Carsten Kisslat Guest Lecture.
Background of Kisslat
How RobotRiot Work
Free to Play Design and Dev Process;
Development Advice
Every morning you can get Google spreadsheet - SPL queries on a database - this will give you all the statistics and math of your released game and here is where you really start the game development and re-design. With f2p you have so much feedback. You know exactly how many people play your game, and what specific players /how they play.
Gameplay updates - you need to know what people will want added to your game.
Working with existing IP; What is the theme, find a teacher (someone who knows everything about the IP) then find someone who knows about the constraints due to the exsisting IP. Basically knowledge of the IP is key because if you dont the game wont be able to ship or will not sell well as it is not cohesive enough with the exsisting IP.
The whole process (first playable version) 4 weeks (specific to the game being made) This is very different to a AAA Project. And then 8-9months for design, graphics, beta testing, feedback and adjustment, polishing. On AAA project, you dont know how long the game will take to make.
It is hard not having in-house graphic artists as your idea generation can not be fluid process as you have no sparring partner and someone to quickly illustrate ideas for you in the development process (without incurring more costs) Artwork being outsourced - upfront cost rather than post-release revenue.
With a f2p you provide a service not a game - you dont necessarily ever finish it! The only caution for online games is hackers. there is no piracy.
Browser gaming and free to play are some of the most influential changes to the indipendant developer market in Kisslat's career. The new levels of distribution avenues have opened up a viable niche market. Niche gaming is OK and you can earn money but do not make the mistake of trying to change your marketd into mainstream. You can however cross-market your new game across your existing games (get players of one of your games to play your other game too).
As soon as you go to a publisher, the revenue share for your game gets smaller and smaller. Take the risks whilst your young and dont have a family to look after etc.
Why did we make a fishing game?
Niche market - not many fishing games out there - It is actually pretty interesting!!
They didnt want to go into too much detail, as then you get berated if any details are not true-to-life. Their art style allows for a greater audience.
It is actually real-life fishers which enjoy playing their game even though a lot of the features are not true to life.
Simple gameplay - it is inherent - not a great need for tutorials because everyone understands how to fish. Average Revenue Per Paying User - 30+ age of gamers, user generated content is great, but sometimes dependng on your audience then you have to do a lot of moderation. An older player average means they are more civilised gamers - less moderation - greater spendable income.
Short core game loop - perfect for casual mobile gaming.
Many possible virtual items to sell and is great for f2p.
Easy to add content (just another fish)
Putting chat into the game, can allow for happy gamers to encourage more gamers!
Easy to expand core gameplay (eg boats, underwater cam, PvP, crafting)
Easy to implement a player progression curve (levelling up, xp)
Great potential for community building!
They use unity web player. - Daily challenges - open gameplay loops to increase retention
Soft currency (earned in game) and hard currency (bought for real money)
You have to careful about how much dominance paying players will have over free players.
How do you advertise your game/company?
Initially they havent done anything - they will hijack the Big Catch forums to try and get players onto their new game. Spend a little money on Facebook. Using browser websites means competition is high and aquisition costs are high.
Would you ever consider expanding your company? Yes.
Before Facebook Advertising came about - how did you acquire large player numbers?
It was actually much easier and cheaper before - Facebook has dominated the market, and has monopolised it for indie companies.
How does your relationship between yourself as art director work with outsourcing?
- He makes a lot of wireframes and basic layout of the UI screen - mood boards, in unity theres a lot of shader metics etc. You have to be very aware of the browser's technical restraints and understand this when directing.
AAA or Indie? I was never a corporate game designer - worked for TV - prefers the indie company business model. You have more freedom as a designer/games proff. in indie but in AAA you're far more likely to just be one cog in the machine.
How do you get players to test your beta? Go to the forums and ask who would like to have a go.
When working on a new title how to you consider monetisation? - I usually do the game design first and then monetise later - do both at the same time to make a creative but effective game.
