Business Plan "Creating a Game"
Some time ago I wrote a business plan, a design document and a concept document for creating a game.
Unfortunately, the information is 2011, but I think it is useful to colleagues.
The system of indicators of gameplay assessment was invented by me, so this business plan, my entire subjective vision.
Since ancient times, one of the most vivid illustrations of the needs and desires of man is the ancient Roman concept of "bread and circuses." Moreover, the "spectacle" can be interpreted in a broader sense - as generally "entertainment." Whether we like it or not, after entertainment and sex, entertainment is perhaps the main thing that concerns the average consumer of any race and nationality. Therefore, the entertainment industry has long been a diversified and well-functioning business. On the Internet, one of its most prominent branches is games: casual, browser-based, games on social networks, and the like. On the scale of the planet now it is already billions of dollars in annual turnover.
For a start, you just need to do business in the Russian Internet - this is one of the fastest growing markets. If we talk about specific business areas, there is great potential in e-commerce projects and services based on social connections. And of course, games, games, games. People start playing who were not interested in games before - for example, on a mobile phone. Games are attracting more and more new users, and this will continue. It just turned out that among the huge variety of content games are most popular. The combination of communication and entertainment services (especially games) works very well. (1)
The Russian Internet market is one of the few markets that have not ceased to grow in a crisis, according to all indicators: advertising, domains, hosting, audience size. The web development segment is no exception.
Today in 2011 the Internet is inhabited by 43 million Russians (39% of the population). Of these, 35 million people are an active Runet audience, and 25 million visit the Russian network daily. At the same time, 92% of users are registered in at least one social network, where 25 million people are monthly and 16 million daily. The share of Internet users in the country on average is: 92% in the category of 12-24 years, 76% in the population of 25-44 years, 25% in the population of 45 years and more. (2)
Figure 1 Use the Internet at least once.
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The turnover of the computer games market in Russia today is $ 300,000,000. Of these, $ 230,000,000 falls on browser games, $ 35,000,000 on games on social networks, and $ 32,000,000 on casual games. (3)
For comparison, the figures for related markets:
1. SEO: $ 200 million (search engine optimization)
2. Games: $ 300 million
3. Paid services: $ 350 million
4. Advertising in RuNet: $ 670 million (media + context + non-standard advertising)
5. Electronic commerce: $ 4,840 million
Figure 2 Prospects for the growth of the online games market in Russia
The Russian segment of the Internet market can still double. By the number of users, Russia is already one of the largest countries in Europe. In addition, Runet has a large margin of revenue increase from the user. According to the audience, some Internet portals are already ahead of the TV channels. This is a huge additional distribution channel for various services. If earlier we could meet an Internet user sitting at a computer at home or at work, now we can meet him at the doctor’s reception, in the subway or in the trolleybus. (4)
3. About the Russian market for 2010 - Sergey Plutogarenko (executive director of ROCIT - Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies).
The dynamics of the monthly audience in the Russian segment of social networks shows that the most attractive for creating games is the social platform Vkontakte.ru (5)
Figure 3 Dynamics of monthly audience in Russia
Virtually the entire audience plays social online games, but the most active users are between the ages of 15 and 25. (6) It is this audience that dominates the social network vkontakte.ru, which also gives reason to choose this social network as a platform for developing games.
Figure 4 The structure of the audience vkontakte.ru in Russia
5. According to TNS Russia, a leader in providing comprehensive media and marketing information.
Entering foreign markets
As soon as our company makes a successful entry into the Russian market, it will be possible to begin its withdrawal to foreign markets.
According to a report by the eMarketer research group, in 2011 about 62 million Americans (about 27% of all Internet users in the US) will play at least one game on social networks a month. In 2011, users will spend $ 653 million on virtual goods (compared to $ 510 million last year), advertising will bring another $ 192 million (compared to $ 120 million in 2010), and income from lead generation (encouraging users of virtual currency for subscription, participation in surveys or payment for goods and services) will amount to 248 million dollars, emphasize in eMarketer.
This data is confirmed by our Russian companies, developers of online games - “On Facebook, for example, 20-30 times more money than social networks in Russia.” (7)
3.1. Competitors
Foreign companies
Zynga is an American online gaming developer. At the moment, is the undisputed leader. More than 10% of the global Internet audience plays its games. It was she who created the famous FarmVille (Farm). The estimated value of the company is 53 billion dollars. This is something to strive for!
Russian companies
Of the 4,000 applications in social networks, 80% were created in 2010. Today in Russia there are 300-400 development teams. Large studios, numbering from 11 to 35 people in Russia, only 13%. From 6 to 10 employees has 26% of studios, and 61% contain a staff of 1-5 people. (eight)
Largest company
Mail.Ru Group is the largest Internet company in the Russian-language segment of the Network and a leading player of Runet in terms of the number of monthly unique visitors. Mail.ru's main source of revenue is multiplayer online games.
