Welcome to Casual Connect Europe. Even into 2010, the casual games industry continues to be a vibrant and exciting industry with a huge mass of continued growth potential. We welcome you to join us for three days of meetings, lectures and networking.
For many game developers, social networks are a new and exciting medium for monetizing and distributing games. While many envision social networks as a plug & play marketing solution, given the increased competition and a lack of a centralized consumer ranking system, game penetration rarely grows organically without additional marketing and promotional support. How should developers conduct marketing and promotions on social networks to get the most bang for their buck? And even if a game is able to beat the odds and grows organically, how are developers able to compete with large marketing and promotional budgets to make their game top in its genre?
Social networks offer a great opportunity for game professionals as the basic skills for creating fun and addictive game play are timeless. But there are additional game design challenges inherent in creating persistent experiences. How should developers make the transition to persistent gameplay and what are the most important game design elements needed for social games?
The power of global distribution is undeniable and if done right results in significant revenue gains with minimal additional investment. As Facebook and other social networks expand internationally, what should a developer consider in their localization and distribution strategy to take advantage of this opportunity?
Please join us as we explore the opportunities social networks provide developers and help developers better monetize their games.
Questions for Rex can be sent to a-rex.ng@casualconnect.org.
Literature, music, dance, film or architecture – all of them are clearly known as arts. But what about games? Can they be counted as objects of cultural value?
We think they definitely can. Computer games are the result of artistic activities. They feature their own esthetics, colors, music and content. Artists like designers and composers are part of the gaming industry.
Virtual games have become part of our culture and are not a fringe group phenomenon anymore. For that reason the German Cultural Council accepted the German Association of Computer Game developers as an official member in August 2009.
This session examines the meaning of games as new objects of cultural value and how casual games contributed to this development. After all games are more than just games.
Many of the assumptions people in the casual games industry take for granted are no longer valid. In this session industry veterans will give you their “best of” insights on the recent changes. The game designer of the future needs to think different - about monetization, games as a service, and social interaction as the new content.
Viral marketing is much different from what it used to be. Traditional organizational structures are no longer the most effective. New technologies enable scientific management, continuous improvement, and global scaling of our games. This session is highly recommended for game designers, strategists and everybody that wants to be a part of the next wave in the games space.
You work in Berlin. Your team works in the U.S. Your business partners are spread out all over the world. Although this may sound like a Mobile Phone commercial, it has become the reality of our everyday lives. What does it take to keep the communication moving smoothly in today’s Global economy? How much is too much contact with your business partners? The goal of this session is to explore some best practices in business with a focus on communication. From the ideal way to keep your global work force engaged, to ideas and suggestions on how to deliver tough messages to your partner, this interactive session will explore the successes and failures we’ve all experienced within this world we call Casual Games.
Come hear representatives from some of the biggest distribution portals in the casual games space as they openly share their thoughts and ideas on its current state and future and ask them the trickiest, most burning questions you can think of again this year.
A lot has changed in the course of these 12 months. Let's hear this year's revelations and discuss the current trends in the casual games industry including life-cycle Management, exclusivity, pricing as well as social games as a potential threat to the downloadable space and a lot more.
Casual Game developers are increasingly betting the farm (or Farmville) by moving into Social Games. Eye-popping stats like “350 MILLION USERS” and “$500,000+ PER DAY” tempt even the most even-minded game developers. As with iPhone and PC downloads before, “rags to riches” success eludes the overwhelming majority of participants. We’ll take a peek behind the curtain, examine what is going on with Social Games, and what skills it takes to succeed. Social Games are a tremendous opportunity…but unless you have the right plan, leverage the right partnerships, and execute properly, you may be disappointed in the results.
Everyone knows about Zynga, Playdom, and Playfish – but what about Backstage, Viral, Offbeat, and Crowdstar? Small companies are making good money in the shadows of the big players – and while this isn’t the fabled “$500,000” per day – it IS a ton of money per-capita. A group of smaller successful social game developer/publishers talk about how they compete effectively against the big guys and get quietly rich – and whether doing so will be possible in the future.
