Develop Day 3 Notes

Following on from my Day 1 and Day 2 notes…First I should note that last night was the develop awards and I’d like to say a well done to Media Molecule too for the best In-House Studio award, a well deserved win, as well as a ‘well done’ to all the winners.

Hello Games were a little bit hung over in their session but did point out that making games as an indie is hard work (for those who didn’t already know…).

Honyslug’s presentation about making a game without using a coder was great fun.  The speaker, Nat Marco, was challenged to make a game despite the only experience of code she had prior to this was a bit of Action Script and HTML in eBay listings a few years ago.  This was a great talk with enthusiasm for her title and though it took a year, showed that with passion, creativity and Google searches combined with XML and Lua non-coders can make games.

James from Mobile Pie notes that freemium is not a one-size-fits-all solution and you can’t just add it to an existing project.  It needs to be designed in.  Several speakers warned on the worst examples of freemium that can be predatory in pulling cash from customers, while others who don’t behave in a predatory manner (like Tiny Towers).  Also much noted that you should aim to make a great game rather then design a game to make money.  With a great game, whatever the model, the money should follow.  Interesting note that games devs should consider themselves as service providers in many respects. Unity powered Shadow Era is given as a freemium game that is also a good game that handles in-app purchases well, as it mimics how card games work in the real world.  Also the games that just reskin to get broaden their audience, as not doing it right and as adapting to the audience needs to be done by gameplay as much as graphics.

Finally it is well worth another big ‘well done’ – this time to Fate of the World developers, Red Redemption, who did a great job of promoting thier game and went on to win the audience award for thier game.  The game, as well as being a solid strategy game, is based on solid science and shows how we can make games into somthing more than just entertainment.