The net profit of Mail.ru Group in 2010 increased by 63% compared with 2009 and amounted to $ 76.7 million. Revenues from online games, incl. social, increased by 62.5% - to $ 99.8 million
Mail.ru Group owns 100% of Mail.ru's online resource through Mail.ru Internet BV, it also owns 100% of ICQ, 21.35% of Qiwi payment service through OE holding, 2.38% of social service Facebook, 1.47 % game manufacturer Zynga, 5.13% Groupon discount service. Through the structure of Newtone Rose Limited, the company controls 97% of the resource HeadHunter.ru, through Odnoklassniki Ltd - 100% of the Odnoklassniki social network, and through VK.com it owns 39% of the Vkontakte social network.
TOP social developers 2011
As of the beginning of March 2011 top social developers and publishers for the total number of installations in the networks of VKontakte, MoiMir and Odnoklassniki looks like (9):
1. Creara - 106,076,000 installations (+5.7 million per month)
2. Mail.Ru/Astrum - 93,583,000 installations (+5.4 million)
3. i-Jet - 60,843,000 installations (+0.8 million)
4. Social Quantum - 38,115,000 installations (+4.9 million)
5. FishSticks - 29,902,000 installations (+2 million)
6. Plarium - 28,993,000 installations (+2 million)
7. PlayFlock - 18,136,000 installations (-0.1 million)
8. SocialCraft & Sarcasm - 17,488,000 installations (-0.3 million)
9. Ciliz - 16,538,000 installations (+0.6 million)
10. Exteer - 14,954,000 installations (+0.7 million)
11. KUBA Games - 14,837,000 installations (+1.1 million)
12. Progrestar - 14,056,000 installations (+0.2 million)
13. Game Insight - 13,600,000 installations (-0.3 million)
14. Kefir - 13,169,000 installations (+1.9 million)
15. Stas Andreev - 13,075,000 installations (+1 million)
16. GVFS - 12,768,000 installations (+2.7 million)
17. Ok'App - 12,672,000 installations (+1.3 million)
18. Weboow - 11,830,000 installations (+0.1 million)
19. Digital Entertainment - 11,789,000 installations (+0.7 million)
20. TVX Games - 11,530,000 installations (-0.03 million)
In order not to get lost in all these incomprehensible abbreviations, the most popular applications for companies from the second half of the list are given below.
• KUBA Games: Accurate Throw, Check out Tits and over 100 more mini-games
• Progrestar: Restaurateur, FlirtMania, Dig!
• Game Insight: Mystery House, Island, Big Business
• Kefir: Tyuryaga, Fashion Week, Saakashvili's Mission
• Stas Andreev: Postcard to a friend, Radio
• GVFS: Welcome Gifts
• Ok'App: Restorer, Animator, Radar
• Weboow: Avatar, Gifts, Fool translated
• Digital Entertainment: Mega Avatar, Perfect Couple, Psychomatrix
• TVX Games: Second Me, Beloved Animals, Cradle of Magic: Invasion
Market saturation
From a business point of view, everything that works according to the free to play model can now be considered a promising direction. As for saturation, this market can hardly have saturation. In a sense, this market is rubber. (ten)
8. About the Russian market for 2010 - Sergey Plutogarenko (ROCIT Executive Director)
3.2. Our product
The essence of any Internet project is not just to create a good product, but also to show it. Social networks allow you to do this without a marketing budget. You create a product, you spread it online, without paying anything, and you tell your friends on the social network. In the usual Internet this is not possible, only in social networks.
But in social networks need virality (viral reaction). Only this allows you to gain an audience without large investments. But you can get it only under certain conditions.
First of all, the difference lies in guarantees of a high probability of successful implementation of the idea. Direct guarantees of success cannot exist in principle, but guarantees that all necessary conditions for increasing the probability of success exist and must be fulfilled.
Many developers are starting to make "original" games, but they produce raw unprocessed products. As a result, the user does not want to invite friends. And without viral it does not work.
The idea may not be the most original, it is enough to pay attention to the subject of films, serials and programs, which are loaded to the eyeballs of our television channels. You just need to translate it into the language of the social game. (11) The only thing is that the game should not repeat another game in this social network.
Our advantages:
1. New game in social networks
2. Compliance with all conditions to increase the likelihood of success (detailed description in the section of the business plan “Implementation”)
Our first game will be created on the basis of the popular in its time game for the iPhone platform, socialized and supplemented. This is a strong idea, based on a product for which people are willing to pay. An idea that satisfies an existing need.
