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Tips and Tricks for Game Developers
A horrible title for a firehose of information
Sean Kauppinen - CEO– 20+ years experience in the
games industry• Sony Online, Ubisoft, 3dfx, bleem!,
Frogster, PlayFast, others• Advisor and Board Member• Angel Investor• 570+ titles
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The Studio
Focus, Quality, Reputation
FOCUS
Focus
Pick a genre and be the best you can be at it.
Focus
Make one game at a time if you can, but no more than your resources can handle.
It’s better to deliver quality on time than multiple titles that don’t represent your best work.
QUALITY
Quality
"If it isn't fun, get rid of it!" - Bruce Shelley
Quality
You are your own best critic.
If it doesn't look good to you, it probably won't look good to your publisher or client.
Quality
Play your game and know how it compares to the most popular games in the same genre and platform in the marketplace.
Does it stack up and play better or equal to competitors?
REPUTATION
Reputation
Try not to make enemies.
This industry is smaller than you think and everyone talks. If you get a reputation for being a jerk, nobody wants to deal with you, even if you have great ideas.
Reputation
You are your brand and you need to represent it how you want to be perceived.
Reputation
If you deliver quality games on time and on budget, there is a lot of work available.
OPERATIONS
Operations and Company Culture
Hire the best department leads you can find and ensure they are continually trained.
Operations and Company Culture
Strong, empowered middle management is a cornerstone of a mature, well-run studio.
Operations and Company Culture
Take time each month (or each week) for the team to talk about their successes and challenges.
Operations and Company Culture
Companies where the management listens to the staff and helps solve issues, while praising great work, tends to have much, much lower employee turnover.
DESIGN
Design
Be mindful of the scope of your game.
Design
Be mindful of the scope of your game.
Design
Every additional character, archetype, level, world, weapon, spell, etc. adds additional time and cost for playtesting, balancing and QA.
Design
Build the game to the prototype and test the fun. If it isn’t fun, adjust the depth of the gameplay (deeper, lighter, harder, easier).
Design
If the game still isn’t fun, either kill it, or revisit your design assumptions.
Design
The team should be playing the game constantly to ensure it has the right feel. Remove any superfluous crap and polish the features that make it fun!
Design
My trick is playing every game in a genre and taking screenshots of systems I like as well as detailed notes on how things work. What works well, what doesn’t, etc.
ART
Art
The internal Art Director is a key role. You want someone with flexibility in their style, but a strong sense of what players consider appealing.
Art
Find a great art outsourcing partner - if you can use the resources of another studio, they aren't on your payroll and this provides flexibility.
Art
A studio focused 100 percent on art is likely to have more depth and art talent than your studio.
Art
Sometimes art studios are willing to co-develop games where they handle that entire aspect on a revenue share, or manage by the lead production studio.
TECHNOLOGY
Technology
Don't build your own engine, it's a waste of time.
Technology
Have someone in charge of taking systems from each game and modularize them so they can be reused.
Technology
My Buy vs. Build Philosophy - the general rule is if some technology is the core focus of another company's business, they are probably going to have something better than you can build, and at a fraction of the cost.
Technology
The exception is in systems that charge per call, or per action (i.e Analytics).
Use these as long as they make business sense, but once you understand how they work and what customization you need, build your own if you have the resources!
PRODUCTION
Production
Estimating production tends to be done by the most senior developer. Pad the time they think a task takes by 50-60 percent in order to get a real estimate for a less experienced programmer.
Production
Track your team's hours and who builds what on each project (Marco may be the fastest at building achievements next time, because he did it last time).
Production
Understand release dates and production schedules are important to both your partners and your audience.
Production
(Unless you are an indie with another source of income) you don't have unlimited time to make your game. You are not Blizzard!
Production
The market will always change from when you start production to when you launch or ship.
Be prepared by building in an extra couple weeks or months from the start to add features that the market expects at launch.
Production
This could be the ability to capture video and live stream from your game or app, or some new mechanic that everyone is now in love with.
