Different modes of games development

Monday 7th October

Different modes of games development

Monday 7th October

There are a few other ways you can make video games rather than the Rockstar way. The first is a business model but brings home just how expensive it is to make games these days

especially for the PS3 and 360.

The ‘Tent Pole’ business model

Monday 7th October

This is similar to the business model a lot of Hollywood studios: the idea is that the publisher releases one ‘blockbuster’ game

accompanied with heavy marketing and investment. Then the money made from this game supports the development of other

‘riskier’, potentially more creative games.

For instance: Grand Theft Auto brings in a lot of money for Rockstar which allows them to invest smaller hits such as Canis Canem Edit

(Eventually Bully…) , Manhunt and future products such as LA Noire and Agent.

The Boston Matrix

The Boston Matrix

These kind of businesses have a range of products.• Cash cows – products that can be relied on to bring in

money. Aka a GTA title for R*• Dogs – Units with low market share in a mature industry…

low market share in a slow growing industry• Question marks – products that are growing rapidly but

have low market share so they do not generate much cash – huge potential and should be looked at carefully…

• Stars – high market share in a fast growing industry. The hope is that stars become the next cash cows.

The ‘Tent Pole’ business model

Monday 7th October

Eg. EA rely on the annual updates of Madden and FIFA to create cash for the research and

development of other games. In 2008 EA spent $372 million on research and development (R&D) – the reason for this is that PS3 and Xbox 360 games

can cost up to $30 million to make.

The ‘Tent Pole’ business model

Monday 7th October

Problems with this:The problems with this is the company are gambling on that one game being a hut, and sometimes even big games don’t return the money – eg. Spore, sold 1 million copies in its first 17 days, but the development costs were so big that EA only expect to make their money back with 5 years of updates and sequels.

The Hollywood model

• The idea is to contract out parts of the games design (art, car physics, quality assurance etc.) to other companies in order to lower development costs. So instead of having a permanent in-house development team of 50+, developer can have a team of 10-20 piecing the work together undertaken by specialist external teams.

The Hollywood model

• Eg.• Stunt teams,• Director of photography• Scriptwriters• Etc – all elements are contracted out, just like

in the production of a AAA blockbuster movie.

Independent Game Development

• Until recently games development was a costly business, usually requiring a developer to a have a publishing contract in order to pay for the development and the license fee required to develop for a particular console. However, now there is a growing ‘Indie Game’ market thanks to open source software, Apples App Store and Xbox Live Marketplace small teams and even individuals can create games, get them distributed and make money.

Independent Game Development

• The point to make is that because of new technology, convergence and new ways of distribution we have a return to the bedroom development culture weird, wonderful, often abstract games – so it means not all games have to be GTA 4.

Independent Game Development

• Aside from basic development costs, console game developers are required to pay fees to license the required Software Development Kits (SDKs) from the console manufacturer. Manufacturers often impose a strict approval process and take a percentage of the game's net profit in addition to yearly developer fees.

Independent Game Development

• As of this writing, to develop for Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, or Playstation 3 requires an SDK license fee of between $2,000 and $10,000 USD, in addition to yearly developer fees and profit cuts.Interestingly Sony have slashed the SDK cost from $10,000 to $2,000 in order to cut development costs and hopefully increased third-party productivity.

Independent Game Development: Braid

Braid• Braid was created by Jonathan Blow, taking three years

and $180,000 of this own investment , to make. It was originally released for the PC and sold 55,000 copies in first week (making £530,000 in revenue).

• Blow then agreed to release a version for the Xbox Live Marketplace but had reservations as Microsoft have the final say on what goes on there and have a four stage approval process:

Independent Game Development: Braid

‘Blow was critical of the Xbox Live certification process, as he believed the effort to meet all the requirements could have been better spent on polishing the game. At the same time, the certification team allowed him to retain certain aspects of his vision for the game that were otherwise contrary to the process, including giving the player immediate control of the game instead of requiring a start-up title screen.[52] Microsoft also requested that Blow include some additional hints to the player based on results of playtesting, but Blow held his ground, refusing to release the game if he was forced to add these.[21] He said he would likely not release a game again on the Xbox Live service under the same business model.’ (Wikipedia)

Developing for the iPhone

Developing for the iPhoneThe iPhone SDK is a software development kit developed by Apple , targeted at third-party developers to develop applications for iPhone OS, released in February 2008.• The SDK itself is a free download, but in

order to release software, one must enrol in the iPhone Developer Program, a step requiring payment and Apple's approval. As of January 2010, cost of enrolment in the iPhone Developer Program is US$99 per year (the cost varies from country to country) for the standard program.

• Developers who publish their applications on the App Store will receive 70% of sales revenue, and will not have to pay any distribution costs for the application.

Developing for the iPhone

Examples – Doodle Jump, released April 2009, it has had nearly 4 million downloads.Doodle Jump is the brainchild of Igor and Marko Pusenjak, two Croation brothers who released the app under the banner of their company Lima Sky.

TASK:• Make your own Blog notes on the

modes of development mentioned

• When we have all done this, we will be watching a documentary movie: Indie Games – The Movie released this summer that tracks the development (and problems) of three indie games:Super Meat Boy, Braid and Fez

If you are watching this online – check out the trailer here and the official website here