Connectivity

I have degrees in market research, so for me one of the coolest things about making games for the iPhone is that, whether through 3GS or Wi-Fi, you are always connected to your players and can get all kinds of feedback from them. All our games have feedback/comment buttons so our players can give us feedback and thoughts on our games. We listen very carefully to what they say. Feedback has been a fantastic development tool to for us.

Another great thing about connectivity is the amount of analytic data you can collect about your players and games. Whether you're using your own stats package or one of the many packages available to the developer (Motally, Mobclix, etc.), you can look at all kinds of stats immediately and you can learn and tweak to your heart's content. You'll find average game times, average session times, specific events within your game, favorite levels, etc. If you are tuned into this stuff, it can help you to make big improvements in your games in just a short time.

Whether you are listening to feedback, paying attention to your analytics, or both, the ability to be in constant contact with your customers allows you to develop iteratively and can give your games a very long tail.

• Developer posts

We have decided to come out from "under the radar" and I'm in fundraising mode. Have been working with a great group of investors in San Francisco called VII Peaks Capital, and TechCrunch picked up the story.

It is a really exciting time in the business. It looks like the iPhone game business is growing in spite of the weak economy, and we at Portable Zoo are grateful for that. I will post more on this adventure as it continues.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!

Broadening of the Game-Player Base

While I'm sure there are still legions of kids playing Warcraft and Call of Duty MW2 was mindblowing (not to mentioning making something like $400m in one single day)... this year gaming has really moved beyond the console and the PC into the pockets and purses of the world.

With over 21,000 game apps among 85,000 total apps (and more than 2 billion app downloads), the iPhone game market has exploded. The iPhone and iPod Touch are everywhere... and for good reason. These are really great devices.

The advent of the app market in the iTunes Store and its ease of use has exposed us to legions of new gaming fans and potential gamers who just a few months ago would never have dreamed of walking into a game store to buy a game. Thanks to younger kid gamers, casual male players who were never that particularly interested in buying games before, and especially women players of all ages, the audience population has exploded.

This means that the player base is noticeably different than that of past generations. We are not just making games for that niche of teenage male players whose predominance has made PC and console gaming so popular up to now. In fact, one could probably argue that a great majority of app buyers on the iPhone aren't really gamers at all, at least by conventional descriptions.

It's important to pay attention to the attributes and features that attract this broad segment of "non-gamer" gamers. Successful games will be those whose win conditions are extremely tolerant, whose ramping is slow and measured, and which don't severely increase levels of difficulty. Achievements and other recognitions should be awarded frequently. Multiple-user (we used to call it multi-player) and chat and other "socialization" features are as critical as any other element of the game design.

The new gamers care less about high-fidelity features with complex design and more about fun, easily understood ideas that are compelling and immediately accessible.

Our fourth game was released last night in the iTunes App store. “Tripletters” is a fun new word game that’s essentially a slot machine. It gives you three letters to make words out of. Sometimes your letters are easy and sometimes they are really tough.

Matt Winalski, our creative director, had a lot of neat ideas for the game during its development, though he always maintained the concept of combining betting/slot machine action with word game thoughtfulness. But when we designed the game’s social features – especially Facebook Connect - I had a real “ah-ha” moment regarding how significant the recent social gaming trends are in changing the way games are played.

The ability to connect and share the game experience with friends - and thus the evolution from mere game to engagement service - has quickly become a dominant feature of a multitude of “social” games on the web. In contrast with the sophistication of internet social networks, social experiences on mobile devices are still in their infancy, at least in the U.S. With the pathway already carved out on the web, it is easy to see this trend gaining traction on mobile at the speed of light over the next several years, as it has already done in Asian markets. This is especially likely when you consider the way start-up services like Open Feint or Plus+ are beginning to create vast communities of web-connected mobile users.

Now, back to my “ah-ha” moment. It came when we added a “social” feature in “Tripletters” that allows a player who is stuck to post a message asking for help from friends, as an email or as a Facebook post via Facebook Connect. Opening up the game to your Facebook friends completely changes the experience and value of the game and invites your whole community of friends to play the game with you. There is a lot of power in allowing people to communicate directly between their mobile devices and the web, instantly and in real time. This small feature, among others on the social side of the design curve, brings a preview of a whole new mobile world to come, and it’s pretty amazing.

In pre-release tests, we saw lengthy back-and-forth dialog between players, and we’re hoping to see the same enthusiasm in the released version. I’ll keep you posted!

This week, let’s talk about two of the five positives in iPhone development:

Touchscreen/Accelerometer

The iPhone's novel control configurations lend themselves to new types of gameplay and new genres of games that you couldn’t otherwise imagine. While it’s common to see standard games ported to new control configurations, the really good games will take advantage of the new configurations and do new things with them. The iPhone touchscreen is really fun and easy to use, and completely changes the way games are traditionally controlled. Already, we see new genres of games emerging: fingerflick games (Flick Sportsfishing, Stick Wars), tapping games (Tap Tap Revenge, Letter Bug, Touchgrind), and line-drawing games (Flight Control, Karuki, Parachute Panic). While developing our first game, Letter Bug, we found that the touchscreen was a natural way to add a terrific element of fun and frenzy to the word game genre.

