It started as market research, turned into group therapy but, in the end, Unsung Heroes became something extraordinary. Spil Games‘ CEO Tung Nguyen-Khac shares the story of how the Unsung Heroes campaign exposed major fault lines in how developers are tackling mobile.
We were batting around ideas about what to do at our booth at Casual Connect Amsterdam when we got to talking about how many great games there are that never seem to make it in the App Store or on Google Play. There is something about how people focus on the top-rated games that stops them from noticing other games that, actually, might be more interesting to play.
Hernan Lopez of Epic Llama said it best about the launch of his game Big Bang Dust: “Releasing a game is like throwing a stone in a lake. It sinks to the bottom.”
And so we decided to make this the focus of an event at Casual Connect which was the start of a campaign we call Unsung Heroes.
Developers Speak Out
Hernan was one of five developers involved in our Unsung Heroes event at Casual Connect. These were all people with great games who had struggled to get an audience. We asked the developers to pitch their games. At the least, this would increase their exposure. But it also helped us understand where these games were going wrong and it allowed us to highlight the problems mobile developers have in getting people to play their games.
Benoît Freslon created a die-and-retry skill game called Rolling Jump. He previously worked on Flash games and told us: “I just made games and put them on the web.”
It used to be that simple. But on mobile, Benoît’s monetisation strategy didn’t work and by the time he changed it to something better, his game already had reviews and it was too late to change people’s minds.
“You have to find the right publisher,” Benoît told us (we hope he had Spil Games in mind). “A bigger publisher is better. Mine was too tiny and my game ended up in the black hole”.
The Black Hole
This phrase “the black hole of the app store” is becoming common currency among developers. It neatly sums up their experience. They put a lot of passion and resource into creating a game and then it seems to be sucked away, out of their control and into oblivion.
Vadim Starygin has a medieval army strategy game, Royal Offense. He had tested it on one Android phone, yet the game received negative reviews because it didn’t work on some other versions.
“All Android versions are different,” he explained. “Some phones don’t have enough memory [to play Royal Offense, and those people downrated the game. You have to be prepared with the tech stuff.”
One of the best games we saw at Casual Connect was Socioball from developer Shailesh Prabhu. This is a puzzle game where players can create their own levels and share them through Twitter.
Shailesh ported the game from PC to mobile where the fact people are more likely to be permanently signed in to Twitter makes the game work better. We asked him why the mobile version hadn’t been more successful. His answer was frank. “I don’t know. Users like the game. We have great reviews. But we struggle to get people to play it and we struggle to get people to buy things in the game.”
Mobile Developer Frustration
His frustration is felt by many other game developers. For Neil Lai, the problem is understanding European and American audiences when you’re based in Asia.
“We don’t have the resources to take on the whole world,” he said. “I’m a hardcore gamer. I do it for the love of building games. But understanding what Europeans think about; what Americans like… that’s the hardest part for us.”
The idea of Unsung Heroes is to share knowledge about mobile game development. So here is what we learned at the Casual Connect event:
1. Creating a great mobile game is the easy part. Finding people to play it and pay for it can be baffling and frustrating.
2. Partnerships matter. You have to be working with the best people to help you build an audience for your game.
3. The technology matters too and your monetization strategy is crucial. But you have to get both right from the launch date so that early reviews don’t sink your game.
4. Understanding cultural and language differences around the world can help you reach a much wider audience. It’s crazy to limit yourself to your own country.
5. The way you market your game is vitally important. It’s no good throwing a stone in a lake — it will just sink. To attract attention in the app stores, you need to make an enormous splash.
Where Unsung Heroes Goes Next
It’s all very well complaining about how tough it is for games in the app store. We thought we’d take Unsung Heroes a stage further and do something about that. Our aim is to get people to play a broader range of great games.
So we’ve launched the Unsung Heroes Competition. We’re asking developers to submit mobile games which haven’t reached their potential in the app stores. We’ll promote the best of those ggames to users. The great thing is that, even before we get to a prize, everyone wins. Developers see the games receive a broader exposure and users get to play some awesome games they may not have otherwise discovered.
We’ll be making sure we take consumers’ views into account in deciding an overall winner. That developer will receive a publishing contract with Spil Games worth $50,000 (subject to terms and conditions).
The Unsung Heroes campaign is beginning to get a head of steam. It started so well at Casual Connect, we’re already planning more initiatives and events to highlight awesome games that deserve to be played.
Hernan Lopez recalls: “We know our game is great — it won awards. It did great on the web. But no one played it on mobile. Even I forgot that I’d made the game.”
We want to make that kind of experience a thing of the past. With Unsung Heroes, we want to change mobile development so great games get the chance they deserve.
For more information on the Unsung Heroes Competition visit its page.
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