In Part I of this article, game designer Mitchell Smallman explains the importance of value points and how value points drive users to support and play a social game. In Part II, he relates how metrics help discover value points.
But we’re still talking about social games, so metrics are still going to be your best friend in STARTING to figure out what your players want. The simple, blood-sweat-and-tears answer is design new features and A/B test the hell out of them, knowing the numbers of each change in detail, until you know the type of player you attract as a second nature. However, this method takes a great deal of time and risk and often involves not a few failures, things that are difficult to justify with a venture capitalist,publisher or management breathing down your neck.
My favorite metric for a starting point, and other designers may have other terms for it, is the EFPA, the Engagement at First Purchase Average. How long have your players been playing before they finally say “you know, this game is worth some of my hard earned money?” From here, you can start analyzing where you can best meet the needs of your players and create value for them. The EFPA represents a value point, you just need to discover what it is. Perhaps players interested in progress reach a significant hurdle there and are paying to bypass it quickly. Perhaps that is when you start offering premium content that suits your player base very well. Perhaps your EFPA is very long, and they pay after weeks or months of play instead of days, and you then have to accept that your game may not have many value points at all. Or perhaps your EFPA is very quick, and there may be some interesting thing that players are buying right away. As you can see, discovering your EFPA doesn’t give you an immediate answer, but provides lots of interesting questions to help you discover the value points of your game.
Value points are regular bullets, not silver ones. They take time to aim, sometimes miss and don’t always get the job done by themselves. But if you have enough of them, and you unleash them fast enough, nothing will stand in your way. You can get a sense of them through many avenues aside from metrics. Your community forums and groups, while they may not always ask for things that are in your business interest, will tell you very vocally what they value. Observations in similar games may help you discover your next feature or release based on an understanding of why it is successful, rather than copying wholesale. Be prepared to discover new things. Maybe you didn't design your game to hook players on the story, but maybe that's what your players are showing you they are willing to pay for! Don't be stubborn in your direction if it turns out players value something you didn't intend. In the end, it comes down to understanding the players that enjoy the game you have created… and that is part of the job that is never truly complete.
Mitchell Smallman is a Game and Narrative Designer currently working for Big Viking Games in London, Ontario, Canada. He has seen Gremlins 34 times, trained as a luchador and once brightened up Vin Diesel's day. You can read this and other articles of his on his blog.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Value Points: The (Almost) Invisible Metric That Runs Your Game (Part I)
In Part I of this article, game designer Mitchell Smallman explains the importance of value points and how value points drive users to support and play a social game.
This is my confession. I started out working in social games…I’m one of those few people who has only ever worked as a designer in the social games field. Sometimes it makes me a pariah, with designers I admire voicing concern over the damage that social games are doing to the industry as a whole. Thanks to a few successfully monetized games, sometimes I am seen as an authority, someone who has figured out how to bring the little game studio some decent cash. Both times, I’m treated as if I have found some sort of silver bullet to the heart of the game consumer; that I have found a mystical and perhaps unhealthy “release money” button in the human soul. I must confess… I have taken work on this principle even though I know that no such silver bullet exists. There is no metric you can track and tweak that makes people pay money for your game. There is however, a great deal of money to be made by understanding your audience as a consumer and a game player at the same time. To do this, I usually ask developers to consider what I call “value points.”
A value point is the moment a player assigns monetary value to your game. Your initial art and UI design is a value point. People look at a game, and see how much work, polish and appeal to their sense of style has gone into the game, and they place a value on it. A game with “programmer art”, while having a well-designed system, will still be missing a key value point. Content design is another value point. Not just things like spelling errors, but character consistency, and narrative progress matching player effort are other examples of value that can be easily lost. There’s nothing more frustrating for a player to be engaged in a narrative and work hard at an obstacle to get the next piece, only to have the quality of the reveal be lackluster because the designer places no value on the narrative and expected the player to do the same. Value points are discovered my constantly thinking of your player as a human being making a decision and analyzing your game as opposed to just a metric.
Although social games are often designed with an iterative design style that is very ,very heavy on data, value points are the portions of the game that are often difficult to nail down in terms of action. The numbers will not tell you why your game is missing that thing that makes people decide to support your game instead of others. How do make your game, which may have similar theme and mechanics to others, LOOK like it is worth investing in it instead of a competitor? How do we make it demonstrate its advantages and hide its disadvantages? How do we attract the type of player that will enjoy our game more than other games? These are things looking at the data of your existing players will help only a little, and market research only goes so far. Eventually, whether it is a new feature or a new genre of game altogether, a game can always increase its value by offering something new, but it is always a risk. In order to chart such a release successfully, the designer needs to understand what the players, be they players they already have (retention) or players they want (acquisition) place value on if they want the game to monetize.