The game meets the basic requirements:
1. Novelty on the market - there is no such product in this market segment, the game is only on the platform for iPhone.
2. Addictive gameplay (which we will create)
Next comes the description of the game ...
The second and main task is to implement. There is a lot of literature on creating games, but the social games market is fairly new. We have our own vision of the approach to project implementation - a systematic approach in relation to the creation of social games. This business plan describes its main provisions.
The system approach involves the consideration of an object as an integral set of elements in the totality of relations and relations between them, that is, the consideration of an object as a system, identifying patterns and relationships for the purpose of their more efficient use. As a result, we expect to get a systemic effect — a result of a special reorganization of the elements of the system, when the whole becomes larger than the simple sum of the parts.
For the successful implementation of the project it is necessary to take into account all the criteria for the success of the product:
1. The key role is played by the gameplay system (we will look at it in more detail below)
2. In second place is the quality of performance . Here, more meant graphics, music, internal balance and stability of the application. You need to think ahead and start the game to take care of the user, preventing the server from falling.
3. Monetization . No matter what the game will be, the main thing is what to sell in it and at what price. At this point you need to go especially carefully. Monetization will be set up carefully, it is important to withstand the moment when the user is ready to pay and provide him with convenient means for making a payment (time management of purchases ).
4. Community . This means the organization of high-quality technical support, care about the user.
Let us dwell on the gameplay . We describe how the company plans to effectively develop the game. More precisely, the principles of creation.
To begin with, we will define our products:
The end product is the user's emotional satisfaction.
The goal of the game is to bring him great emotional rewards with minimal effort.
Emotions go hand in hand with the development of conditioned reflexes: the repetition of the same emotion that appears in connection with a particular event or object, eventually turns into an emotional predisposition to this event. The “playful” mood that we want to arouse in the player is a long-term consequence of the emotions experienced during the game. The game should cause the player positive emotions.
This is achieved, for example, by encouragement, when we constantly “monitor” the achievements of the player and reward him even for seeming trifles. Secondly, this is a pleasant surprise when, together with standard rewards, you get an unexpected bonus in the form of an interesting new thing or unexpected gaming capabilities.
This is all achieved through sophisticated innovative gameplay that creates emotional player involvement , i.e. self-expression through communication . For social players, knowledge of their current status and progress in the game (awareness of their own coolness) is no less important than knowledge of their next in-game goal and methods for achieving it. Social game should compress the gameplay (12) in a few clicks, and tell the rest.
12. Gameplay is a term used in the field of computer games to refer to the actual gameplay from the player’s point of view.
When creating gameplay for our game, we will be guided by the mechanism of the game for the social network, based on the following principles (13) of game design (14) , designed to give players a sense of fulfillment of their desires, explicit and hidden:
1) Sociality
2) Spontaneity
3) Symbolic touch.
4) Narration (narration of events)
5) Asynchrony (breaks in the gameplay)
Figure 12 The mechanism of the game for the social network
The social cycle is facilitated by rewards and a sense of progress in the game, ease of development, coupled with a reckless approach, "playful" means of communication and exchange of things, the opportunity for the player to build a reputation for themselves and encourage the involvement of friends in the game.
Orange arrows - cyclical gameplay; with each new turn of the spiral, the player gets an ever higher status among his friends and by in-game metrics.
Key mechanic design is an essential part of design. Key mechanics are those that players repeat over and over.
Combinations of game mechanics are used to achieve the player’s goals set by the designer. Fidbek is a service that monitors how a player accomplishes goals and compares his results with the results of other players, and the reaction of the community (other players) to the player's actions.
13 Principles - combining aggregate facts.
The principles of game design are achieved through the following game mechanics:
1. Sociality - the game should be completely social, that is, such a single player using friends as an additional resource, which means communication and interaction with friends (for example, the ability to steal from friends, go to their farms or stupidly send gifts)
1.1. Invitation to the game, which is impossible to refuse (not literally, of course)
1.2. Online and offline friends (or members of an interest group) - game teams / clans
1.3. Content and information in the "profile" of the player, focused on social connections.
1.4. Forming groups of players should be simple and intuitive.
1.5. Relations. The game should support friends and encourage players. Helped a friend - get a coin, brought a friend - hold two. Married a friend inside the game - keep five more!
1.6. The competitive element of the game - you always want to be "cooler friends"
1.7. Intentionally not too serious (“frivolous”) means of communication
1.8. The ability to create content based on the content of other users
1.9. The exchange of things is a structured form of social relations inherent in people since ancient times.
2. Spontaneity - the ability to actively act under the influence of internal motives
2.1. "Casual" gameplay (random, transient, less demanding on the cost of forces on the game) and the study of the world (in one or two clicks) - allows you to bring into the game the largest possible number of players from different audiences. You need to clearly maintain the border - the user came to look at your game, and not to play! If everything is simple in it, he will linger to play. If everything is complicated in it, he will leave the game.
