USA 2014Video Coverage

Richard Benjamin Loves Being Surrounded By Creative People | Casual Connect Video

August 22, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

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USA 2014Video Coverage

Richard Benjamin Loves Being Surrounded By Creative People | Casual Connect Video

August 22, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

Richard Benjamin shared the story of what Funtomic thought when faced with what of their game, Chicken Boy. “We kind of owe it to our loyal group of fans, but as a company, we owe it more to ourselves to actually keep pushing this and seeing how it goes forward,” he explained.

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Richard Benjamin, Vice President of Business Development, Funtomic

Richard Benjamin is the vice president of business development at Funtomic. He came to the games industry after a career in banking, and he tells us that one of the things he enjoys most about his work is telling his former colleagues that he must slot time into his calendar for playing games; it used to be the opposite. He also enjoys being a part of an industry that is at the forefront of innovative developments around user experiences. He says, “It’s awesome to witness how we cater for user behaviors being at the center of what we do.”

Thinking About the Market

Producers are considered the CEOs for their games, assuming responsibility for the development process and post-release management, so for him, someone with a strategic management background, Richard loves the creative and business exchanges that surround him. His past experiences help producers think more in market terms around making games rather than focusing solely on the end product, although Richard feels he learns far more from them.




One of the proudest moments of his career with Funtomic was watching the team release Chicken Boy. He states, “We all had the most amazing time working on the game, and everyone was really proud when it came out. Hearing all the great feedback and how much fun people had playing Chicken Boy, even as we made the game better, has proven that our efforts were totally worthwhile.”

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“Hearing all the great feedback and how much fun people had playing Chicken Boy, even as we made the game better, has proven that our efforts were totally worthwhile.”

Richard tells us that the tension between generating original game concepts that satisfy desires of the producers to create innovative, fun games people will love and the need to be commercially viable is a big challenge to how new ideas are successfully discovered and developed.




Allowing For Creative Freedoms

At Funtomic, there is a strong focus on giving their producers creative freedom on the games they make, but they balance this freedom with building strong business intelligence and marketing capabilities. This allows them to rely on data in addition to the creative and monetary potential of a game. He has noticed, “It creates a strong yin/yang force between balancing truthful data and insights that point to prospects and the excitement a producer can have for a new title. It also allows producers to focus on areas that need improvement for game success.”




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At Funtomic, there is a strong focus on giving their producers creative freedom on the games they make, but they balance this freedom with building strong business intelligence and marketing capabilities.

Richard believes the next big trend in the games industry will be personalized gaming. He points out that currently even the best games that aspire to be mass-market lose the vast majority of their players within the first hour of play. Rising acquisition costs will pressure companies to produce games that perform well for a larger share of the audience, and advances in behavioral science and data analytics will enable the creation of learning and personalization layers that will ensure a better experience for a longer time for a larger share of players.

He considers himself a typical casual gamer, spending most of his time on his phone or tablet. He is still amazed by the way some titles stay so high in the top grossing charts, but he regularly goes back to playing all of the big performers. He also admits he is a big fan of Civilization and is eagerly awaiting the new title, Beyond Earth.




When he has free time, he enjoys running and going to the beach, which he considers one of the best things about living in Tel Aviv. He is also an avid soccer fan, although he was disappointed in his native Australia’s showing at the World Cup this year.

 

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Catherine Quinton

Catherine Quinton

Catherine Quinton is a staff writer for www.gamesauce.org. Catherine loves her hobby farm, long walks in the country and reading great novels.

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