Mitchell Smallman is a Game and Narrative Designer currently working for Big Viking Games in London, Ontario, Canada. He has seen Gremlins 34 times, trained as a luchador and once brightened up Vin Diesel's day. You can read this and other articles of his on his blog.
This is my confession. I started out working in social games…I’m one of those few people who has only ever worked as a designer in the social games field. Sometimes it makes me a pariah, with designers I admire voicing concern over the damage that social games are doing to the industry as a whole. Thanks to a few successfully monetized games, sometimes I am seen as an authority, someone who has figured out how to bring the little game studio some decent cash. Both times, I’m treated as if I have found some sort of silver bullet to the heart of the game consumer; that I have found a mystical and perhaps unhealthy “release money” button in the human soul. I must confess… I have taken work on this principle even though I know that no such silver bullet exists. There is no metric you can track and tweak that makes people pay money for your game. There is however, a great deal of money to be made by understanding your audience as a consumer and a game player at the same time. To do this, I usually ask developers to consider what I call “value points.”
A value point is the moment a player assigns monetary value to your game. Your initial art and UI design is a value point. People look at a game, and see how much work, polish and appeal to their sense of style has gone into the game, and they place a value on it. A game with “programmer art”, while having a well-designed system, will still be missing a key value point. Content design is another value point. Not just things like spelling errors, but character consistency, and narrative progress matching player effort are other examples of value that can be easily lost. There’s nothing more frustrating for a player to be engaged in a narrative and work hard at an obstacle to get the next piece, only to have the quality of the reveal be lackluster because the designer places no value on the narrative and expected the player to do the same. Value points are discovered my constantly thinking of your player as a human being making a decision and analyzing your game as opposed to just a metric.
Although social games are often designed with an iterative design style that is very ,very heavy on data, value points are the portions of the game that are often difficult to nail down in terms of action. The numbers will not tell you why your game is missing that thing that makes people decide to support your game instead of others. How do make your game, which may have similar theme and mechanics to others, LOOK like it is worth investing in it instead of a competitor? How do we make it demonstrate its advantages and hide its disadvantages? How do we attract the type of player that will enjoy our game more than other games? These are things looking at the data of your existing players will help only a little, and market research only goes so far. Eventually, whether it is a new feature or a new genre of game altogether, a game can always increase its value by offering something new, but it is always a risk. In order to chart such a release successfully, the designer needs to understand what the players, be they players they already have (retention) or players they want (acquisition) place value on if they want the game to monetize.
Mitchell Smallman is a Game and Narrative Designer currently working for Big Viking Games in London, Ontario, Canada. He has seen Gremlins 34 times, trained as a luchador and once brightened up Vin Diesel's day. You can read this and other articles of his on his blog.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
January 2012: Virtual Goods
January 2012's topic, Virtual Goods, was submitted by game designer Sande Chen.
She writes:
In 2007, I started working for a company that was interesting in bringing Chinese-style "microtransactional" games to the West. People weren't sure how these would translate -- if American consumers would go for it, this "free but with microtransactions" model. We had seen in China that the MMOs and even the middlecore games were having success selling power-ups, weapons, cosmetic items and other virtual goods. The price was so low, maybe 1/10 of a cent, but the large volume of sales made up for it. I found that in designing these initial microtransactional games, I needed to give incentives for people to buy, but I also wanted people who were not paying to be able to earn the power-ups.
The following year, I wrote the article, The Social Network Game Boom, for Gamasutra, predicting the success of social network games. At this time, companies were experimenting with different models. Were people willing to pay $50 for a virtual item? Would people buy monthly subscriptions in addition to virtual goods? Was there a good mix between advertising and selling virtual goods?
Fast forward to this year and we see that mobile game marketplaces are loaded with free apps, but these free apps are making money by selling virtual goods! There have even been some shifts in the MMO market to feature virtual goods for premium currency rather than the straight subscription model. So what have we learned?
Here are some questions from the Game Design SIG to think about, if you want to contribute an article to GDAM:
She writes:
In 2007, I started working for a company that was interesting in bringing Chinese-style "microtransactional" games to the West. People weren't sure how these would translate -- if American consumers would go for it, this "free but with microtransactions" model. We had seen in China that the MMOs and even the middlecore games were having success selling power-ups, weapons, cosmetic items and other virtual goods. The price was so low, maybe 1/10 of a cent, but the large volume of sales made up for it. I found that in designing these initial microtransactional games, I needed to give incentives for people to buy, but I also wanted people who were not paying to be able to earn the power-ups.