2.2. Constantly complicating gameplay to keep the paying players as long as possible;
2.3. A mixture of genres - the use of the arcade part, strategy and RPG, which brings an element of novelty in the research of the game world;
2.4. Attraction and addictive. The game must be built in such a way as to attract the player and make him constantly enter the game. As options, this is a promotion at the entrance or an element of loss (friends will steal the harvest).
2.5. The infinity of the game - the game should not be the end. For example, it is possible to ensure that the leaders of the ratings feel obliged to return and check whether someone has not managed to beat their record during the absence. Achieving a record, therefore, becomes not the end of the game, but a pause until the next session.
2.6. Visual display of player in-game progress (a set of points)
2.7. Customization - the more a player changes his character / world “for himself” (invests time and energy), the more difficult it will be for him to leave. “Automatic” customization, depending on the user's actions, works just as well as personal. The more a user can change the profile in the social network, the better.
3. Symbolic tangibility - the ability of the game to be perceived by the user
3.1. Collecting things
3.2. The application should not "punish" for the experiments - the user should have the right to research and the right to make mistakes
3.3. Game rewards that can be shared (which can be donated)
3.4. Symbolic actions, like the button “drink from X to brotherhood”, “peck Y to cheek”
3.5. "Friends" in the social network, as a kind of necessary goods and services
4. Narration
4.1. The story about the actions and results of the player’s actions to him - the player shouldn’t guess what to do next, he should smoothly go through “difficult moments of the game”.
4.2. Notifications about the actions and results of the player's actions to his friends - draws attention to the game
4.3. Use the statistics generated by the game to attract players.
5. Asynchronous gameplay
5.1. Asynchronous gameplay allows multiple players to play one at a time, not simultaneously. Time to move may vary from game to game. You can play on one computer, device, one console or several.
5.2. Some degree of constancy. An asynchronous gameplay requires a game world that is common to all players and is always accessible; all players can influence events in it, it in turn saves at least some of these events and changes the state of the players according to them (as in the MMORPG).
5.3. The main feature of asynchronous multiplayer games is the gameplay, broken into many small gaming sessions. In good asynchronous games, the breaks between the “moves” are not a boring obligation, but the central part of the gameplay. Since in such games everything is kept on “breaks”, the default gameplay is more casual, it allows players to be more flexible in their decisions (as opposed to fussy RTS and multiplayer shooters). In addition, since asynchronous games are designed for constant pauses in the gameplay due to the player's business in the real world, some of them "take into account" what is happening in the real world; For example, if the yard is a winter night, then the game world will be dark and snowy.
As a result, evaluating the game using this system and maximizing all the indicators, we will get the most competitive game.
Let us show how the theory of principles of successful implementation developed by us is applied to the indicators of the past in order to evaluate its “predictive” capacity for future events in the past. In general, we prove that the evaluation system works!
We will take two games as a basis - bright representatives of different degrees of successful implementation and we will carry out an expert assessment on all indicators from the “Implementation” section.
Bottom line: the evaluation system showed that in fact the more successful game in the “Dig” market is more successful in our rating system.
Table 1 Basekrek analysis based on expert assessment of the gameplay indicators system
Business model - free-to-play: you can play for free, but for additional benefits: armor, weapons, tips - players need to pay.
The main product is virtual goods that give advantages in the game.
At first, the game should be with an extremely simple interface, elementary control (with one mouse button), rules that can be learned immediately after launch.
For example, you run the game. And make an insidious first click. Then, partly down, you delve into the essence, you snivel - “it's too simple” to make sure, you start another level, the next one. But what is it? Thirty minutes have passed. The end of the free "first dose". Here the monetization system enters the battle, giving you the opportunity to acquire additional energy or a weapon that makes you “cooler” than friends or speed up gameplay. And you, just like a 14-year-old schoolboy, are already sending sms to the coveted number. Spitting on these 170-200 rubles payment.
The average check is how much a player is willing to pay per month - on social networks it is less than in regular online games: now for Russia this figure is $ 5 per month for paying. The number of paying players is 3% of the number of people who installed the application. (15)
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Unfortunately, the information is 2011, but I think it is useful to colleagues.
The system of indicators of gameplay assessment was invented by me, so this business plan, my entire subjective vision.
1. Introduction
Since ancient times, one of the most vivid illustrations of the needs and desires of man is the ancient Roman concept of "bread and circuses." Moreover, the "spectacle" can be interpreted in a broader sense - as generally "entertainment." Whether we like it or not, after entertainment and sex, entertainment is perhaps the main thing that concerns the average consumer of any race and nationality. Therefore, the entertainment industry has long been a diversified and well-functioning business. On the Internet, one of its most prominent branches is games: casual, browser-based, games on social networks, and the like. On the scale of the planet now it is already billions of dollars in annual turnover.