Social game design must not only result in a fun product, but must also bend to the whims of the business environment. How does the production and game design process work in this environment? What do you need to do inside of your production process to ensure success?
How does one create “sustainable competitive advantage” in a market with low barriers to entry, short development cycles, bug-tolerant consumers, and large, well-funded, experienced publishers blatantly willing to rip off any idea that appears to work well? Is the answer customer loyalty? Design innovation? Proprietary technology? Analytics? Or some combination of all of these things?
Real innovation in social games comes from creating rich, exciting virtual worlds and then giving players the opportunity to cooperate and compete together. This is the lesson of the two-player arcade game design, 4-player XBLA games, Wii Sports, and many of the most successful MMOs. Players want to interact with each other, even creating content for each other. This is what makes social gaming more akin to a party than simply an excuse to raid your contact list for more users. Take Away: Practical examples of including social components into existing game designs are shown, along with design methodologies that encourage multiple players to work together or compete with their friends.
2009 will be remembered as the year that casual gaming stormed social platforms and changed the way millions of people socialized with friends online. With an up-to-$400 million acquisition of Playfish by Electronic Arts, hundreds of millions of dollars in venture investments, and some of the highest engagement numbers that online entertainment has ever seen, social games are now impacting businesses across the media landscape. There are new and substantial opportunities for social game developers with virtual goods revenue models, but the market is still evolving rapidly.
What are the keys to social gaming's growth in 2010? How will existing players fare as Facebook shifts the social gaming landscape, and many larger players with extraordinary assets enter the market? Will another platform other than Facebook emerge? As the barriers to entry to the Top 25 games ramp up sharply, what are the game-changers that will pave the way for success for new entrants? This presentation will supply a practical snapshot of social games in rapid transition over the next 12-18 months.
Why is it that intelligent, experienced, accomplished managers in the game business walk into a "games-as-service" project with eyes wide open and research-in-hand, and STILL manage to radically underestimate the difficulty of running a live online service? Is it really that hard? The answer is "yes"! But there is hope - come find out how to avoid the horrors of embarrassingly overshot launch dates, catastrophic infrastructure failures, update paralysis, plummeting team morale, and disturbingly dissatisfied communities. Find out the real deal on running a "service" rather than launching a "product".
Smartphones are the new black in the mobile content world, but who are the main players and which of the many new platforms and accompanying app stores should you be supporting? Our expert panel of platform representatives and publishers offer an invaluable guide from Android to Windows Mobile.
Cover off Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm, 360, Etc. Outline the new tech and attractions/challenges of each platform as well as other tech issues (e.g. tough screen, motion sensor)
Eric Hobson discusses the changing mobile games market and the strategies publishers are adopting to make the most of the opportunities available today.
The last 18 months have really been all about the iPhone, but as the dust settles after the initial gold rush it’s becoming clear that Apple’s platform isn’t necessarily the panacea to all problems. Pocket Gamer founder Chris James hacks away the hyperbole and provides the key trends, facts and figures that you need to know if you’re prospecting on Apple’s platform.
Marketing mobile content has always been something of a black art, but this panel attempts to shed some light by discussing the full gamut of techniques for building buzz and promoting your product and sharing their experiences.
Welcome to Casual Connect's 2nd Games for Gamers Forum. As the casual games space continues to evolve, the chasm between the "core" and "casual" markets increasingly narrows. Juan Gril, Director and Founder of Joju Games will review the year's most interesting trends in bridging the gap between core and casual.
The up hills, blind summits and leaps of faith, to the tremors, trips and falls of one naked survivor and a new developer. Reece Millidge strips Damp Gnat's first Flash game 'Icycle' and bares all.
In this session Jasper Koning will discuss the development of the studios' first WiiWare game, Swords & Soldiers. The game was the first commercial project of Ronimo Games, a studio formed by graduates who, during their student days, were responsible for the PC version of de Blob. Swords & Soldiers started out as a flash prototype, and transforming it to a complete WiiWare title was a relatively smooth ride. Still, its development presented plenty of challenges. A quirky toolchain, extensive internal delays, and balancing depth with accessibility are some of the challenges which will be discussed.
