Game Developers Conference 2008 - (Page 40) Casual Games Summit ellen guon beeman (carbonated games - Microsoft casual games), Kenny shea Dinkin (playFirst), nick Fortugno (rebel Monkey), Juan gril (Joju games), Daniel James (three rings), todd Kerpelman (eA/pogo), steve Meretzky (blue Fang) 4:15-6pm Design today tuesDAY, FebruArY 19 cAsuAL gAMes toMorroW > Avoiding Hardcore’s Mistakes eric Zimmerman (gamelab) 11:40am-12:05pm The tragedy of the commons (how to avoid a content glut). Only focusing on your best customers and over time creating an industry that supports only “hardcore casual” players. A “production values race” that constantly raises the bar of what constitutes a marketable game, until no one is profitable any more. How can we balance innovation with supporting our loyal customers? Tie back into the day one keynote, are we “keeping the promise of casual games” or breaking the promise? Keynote: the changing Face of casual games chris early (Microsort casual games) 10:05-10:35am Casual Games Summit > Design today panel ellen guon beeman (carbonated games - Microsoft casual games), Kenny shea Dinkin (playFirst), nick Fortugno (rebel Monkey), Juan gril (Joju games), Daniel James (three rings), todd Kerpelman (eA/pogo), steve Meretzky (blue Fang) What are the three most important principles about designing for each business model. Include examples of games that did this well and did this poorly on each business model. • Web Downloads • Ad-Supported • Subscriptions • Console Downloads • Micro-transactions • Mobile • Skill Games redefining the casual game (part i) Arthur K Humphrey (Last Day of Work) 10:35-11am Filling the Void Arthur K Humphrey (Last Day of Work) There’s a growing number of games that fall into the space between the historically casual and the historically hardcore. VirtuaL ViLLagErs, chocoLatiEr, gEomEtry wars, etc. has shown that there really is an audience in the betweenspace, but who are they, what do they want, and how do you make money in this space? > redefining the casual game panel Arthur K Humphrey (Last Day of Work), steve Meretzky (blue Fang), gabe Zichermann (rmbr.com), eric Zimmerman (gamelab) 12:05-12:30pm coffee break 11-11:15am Lunch 12:30-2pm redefining the casual game (part ii) the Markets of tomorrow > the Year in casual game Design nick Fortugno (rebel Monkey), Juan gril (Joju games) More 3-in-a-row, a gazillion hidden-object games, and a couple of tycoon games. Was there any innovation in casual game design last year? There sure was! While most of it has been incremental, there have been quite a few innovative ideas thrown out there by brave developers. And even those small incremental innovations are making casual games more interesting than ever. In this session we are going to look some of the most successful casual games of the year and dissect them. Arthur K Humphrey (Last Day of Work), steve Meretzky (blue Fang), gabe Zichermann (rmbr.com), eric Zimmerman (gamelab) 11:15am-12:30pm Kenny shea Dinkin (playFirst), chris Houtzer (realnetworks inc.), Daniel James (three rings), Margaret Wallace (rebel Monkey) 2-4pm > new patterns of play chris Houtzer (realnetworks inc.) 2-2:30pm Casual MMOs, community, UGC, Facebook, casual gaming “on the go,” etc. What are the new ways that people are playing? Who are they? How big are these markets? > the new Demographics of casual games gabe Zichermann (rmbr.com) 11:15-11:40am Kids (is Club Penguin a casual game site?). Oldsters (is Wii SPORTSports a casual game?). Aging Gen-Xers (is transitioning from hardcore to casual going to become a predictable life-phase?). How do you reach these new markets? Are these markets converging, or is this a splintering of casual games into many niches? > new opportunities for Monetization Daniel James (three rings) 2:30-3pm Given the new play patterns that are emerging or that are expected to emerge, what are the opportunities for new ways to monetize these players … microtransactions, subscriptions, advertising, etc. What are the extra costs, like higher customer care costs, that accompany these new revenue streams? How do these opportunities blend with the download model to create a hybrid revenue stream? 40 Visit www.gdconf.com for daily coverage of GDC 2008 http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide http://rmbr.com http://rmbr.com http://rmbr.com http://www.gdconf.com/?cid=GDC08_showguide
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