Social Media Game - Expertise at Work

[ZDS]

I wanted to start by saying, this venture is pretty much a direct product at BnP. I learned so much at the event, and I really wanted to utilize the information I learned from talking to so many extreme successful people. I feel this venture really captures what I've learned.

To begin. I've decided to scrap my previous venture. After talking with many people, I really feel like it did not embody fast lane principles. It was working, but it was a slow process that felt extreme similar to a job. I did not want to waste my time on something that did not have the potential to make me a significant amount of money in a short amount of time. This combined with the fact I was doing it purely as a entry into the gaming industry, I felt it was not a good fit for my goals. Why waste all that time when there are opportunities staring you in the face?

During BnP I talked to many people about the potential/opportunity for social games staring everyone in the face. So, as I got back from BnP, I asked my self why not? Why can't I do it?


Many people including Imiraz and Kwerner send me PM's and Emails telling me I have the skil set, and I should go for it. I really appreciate the support.

So on to the idea:

The cost is low, the potential profit is huge. It would be a NEGATIVE EV mistake not to pursue this.
I've been doing so much research and it all seems to fit. The numbesr are there, all we have to do is create it.

So here is where I am at

I am working with two developers for equity stake. They'll be doing the majority of the coding, and I'll be handling most of the business/marketing efforts.

We are utilzing a small company in Austin open source software for our game. This is what will allow us to create the game cheaply and quickly.

There software, Portalarium, is going to change the way games are built in facebook in my opinion. They are still working on getting it out, so it is still brand new, but basically the premise is this:

Their software allows developers to completely bypass the Facebook API(Basically making your code/program work with Facebooks, huge headaches, very limiting, etc). It allows us to create our games using the code we fancy and also have it run in the facebook window. They key part here is this allows us to use a Game Engine. This is important. This allows a small team of developers to create a professional quality game. Engines DRASTICALLY expedite the process. We do not have to create the game from the ground up.

The only problem is that it is an extra download for the user, however if they are playing ANY game using this software they only have to download it once, not for each game. This is why they created it as freeware, because they are releasing games as well.


We have most of the design for the game mapped out, and we've purchased/started working with the engine. We should start the actual game creation in the next week or two.

I feel we have alot of unique concepts for our facebook game that will give it a strong chance of survival.

Our game will not only be entertaining to play, but utilzing real world experiences. I wanted to not only connect users socially, but give them a social cause to work towards.

Not to give away a huge amount of information but basically your in game success, will have a quantifiable affect on the real world.

Think environmentally/saving animal(IE: Did you place a bunch of trees in your world? Guess what... You've just contributed towards planting trees in your area.) I have a ton of ideas of utilzing this to give players incentives to play, beyond their own success and normal game incentives)

If anyone wants more information on the game design and ideas, please feel free to shoot me an email, I'd much prefer to discuss it that way rather than placing the plan for our game online!


Thanks for listening!

-Zach

 

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[EastWind]

sounds really exciting! thanks for sharing!

 

[kurtyordy]

Think environmentally/saving animal(IE: Did you place a bunch of trees in your world? Guess what... You've just contributed towards planting trees in your area.) I have a ton of ideas of utilzing this to give players incentives to play, beyond their own success and normal game incentives)

my advice would be to not invest a lot of time or money on this aspect. Most of these players from my experience are lumps. They want to just sit in a lump and play all day. Do you think more lumps would play farmville if there was a portion contributed to organic farming in their comunity? Doubt it.

Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

Cash is the best incentive. i.e. save 150 animals/day and entered to win xyz cash or something like this. This will keep them playing longer each day just to be entered. Then you make it easier and quicker to save animals if they enlist other enviros to help them, so now they are promoting you just so they can qualify quicker. Then you rent relocation nets. For $1/month (real cash), they can rent a relocation net which would save animals 50% faster.

Then you roll out a grand prize, save 500 animals a day and be entered in an even bigger sweepstakes. Oh and btw, we just came up with the Super Animal Relocater SUV which only runs on Sacred Elephant burps. You can rent it for $10/month (real cash).

ok, sorry got a bit carried away with the idea. All that to say I think the real world social cause will have less impact in garnering players than a cash incentive. However, a pr campaign behind a real world social impact tied to the game would have great impact. The question would be where do you get the best return for you buck.

 

[ZDS]

my advice would be to not invest a lot of time or money on this aspect. Most of these players from my experience are lumps. They want to just sit in a lump and play all day. Do you think more lumps would play farmville if there was a portion contributed to organic farming in their comunity? Doubt it.

Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

Cash is the best incentive. i.e. save 150 animals/day and entered to win xyz cash or something like this. This will keep them playing longer each day just to be entered. Then you make it easier and quicker to save animals if they enlist other enviros to help them, so now they are promoting you just so they can qualify quicker. Then you rent relocation nets. For $1/month (real cash), they can rent a relocation net which would save animals 50% faster.

Then you roll out a grand prize, save 500 animals a day and be entered in an even bigger sweepstakes. Oh and btw, we just came up with the Super Animal Relocater SUV which only runs on Sacred Elephant burps. You can rent it for $10/month (real cash).

ok, sorry got a bit carried away with the idea. All that to say I think the real world social cause will have less impact in garnering players than a cash incentive. However, a pr campaign behind a real world social impact tied to the game would have great impact. The question would be where do you get the best return for you buck.

I appreciate the ideas! But I feel I must clear up a misconception about social media games!

All the studies show the Social Media gamer population are not interested in playing all day, but rather a social experience to collaborate with friends casually. On a daily basis, but not for long periods of time! There is a surprising amount of housewives and business professionals who have access to internet all day and want to pop on occasionally!

The environmental / animal saving would not be built as the game, but rather a byproduct of the game.

Ex: You are playing the game having fun and what not, but notice you ended up placing a bunch of trees because it was better for you. You check your account and noticed those efforts planted a tree in the real world.

There is a MASSIVE difference between the average PC gamer and the Social Media gamer. They are two different huge markets.

Your serious hardcore gamer are not the ones playing these games, nor are they the ones spending the money!

You'd be surprised who is playing these games!

 

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[ZDS]

I've been running the financial and all I have to say is christ. There is so much potential here it is mind numbing.

 

[ZDS]

Update: We've really been working hard on it. My two programmers have been creating mini games with the software in order to familiarize themselves with the behaviors, scripts, etc.

I'll be registering us as an LLC on the 23rd. This weekend we are going to be basically mapping out everything we plan to have, and everything we need to release on paper so we have a overarching document to refer to, we have pretty much all of the other aspects designed at the moment.

There's something I've been thinking about that I'd like your opinion on. This is a big project for two people (I'm not handling a ton of the coding) I've been thinking of setting up/getting 1-2 interns to work for us this summer after we register our LLC.

This seems like it would be a great way to get labor, and most college Computer Science majors literally dream of working on a game. I'm sure I could get 1-2 unpaid interns. I'm currently looking up the rules/laws etc, but was wondering if anyone has any advice or experience with this. One of the major things I worry about is labor laws. Do I have to be affiliated with a school to avoid paying minimum wage.

Thanks!

-Zach

 

[ZDS]

We're still working on it. One of our problems we've run into is identifying which audience to target. Sure, it's easy to design a facebook game like Farmville, Petville, Hotel City, etc etc. But those games also require EXTENSIVE monetary backing and cross promotion for advertising. Due to the nature of the game and the audience they are targeting. So after much discussion, we have decided to target a different, smaller, more niche audience.

We plan on actually giving our game some depth. We can't compete with the advertising dollars of the big companies, but we can compete on how good our game is.

The problem with most of the big facebook games of today are there is no telling what the market will do, its foreign territory. These games are disgustingly simple, and while that may be popular now, in a year the public could just as easily tire of these games. Because of this, we plan on making a genuine good game with depth. Although the mass market is smaller, there is ALWAYS a market for good games and we think this is where we have the best chance to compete.

Other than that, we've met a couple more people, and might potentially have a found a separate game that will cross promote with us when we our developed.

Anyways thats all for today!

-Zach

 

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[ZDS]

We officially have access to the software, the development is on hold for a couple weeks at the moment, due to my programmers being my room-mates and seniors in college(finals) after this passes we plan on hitting it full force for the entirety of the summer.

I've been toying with some creative marketing strategies to get the public involved.

These games are all social, but I really like the idea of social game design.

I'd like to have the users have input in the development(obviously this will happen after we launch, the only way to succeed is to listen to your user base, but I will also trying to figure how to get this to happen before we launch.

What do you guys think about the idea of perhaps launching a Facebook fan-page/website that allows the users to vote and have an impact on the actual flow of the game design? I was thinking this may facilitate the community, but also there would probably be too few users participating until actual release.

Anyways that's a quick update.

 

[kwerner]

I just noticed this thread today; I'm SUPER excited for you Zach!
BIG Rep++ for taking action on this!
This is something majorly Fastlane - if you need ANY help at all, I'd love to help!