During the past couple of years, RedLynx has developed a number of successful, digitally-distributed games. This presentation focuses on RedLynx’s most recent success, Trials, and sheds light on how RedLynx creates game ideas that have potential to expand to multiple platforms, and how those ideas are developed into great games, step by step, starting from selected platforms, expanding into new games and other platforms, and how that also builds overall awareness of the games among both casual and hardcore gamers.
Rocket Riot is Codeglue's first XBLA game. Developed using Microsoft's XNA technology, the game won a Dutch Game Award for best Visual Design. This session will delve into the production process of the game, what went right, what went wrong and the lessons we learned from this project.
In this talk the studio founder and project leader Jakub Dvorsky will show how their last game was built - from initial concept artwork to final product. He will also explain the importance of very tight collaboration between designer, artist, animator, musician and other team members to achieve the desired hand-made feeling and atmosphere. Jakub will also share their experiences with digital distribution and explain why small developers shouldn't work with big casual games portals.
After attending the day's sessions and seeing the great games that have been released, you have more questions right? Participate in our closing session for the forum - a panel of the day's presenters, where they will discuss the future of games for gamers and answer all your questions in an informal, open-mic setting. So go ahead, ask your questions. These guys will answer!
As development costs skyrocket, outsourcing your art production to offsite and international teams becomes an increasingly attractive option. The cost savings can be tremendous when managed effectively, but outsourcing can also offer significant drawbacks that can make it turn from dream come true into a nightmare.
This panel features a medley of art production directors and managers from all across the game industry. These veterans delve into their personal experiences with outsourcing art to off-site and international teams. They will share their wisdom, detail their best practices and answer questions such as when you should and shouldn't outsource art, what to look for when selecting an art studio, how best to manage artists from a foreign country, and much more.
The attendees that would benefit the most from this type of talk would be art directors, art managers, producers, contract artists, and anyone involved in art development.
Games for Windows is Microsoft’s dedicated PC Game Developer program. With the launch of Windows 7 we have expanded the program to include casual titles from independent developers with a goal being to enable you to best exploit new features for games in Windows 7 as well as promote your titles in partnership with Microsoft. This session will provide an overview to the new Games for Windows program including key features in Windows 7, the new self-certification process and promotional opportunities.
Simone Brunozzi, Technology Evangelist for Amazon Web Services for Europe and APAC, will explain how Cloud Computing can be used to build better platforms for games. This session will cover some general as well as technical aspects of AWS, and how it can help game professionals build businesses without worrying about the infrastructure. For more details, please visit: http://aws.amazon.com. Ask Simone questions in advance via Twitter: http://twitter.com/simon.
Despite its rapid growth in recent years, there has been little comprehensive data available about the Flash gaming market despite the massive online audiences that it attracts. In the past, many game developers and market players largely operated on assumptions and interpretations of their own data to inform their decisions. This presentation will provide insight into this rapidly evolving market through the results of a survey comprised of over 1,100 Flash game developers and website owners over the course of 3 months. You will learn about the demographics, location, and economics of the Flash games developers market, and will find out how players are transacting out there today.
Ever wondered how to implement word-of-mouth marketing into your games? Come listen to the representatives of game industry, who will share their experience in game development and suggest various tools for making your game viral.
While gameplay in a casual game is and must remain king, that does not mean that accompanying stories need to be thin or non-existent. During this session we will discuss a few key points on the topic of stories and casual games:
- Why are stories often ignored in casual games?
- When stories are added to the gameplay, how does it improve or detract from the experience? What are some good examples?
- What are some things to think about when developing stories for casual games?
It's time to wake up! Friday morning is a great time to come up with innovative designs for social games. Join this live, interactive game design jam led by veteran game designers, get your ideas rolling and learn new game design methods! Members of the audience will join teams led by experienced game designers. Each team has 30 minutes to work on their idea and turn that diamond in the rough into a game pitch for a new social game. The Jam culminates with one minute pitches for each game that will be judged. You'll have fun and learn valuable methods for collaborative game design and applying social mechanics in casual games. Join us for the Game Design Jam!
