Transcript from: Secrets of developing successful casual mobile games

Casual Connect Europe, Winter 2006

During this session Paul Monford from Player-X, Craig Holland from Freeze Tag, Erica Chriss from Limelife Mobile Games, Matt Spall from Morpheme Wireless and Tom Hume from Future Platforms discuss what qualities a mobile game needs to have to become successful.

Creating a good mobile game

To create a good mobile game you need to think about what kind of game works well for the mobile platform. People play mobile games while they have a couple of minutes to kill. This means that a mobile game should be interruptable. Also, the game can't be really immersive; there's just not enough time for that.
Because players don't sit down to play a mobile game, they should understand the game almost instantly. That means that the gameplay should be very simple or the player should already be familiar with it, as is the case with games like pinball or pool. It's also important to have an intuitive user interface. A phone has a lot of buttons, so it's tempting to use them all, but that's often not very wise. Successful mobile games make good use of the navpad.

Selling your game

The best way to sell your game is to get it in on of the top 5 deck slots. Ninety-five percent of sales comes from the deck. Getting there is nearly impossible, though.
You have very little space to sell your game in; you pretty much have only the name. That means that the name of your game should be attractive to your customers at first glance. This means you either need to use recognizable IP, like a brand or a game that's successful elsewhere, or you need 'free' IP: pinball, darts, solitaire, stuff like that.

Converting games to mobile

There have been some games that started out on other platform and have been successfully converted to mobile, for example Alien Hominid and Elf Bowling. This may lead you to think that it's a good strategy to build awareness for your game on other platforms, like the web, before you launch the game on mobile. The problem is that it's not really clear if traffic to these mobile games is driven from the deck or from the web. However, if your mobile game is already successful on another platform, it might make it easier to find a publisher.

Paul Monford (email)

Craig Holland (email)

With co-founder Mick Donahoo, Craig created Freeze Tag as a casual games publisher that encourages and nurtures developers. Craig provides strategic and creative direction for Freeze Tag’s game development, marketing and distribution services. Freeze Tag casual game brands include Xango Tango, Nertz Solitaire, Classic Concentration and Etch A Sketch. Prior to Freeze Tag, Craig founded Thumbworks in January 2002 where he drove the strategic direction of the company, overseeing both business development, licensing and carrier relations activities. While at Thumbworks, Craig and his team published over 20 mobile games titles, including hit games such as Suzuki Motocross Challenge, School of Rock Audition and Etch A Sketch. Craig and his management team sold Thumbworks to European mobile publisher In-Fusio in January, 2005. Before starting Thumbworks, Craig founded Nine Dots, one of the top interactive marketing firms in North America whose clients included Nestle, Wells Fargo, Quaker Oats, Qualcomm and other high profile consumer brands.He earned an MBA with a marketing emphasis from the University of Southern California (USC) and a BA in English Literature from UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles).

Erica Chriss (email)

Matt Spall (email)

Tom Hume (email)

http://www.tomhume.org/

HOME \| LECTURES & ARTICLES \| PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT \| SECRETS OF DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL CASUAL MOBILE GAMES Transcript from: Secrets of developing successful casual mobile games Casual Connect Europe, Winter 2006 During this session Paul Monford from Player-X, Craig Holland from Freeze Tag, Erica Chriss from Limelife Mobile Games, Matt Spall from Morpheme Wireless and Tom Hume from Future Platforms discuss what qualities a mobile game needs to have to become successful. Creating a good mobile game To create a good mobile game you need to think about what kind of game works well for the mobile platform. People play mobile games while they have a couple of minutes to kill. This means that a mobile game should be interruptable. Also, the game can't be really immersive; there's just not enough time for that. Because players don't sit down to play a mobile game, they should understand the game almost instantly. That means that the gameplay should be very simple or the player should already be familiar with it, as is the case with games like pinball or pool. It's also important to have an intuitive user interface. A phone has a lot of buttons, so it's tempting to use them all, but that's often not very wise. Successful mobile games make good use of the navpad. Selling your game The best way to sell your game is to get it in on of the top 5 deck slots. Ninety-five percent of sales comes from the deck. Getting there is nearly impossible, though. You have very little space to sell your game in; you pretty much have only the name. That means that the name of your game should be attractive to your customers at first glance. This means you either need to use recognizable IP, like a brand or a game that's successful elsewhere, or you need 'free' IP: pinball, darts, solitaire, stuff like that. Converting games to mobile There have been some games that started out on other platform and have been successfully converted to mobile, for example Alien Hominid and Elf Bowling. This may lead you to think that it's a good strategy to build awareness for your game on other platforms, like the web, before you launch the game on mobile. The problem is that it's not really clear if traffic to these mobile games is driven from the deck or from the web. However, if your mobile game is already successful on another platform, it might make it easier to find a publisher. Paul Monford (email) Craig Holland (email) With co-founder Mick Donahoo, Craig created Freeze Tag as a casual games publisher that encourages and nurtures developers. Craig provides strategic and creative direction for Freeze Tag’s game development, marketing and distribution services. Freeze Tag casual game brands include Xango Tango, Nertz Solitaire, Classic Concentration and Etch A Sketch. Prior to Freeze Tag, Craig founded Thumbworks in January 2002 where he drove the strategic direction of the company, overseeing both business development, licensing and carrier relations activities. While at Thumbworks, Craig and his team published over 20 mobile games titles, including hit games such as Suzuki Motocross Challenge, School of Rock Audition and Etch A Sketch. Craig and his management team sold Thumbworks to European mobile publisher In-Fusio in January, 2005. Before starting Thumbworks, Craig founded Nine Dots, one of the top interactive marketing firms in North America whose clients included Nestle, Wells Fargo, Quaker Oats, Qualcomm and other high profile consumer brands.He earned an MBA with a marketing emphasis from the University of Southern California (USC) and a BA in English Literature from UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles). Erica Chriss (email) Matt Spall (email) Tom Hume (email) http://www.tomhume.org/