euro lottery games workshop - creating a great mobile game
DESCRIPTION
How to create a great mobile game.TRANSCRIPT
HOW TO CREATE A GREAT MOBILE GAME
Understanding what mobile gamers want.
William Volk
CCO, PlayScreen, LLC
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: William_Volk
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My background
Started out as a game designer and programmer. Moved to management, business development and then marketing.
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My background
Have worked in mobile phone games since 2001. Co-design of several mobile games.
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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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How we got here.
✤ Evolution of games (1982 vs 2012)
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How we got here.
✤ Computer Screens & Keyboards to Touch Interfaces
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Evolution of Mobile
Feature Phones to Smart Phones
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How we got here.
The App Store Changed Everything.
No barrier to entry resulted in millions of apps.
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The erosion of value
The game industry used to be a high value market.
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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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Seize The Minute
Play mobile games everywhere, may have a minute or less....
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Mobile is challenging
Connectivity is not guaranteed
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Design
A complete visualization and description of the product, Don’t ASSUME anything.
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The Design Aesthetic
What are the elements that make a game great?
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The Game Mechanic
A set of rules intended to produce a game or gameplay
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The Game Mechanic
Golf: Hit a ball and reach a designated spot
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The Game Mechanic
Poker: Produce certain numerical or categorical card combinations
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The Game Mechanic
Game Mechanic is not theme
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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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User Interface principles
Clear, consistent interfaces that are apparent and recognizable to users
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User Interface principles
Make simple, common tasks easy, communicating clearly to the user
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User Interface principles
All needed options and materials for a given task are visible
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User Interface principles
Users informed of actions, changes of state and condition
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User Interface principles
Flexible and tolerant, reducing pain of mistakes and misuse
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User Interface principles
Reuse components and behaviors, be consistent
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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.
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What Users Want
Simplicity Wins - Case Studies
Draw Something
Tiny Wings
Oregon Lottery
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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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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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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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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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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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Lottery and Real Money Games
Real Money transactions create specific requirements.
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Lottery and Real Money Games
Client/Server architecture, audit trails and other requirements
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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.
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