Sergey Kopov from Herocraft: I’m not afraid that the game will earn less than $100 a day on Apple TV, I expect it

Hi! I know that since the release of Apple TV, you have been very interested in the platform. Moreover, I took up porting the project to the Apple console. At the same time, it was already reported that top games on Apple TV earn a maximum of $ 100. Aren’t you afraid that earnings will remain at this level?

Sergey Kopov

Hi! Everyone in the industry has been waiting for this step from Apple for a long time. Everyone wanted to believe that a new market would appear right now, and millions of people with plump credit cards would discover the amazing and hitherto unknown world of games. But objectively, there was almost no chance of a miracle. The experience of earlier competitors suggests that there is no pronounced need for people to play “mobile” games on the big screen. Those who consciously want to play in the living room have got consoles for a long time. To convince the others, you need to make serious efforts. It will take time before old Apple TV users buy a new model, and new ones will notice that there are also games here.

Answering the question – no, I’m not afraid that the game will earn less than $100 a day, I expect it. The main question here is the growth rate of the Apple TV user base – I wonder what will happen in 2-3 years.

And what about this database now? If there is approximate information about its install base, the number of generated downloads of top applications?

As far as I’ve heard, popular games are now collecting up to 10-100k installations, i.e. there are probably only a few million users so far.

Here you are going to go out there with a project. And how much competition is there already among gaming applications?

The competition there is primarily for fitchering and, judging by the fact that the same games are flashing, it is still low.

Judging by the downloads, the top 10 downloads on Apple TV (in the States) do not include games at all. What do you associate this with?

The set-top box before and now is designed primarily for video, so it’s not surprising that services like YouTube and Netflix top the free download charts. People need these programs about the same way as Facebook on mobile. Probably, in a year this picture will change.

But Facebook still dominates mobile downloads. Moreover, Messenger and Instagram are still hanging from him in the Top 10.

Well, we are not talking about the leadership of specific services. It is clear that YouTube and Netflix will not go anywhere from the top. It’s interesting here how the ratio of downloads of video applications to games will change. Now, according to the App Annie report, there are noticeably fewer games being downloaded. I believe that in a year or two this ratio will at least level out.

And since we’re talking about your experience of working/interacting with the platform – in terms of presentation and interaction with content – how far, in your opinion, has Apple TV gone far from Android set-top boxes like Ouya, and how close has it come to the level of large consoles?

By tradition, Apple has not offered anything fundamentally new. The company has done everything efficiently and conveniently in the sense in which it imagines it. Unfortunately, for us, game developers, Apple TV was and remains a set-top box for video content consumption. The main problem is the remote control, which is poorly adapted for games. Nevertheless, I believe in the success of games on Apple TV more than on any other similar set-top box.

Where does such faith come from, because as far as I can tell, Apple has failed with the watch?

I wouldn’t look for parallels here. Playing and watching videos on TV is a proven need, the audience wants it for sure. Then it’s a matter of time and competition. Why do we need a smartwatch that also needs to be charged every day is an open question.

Moving on to working with the platform: if there is a ready-made game for iOS, how difficult is it to port the project to Apple TV?

This is the most positive moment – it is relatively easy to port now. Roughly speaking, tvOS is almost the same iOS, but with limitations. If your game fits into them, then there will be no major problems. Adapt the management and interface, make a resource download, if 200 MB is not enough, check the compatibility of your plugins and go into battle.

Look, despite the fact that today the resolutions of televisions and mobile devices are about the same (moreover, smartphones with a funny diagonal today often have a completely unfunny 4K), it is clear that the requirements for the picture are different. What and how is it usually remade for TV?

After playing on several TVs of different diagonals and several sofas of different distances, I came to the conclusion that the same size of elements and fonts as on a mobile phone will do.

It is clear that the cases are different, but in some average approximation, the distance from the screen is compensated by its size.

There is also such a feature: some TVs on the default settings crop a small part of the screen. The user can put it in order himself, but I think not everyone will bother with the settings.

We decided to move the critical interface elements a little away from the edge of the screen so that they are exactly in the field of view. As far as I’ve heard, this practice is also common in console game interfaces.

Herocraft has taken up porting “The Lords of the spheres.” What difficulties did your team face specifically?

“Lords of the Spheres” is a game that is called “with a story”. The first version was released on Big Fish back in 2013, so a lot has been done since then. Accordingly, now we are faced with compatibility problems of old software solutions. We moved from the fourth version of Unity to the fifth for a long time, cut and updated plugins – everything in that spirit. Ie, the main difficulty was in adapting old solutions. If you now start writing a game on Unity, then there should be no problems with going to TV.

What had to be completely thrown out/redone for TV?

One of the questions we’ve been thinking about for a long time while preparing the game for Apple TV: transfer the f2p version of the game or release the project as a premium.

Perhaps you don’t know, recently Marble Duel (the English name of the game) was released on Steam as a premium product – there is no energy, currency, bonuses. Accordingly, the interface turned out to be simpler and cleaner: the player passes the levels, plunges into the history of the world, without being distracted by anything.

As a result, we decided that this experience is best suited for the TV version of the game.

A great help for us was that we adapted the game in advance to control the gamepad. The remote control in the Unity categories is the same controller, so we just need to adjust the existing code a little.

By the way, why did they take the “Lords”? It’s such a dynamic game with the need to aim – you can’t do with lazy swipes here.

This is not quite true. You need to aim, but in most levels time does not put pressure on the player. Here you need to think seven times and shoot once. “Lords of the Spheres” is not a classic zoom game, it’s a duel: the competition here is not with time, but with an opponent (within the campaign, his role is played by AI, and in synchronous multiplayer, players compete with each other). So we thought that from the point of view of management and colorful pictures, “Lords of the Spheres” is great for Apple TV.

You said you were changing monetization. Previously, everyone often tried to abandon the premium in favor of a shareware model on the contrary. Finished projects were transferred to new rails. It turned out, let’s face it, not everyone. And how much easier is it to make a premium product out of a conditionally free game?

It is usually much easier to replace the free-to-play model with a premium one than vice versa. It is enough to adjust the balance a little, remove the relevant content and features, or make them more accessible.

Probably, this is not true for everyone, but in our case it worked

After the experience of porting and interacting with the platform – which games on Apple TV make sense, which can become successful, and which definitely do not?

Obviously, games with perfectly suitable control for the console will be popular. These are, first of all, runners of all kinds and games with one-button gameplay. A separate group – party and fitness games.

I will focus in more detail on which games should not be made / ported to Apple TV.

Firstly, games with complex f2p-binding. King of Thieves is a good example of such a product. Although the control of the basic mechanics is one-button, the meta-game is replete with various features, windows, buttons – they are very tedious to control using the remote. It should be understood that there is no d-pad (arrows) on it – their role is performed by swipes. It takes much more time to make 10 swipes than 10 button clicks.

Secondly, games that require a quick reaction from the player. Afterpulse could be cited as an example, but Breakfinity will be even clearer. It would seem that the arcade game, the control should fit perfectly, but the area of the touchscreen is so small that it is not possible to control the racket quickly and accurately.

Thirdly, games with complex controls. Here it will be most eloquent to just post a screenshot of the Dungeon Hunter control layout.

Have you already thought about how you will have to promote the game on the court if the feature does not work? Is traffic already being sold to this site?

The Lords of the Spheres is our pioneer. To begin with, of course, we are counting on the attention of the platform, the editors of the App Store like the game. Then we will look at the numbers, look for different opportunities. I have not heard that traffic has already been sold, but when they start, we will definitely try.

Thanks for the interview!