2. Market opportunities
For a start, you just need to do business in the Russian Internet - this is one of the fastest growing markets. If we talk about specific business areas, there is great potential in e-commerce projects and services based on social connections. And of course, games, games, games. People start playing who were not interested in games before - for example, on a mobile phone. Games are attracting more and more new users, and this will continue. It just turned out that among the huge variety of content games are most popular. The combination of communication and entertainment services (especially games) works very well. (1)
The Russian Internet market is one of the few markets that have not ceased to grow in a crisis, according to all indicators: advertising, domains, hosting, audience size. The web development segment is no exception.
Today in 2011 the Internet is inhabited by 43 million Russians (39% of the population). Of these, 35 million people are an active Runet audience, and 25 million visit the Russian network daily. At the same time, 92% of users are registered in at least one social network, where 25 million people are monthly and 16 million daily. The share of Internet users in the country on average is: 92% in the category of 12-24 years, 76% in the population of 25-44 years, 25% in the population of 45 years and more. (2)
Figure 1 Use the Internet at least once.
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1 Chapter Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin in an interview for Forbes Russia.
2 According to TNS Russia, a leader in providing comprehensive media and marketing information.
The turnover of the computer games market in Russia today is $ 300,000,000. Of these, $ 230,000,000 falls on browser games, $ 35,000,000 on games on social networks, and $ 32,000,000 on casual games. (3)
For comparison, the figures for related markets:
1. SEO: $ 200 million (search engine optimization)
2. Games: $ 300 million
3. Paid services: $ 350 million
4. Advertising in RuNet: $ 670 million (media + context + non-standard advertising)
5. Electronic commerce: $ 4,840 million
Figure 2 Prospects for the growth of the online games market in Russia
The Russian segment of the Internet market can still double. By the number of users, Russia is already one of the largest countries in Europe. In addition, Runet has a large margin of revenue increase from the user. According to the audience, some Internet portals are already ahead of the TV channels. This is a huge additional distribution channel for various services. If earlier we could meet an Internet user sitting at a computer at home or at work, now we can meet him at the doctor’s reception, in the subway or in the trolleybus. (4)
3. About the Russian market for 2010 - Sergey Plutogarenko (executive director of ROCIT - Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies).
4. The head of Mail.ru Group Dmitry Grishin in an interview with Forbes Russia.
The dynamics of the monthly audience in the Russian segment of social networks shows that the most attractive for creating games is the social platform Vkontakte.ru (5)
Figure 3 Dynamics of monthly audience in Russia
Virtually the entire audience plays social online games, but the most active users are between the ages of 15 and 25. (6) It is this audience that dominates the social network vkontakte.ru, which also gives reason to choose this social network as a platform for developing games.
Figure 4 The structure of the audience vkontakte.ru in Russia
5. According to TNS Russia, a leader in providing comprehensive media and marketing information.
6. General Director of Innova Gevorg Sargsyan in an interview with Forbes Russia.
Entering foreign markets
As soon as our company makes a successful entry into the Russian market, it will be possible to begin its withdrawal to foreign markets.
According to a report by the eMarketer research group, in 2011 about 62 million Americans (about 27% of all Internet users in the US) will play at least one game on social networks a month. In 2011, users will spend $ 653 million on virtual goods (compared to $ 510 million last year), advertising will bring another $ 192 million (compared to $ 120 million in 2010), and income from lead generation (encouraging users of virtual currency for subscription, participation in surveys or payment for goods and services) will amount to 248 million dollars, emphasize in eMarketer.
This data is confirmed by our Russian companies, developers of online games - “On Facebook, for example, 20-30 times more money than social networks in Russia.” (7)
7. Andrei Fadeev - founder and CEO of Progrestar in an interview with Forbes Russia.
3. Market Overview
3.1. Competitors
Foreign companies
Zynga is an American online gaming developer. At the moment, is the undisputed leader. More than 10% of the global Internet audience plays its games. It was she who created the famous FarmVille (Farm). The estimated value of the company is 53 billion dollars. This is something to strive for!
Russian companies
Of the 4,000 applications in social networks, 80% were created in 2010. Today in Russia there are 300-400 development teams. Large studios, numbering from 11 to 35 people in Russia, only 13%. From 6 to 10 employees has 26% of studios, and 61% contain a staff of 1-5 people. (eight)
Largest company
Mail.Ru Group is the largest Internet company in the Russian-language segment of the Network and a leading player of Runet in terms of the number of monthly unique visitors. Mail.ru's main source of revenue is multiplayer online games.
