Přinášíme první ze série svižných tag rozhovorů. Jejich misí bude, v drobných krůčcích, strategicky vnášet originální obsah na mapu herního průmyslu. Materiál, ze kterého se dá čerpat, rozvíjet ho, bavit se o něm.

Na začátek s Laurim Antalainenem, spoluzakladatelem prvního herního startup akcelerátoru v Evropě, estonského GameFounders. Text jsme ponechali v originále z více důvodů, mj. ze stejných, proč nemáme rádi dabing a protože pomalu teritoriálně expandujeme, multi-kulti!

<GameFounders>

The first gaming startup accelerator in Europe. We invest in gaming studios and with the help of more than 80 gaming veterans help them to make business out of their games. So far we have invested in 14 studios from countries such as Italy, Germany, India, Lithuania, Netherlands, Hungary, Argentina, Macedonia and Estonia. We run our third intake from September to November this year.

<current trends in game industry> 

It probably comes as a no surprise to anyone, but freemium is now the dominant strategy in games and even more so every day that passes. First you create a relationship with the player and only then ask money, not vice versa. In our Demo Day trip to San Francisco we met quite a few publishers and most of them told us that they do not even consider premium games any more.

There are obviously other trends too, but I consider the move to freemium to be the most significant right now to games and soon to other apps/services, too.

<gaming startup specifics>

Games spark emotions. What makes games different from most other apps/services is that emotional feeling and excitement that they are creating in the players. And this very fact is basically enabling freemium model and making it so successful.

„I really really really need this powerup because then I will get to the next level and then I get this new skill that enables me to … . It costs €25.99? Ah, what the heck, it’s totally worth it!„. Yet the same person would probably never have paid this amount of money for the game in the first place. Even if the powerup came with the initial purchase. In life, emotional decisions are just that much more powerful than rational ones.

<funding game development on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo>

Running a Kickstarter (or IndieGoGo) campaign is a very good way to achieve multiple goals at once; getting money to finance development and getting market attention being two main ones. Beware though that you would have to run a very high quality campaign in order to be successful and get the best out of it. If your team has no experience in marketing, then do not be afraid to look for outside assistance.

<gaming startups‘ common mistakes>

The main mistake I see is not thinking about the monetization and therefore not building it into the game in the first place. Lot of other, smaller, mistakes derive from this one. For example not paying attention to what the players are doing in the game, on retention rates etc. As a very good example on how to do things right, look at the Candy Crush Saga.

<good vs excellent mentoring>

In our first two classes we have seen that some mentors click with some teams, whereas some other mentors click with other teams. Yet, there are some mentors that all the teams like. These mentors are usually very positive, encouraging and inspiring. As a mentor, it is very important how you speak to the startups, not only what you tell them. Do not list things that the startup is doing wrong. Instead, tell them what they are doing right and list things that they could do even better.

[autor: David Šmehlík / FF MU / publikováno: 30. 6. 2013]

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