Archive for February, 2015

four stages of business development

26 February, 2015 at 8:00 pm · Filed under publishing ·Tagged

Four stages or challenges for the development of a new business;

  • Customer validation – is there really an audience, who are willing to pay?
  • Operational validation – can you deliver the product or service necessary to satisfy that customer?
  • Financial validation – can your business make money providing the service or selling the products to the customer?
  • Self-sustainability – can the business innovate and change in line with the customer and markets needs?

http://changethis.com/manifesto/118.06.StartupLeadership/pdf/118.06.StartupLeadership.pdf

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make your players happy to spend money

26 February, 2015 at 5:03 pm · Filed under design, publishing ·Tagged ,

“… you don’t have to trick them…
It’s not like people don’t want to spend money, they want to spend money on things that they love and they want to be charged honestly.

They don’t want to be like ‘I’ve run out of energy?’ They want to feel like it’s not monetisation based on they need to move forward, it’s monetisation based ‘I want to do this.’ When you move from need based monetisation to want based monetisation you think about things differently as a user, you don’t begrudge spending the money. I think in Japan they’re much further along that curve.”

Neil Young
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-02-26-ngmoco-founders-return-to-games

People want to spend money on the things that they love. Things that meet their needs, that entertain them and on things that feel valuable to them.

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role playing games are emotional at their core

25 February, 2015 at 9:47 pm · Filed under design ·Tagged ,

Role-playing games are thing we do to craft story or celebrate an idea or IP or to enjoy triumph — all things that are emotional at their core.

Ryan Macklin
http://ryanmacklin.com/2011/10/mechanics-rational-emotional-brains/

Rolling dice is an interesting beat in the flow of a game. It can be heavily over used, or  under rewarded or penalized to make a moment impactful. Rolling dice has an element of anticipation, which might not be an emotion like fear or joy, but can certainly heighten other existing emotions.

The key is to make the dice rolling moment something additive to the atmosphere rather than toxic. Ryan refers to ‘toxic emotional beats’ – which dice could be if they don’t become part of the narrative.

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app store 100% hand curated

25 February, 2015 at 6:56 pm · Filed under design, publishing ·Tagged ,

“Developers put so much work into their games, but they should put as much time and energy and love into selling the game as they do building the game.”

Michael Ehrenberg, Mobile Gaming USA 2014

“He went on to explain that the App Store is “100 percent hand-curated,” and when it comes to App Store Managers “You can’t pay them off or talk to them, they are the sole keyholders for featuring games.” Apple, he explained, are extremely sensitive about how their products look from the outside. Creating a high quality gameplay experience with fluid monetization and utilizing new and exciting features is the best way of getting noticed.

Slightly contradictory points; put more effort in to selling your games and create a great game experience and it will be featured… while contradictory, probably good advice on both counts.

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care about advancing through something

25 February, 2015 at 6:51 pm · Filed under design ·Tagged ,

“Sheppard went on to explain some of the mechanics payers value. “The RPG user cares a lot about advancing through something, whether it’s advancing through a character tree or advancing through a universe or a storyline. They’ll often pay to advance through that storyline. Then there’s also people paying to participate in something that’s of limited duration. Whether it’s a sale or a promo, which is the more commonly understood concept, or an event like a boss raid…

Mobile Gaming USA

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are you data driven?

10 February, 2015 at 5:05 pm · Filed under project management, publishing ·Tagged ,

Pick the right metrics

  • Good metrics are consistent, quick to collect and cheap
  • And that they capture something your business cares about

Understand the differences between analytics and experiments

  • Analytics measures what is happening in your business
  • Experiments test responses to new ideas or approaches

Ask the right question of the data

  • Frame the right question to allow effective analysis of the data

Know the difference between correlation and causation

  • Correlation is where there is a data match, with or without a connection. Good correlation is important, although not an indication of cause.
    Causation is about direct cause and effect

Know the basics of data visualization

  • Am I presenting (summary/conclusion) or circulating data (reference)?
  • Use the right kind of chart to emphasis relationships
  • Be clear about the message you are trying to convey to support the audience’s understanding
  • Ensure that the visuals reflect the numbers
  • Make the data as memorable as possible

Learn statistics


https://hbr.org/2014/05/an-introduction-to-data-driven-decisions-for-managers-who-dont-like-math/

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6 I words of innovation

10 February, 2015 at 12:12 am · Filed under design ·Tagged

Interesting approach, Adobe’s red box innovation starter program. Centred around 6 words beginning with I

  • Inception (nail down your motivation behind the idea)
  • Ideate (generate a lot of ideas)
  • Improve (hone one idea)
  • Investigate (set up an experiment to test the idea)
  • Iterate (tweak to what the data says)
  • Infiltrate (pitch your idea to management to back it with some real time and money).

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3042128/adobes-kickbox-the-kit-to-launch-your-next-big-idea#1

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how does it make you feel?

5 February, 2015 at 5:16 pm · Filed under design

A great game is about how it makes you feel, and not how it looks. I think look has a pretty big impact initially, and that gameplay creates the lasting memory and bond. Otherwise, how would retro gaming hold any sway?

“…our memory and imagination of a game, and how it made us feel, could alter the way that we see things.”

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-02-04-brenda-romero-a-great-game-is-about-how-it-makes-you-feel

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