The following year, I wrote the article, The Social Network Game Boom, for Gamasutra, predicting the success of social network games. At this time, companies were experimenting with different models. Were people willing to pay $50 for a virtual item? Would people buy monthly subscriptions in addition to virtual goods? Was there a good mix between advertising and selling virtual goods?
Fast forward to this year and we see that mobile game marketplaces are loaded with free apps, but these free apps are making money by selling virtual goods! There have even been some shifts in the MMO market to feature virtual goods for premium currency rather than the straight subscription model. So what have we learned?
Here are some questions from the Game Design SIG to think about, if you want to contribute an article to GDAM:
- What are the most lucrative virtual goods? What are the most popular? Are these necessary the same?
- Why are so many virtual goods so expensive? What happened to microtransactions, selling items for 1/10 of a cent?
- Is most monetization of virtual goods from whales or from the microtransactions of millions of players?
- If monetization is dependent on whales, how can we make Virtual Goods more appealing to the mainstream?
- Are consumables the way to go? How about energy packs that extend the amount of time a player can play?
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
January 2012 Poll
Happy New Year!
Please vote for the January 2012 topic! As always, feel free to suggest more topics! Look at the submission guidelines for Topics and Blog Entries.
You'll see the poll to the right. The choices are:
Please vote for the January 2012 topic! As always, feel free to suggest more topics! Look at the submission guidelines for Topics and Blog Entries.
You'll see the poll to the right. The choices are:
- Sequels
- Sandbox Games
- Virtual Goods
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
IGDA on Kickstarter
Check out some game projects on the IGDA Kickstarter page!
There, you will find games affiliated with IGDA chapters and other projects that are waiting to be funded.
There, you will find games affiliated with IGDA chapters and other projects that are waiting to be funded.
Friday, December 2, 2011
The Trick to Kickstarter
In this article, game designer Matt Forbeck gives advice on how to get started on a crowdfunding project.
Crowdfunding is taking independent creatives by storm these days. People of all sorts are taking to the web, standing on a virtual street corner, and turning over a hat into which passerby can toss their hard-earned credit. And it’s working on sites like IndieGoGo.com and the current king of the hill, Kickstarter.
Well, it’s working for some people. Some projects fail to meet their goals, while others smash through their planners’ dreams and rake in tens of thousands of dollars. So, what’s the secret?
I launched a Kickstarter drive in early November for a crazy plan I have called 12 for ’12, in which I propose to write a dozen novels next year, one each month. At the moment, I’ve lined up nearly $8,000 worth of pledges, and we still have a few days left to go. (It ends at noon on December 4. You can find out more about it at http://forbeck.com/12for12.)
Before I submitted my project, I gave it a lot of thought, and I did a ton of research on other people’s ideas, trying to figure out why some worked or others didn’t. I did my homework, and you should too.
As with most things in life, success comes from hard work. Setting up a proper Kickstarter project isn’t for the faint of heart. On the surface, it’s a snap. You just set a goal and an end date, submit it, and watch the money roll in.
Of course, there’s far more to it than that. You need to come up with a proposal for your project, a story about what it is and how you plan to bring it to life. You need to concoct a schedule of reward tiers for your backers, a progressive list of things they can get for offering you increasing amounts of money. And you should come up with a video and some graphics to help you connect with potential backers and show them just how cool your proposed project is.
Some people can step up and post an idea and have thousands of dollars come their way. Others can have a nearly finished product in their hands and have their efforts wash out. One thing separates them: trust.
Backers only give money to people they trust to produce. If they don’t know you or at least of you, there’s little reason for them to believe that you can do what you propose.
You can build trust in a few different ways. If you put together a professional package — if you look like you know what you’re doing — people may be willing to trust you. If you get enough backers lined up behind you, others may take that as a sign that you’re trustworthy too.
The best and hardest way, of course, is to establish a reputation as someone who delivers on promises over the course of years, long before you launch your Kickstarter project. That usually comes with an established base of fans who you’ve trained to trust you, and they’re often the first people to sign on.
Give that a lot of thought before you launch your project. Who’s going to trust you, and why? If you have a good answer for that, you’re already on your way.