Similarly the accelerometer adds a completely new twist (sorry about the pun) to game creation. You can spin the iPhone or move it left and right, up and down, and forward and back. We see new genres emerging here, too. Shaker and dice games (Motion-X poker, Lock n’Roll), rotation games (Bed Bugs, Quick Turn), and back and forth games (Papi Jump, Lilt Line) all take gaming in a new direction using the accelerometer - and they’re all unique to the iPhone.

We are just beginning to see how touchscreen and the accelerometer can change game design and player actions. Instead of porting old game mechanics to the iPhone, continue to expect an explosion of creativity in the months to come around these innovative iPhone controls.

Indies can Flourish

Here’s a little story: we launched Letter Bug sometime in February 2009 with zero marketing dollars (I don’t recommend this strategy!) The game did fine, and started to slowly build an audience over the next 6 weeks or so. One morning we woke up to find downloads had increased tenfold - I almost choked on my bagel. It turned out Apple had discovered the game and loved it, so they put it on the front page (the “landing page”.) Within a few days we went all the way to #2 in the Word Game charts, just behind EA and Scrabble. So, here are 5 independent guys working in a little conference room in Santa Clara chasing the mighty EA and Scrabble up the charts!! Unbelievable…

This occurrence would have been unimaginable only a year or so ago. For the past 25 years, the retail channels have been owned by the big game publishers. There was virtually no room for independents who couldn’t land a deal with a major. The retail channels were locked up. Now, with the advent of digital distribution, all this is changing - fast! In the Apple iTunes app store alone, the number of independent game developers finding success AND the relative absence of big publisher titles in the top ten is astounding. Glancing at the top fifteen paid apps this morning, I only see one major publisher listed (Konami.) The rest of the list is comprised of independent game developers, most of whom were unknown just a month or two ago. These are independent game developers like Smule, Freeverse, Blue, etc. In all the years I have been doing this, I have never seen such a watershed year for independent game developers, especially those who can work fast, are agile in their development approach and can operate cost-efficiently.

It's a new world for independents like us, and the playing field seems to be wide open.

It's remarkable how similar today’s PC/Facebook/social games seem to be to the early generations of traditional videogames. I think their evolution will show similar patterns.

When I first came to EA, text adventures and light 2-D graphic games existed because that is all technology allowed us. Designers had to be clever back then because the fidelity was awful and their only chance to grab players' hearts and minds was through great game design and well-crafted fun. Games like Mule or Seven Cities of Gold were terrific game designs despite these limitations.

Gradually, game technology evolved beyond 2-D and 2-D sprites to full-fledged 3-D. (As a side note, it's funny to think about the rage in Tamagachi games in the early/mid-'90s and, relate it to the likes of most social games today…. Does anyone remember Seaman?!) As hardware grew faster and more powerful, the market evolved and players demanded better fidelity and deeply evolved gameplay.

I think the current casual-game market will follow a similar path, with one big exception: the addition of social gaming features will in some ways replace elements of design from other areas. Rather than adopt hard-core-gamer features and steep learning curves, the social gaming features will take the highest priority in the evolutionary process. Sure, I still think that fidelity and technical sophistication will increase over time, but it does not appear to be as important and it will be interesting to watch the trends in social gaming evolve. This category is still in its youth, if not its infancy, and there's a long way to go in the lifecycle. What’s more, the whole category of mobile Web really hasn’t even become a player here yet, and it will.

With history in mind, here are a few predictions:

Fidelity demands will increase
Last year, social, primarily text adventures like Mafia Wars exploded and recently the movement has been towards more graphic 2-D Flash games like Farmtown and all the “Villes.” As I tirelessly spend my extra downtime playing Fishville on Facebook and send all my friends hermit crabs, I can’t help but think of playing Seaman in 1996! Light 3-D games are already showing up and fidelity and user expectations will continue to increase. In satisfying this market, however, evolution of social features will be the bigger driver.

Same old same old will get old
Just like in traditional videogame business, you can only get away with something a couple times before it gets old. So many of the current social games are really just versions of the same thing. What is more, the preponderence of similar games and outright cannibilization of ideas and features is amazing to me. In any other creative business, lawsuits would be flying over all the IP "cloning" going on in this space. As the business matures, I think the winners will be those whose creativity and technology can innovate to lead these players in new, fresh directions, not just rip-off ideas from elsewhere or provide the same experiences already available.

Mobile Web will start to take over
True socialization features have only just started appearing on the iPhone and other smartphone mobile devices. As the Web continues to go mobile, exploiting social features on these devices will become increasingly important. Further, consider the added potential for new designs and features that can merge with other applications on the mobile side (like GPS). Those who can combine their experience with mobile game design and social/service features stand to make huge gains.

And one prediction a little more off the wall....