Be prepared for 10-12 SDKs to drop out of the sky into your lap!
Production
Understand that publishers and clients have marketing and other activities they plan around a launch.
These activities cost money and slipping can cause a lot of problems.
Business
Business
Unless you are an indie with another source of income, you should be asking: How are we going to make money?
Business
Ask this question early and often.
Business
This applies to your games…and your business!
Business
If you don't know how to yet, learn to read a P&L.
BUSINESS RISK
Mitigate Business Risk
If you are doing multiple titles, don't put all of your eggs in one basket - publishers and partners do go bankrupt too!
Mitigate Business Risk
Make sure you have an attorney look at your contracts so you have important things figured out in advance (like kill fees and breach)
Go to Patrick Sweeney’s talk tomorrow @9AM!
A Successful Work for Hire (WFH) Business
Working with Clients (WFH)
Since you likely aren’t sharing royalties and won’t own the creative IP, you should be able to make a margin of 20-30% minimum on your projects.
Working with Clients (WFH)
Successful WFH studios focus on building strong technology internally so they can build games faster and more profitably.
Working with Clients (WFH)
Treat your client like they are your only client in your communications.
Never say things like: “We can get to that feature after we finish work for our other client.”
Working with Clients (WFH)
Communicate often and send weekly or monthly sprint plans so the partner can track the status of production.
Working with Clients (WFH)
• Sometimes it’s ok to breakeven on a project and not make profit, but only if you are:
– Getting key experience that improves the studio– You are gaining knowledge from the partner that
is more valuable than the profit on the project– Trying to smooth over a tough situation with an
unhappy client. (Move on after the project)
WFH ACCOUNTING
Working with Clients (WFH)
Know your costs before you quote any rate!
Working with Clients (WFH)
Make sure you are accounting for the office, equipment, software licenses and administrative staff in your calculation.
Working with Clients (WFH)
Present multiple options or solutions to a problem, but support your recommendation or decision with as many proof points as possible.
Working with Clients (WFH)
Build in an extra 15-20 percent more time than you believe you need in order to deliver on time.
The market changes so quickly, we are always aiming for the future, and last month at the same time!
Working with Publishers and Clients
Mind the Gap
Understand the time that it takes to sign a publishing deal. It could take 4-8 months depending on when you are looking to sign something and when publishers are buying.
Mind the Gap
While you are working on your game, get ready for the next one.
Build a prototype early and iterate on it in parallel to your production.
Mind the Gap
Even indies can take a day on the weekend once a month to progress a new idea. It will likely help the creative flow with both game ideas.
PITCHING PUBLISHERS
Pitching to Publishers
You are likely going to need a vertical slice or a strong prototype if you are new to the industry, or haven't had much success yet.
Pitching to Publishers
This gets better. After about 3-4 games of sufficient quality, you can likely move to a paper pitch deck, unless the budget is over $500K USD
Pitching Costs to Partners
Don't pitch your hours or team in round numbers
Pitching Costs to Partners
An estimate divisible by 8 means you didn't really analyze the estimate and are giving days instead of hours.
Pitching Costs to Partners
An estimate divisible by 40 means you are estimating by the week. That can be taken as a sign that your production process is broken or you aren’t being honest.
The Game’s Done, Now What?
Launching Your Game
You need to plan your launch before the game is finished (preferably at the beginning of production. (I have a plan if you want it – sean@ide-agency.com
Launching Your Game
Live streaming development actually gets people engaged in the game.
Launching Your Game
Build a beta test group of fans and players that give constructive feedback. (Steam, GooglePlay, HockeyApp and TestFlight are excellent platforms for this)
Launching Your Game
You can’t just stick it in the store and hope that people are going to find your game.
You actually do need to have a little money to do some kind of marketing, even if it’s for an internal resource to help post in forums and on social media.
If Indie - Build a Press Kit
• Use http://dopresskit.com/• You need:
– Some screenshots that show the game in action (preferably)
– 15 and 30 second trailers showing gameplay– Logos for the game and your company– A description and features list (if possible)
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