Games for Change Europe Talk
I’ve very kindly been asked to give a talk at Games for Change Europe. The info is:
10.05 – 10.30 Opening Keynote
Dr. Tomas Rawlings – Design and Production Director, Auroch Digital
Why games need news and why news needs games
There is much more info on the event here and the program is here.
My slides are here.
A Visit to DocFest….
I’ve been to DocFest in Sheffield a couple of times and it’s always good fun and really fascinating. I’m going to be there again this year at the Crossover Market event as we’ve been selected to show our JtR125 Jack the Ripper Playable Documentary there. Here’s how it looks:
There is a mailing list for the project and our GTN project too here.
Last week I was very honoured to be invited to take part in Europe’s first ever newsgame hack organised by Marcus Bösch of The Good Evil in Cologne, Germany. Here is how they introduced the event:
The New York Times’ most popular story of 2013 was not an article. It was aninteractive quiz. The Times They Are A-Changin. And we are pretty sure that games as the defining medium of the 21st century will also disrupt journalism pretty soon.
Come and join us for Europe’s First Newsgames Hackathon in Cologne, Germany – presented by the Good Evil and the Cologne Game Lab as a Kick-off event for the 5th international computer game conference Clash of Realities.
I was asked to give the opening keynote:
Here’s a snippit from a good write up of the event:
Newsgames have become increasingly popular in recent years. Tomas Rawlings, whose digital media and video games consultancy Auroch Digital runs the news-gaming project Game The News, explained that journalists are now not only competing with other news organisations, they’re also competing with games.
“You’re competing with Candy Crush,” Rawlings said. “You’re competing with Clash of Clans. You’re competing with every other app that the user can close and open up. So if news organisations are not making use of the interactivity of these devices, then the output they produce will become increasingly stale next to the evermore elaborate investigations.” This is why you’ll see a lot of what Rawlings calls “gamic” elements on news sites these days. From quizzes to quick, mobile-friendly games, these games draw in a significant audience.
According to Marcus Bösch, co-founder of The Good Evil and one of the hackathon’s organisers, games are a big digital medium yet to be tapped by most big news organisations. “I think people are recognising a lot has changed and we already missed the beginning of Facebook and Twitter. What comes next?
“Journalists are very keen to see what comes next. I’m pretty sure games come next and if you ask me, they are the leading medium of the 21st century. They’re used broadly in business, in medicine and science, so why not use them in journalism?”
Plus here is some good links from the event:
- The games produced by the event (well worth checking out!)
- Some game creation tools
- Blog post about innovation in journalism
- Another good event write-up
I also did a talk about the future of news games at the end of the event, where I suggested 7 challenges for this new medium (the first two having been met!)
.@TomasRawlings presenting 7 deadly challenges of #newsgames – will present #newsgameshack results afterwards http://t.co/yeKeIxrCtn—
Marcus Bösch (@m_boesch) May 08, 2014
Overall and amazing event, so huge thanks to Marcus & organising team plus the event sponsors!
Find Me… An image from “A satirical search and rescue game inspired by the media reaction to the Nigerian schoolgirl kidnap story. An FBI agent tries to keep media interest in the story alive to buy extra time to find the girls.”
There is a new post on Red Wasp Design about a pretty amazing looking Cthulhu project!
Update – The IndieGoGo project has done well, but not quite well enough, so the project creators have paused it. Updates can be found here. Also if you want to invest – see here.
Last year we were part of an amazing transmedia bundle of Lovecraft/Cthulhu themed games, films and books. We’re happy to say that one of our fellow bundle partners, the creators of the amazing ‘Die Farbe‘ (The Color Out of Space) are now looking to create a new cinematic interpretations of Lovecraft’s works – The Dreamlands. The project is now seeking your support to make it happen – it’s on IndieGoGo. Here is the pitch video:
Here’s some production artwork from the project to get you going:
Check out the IndieGoGo page and support and bring more quality Lovecraft/Cthulhu works to life!
PS. Here’s a link to the official page: the-dreamlands.com
PPS. Here’s the Die Farbe trailer…
Newsgame Hackathon Keynote!
I was very pleased to be asked to speak at what sounds like an amazing event – a newsgame hackathon! It’s on 6th-7th May in Cologne:
Click to find out more!
There is more about the event at the official site and on Auroch Digital too!