The net profit of Mail.ru Group in 2010 increased by 63% compared with 2009 and amounted to $ 76.7 million. Revenues from online games, incl. social, increased by 62.5% - to $ 99.8 million
Mail.ru Group owns 100% of Mail.ru's online resource through Mail.ru Internet BV, it also owns 100% of ICQ, 21.35% of Qiwi payment service through OE holding, 2.38% of social service Facebook, 1.47 % game manufacturer Zynga, 5.13% Groupon discount service. Through the structure of Newtone Rose Limited, the company controls 97% of the resource HeadHunter.ru, through Odnoklassniki Ltd - 100% of the Odnoklassniki social network, and through VK.com it owns 39% of the Vkontakte social network.
TOP social developers 2011
As of the beginning of March 2011 top social developers and publishers for the total number of installations in the networks of VKontakte, MoiMir and Odnoklassniki looks like (9):
1. Creara - 106,076,000 installations (+5.7 million per month)
2. Mail.Ru/Astrum - 93,583,000 installations (+5.4 million)
3. i-Jet - 60,843,000 installations (+0.8 million)
4. Social Quantum - 38,115,000 installations (+4.9 million)
5. FishSticks - 29,902,000 installations (+2 million)
6. Plarium - 28,993,000 installations (+2 million)
7. PlayFlock - 18,136,000 installations (-0.1 million)
8. SocialCraft & Sarcasm - 17,488,000 installations (-0.3 million)
9. Ciliz - 16,538,000 installations (+0.6 million)
10. Exteer - 14,954,000 installations (+0.7 million)
11. KUBA Games - 14,837,000 installations (+1.1 million)
12. Progrestar - 14,056,000 installations (+0.2 million)
13. Game Insight - 13,600,000 installations (-0.3 million)
14. Kefir - 13,169,000 installations (+1.9 million)
15. Stas Andreev - 13,075,000 installations (+1 million)
16. GVFS - 12,768,000 installations (+2.7 million)
17. Ok'App - 12,672,000 installations (+1.3 million)
18. Weboow - 11,830,000 installations (+0.1 million)
19. Digital Entertainment - 11,789,000 installations (+0.7 million)
20. TVX Games - 11,530,000 installations (-0.03 million)
In order not to get lost in all these incomprehensible abbreviations, the most popular applications for companies from the second half of the list are given below.
• KUBA Games: Accurate Throw, Check out Tits and over 100 more mini-games
• Progrestar: Restaurateur, FlirtMania, Dig!
• Game Insight: Mystery House, Island, Big Business
• Kefir: Tyuryaga, Fashion Week, Saakashvili's Mission
• Stas Andreev: Postcard to a friend, Radio
• GVFS: Welcome Gifts
• Ok'App: Restorer, Animator, Radar
• Weboow: Avatar, Gifts, Fool translated
• Digital Entertainment: Mega Avatar, Perfect Couple, Psychomatrix
• TVX Games: Second Me, Beloved Animals, Cradle of Magic: Invasion
Market saturation
From a business point of view, everything that works according to the free to play model can now be considered a promising direction. As for saturation, this market can hardly have saturation. In a sense, this market is rubber. (ten)
8. About the Russian market for 2010 - Sergey Plutogarenko (ROCIT Executive Director)
9. insocialplay.livejournal.com
10. Alisa Chumachenko is the founder and president of Game Insight in an interview with Forbes Russia.
3.2. Our product
The essence of any Internet project is not just to create a good product, but also to show it. Social networks allow you to do this without a marketing budget. You create a product, you spread it online, without paying anything, and you tell your friends on the social network. In the usual Internet this is not possible, only in social networks.
But in social networks need virality (viral reaction). Only this allows you to gain an audience without large investments. But you can get it only under certain conditions.
First of all, the difference lies in guarantees of a high probability of successful implementation of the idea. Direct guarantees of success cannot exist in principle, but guarantees that all necessary conditions for increasing the probability of success exist and must be fulfilled.
Many developers are starting to make "original" games, but they produce raw unprocessed products. As a result, the user does not want to invite friends. And without viral it does not work.
The idea may not be the most original, it is enough to pay attention to the subject of films, serials and programs, which are loaded to the eyeballs of our television channels. You just need to translate it into the language of the social game. (11) The only thing is that the game should not repeat another game in this social network.
Our advantages:
1. New game in social networks
2. Compliance with all conditions to increase the likelihood of success (detailed description in the section of the business plan “Implementation”)
11. Andrey Pryakhin, Head of Kefir Company
3.3. Idea of ​​the game
Our first game will be created on the basis of the popular in its time game for the iPhone platform, socialized and supplemented. This is a strong idea, based on a product for which people are willing to pay. An idea that satisfies an existing need.
