euro lottery games workshop - creating a great mobile game

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HOW TO CREATE A GREAT MOBILE GAME Understanding what mobile gamers want. William Volk CCO, PlayScreen, LLC Email: [email protected] Twitter: William_Volk Sunday, October 13, 13

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How to create a great mobile game.

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Page 1: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

HOW TO CREATE A GREAT MOBILE GAME

Understanding what mobile gamers want.

William Volk

CCO, PlayScreen, LLC

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: William_Volk

Sunday, October 13, 13

Page 2: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

My background

Started out as a game designer and programmer. Moved to management, business development and then marketing.

Sunday, October 13, 13

Page 3: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

My background

Have worked in mobile phone games since 2001. Co-design of several mobile games.

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Page 4: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Founded in 2010.

Has launched licensed Real Money games in the UK currently in App Store

Games are approved by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission and Apple.

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Page 5: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

How we got here.

✤ Evolution of games (1982 vs 2012)

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Page 6: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

How we got here.

✤ Computer Screens & Keyboards to Touch Interfaces

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Page 7: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Evolution of Mobile

Feature Phones to Smart Phones

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Page 8: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

How we got here.

The App Store Changed Everything.

No barrier to entry resulted in millions of apps.

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Page 9: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The erosion of value

The game industry used to be a high value market.

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Page 10: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The erosion of value

Now we ship megabytes and hope 3% will pay us a few pennies a day.

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Evolution of Mobile

No barriers to entry create an extraordinary competitive market

1,257,119 Apps785 Carts

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Page 12: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Seize The Minute

Play mobile games everywhere, may have a minute or less....

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Page 13: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Mobile is challenging

Connectivity is not guaranteed

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Page 14: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Design

A complete visualization and description of the product, Don’t ASSUME anything.

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Page 15: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The Design Aesthetic

What are the elements that make a game great?

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Page 17: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The Game Mechanic

Golf: Hit a ball and reach a designated spot

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Page 18: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The Game Mechanic

Poker: Produce certain numerical or categorical card combinations

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Page 19: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

The Game Mechanic

Game Mechanic is not theme

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Page 20: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Backstory and theme

Creates a context for the game

Examples:

Pigs steal eggs, Birds angry

Bird dreams of flying

Casino examples of themes: Slots games, Scratchers, Video Poker.

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Page 21: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

Clear, consistent interfaces that are apparent and recognizable to users

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Page 22: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

Make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly to the user

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Page 23: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

All needed options and materials for a given task are visible

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Page 24: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

Users informed of actions, changes of state and condition

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Page 25: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

Flexible and tolerant, reducing pain of mistakes and misuse

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Page 26: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

User Interface principles

Reuse components and behaviors, be consistent

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Page 27: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

That Elusive ‘iPhone-ness’

More than just the touch interface, a ‘look,’ ‘feel’ and ‘style.’

Hard to describe, but players know it when they see it.

Sunday, October 13, 13

Page 28: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

What Users Want

Simplicity Wins - Case Studies

Draw Something

Tiny Wings

Oregon Lottery

Sunday, October 13, 13

Page 29: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Draw Something

Huge viral success. 5 weeks after its launch, game was downloaded 20 million times. Company was sold to Zynga for $180m

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Page 30: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Draw Something

OMGPOP out of cash = far less features than competitive titles (Charadium, Depict)

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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Page 31: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Draw Something

Players showed off their drawings on social networks, with NO automatic feature for this functionality.

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Draw Something

Zynga acquired it and then ...

“Draw Something already smartly monetized beyond its $0.99 price by letting players pay to replace words or make guessing easier. Forcing players to also purchase colors feels excessive and engenders unnecessary negativity towards the entire experience.”

“The never-ending structure that made Draw Something brilliant to begin with also lead to the app's downfall. With no graceful end point, it is easy for your piled-up drawings to begin to feel more like an obligation, rather than a pile of fun to dig into. Especially if the pile is full of repeat words.”

Lesson: Engage Users, Learn and Act.

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Page 33: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Tiny Wings

A simple one button game, with a real iPhone ‘feel’. A delightful theme and backstory. With no marketing spend, an instant hit ... 6.5m paid sales.

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Page 34: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Oregon Lottery

A Lottery Game (machines) using Slots, Video Poker themes. Sadly, I could not find a way of playing the slots game. Needs massive improvement of user interface

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Decisions, decisions

Hardware Platform Choices

HTML or Native

It’s a WRAP, the hybrid approach to building apps

Gaming and Lottery App specific requirements

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Page 36: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Lottery and Real Money Games

Real Money transactions create specific requirements.

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Page 37: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

Lottery and Real Money Games

Client/Server architecture, audit trails and other requirements

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Page 38: Euro Lottery Games Workshop - Creating a Great Mobile Game

in conclusion

Mobile Gamers have high expectations that must be addressed.

Lottery and Real Money Casino games have unique requirements.

Real innovation will create a boom in mobile lottery games.

Sunday, October 13, 13