PS. While on the subject, we’ve got a newsgame in the new Bundle Bandits offering!
Check out VODO’s Otherworlds Bundle!
I’ve got my copy! Get your otherworldy bundle…
Here’s the skinny on the great content we’ve curated for what we think is our best cross-media bundle yet:
Ghosts With Shit Jobs
(Mockumentary satire by former Adbusters Editor, Jim Munroe)
“a brilliant, satirical indie flick about the future of dead-end jobs” io9;
AI Wars: Fleet Command
(Brilliant RTS from Arcen Games)“Expertly crafted” Boomtown, 90; “close to perfect” Dark Zero; “Excellent space strategy.” PC GamerDrones
(Awesome indie feature by Amber Benson and Adam Busch of Buffy fame)
“The Office meets Close Encounters”, “office politics take on cosmic dimensions” Eye For Film; “a heightened reality that’s just left-of-center…. It’s hard not to root for a film that can translate intergalactic drama into water cooler talk.” Notcoming.com
The Surrogates 1, 2 and Case Files
(Top-notch graphic novel collection from Top Shelf Productions)
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! “The Best Indie Book of the year.” IGN; “An absolutely fascinating piece of work — heartfelt and thoughtful” Fantasy & Science Fiction;
As well as:
Future My Love, a documentary from Maja Borg:
Romance and politics in the ruins of economic collapse
Bientôt l’été, Tale of Tales games:
Existential gaming at it’s most atmospheric
Blink short-film compilation; Clarkesworld magazine, 4-month subscription; The Apex Book of World SF:
Collected works of short-form Sci-Fi in movie and magazine form
Sabled Sun 5-part album suite; Not Not Fun records Out-There EP:
Soundtracks for your ride – file under deep-spaced
It’s a TRIP!WHERE THE MONEY GOES
70% of contributions are divided between content providers, 25% goes to VODO and 5% goes to our chosen charity for the bundle, the Electronic Frontier Foundation. EFF is the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world.
Yogscast Talks Chainsaw Warrior
I’m doing a talk at Quo Vadis on the 9th April at 2-2.45pm!
The Board Game Renaissance: Buried Treasure and Chainsaw Warriors
With over 370 apps per day now being released, how can an indie developer stand out from the crowd? One approach is to re-invigorate an older IP, which is the route taken by Auroch Digital who recently relaunched Games Workshop’s classic 1987 solo-boardgame ‘Chainsaw Warrior’ on mobile and PC. The games producer and designer, Tomas Rawlings, will talk though the process of going from dead tree to pixel, what they learned from the process, what of the classic game was kept and chat was changed during the conversion process, how they worked with the IP holder and what their future plans are. He will also talk more generally about the strategy behind this decision of seeking buried treasure in the form of older IP and more specifically about ones that can, with a bit of polish, be made to shine. He will also discuss how other developers can see their own gaming gold.
#GameTheNews Shortlisted for GamesIndustry Innovation Award!
I’m very happy to say that our Auroch Digital’s Game the News project has been shortlisted for Innovation in Social Responsibility at GamesIndustry Innovation Awards! We’re incredibly honoured to be shortlisted amongst so many worthy and amazing projects. Here’s the full list of the category we’re in:
Gaming has always been about fun: bringing some goodness into the world via the medium of play. With this prize we hope to celebrate those companies who choose to give something back to their communities and society at large either through direct work for charity (or by being a charity itself), making staff feel valued or the support of good causes with fundraising drives or sponsorship. With the mainstream press still happy to keep games at the front of the evil scapegoat folder, these are the initiatives which are fighting back.DonateGames
Like any charity, DonateGames relies on the generosity of its patrons, but by focusing on the donation of unwanted games and hardware instead of cash, this group lets people clean their lofts and their consciences in one fell swoop.
HumbleBundle
What began as a way of garnering attention for indie titles whilst also giving to several charities, the Humble Bundle now attracts the world’s biggest publishers. By giving the customer the power over how much goes where, Humble Bundle has made its giving completely transparent and hugely popular.
GametheNews.net
Encouraging young people to take an interest in the world of current affairs isn’t easy, but Auroch Digital’s project has produced 15 educational short games which bring today’s key issues to the fore in a memorable and enjoyable fashion.