The game meets the basic requirements:
1. Novelty on the market - there is no such product in this market segment, the game is only on the platform for iPhone.
2. Addictive gameplay (which we will create)
Next comes the description of the game ...
4. Implementation
The second and main task is to implement. There is a lot of literature on creating games, but the social games market is fairly new. We have our own vision of the approach to project implementation - a systematic approach in relation to the creation of social games. This business plan describes its main provisions.
The system approach involves the consideration of an object as an integral set of elements in the totality of relations and relations between them, that is, the consideration of an object as a system, identifying patterns and relationships for the purpose of their more efficient use. As a result, we expect to get a systemic effect — a result of a special reorganization of the elements of the system, when the whole becomes larger than the simple sum of the parts.
For the successful implementation of the project it is necessary to take into account all the criteria for the success of the product:
1. The key role is played by the gameplay system (we will look at it in more detail below)
2. In second place is the quality of performance . Here, more meant graphics, music, internal balance and stability of the application. You need to think ahead and start the game to take care of the user, preventing the server from falling.
3. Monetization . No matter what the game will be, the main thing is what to sell in it and at what price. At this point you need to go especially carefully. Monetization will be set up carefully, it is important to withstand the moment when the user is ready to pay and provide him with convenient means for making a payment (time management of purchases ).
4. Community . This means the organization of high-quality technical support, care about the user.
Let us dwell on the gameplay . We describe how the company plans to effectively develop the game. More precisely, the principles of creation.
To begin with, we will define our products:
The end product is the user's emotional satisfaction.
The goal of the game is to bring him great emotional rewards with minimal effort.
Emotions go hand in hand with the development of conditioned reflexes: the repetition of the same emotion that appears in connection with a particular event or object, eventually turns into an emotional predisposition to this event. The “playful” mood that we want to arouse in the player is a long-term consequence of the emotions experienced during the game. The game should cause the player positive emotions.
This is achieved, for example, by encouragement, when we constantly “monitor” the achievements of the player and reward him even for seeming trifles. Secondly, this is a pleasant surprise when, together with standard rewards, you get an unexpected bonus in the form of an interesting new thing or unexpected gaming capabilities.
This is all achieved through sophisticated innovative gameplay that creates emotional player involvement , i.e. self-expression through communication . For social players, knowledge of their current status and progress in the game (awareness of their own coolness) is no less important than knowledge of their next in-game goal and methods for achieving it. Social game should compress the gameplay (12) in a few clicks, and tell the rest.
12. Gameplay is a term used in the field of computer games to refer to the actual gameplay from the player’s point of view.
When creating gameplay for our game, we will be guided by the mechanism of the game for the social network, based on the following principles (13) of game design (14) , designed to give players a sense of fulfillment of their desires, explicit and hidden:
1) Sociality
2) Spontaneity
3) Symbolic touch.
4) Narration (narration of events)
5) Asynchrony (breaks in the gameplay)
Figure 12 The mechanism of the game for the social network
The social cycle is facilitated by rewards and a sense of progress in the game, ease of development, coupled with a reckless approach, "playful" means of communication and exchange of things, the opportunity for the player to build a reputation for themselves and encourage the involvement of friends in the game.
Orange arrows - cyclical gameplay; with each new turn of the spiral, the player gets an ever higher status among his friends and by in-game metrics.
Key mechanic design is an essential part of design. Key mechanics are those that players repeat over and over.
Combinations of game mechanics are used to achieve the player’s goals set by the designer. Fidbek is a service that monitors how a player accomplishes goals and compares his results with the results of other players, and the reaction of the community (other players) to the player's actions.
13 Principles - combining aggregate facts.
14 Game design - the process of creating content and game rules; subspecies of communication design, facilitating the interaction of the player and games. Design is a creative activity, the purpose of which is to determine the formal qualities of products. These qualities include the external features of the product, but mainly those structural and functional relationships that make the product into a coherent whole, both from the point of view of the consumer, and from the point of view of the manufacturer.
The principles of game design are achieved through the following game mechanics:
1. Sociality - the game should be completely social, that is, such a single player using friends as an additional resource, which means communication and interaction with friends (for example, the ability to steal from friends, go to their farms or stupidly send gifts)
1.1. Invitation to the game, which is impossible to refuse (not literally, of course)
1.2. Online and offline friends (or members of an interest group) - game teams / clans
1.3. Content and information in the "profile" of the player, focused on social connections.
1.4. Forming groups of players should be simple and intuitive.
1.5. Relations. The game should support friends and encourage players. Helped a friend - get a coin, brought a friend - hold two. Married a friend inside the game - keep five more!