Matt Forbeck is an award-winning game designer and novelist with countless games and 15 novels published. You can see his Kickstarter project at http://forbeck.com/12for12 and learn more about him at http://forbeck.com.
Crowdfunding is taking independent creatives by storm these days. People of all sorts are taking to the web, standing on a virtual street corner, and turning over a hat into which passerby can toss their hard-earned credit. And it’s working on sites like IndieGoGo.com and the current king of the hill, Kickstarter.
Well, it’s working for some people. Some projects fail to meet their goals, while others smash through their planners’ dreams and rake in tens of thousands of dollars. So, what’s the secret?
I launched a Kickstarter drive in early November for a crazy plan I have called 12 for ’12, in which I propose to write a dozen novels next year, one each month. At the moment, I’ve lined up nearly $8,000 worth of pledges, and we still have a few days left to go. (It ends at noon on December 4. You can find out more about it at http://forbeck.com/12for12.)
Before I submitted my project, I gave it a lot of thought, and I did a ton of research on other people’s ideas, trying to figure out why some worked or others didn’t. I did my homework, and you should too.
As with most things in life, success comes from hard work. Setting up a proper Kickstarter project isn’t for the faint of heart. On the surface, it’s a snap. You just set a goal and an end date, submit it, and watch the money roll in.
Of course, there’s far more to it than that. You need to come up with a proposal for your project, a story about what it is and how you plan to bring it to life. You need to concoct a schedule of reward tiers for your backers, a progressive list of things they can get for offering you increasing amounts of money. And you should come up with a video and some graphics to help you connect with potential backers and show them just how cool your proposed project is.
Some people can step up and post an idea and have thousands of dollars come their way. Others can have a nearly finished product in their hands and have their efforts wash out. One thing separates them: trust.
Backers only give money to people they trust to produce. If they don’t know you or at least of you, there’s little reason for them to believe that you can do what you propose.
You can build trust in a few different ways. If you put together a professional package — if you look like you know what you’re doing — people may be willing to trust you. If you get enough backers lined up behind you, others may take that as a sign that you’re trustworthy too.
The best and hardest way, of course, is to establish a reputation as someone who delivers on promises over the course of years, long before you launch your Kickstarter project. That usually comes with an established base of fans who you’ve trained to trust you, and they’re often the first people to sign on.
Give that a lot of thought before you launch your project. Who’s going to trust you, and why? If you have a good answer for that, you’re already on your way.
Matt Forbeck is an award-winning game designer and novelist with countless games and 15 novels published. You can see his Kickstarter project at http://forbeck.com/12for12 and learn more about him at http://forbeck.com.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
November 2011: Crowdfunding
November 2011's topic, Crowdfunding, was submitted by independent developer Michael Lubker.
He writes:
Crowdfunding raises many questions, both in the business and design of a game. Some games give funders an in-game character. Others give out of game rewards, (metarewards?). People ask where to go and how many funding operations to start at once, and how to start. Is it distasteful, or a valid way of funding (and do Minecraft, Mount and Blade, Cortex Command and others point to the answers?)
Here are some questions from the Game Design SIG to think about, if you want to contribute an article:
Supreme Commander, and 1701AD Gold. He also was a founding advisor for the Independent Game Conference, is co-coordinator of the IGDA Indie SIG, and is a coordinator for the Global Game Jam in Austin, TX, where he helped produce a working XNA/Xbox 360 title in 48 hours.
He writes:
Crowdfunding raises many questions, both in the business and design of a game. Some games give funders an in-game character. Others give out of game rewards, (metarewards?). People ask where to go and how many funding operations to start at once, and how to start. Is it distasteful, or a valid way of funding (and do Minecraft, Mount and Blade, Cortex Command and others point to the answers?)
Here are some questions from the Game Design SIG to think about, if you want to contribute an article:
- Is it possible to use multiple crowdfund sources simultaneously? If so, is that distasteful? Regarding the "distastefulness" see http://gawker.com/5858118/
end-online-panhandling-for ever - What is the minimum expected / acknowledged amount of work needed for Crowdfunding to work? We have seen people have as much as a game demo, and some with as little as a description. What is found to work best?
- which crowdfund sources have the highest percentage of completed/successful pledges?
- What determines success of crowfunding? Obviously worthy project is a must :) but what else.
Supreme Commander, and 1701AD Gold. He also was a founding advisor for the Independent Game Conference, is co-coordinator of the IGDA Indie SIG, and is a coordinator for the Global Game Jam in Austin, TX, where he helped produce a working XNA/Xbox 360 title in 48 hours.
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