Special Effect
Special Effect changes lives. It might not have the scope of some of the projects here, but an incredible bespoke service and tremendous levels of engagement and after care have made it one of the industry’s most treasured and admired outfits.
RuneScape – Well of Goodwill Initiative
Proof that free-to-play can definitely be used for good, this in-game fundraiser from Jagex raised over $90,000 for good causes as players donated in-game funds equivalent to thousands of hours of effort.
GamesAid
Supporting a wide range of charities voted for members, GamesAid is never afraid to try something new to raise money. A constant calendar of events and interesting new activities keeps this charity at the forefront of industry minds year round – raising over £1 million for good causes in the process.
A special day for James – Total War: ROME II
A truly personal event dedicated to a single member of the Total War community, A special day for James helped realise the dreams of a terminally ill young man suffering from liver cancer, bringing together the studio’s staff and players for a cause which touched more than just one life.
Please vote for us here, if you think we deserve it of course!
When we started GameTheNews.net I was looking at ads as a possible route to generate income. Big freemium companies were paying good money for installs of thier games. However for us that road didn’t really work out for us. Either the juxtaposition of an ad for some cute Candy Crush type title would jar next to Endgame:Syria or the volumes you needed to make the income worked against the aesthetic of making games with political content. Within our games we swapped to only ads for our own content and moved back towards paid content.
Since then the ebb and flow of advertising has become something of an interest to me. Aligned with our decision to drop ads in our games, I read with interest a post by the What’s App people, in a post entitled ‘Why We Don’t Sell Ads‘:
No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they’ll see tomorrow. We know people go to sleep excited about who they chatted with that day (and disappointed about who they didn’t). We want WhatsApp to be the product that keeps you awake… and that you reach for in the morning. No one jumps up from a nap and runs to see an advertisement.
(Now they’ve been purchased by Facebook – an ad selling behemoth, it will be interesting to see how this ethos, if it does, changes?)
So it was with great interest that I read this article entitled ‘Profits of Doom‘ looking at the ad income of the Daily Mail group. It is a fascinating read:
In the same report DMGT also reported that their print advertising was down 2%, bringing in only £53million this year. This figure was kind of brushed over in favour of talk of website growth – played down almost – but it’s worth a quick look.
£53 million is £12 million more in ad revenue than the website generates. Yes, the website’s growth has been impressive – it has become the biggest newspaper website in the world – but it’s actually pulling in much less cash [£41 million] than its dead-tree equivalent.
The Daily Mail’s circulation is 1.6 million [online is 160 million unique users a month], about 1% of its apparent online audience. So the ad space they’re selling online is actually, relatively, worthless and it appears to be their only major stream of revenue.
Let me repeat that: 1.6 million newspapers brings them £53 million – £33 per paper sold – yet online brings less at £41 million for many more hits, 160 million but generates only £0.25 per hit. That’s income not profit. Not good numbers at all.
So why do so many digital-eye balls generate so little ad space? There are many reasons but this quote from the article caught my eye:
For every new page impression mailonline gains, the site will spawn roughly five new advertising slots. So the more popular the site becomes, the more available ad space they have to fill. As laws of supply and demand dictate, a surplus of advertising space means that its value drops. Ad agencies have taken advantage of this to drive down the price of the display inventory by trading it through an exchange, so its actual value sits closer to one pound per thousand views. A long, long way off anyone’s ratecard. This problem isn’t exclusively the Mail’s – this is happening all over the internet – but if the page impression isn’t an entirely debased currency as yet, we are wading about in the wheelbarrows-of-cash-for-a-loaf-of-bread stage of hyperinflation. The people who are driving the problem are the link-baiters and page-views chasers (i.e. the Daily Mail). The people who stand to lose the most from it are the people who have built their entire business model on it (i.e. the Daily Mail).
In the digital space, ads are selling into a virtual space where there is almost no limit on the amount of ad space there is. As new digital spaces open up from Twitter, Faceboo, mobile etc – they all do so with swathes of ad space. Making ads in games and apps with over 300 per day released on iOS alone is just compounding the problem.
Add to that the issue that in the digital space, consumers are more empowered to act against ads they don’t like in a way they can’t so easily in the real world. Hence we see a plethora of pop-up and ad blockers.
There is no way ads are going to go away, but there seems little probability they are going to help save the media industry or to make gaming more money that the other business models…
A Great Becoming... 