1.6. The competitive element of the game - you always want to be "cooler friends"
1.7. Intentionally not too serious (“frivolous”) means of communication
1.8. The ability to create content based on the content of other users
1.9. The exchange of things is a structured form of social relations inherent in people since ancient times.
2. Spontaneity - the ability to actively act under the influence of internal motives
2.1. "Casual" gameplay (random, transient, less demanding on the cost of forces on the game) and the study of the world (in one or two clicks) - allows you to bring into the game the largest possible number of players from different audiences. You need to clearly maintain the border - the user came to look at your game, and not to play! If everything is simple in it, he will linger to play. If everything is complicated in it, he will leave the game.
2.2. Constantly complicating gameplay to keep the paying players as long as possible;
2.3. A mixture of genres - the use of the arcade part, strategy and RPG, which brings an element of novelty in the research of the game world;
2.4. Attraction and addictive. The game must be built in such a way as to attract the player and make him constantly enter the game. As options, this is a promotion at the entrance or an element of loss (friends will steal the harvest).
2.5. The infinity of the game - the game should not be the end. For example, it is possible to ensure that the leaders of the ratings feel obliged to return and check whether someone has not managed to beat their record during the absence. Achieving a record, therefore, becomes not the end of the game, but a pause until the next session.
2.6. Visual display of player in-game progress (a set of points)
2.7. Customization - the more a player changes his character / world “for himself” (invests time and energy), the more difficult it will be for him to leave. “Automatic” customization, depending on the user's actions, works just as well as personal. The more a user can change the profile in the social network, the better.
3. Symbolic tangibility - the ability of the game to be perceived by the user
3.1. Collecting things
3.2. The application should not "punish" for the experiments - the user should have the right to research and the right to make mistakes
3.3. Game rewards that can be shared (which can be donated)
3.4. Symbolic actions, like the button “drink from X to brotherhood”, “peck Y to cheek”
3.5. "Friends" in the social network, as a kind of necessary goods and services
4. Narration
4.1. The story about the actions and results of the player’s actions to him - the player shouldn’t guess what to do next, he should smoothly go through “difficult moments of the game”.
4.2. Notifications about the actions and results of the player's actions to his friends - draws attention to the game
4.3. Use the statistics generated by the game to attract players.
5. Asynchronous gameplay
5.1. Asynchronous gameplay allows multiple players to play one at a time, not simultaneously. Time to move may vary from game to game. You can play on one computer, device, one console or several.
5.2. Some degree of constancy. An asynchronous gameplay requires a game world that is common to all players and is always accessible; all players can influence events in it, it in turn saves at least some of these events and changes the state of the players according to them (as in the MMORPG).
5.3. The main feature of asynchronous multiplayer games is the gameplay, broken into many small gaming sessions. In good asynchronous games, the breaks between the “moves” are not a boring obligation, but the central part of the gameplay. Since in such games everything is kept on “breaks”, the default gameplay is more casual, it allows players to be more flexible in their decisions (as opposed to fussy RTS and multiplayer shooters). In addition, since asynchronous games are designed for constant pauses in the gameplay due to the player's business in the real world, some of them "take into account" what is happening in the real world; For example, if the yard is a winter night, then the game world will be dark and snowy.
As a result, evaluating the game using this system and maximizing all the indicators, we will get the most competitive game.
5. Backtrack analysis
Let us show how the theory of principles of successful implementation developed by us is applied to the indicators of the past in order to evaluate its “predictive” capacity for future events in the past. In general, we prove that the evaluation system works!
We will take two games as a basis - bright representatives of different degrees of successful implementation and we will carry out an expert assessment on all indicators from the “Implementation” section.
Bottom line: the evaluation system showed that in fact the more successful game in the “Dig” market is more successful in our rating system.
Table 1 Basekrek analysis based on expert assessment of the gameplay indicators system
6. Business model
Business model - free-to-play: you can play for free, but for additional benefits: armor, weapons, tips - players need to pay.
The main product is virtual goods that give advantages in the game.
At first, the game should be with an extremely simple interface, elementary control (with one mouse button), rules that can be learned immediately after launch.
For example, you run the game. And make an insidious first click. Then, partly down, you delve into the essence, you snivel - “it's too simple” to make sure, you start another level, the next one. But what is it? Thirty minutes have passed. The end of the free "first dose". Here the monetization system enters the battle, giving you the opportunity to acquire additional energy or a weapon that makes you “cooler” than friends or speed up gameplay. And you, just like a 14-year-old schoolboy, are already sending sms to the coveted number. Spitting on these 170-200 rubles payment.
The average check is how much a player is willing to pay per month - on social networks it is less than in regular online games: now for Russia this figure is $ 5 per month for paying. The number of paying players is 3% of the number of people who installed the application. (15)
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15. — Progrestar Forbes Russia.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/167351/
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