At the recent DevGAMM 2014 conference in Moscow, we talked with Unity, Vlambeer, Renatus, Nival and FDG about the present and future of the mobile industry.
A year ago, everyone said: we need to do midcore projects. What should I do now to be in the trend in a year?
David Helgason, Unity
To be honest, I do not know. We at Unity see that developers are making completely different games.
We see a lot of midcore projects, we also see a lot of hardcore and casual games, a lot of highly artistic projects whose developers experiment, to a greater extent, with visual presentation rather than with mechanics (this, for example, happened with Monument Valley).
Therefore, it seems to me that we are now in a situation where many genres and many platforms can be successful as a business. And it seems to me that everyone needs to experiment, try different directions, because if everyone makes midcore games, then it will soon be very difficult to make money on this genre. It is better to ignore the main streams, unless you are sure that you will be successful.
Rami Ismail, Vlambeer
There is such an interesting movement now: independent development is becoming more relevant, tools are becoming more accessible. But with this comes problems: if everyone makes games, if there are a lot of them on the market, how to find good ones among them?
Visibility is a big problem in the gaming industry, and the solution (one of the possible ones) is the consolidation of small publishers, the consolidation of developers so that they work together, combine efforts. This is what needs to be done now.
Alexandra Skripka, Renatus
First of all, it is necessary to make cross-platform games. Midcore and hardcore projects are still very relevant for the market.
Sergey Orlovsky, Nival
Continue to develop midcore projects. This has not changed, the trend not only continues to be relevant, but is also gaining strength. Then there will be more and more similar games, and they will become more and more popular.
Philippe Deschl, FDG
If I only knew (smiles). If we talk about trends, I would note the following: people are making fewer and fewer puzzles. This is a major change. At the same time, there are more and more unusual projects on the market. Yes, games like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush are very popular now, but whole armies are working on these projects now, a small team cannot afford this. And that’s why original, new projects appear. Creativity is returning to the mobile industry.
For the fifth month in a row, we see how simple games become hits: Flappy Bird, 2048, Piano Tiles, Make it Rain. Why?
David Helgason, Unity
I think the most important aspect here is this: people talk about these games with each other. It is quite possible that the concept of success today is to do something special, something that no one has, find their own category, invent, make them talk about themselves.
Many games that have become successful have gone through this. It is clear that the niches that have arisen are filled with many clones, but for some time the niche ensures the success of the pioneer.
I believe that developers should concentrate on making interesting projects that do not just entertain people, but those that people will want to tell others about. And this is not the same thing. You may like the game, but you won’t be inspired enough to share it with your friends, so it’s important to think about making a project that you want to show your friend, to provide for the possibility of viral distribution of the game.
Rami Ismail, Vlambeer
The reason for the success of 2048 is Threes!, which was also very successful, which was promoted by Apple.
I think that people like interesting games, that they like simple projects that don’t need to spend a lot of time on. Everyone plays such games, all types of players, both casual and hardcore players. I really love Flappy Bird, I’m a big fan of this game, I also really love Threes! Brilliant games.
Interestingly, there was a stage in history when games were built around interesting mechanics, and recently we went through a stage when, first of all, narrative was important, and now there is such a shift back when curious mechanics are on the wave again. And I like it. No, I also like narrative games, but thoughtful, smart mechanics are what I appreciate in games.
Alexandra Skripka, Renatus
It seems to me that the point is in their simplicity. In the same 2048 – there is logic, there is a challenge, and you can return to this game at any time. In addition, in such games, the user is doomed to defeat. It is impossible to win them, only to score any number of points. And the pursuit of the maximum figure – returns to the project. Yes, it is annoying, but at the same time it returns.
Sergey Orlovsky, Nival
All that you have listed are exceptions. They were made according to completely different principles, different from those by which successful games are usually made. You can never start from the experience of such projects, because the probability of repeating their success is minimal. It is there, but very small. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on making just successful projects in your niche and with a certain probability (small) they can also achieve great success. This, in my opinion, is a much more correct strategy.
Philippe Deschl, FDG
I often ask myself this question. And, by the way. I’m not talking about 2048, as it’s a clone of Threes!
In Threes! I play a lot, I really like it. It’s easy to play, each session is unique, it’s difficult to score a lot of points, the length of the session is small. But, to be honest, I do not know why this particular game became successful.
Free-to-play won. What will happen to those types of games that cannot be monetized in this way (quests, games tied to the plot)?
David Helgason, Unity
A difficult question. On the one hand, as the data show us, free-to-play games bring the greatest profit. On the other hand, if you take a closer look at the figures obtained, it turns out that only a few projects earn the main money. And the risk is to think that the only way to be successful is to develop free–to-play games. It’s very difficult. Investing in such projects can require huge sums. And not only in the games themselves, but also in operating them. Of course, people should make such games if they know how to make them, if the developers are so ambitious. But we have seen games that are not distributed under the free-to-play model, and which have been very successful. No, of course, we were not talking about billions, but the companies remained in a good plus, developed, made new games. Look at Monument Vally, look at Room, very high-quality projects that have earned quite well. And we see that the App Store is trying to make sure that at least good paid projects get featured.
Rami Ismail, Vlambeer
Vlambeer traditionally releases paid games. But, look, many successful companies that are successful in the free-to-play market are experiencing difficulties. I am sure that new f2p models will appear in the near future. Look at shareware projects on PC, they use free-2-play, which does not damage the gameplay. I am sure that this will soon come to the mobile market.
Alexandra Skripka, Renatus
Publishers and developers are different, everyone has their own strategy, everyone is looking for their own. We think that there is still a place for premium projects on the market, not everyone dies, many continue to earn, live. Perhaps someone who is engaged in paid games will switch to free-to-play in the future. Again, you can’t say that free-to-play won. He won in the casual, in the mass segment. At the same time, there are niches for other genres.
Sergey Orlovsky, Nival
I believe that it is possible to figure out how to monetize even quests through free-to-play (additional content, DLC, episodic distribution model, and so on). For example, to make the first series free, and the rest – only for some money. This is quite a working business model, especially in the children’s market. If you can’t figure out how to monetize the game directly at all, then you can, of course, try advertising models, but, objectively speaking, this is a very weak monetization channel, serious games for this money will then be impossible to do and, accordingly, if the project is “slightly above average”, then any other ways, except for micropayments, subscriptions or episodic distribution models – there is nothing left.
Philippe Deschl, FDG
Free-to-play won the race, today people don’t want to pay for games, however, it seems to me that we will see new free-to-play concepts, new ways of monetization that will solve this problem.
P.S. In a conversation with us, Alexandra Skripka also noted that Renatus, the organizer of DevGAMM, may hold the next conference outside the CIS.