EA will be all free-to-play in the next five years
Years ago, and not necessarily by intention, EA abandoned its charter to be the most innovative IP creator in the industry. (It seems to me that Activision has clearly grabbed this mantle.) With this in mind and considering EA's recent acquisition of Playfish, it won’t surprise me at all to see EA adopting almost entirely a free-to-play model in the next five years. The company will still do a couple of "major feature" releases a year, I’m sure, but the vast majority of revenue just might come from “freemium” business models in the years to come. The sports line-up is particularly well suited for this. It’s gotta be hard to see continued revenue growth in game lines that are now over ten years old. Perhaps basic sports engines that are free and come with limited amounts of data can be augmented and monetized through virtual transactions via the purchase of team sets, better players, uniforms, coaches, etc. I mean, how much would I pay to put Michael Jordan on my 2010 Golden State Warriors roster? Don’t even get me started!

It's only Wednesday (at time of writing) and it has already been one wild week. On the same day that EA announces it will buy casual game maker Playfish for up to $400 million, they also announce another whopping layoff. This time 1500 more unlucky EA employees get whacked. What's next, a government bailout?!?

If the EA news isn't big enough, on the same day, Activision releases Modern Warfare 2 and day-one sales could top 7 milliion units. Seven million units in a single day!! Wow!!

I think EA's purchase of Playfish is a great strategic move. I think the Playfish guys are awesome. They are a great symbiosis of the worlds of Web 2.0 and more traditional gaming. All the Playfish guys I have ever met or heard speak are really cool, really smart, and really understanding of the games business. I like them a lot, and I wish them good luck in navigating the stormy sea that is EA right now. Because they are going to need it.

While EA's solid strategy validates the strength of the emerging social-gaming space and of independent digital distribution in general, it is also a move of some desperation after the company's failure to exploit these internally. If I were still an EA stockholder I'd be happy about the move but extremely skeptical of the management decisions that got them to this point and which have cost so many hardworking, longtime EA employees their jobs. I really feel for these people, especially in this economy.

I mean, while EA has been recklessly hiring boatloads of people and spending gazillions of development dollars on iffy games like the Godfather series, Mirror's Edge, G.I. Joe, or Mercenaries (to name just a few), and spending tons more on Pogo.com and supposedly gearing up for digital distribution in a big way... I've gotta ask: what in hell were they thinking?? How could they have been so blind to the emerging trends in social gaming the past couple years? At any time they could easily have put 10-15 employees onto a project like Playfish and built what Playfish has built for a mere fraction of the acquisition cost. It would have been so easy for them. Instead of laying off thousands of employees this year, they could have built this business and had a lot of these people happily working in the social-games division. So while it is a good strategic move and I'm happy for Playfish - the very fact EA had to do this while laying off thousands of employees is almost criminal.

And how does the success of Modern Warfare 2 mix into this? It demonstrates how rare it will be for a company to land a big success on the major consoles. It takes a huge budget to deliver despite which success remains difficult to find. For most titles, especially for new IP (intellectual property), it just won't be worth the enormous expense and risk. Most publishers won't be able to afford it. And even for those that can, they will produce a fraction of the titles they used to. Astutely, EA sees the writing on the wall and now joins the social media “race to zero” monetization battles. I just wish that they had seen it a few thousand laid-off employees ago. That would have been really smart.

Hey there, and welcome to my blog. I’ve been in the gaming world from just about the beginning and I’ve seen some pretty wild developments over the years. And, man, it sure doesn’t look like it’s stopping anytime soon. Lately, the iPhone/iPod Touch market has gotten a lot of my attention. More about that in a minute.

In this blog I’ll be sharing my perspective on things, and I would love to hear back from you, too. Things change pretty fast in our world, and that seems especially true this past year. Okay, back to the iPhone:

Things are moving fast, but here's how it stands currently: over 2 billion downloads, over 85,000 apps and over 25,000 game apps! There are some pretty amazing things about the iPhone as a gaming device and it’s disrupted the traditional games business in a dramatic way. Of course, we all know that the traditional game companies have been hurting for several years...remember last year when everyone was saying gaming was recession-proof? OOPS! But now, with the avalanche of free and low-cost games on the iPhone and social gaming sites on PC... man, the big guys are really getting thrown back on their heels. Of course, they are starting to adjust....but when you’re used to 200+person teams, producing $20m-$40m-dollar games that retail for $80 bucks, free is quite a change! I feel for them, I really do.

But I’m not one to sit around complaining, so instead I’ve been focusing on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform for much of the past year. In just a short amount of time our development team at Portable Zoo has released several
games and been featured on the Apple landing page.

Here are a few of my general thoughts about what we’ve learned so far. I want to start a list of pros and cons, then in the next couple of weeks talk in more detail about them.

Five positives in developing for iPhone:

1. Touchscreen Interface/Accelerometer
2. Indies can flourish
3. Huge broadening of the gamer user base
4. Internet connectivity

and, finally
5. Iterate/Integrate

Five hurdles in developing for iPhone:

1. Lack of traditional game controls
2. Schizophrenic pricing
3. Inexperienced user base, game-lw’s (lightweights)
4. Needle in a haystack distribution

and last, but not least...
5. Freeware/Monetization