blog for “Dedicated Game Producer”. But that’s a good change – being a part of such an important Brazilian game studio will certainly be a remarkable experience.

Also, moving from Vitória – ES to Campinas – SP will bring a whole new dimension and opportunities for me and my kids in the future.

Few of you might know but besides a game producer I’m also a professor of Entrepreneurship and Multimedia Systems at the Computing School of FAESA college. One of the subjects I teach is Business Strategy aimed at Computing business – not at MBA level of details of course, but to give students an extra to start their business right.

So I’d like to share with you what I know about it in a series of “Your Game Company” articles, always focusing on game development companies. I’ll start by the Core Values any company should have.

Core Values

To be able to live together members of social groups must accept a basic core set of values. Those values will provide the group an identity, a sense of belonging, and clear rules that will (or should) guide all activities. Common values of societies around the globe include: competition, religiosity, wealth, respect and honor.

A game company is usually a small social group, but even a tiny group of 2-3 individuals should share a core set of values in order to stick together and remain coherent. In fact, the more people share the same values, the more they are likely to succeed as a team. Hence the need to make clear for everyone, from day 1, what will be the core values of the company. If one disagrees with this very basic set, it would be better to look for another job.

Where do they come from?

From the heart of the company’s leaders. The real core values always come from people heading the group. By defining what the company’s core values are leaders should be wholeheartedly committed and faithful to them. When they do, values pervade every single aspect of the company and propagate naturally across all partners and employees. You can clearly see that on companies like id Software and Bungie.

When leaders aren’t really committed, the “value” will turn into mockery among employees. Such is the case of a company I know which “decided” eco-responsibility would be a “core value” – but kept wasting energy and water on the same old fashion.

Founders and leaders must be honest with themselves what their core values really are!

What could be core values of a game company?

Common ones would be: profitability, art, innovation, cost-leadership, meritocracy, hard work, quality, excellence, competition, cooperation, optimism, resilience, state-of-the-art technology, friendship, punctuality, ethics, creativity, fun, fairness, trust, focus on clients, accountability, integrity, hunger for learning, simplicity, market leadership, experimentation, storytelling, team work, passion, adaptable, empowering people.

How many values do I need?

5 at most, 4 would be better. A small set of values will be easier for people to live by, and you really don’t need more than 5. IBM, big as they are, only needs 3. At Interama, we picked these 4: transparency, meritocracy, market competitiveness and creativity.

What are they good for?

Core values should guide every single decision of all partners and employees, regardless of its magnitude - from big project roadmap drawings, to small, day-to-day operations on buying supplies.

Let’s say company A has a core value of “profitability”. It would draw the project roadmap based on the the profit margin (cost X value to costumers) every feature can add to the final product. Day-to-day buying would be based on how much productivity each one can add – for example, if a more expensive video card will save artists 3 minutes a day, the price difference from the cheaper option will be compared to the amount of money those daily 3 minutes worth through the lifetime of the card (2 years average).

If another company B has a value of “quality”, the approach could be different. A roadmap would be drawn aimed at a top-quality product amongst its competitors. Day-to-day buyings would be based on the quality of supplies and the quality added to products and services, even if more expensive.

Of course, a company could have both “profitability” and “quality” values. In this case, the leaders presumably believes top-quality on their market also means high profits. Decisions would be made based on either of them, or both of them if possible.

This is not a post of game design, basic mechanics or dynamics. Nor aesthetics, story or characters. This “Playing aspect” is a set of structures and practices all casual games should have on nowadays markets, regardless if it is a hidden object, time management or chain popper.

Loading Times and Start Menu

The game must load fast before the start menu, and after clicking the “Start” button. If the game features comics or intro videos, a skip button must be available. The player shouldn’t spend more than 3 minutes between “Finish” installation button and getting into the game.

So many casual games are out there, so many clones are made in no-time… The competition is fierce. If the game takes too long to start, why bother? Why not giving up and getting a similar game on the same portal?

Of course, players will have more patience with your loading time if they had to download the game in the first place. They invested time, had to install it, so they will be willing to wait a bit. If your game is a Flash webgame, however, loading times must should be really really fast. I’d say 10 seconds top – provided you make an obvious loading bar with the percentage loaded very clearly stated.

Controlling

Casual players don’t expect to use anything but the mouse. They are not used to first-person shooters WASD control schema. They are not used to map spells on keys like F2, F3, etc. They will try to use the mouse, and they will use the left button.

Should we never use arrows keys? Arrows are OK – if you clearly explain them, with BIG art of arrow keys on the tutorial screen before the game begins, highlighting the explanation with particles around! J I’m kidding, but really, players skip tutorial screens in a blink. So during the half of a second they look to them, you should explain arrow controls.

Everything else should be controls aimed to help advanced/dedicated players – not the core control of the game. Like PopCap says, it is not that your controlling schema should dogmatically follow the “left button of mouse” mantra. It is just that, if game can’t be played like that, game design probably isn’t simple enough for the casual audience.

Tutorials

The player must be taught how to play the game. Don’t be afraid of tutorial screens, but always make an in-game tutorial on the first game stage (even if you are doing one-more-match-3). Teach the mechanic basics with in-game tutorials. If your gameplay is more complex, you could extend the mechanics in-game tutorial to the second stage, but don’t go much further. Too many in-game mechanics tutorial will give the impression the game just takes too long to “really begin” (as the Shopmania team found out).

Use in-game tutorials again when the player gets new powers/items/spells. Always provide a “Skip Tutorial” button, so returning players who start new games won’t have to go through it.

Saving

On casual audience, gameplay sessions are short (10-15 minutes) but frequent over the day (5-7 sessions). The game should:

1. Save the player progression automatically during gameplay, without locking the game.
2. Load save games fast when returning
3. Restore games in the very same point the player left. Everything must be exactly the same.

Would that mean that checkpoint systems do not work for casuals? It could work, but so many casual titles have implemented the save feature as stated above that your player will probably be expecting for them – and get frustrated if you don’t have it. Avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Also, casual players won’t comfortably manage multiple saved games, which is the reason save files are connected to simple and straightforward “player profiles”. If possible pick the Windows account login as the default user name the first time the player runs the game.