Background of Kisslat
- Worked on all platforms bar consoles. Worked on DVD interactive Games. Free to play games - RobotRiot. Was a designer on erepublic.com very community driven game - almost no content - 70% of the game happens outside of the actual game - very social elements and very organic in the game's development. Left erepublic 2010.
- Founded RobotRiot. 2011. www.kisslat.com
- elecware - bought by infospace in 2005 - where Kisslat worked prior to RobotRiot. Produced a lot of Java Games - 128 x 128 pixel resolution game. It meant that as a designer you could work on all types of games. Acquired Siemens partnership.
How RobotRiot Work
- Distributed virtual Studio - 4 founders. Coder in Hamburg, one near Hamburg and one in Berlin (as well as London) They work in coding, art direction, producing, business development.
- 3D is outsourced to Bulgaria as they are cheap and efficient.
- Skype Group Chat - main communication tool. (You can see what everyone has said, and you can catch up on what has happened over night eg: with time differences)
- Screen Sharing (join.me)
- Weekly Conference Calls
- Documentation always happens on GoogleDocs. which allows for sharing and group adjustment etc of documents.
- Dropbox, Google Drive and Fiel Exchange -
- JIRA/Greenhopper for agile project management documentation and art feedback.
- They are a very experienced core team.
- No divas, just straight forward problem solving.
- And it is a very small team size. There are no sub-teams to have to worry about.
Free to Play Design and Dev Process;
- Briefing
- what who when where and why - Research
- New or existing IP? Tech constraints? Competitior Analysis? - Initial Concept
- core gameplay, key features regarding acquisition (sending gifts, rewards for players selling on the game to friends)
- retention (once you get your players, how to keep them playing the game
- energy allowance for example, and energy recoup (long time replenish or short replenish for real life money),
- monetisation (essential for browser, f2p and mobile gaming) (how do you convert players into paying players - if it is well monetised 4-5% of your audience will be paying money for ingame items or credits etc. this is key to knowing your audience and target market) - Feedback (from your team or client, marketing, sales, financiers etc)
- Flowcharts, Wireframes,Prototyping
- (needs to be quick as long-timescale GDD etc means that everything takes longer)
- They work agile - like in interactive flowchart - layout the core mechanisms of your games and you can put all the logic and the mechanics of the game. This is essential to Game Designers. (Meshynations - theres a tutorial on Kisslat.com)
- Flowcharts can contain all your logic in the game. Wireframes help you with several screens and programmers love it. Publishers love it. It is easier to change a flowchart - visio for windows - online tools (balsamic - google this) that a massive GDD and it helps you ascertain how fun the game is. You can see where it is not working and easily work into that area to make it more fun. - Feedback (on previous stage)
- Concept Iteration
- At this stage everyone should know what to do and what they need to do. - You can make a level's design in Lego - this tangible form allows you to see it at all angles physically in front of you. - MVP - Minimum Viable Product - whats the least you can make of the game to release it so if it sinks in the water (what do you really need in the launch version) it will sink quick and you can count your losses and move on.
- Filling the Backlog
- Breaking up your game into all the actions involved and stories - and the devs break it down into tasks. This can get complicated because so much of game programming is new for each game made - there is a high level of entropy. - First Playable Version
- Feedback from 'friends and family'
- This can be hard as the game is not polished - it needs to be fun simply from gamepay and this allows for you to check that the game works before you spend money on high-end graphics. At this stage you need to kill your ego and cut out many of your 'darlings' which is never easy for a designer. - Feature Complete Version
- Closed Beta
- Feedback from closed beta - making it polished, but not taking too much time on it as this will make it more expensive, the polishing is the money-pit. At this stage you still don't know how your game will work in the market so no unnecessary costs. - Polishing/bug fixing
- Open Beta
- Commercial Launch - your game is released onto the open game market.
- Feedback and Analytics
- free software
- survey monkey
- googledocs/analytics
- (however they all know your data) eg: the buy button should be orange
- adjustments to the UI so that it is a more effective display to the player. - Improvement, Content Update, Gameplay Update.
