Working with a major piece of intellectual property is both challenging and rewarding. From the initial excitement of placing your name next to a major brand to the anticipation of the first sales report, it’s a complicated but satisfying relationship with many interesting and unique challenges.
Those of us who work in the games industry are no strangers to licensed product. These days it seems that just about anyone is willing to slap any old license on a game-play mechanic. Yet with all the excitement around licenses, one of the biggest mistakes one can make in the casual games industry is to assume that a license makes a game successful. True, the familiar name might increase traffic to your game, but in a predominantly trial-to-purchase marketplace, you’re most certainly doomed to failure if the game doesn’t stand on its own merits or fit well with the license.
At the same time, you should never underestimate a licensor’s belief that the license can and will make your game a hit. The various statistics and countless graphs always point to the power of the brand. As a licensee, it’s important to set realistic expectations, especially for the licensors unfamiliar with trial-to-purchase consumers or those who have historically relied on retail impulse buying.
The Development Process
Before you begin development or the design process, you should work with the licensors to determine what is really important to them about their brand. Knowing which things you can or cannot modify or adjust for your project will save time and bitter feelings later in production. If you’re going to modify the brand in any way, it is often best to present those modifications to the licensor by using a different brand to illustrate what you have in mind. Concrete examples can help show how other brands have been successfully adapted to games. Use those as support for any adaptations you’re planning to implement for your project.
Beginning with pre-production and throughout development, there should be constant review to ensure that the license acquired will lead to a successful game. First and foremost, the license has to appeal to the target audience. In addition, the game, the demographic, and the license have to align. Lastly, the game itself has to be great.
Once production begins, it’s safe to assume that your licensors will want to see progress as frequently as possible—which can really complicate your development if not managed properly. Involving the licensor at the right time is critical to keeping your project moving forward at a steady and methodical pace. Anything that you’re creating as a representation of their license (including characters, settings, storylines, etc.) should certainly be made available for their review as early as possible.
However, you should minimize the licensors’ involvement with other aspects of development, especially in the early stages when your team is working to turn a design document into an actual game. In particular, you should strive to minimize the licensors’ exposure to the unfinished portions of the project. When the time comes to show them a work-in-progress, you can expect your team to be hit with a list of questions about unfinished bits of the project. The best you can do is have a conversation prior to every milestone reminding the licensors what they can expect, what isn’t supposed to be finished, and what you’d like them to comment on and approve.
In short, if you’re thinking about working with a license these are some of the things you want to consider: brand integrity, relative game-play, and demographic appeal. Be true to a license, use a game-play that works well with that license, and make sure both are appropriate for your demographic.
