As part of the WN Dev Contest, we are launching a mini-series of interviews. In them, the jury of the competition will share tips on working in the game market. We open the cycle with a conversation with MJ Fahmi, CEO of Babil Games.
WN Dev Contest is a competition of games created on Unreal Engine 4. Held by WN Media Group in conjunction with Unreal Engine and Reboot Develop.
MJ Fahmy
App2Top.ru : Many developers are afraid that their idea will be stolen. Does this happen often?
Fahmy: Yes, it happens. Especially often in a competitive environment. However, you should not worry about this if you have a good team. Any team always has a list of ideas.
App2Top.ru Questioner: But most of them have already been implemented by someone.
Fahmy: Yes. Therefore, I will say this: it is not the idea itself that is important, but who is the first to implement it. Equally important is the level of execution, available production facilities and experience.
The first one on the market always has an advantage. He is a pioneer in the niche and is sure to get a loyal audience. But even if you follow the beaten path, it's okay. The main thing is to have good code, great gameplay and support. Is it in place? Then it's all right: you will definitely succeed.
App2Top.ru : Let's talk about mobile publishers. At one time, there were those on the market who collected projects solely to expand their portfolio. They were not ready to invest in promotion. Instead, they spent some money on the launch push at the launch, looked at the indicators, and if they turned out to be so-so, they lost interest in the project. But they were not going to give away the rights to the project. The growing portfolio helped them to use cross-promotion to pour traffic to something more promising. Are publishers still doing this? How can I protect myself from this?
Fahmy: Yes, some publishers still resort to this practice.
It is easy to avoid such a partnership. Before working with a publisher, study his profile, take a look at how many games he releases each year.
Then dig a little deeper, turn to analytical services. They are able to show the basic KPI (number of downloads, advertising campaigns, revenue) for each project.
This will help answer the question of whether to trust him with the game.
App2Top.ru : I want to continue the topic about publishers. There are a lot of them on the market today. Everyone has unique offers, their own buns. And where do you think the publisher's work begins, and where does it end?
Fahmy: I will answer here using my own example. We're a publisher.
Our work starts when the developer has a build ready for technical tests. We implement our SDK into it and get to work: we improve and refine every aspect of the game. The task is to maximize the KPI and polish the project to a softlonch
App2Top.ru Questioner: It's good that you started talking about working with a developer. To do this, publishers often allocate a producer to an external project. Sometimes there is a conflict between the producer and the team. The first has its own vision of development, the second has its own. How are such disputes resolved?
FAHMY: Ha, it's simple here. Vision is always important, without it the game has no soul!
As for your question, we resolve any dispute with A/B testing. It is important for us that the producer and the team can test everything that they think is important. The best answer to the question of what the user wants is given by the numbers, the dynamics of the KPI.
App2Top.ru : I can't help but ask about your participation in the WN Dev Contest. You judge projects and also look for games for the edition among the contestants. Tell me which ones?
FAHMY: We are currently looking for midcore and hardcore mobile games. Projects with multiplayer are especially interesting. Therefore, we are looking at both match-3 with meta, as well as shooters, strategies and races.