In this day of depressed price points and exponential production costs how does a game maker take advantage of the explosion of casual gameplay and commerce that lives on after the download? In this talk, Aaron Norstad, Director of Production for PlayFirst will talk about best practices for creating long-lasting, world-class character IP and how best to manage and leverage that IP in the ever-expanding world of casual game play. Using Flo from Diner Dash as a test case this talk will offer a kind of dissection of Flo, Diner Dash and the Dinerverse as it is making its migration from downloads into iPhone, connected console, Xbox, PSN, DS and (soon) social networks.
Few casual games have made a successful transition to social networks. Simply porting a game won´t do the trick. Casual games developer Johan Peitz and Magnus Alm, CEO of the advergame studio Muskedunder Interactive, recently took a downloadable casual game to Facebook. The simple but elegant arcade style game Icy Tower was released in 2001 by Johan´s company Free Lunch Design. It has to this day been downloaded over 20 million times.
Free Lunch Design had the downloadable game and a large fanbase. Muskedunder added world class Flash development and the experience of how to reach many users in a short time frame. The result was an overnight success. Icy Tower gained over 500,000 users in the first five weeks alone.
The presentation will deliver insights on how to redesign a game for social networks without losing and even enhancing key success factors. Attendants will learn the key elements of social game design to consider when entering this market by redesigning an existing game. What features to keep and which to avoid. How to cross promote and gain momentum for both the downloadable title and the social version of the game. Johan and Magnus will also deliver insights about the workflow associated with a service rather than a product.
Looking for real, relevant and useful data as well as guiding principles and design philosophies for putting virtual goods in your game? Join Margaret Wallace of Playmatics and Josh Larson of Mochi Media for an advanced-level discussion on the how and why of using virtual goods in your game. Get concrete data on items that sell well and those that don't. Are there different spending patterns, items and mechanics for single player vs. multiplayer and social games? What about the underlying mechanics of a virtual economy (inflation, supply and demand etc.), player retention vs. monetization (some games milk players for all they've got within 3 months, then spit them out)? Successful implementation of virtual goods requires careful balancing and consideration of gameplay mechanics and strategies. This presentation covers winning strategies, game-play mechanics and other tips for developers to successfully integrate virtual goods into their games and how to avoid the pitfalls that others have encountered. Walk away with concrete examples on how to approach virtual economies in your game.
The age of 3D Browser games is upon us and with it the dominance of Flash as a development platform may be in question. This session will provide an overview and offer first hand experience of the different technologies out there. Which technology is suitable for which project size, what are the demands on performance and which workflows/tools are supported? Hands on experience from two commercially released 3D Browser games.
Mini-games and puzzles are integral to most casual games. Implementing well-designed mini-games and puzzles can significantly affect how a game is perceived and whether or not the customer decides to purchase the game. This talk will cover issues such as how to design a good puzzle or mini-game, common pitfalls to avoid, prototyping, difficulty levels, types of hints, conveying rules, player feedback, and implications for casual game genres. The talk will focus on effective and practical ways designers and developers can improve mini-games and puzzles within budgetary and time constraints.
Advergames are one of the few examples where brands can successfully entice consumers to participate with their brands, play with advertising messages and spark the viral effect. However, advergames can be perceived as new or too risky by some marketers. In this session Helen Copnall from E&D, Microsoft, will provide insight into why advergaming should be a key component in the digital marketing mix, how to build an effective advergame as well as share case study examples of successful campaigns that have used advergames to effectively engage their target audience. The session is designed for marketers, creative agencies and developers.
Listen, learn, and laugh as we explore the latest trends in casual games and ask industry pundits to voice their opinions. Is it “real” or is it “hype”? We’ll explore topics like pricing, consolidation of portals, audiences, development trends and emerging business models.
Social game publishers connect millions of customers with blue-chip advertisers that fund a large part of the multi-billion dollar social gaming industry. This panel will examine how advertisers think about this channel, monitor customer quality and identify opportunities for growth. How does customer quality for advertisers affect the long-term revenue potential for game publishers? What are some of the potential negative consequences if game publishers don't develop a strong feedback loop with advertisers? How will advertisers adapt to the changing customer landscape as new players (Sony, EA, etc.) move into the space in 2010?