- KPIs - Key Performance Indicators (monthly active users, retention rates, monetisation, in-game KPI - how many fishes caught per daily active user)
Development Advice
Every morning you can get Google spreadsheet - SPL queries on a database - this will give you all the statistics and math of your released game and here is where you really start the game development and re-design. With f2p you have so much feedback. You know exactly how many people play your game, and what specific players /how they play.
Gameplay updates - you need to know what people will want added to your game.
Working with existing IP; What is the theme, find a teacher (someone who knows everything about the IP) then find someone who knows about the constraints due to the exsisting IP. Basically knowledge of the IP is key because if you dont the game wont be able to ship or will not sell well as it is not cohesive enough with the exsisting IP.
The whole process (first playable version) 4 weeks (specific to the game being made) This is very different to a AAA Project. And then 8-9months for design, graphics, beta testing, feedback and adjustment, polishing. On AAA project, you dont know how long the game will take to make.
It is hard not having in-house graphic artists as your idea generation can not be fluid process as you have no sparring partner and someone to quickly illustrate ideas for you in the development process (without incurring more costs) Artwork being outsourced - upfront cost rather than post-release revenue.
With a f2p you provide a service not a game - you dont necessarily ever finish it! The only caution for online games is hackers. there is no piracy.
Browser gaming and free to play are some of the most influential changes to the indipendant developer market in Kisslat's career. The new levels of distribution avenues have opened up a viable niche market. Niche gaming is OK and you can earn money but do not make the mistake of trying to change your marketd into mainstream. You can however cross-market your new game across your existing games (get players of one of your games to play your other game too).
As soon as you go to a publisher, the revenue share for your game gets smaller and smaller. Take the risks whilst your young and dont have a family to look after etc.
Why did we make a fishing game?
Niche market - not many fishing games out there - It is actually pretty interesting!!
They didnt want to go into too much detail, as then you get berated if any details are not true-to-life. Their art style allows for a greater audience.
It is actually real-life fishers which enjoy playing their game even though a lot of the features are not true to life.
Simple gameplay - it is inherent - not a great need for tutorials because everyone understands how to fish. Average Revenue Per Paying User - 30+ age of gamers, user generated content is great, but sometimes dependng on your audience then you have to do a lot of moderation. An older player average means they are more civilised gamers - less moderation - greater spendable income.
Short core game loop - perfect for casual mobile gaming.
Many possible virtual items to sell and is great for f2p.
Easy to add content (just another fish)
Putting chat into the game, can allow for happy gamers to encourage more gamers!
Easy to expand core gameplay (eg boats, underwater cam, PvP, crafting)
Easy to implement a player progression curve (levelling up, xp)
Great potential for community building!
They use unity web player. - Daily challenges - open gameplay loops to increase retention
Soft currency (earned in game) and hard currency (bought for real money)
You have to careful about how much dominance paying players will have over free players.
---------------------Q and A- -----------------------
How do you advertise your game/company?
Initially they havent done anything - they will hijack the Big Catch forums to try and get players onto their new game. Spend a little money on Facebook. Using browser websites means competition is high and aquisition costs are high.
Would you ever consider expanding your company? Yes.
Before Facebook Advertising came about - how did you acquire large player numbers?
It was actually much easier and cheaper before - Facebook has dominated the market, and has monopolised it for indie companies.
How does your relationship between yourself as art director work with outsourcing?
- He makes a lot of wireframes and basic layout of the UI screen - mood boards, in unity theres a lot of shader metics etc. You have to be very aware of the browser's technical restraints and understand this when directing.
AAA or Indie? I was never a corporate game designer - worked for TV - prefers the indie company business model. You have more freedom as a designer/games proff. in indie but in AAA you're far more likely to just be one cog in the machine.
How do you get players to test your beta? Go to the forums and ask who would like to have a go.
When working on a new title how to you consider monetisation? - I usually do the game design first and then monetise later - do both at the same time to make a creative but effective game.
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