If the global mobile gaming audience is larger than it’s ever been and spending at ever increasing rates, why have the top grossing charts effectively been calcified for over a year? Why is it common industry wisdom to declare the market effectively closed to new entrants? In his Designing for Victory Using Strong Social Constructs lecture at Casual Connect USA, Brett Seyler, founder and CEO of Americana Game Studio, gave insight to these questions and precise design framework to help producers, investors, developers, analysts and executives in understanding how today’s incumbents seized the throne, and why they remain deeply vulnerable to usurpation by new entrants. In mobile marketing, Brett stressed that it is important to, “Develop your IP in a way that doesn’t let the user down. It doesn’t make the user feel like you cut corners or you just didn’t live up to the promises of your IP. ”
Brett Seyler has a need for speed. And the gaming industry has just what he needs. The fast pace and dynamism of the games industry is what led him to dive into gaming in 2006 and he’s had his foot on the gas ever since.
Starting off at GarageGames (aquired by IAC in 2007), without a shred of industry experience, Brett later turned his attention toward angel investments before talking a key operational role at Unity as one of their first American employees. At Unity, he spearheaded an effort to learn the logistics and technological requirements for success in the free-to-play mobile games market, a prelude to Unity’s contemporary services offering to developers. When the initiative was later suspended in lieu of a focus on the core licensing business, he left Unity for new opportunities. After a period of consulting Facebook game companies on analytics and LTV modeling, he turned his attention full time to the new and expanding mobile frontier.
Acquisition
In 2012, he started publishing label Kerosene to fill a role similar to what he envisioned and put in motion at Unity, helping developers in all things related to free-to-play mobile games, from design and live operations tech to user acquisition and platform features.
One of the companies Brett initially worked with as a part of Kerosene was Luma Arcade, which he says was “unbelievably talented and great to work with.” The partnership with Luma Arcade seemed to stand in stark contrast to others in the space though. “I was surprised to find very few other indie developers with sufficient ambition and vision to make appropriate partners for an arms length third-party publisher,” he says.
Seeing a growing opportunity in mobile games, Kerosene acquired Luma Arcade, rebranding the combined entity Americana Game Studio. “We’ve been building our latest product, and the server infrastructure to support its ambitious design, ever since - and we’re gearing up for its launch in 2016,” Brett says.
Evolving Role
Brett’s role and responsibilities as founder of Americana Game Studio have changed over time. While early on his focus was developing partnerships to support 3rd party teams, after the pivot to 1st party development, the focus shifted to the nitty gritty of production, user interfaces, server infrastructure and most importantly, game design. He has spent the majority of the last three years studying and breaking down Asian free-to-play MMOs and a variety of mobile titles that incorporate similar systems.
These games outperform nearly all Western counterparts, so understanding how they tick could be the key to anticipating new trends in Western user preferences and staying successful in the industry. Brett believes that most of the industry is focused on the wrong elements of free-to-play success: user acquisition, production quality, and incremental design innovation.
While he acknowledges that these things are all necessary, he notes that they are insufficient for success in today’s market. Breaking through and hitting escape velocity requires an approach to game design that most studios aren’t willing to consider for a variety of reasons, he says. “Innovating in a major way on mobile game design is the only viable route to victory in today’s market.”
Teamwork
Luckily, Brett is working with a talented team who are up to the challenge. He calls co-founder and creative director Dale Best “an absolute phenom,” and says that technical director Steven Garcia “combines a world class skill set with inhuman work ethic.” The list continues on and, while the team is fiercely competitive, they also have a shared vision for the company which keeps everyone very productive.
The hardest part of Brett’s job isn’t the day-to-day business or the high-octane atmosphere of the industry, it is the human aspect of the job. He says that at times it is difficult to see his teammates going through tough personal issues. There aren’t easy answers for situations like that and the best you can do is to show kindness and empathy.
It’s this empathy and his honesty that has earned Brett the trust of his teammates. His driving goal in leadership has always been built around trust and empathy and an honest approach has always served him well in leadership.
When looking for a new team member, he seeks someone with a positive attitude above all else, claiming it’s one of the most undervalued traits in the industry. “Working with people who bring others down is the worst,” he insists. “I watch founders waste energy on this all the time. Working with people who lift others up is an absolute blessing.”
He also keeps a keen eye on those with a good work ethic and accountability, noting that entrepreneurial experience is a huge bonus.
Game on
Currently Brett and his teammates are working on what he calls his dream game. “Hands down, this is the most enthusiastic and passionate I’ve ever been about my work,” he reveals.
Like any production, they have features and ideas for the game that are “on the bubble” which would be exciting to launch with, rather than add down the road, but Brett claims they have been nearly uncompromising on design. While Americana Game Studio will still launch the game as an MVP (minimum viable product), their beliefs about the “minimum” and “viable” aspects are significantly different than the rest of the industry.
Brett notes that the meaning of “MVP” is relative. While some companies may be complacent with making a Top 100 grossing title, Americana Game Studio wants to make a #1 grossing title that players will play for years, the latter being their key measurement of success. “An MVP with that goal can’t be built in 12 months, or 18 months.”
End Game
Looking beyond a new game release, Brett is always sizing up the games industry as a whole as well. He expects VR to continue thrashing for awhile before becoming truly viable; he feels an uphill battle to mainstream consumer adoption and operational health risks are legitimate concerns. He is much more bullish on AR, citing a much healthier and more versatile long-term outlook, although the experience may be less compelling than VR in its current form.
But the real trend that Brett expects to sweep the industry, and which is already in motion, is massively connected design. Destiny and Final Fantasy XIV have paved the way for consoles and MMOs already dominate the PC landscape. The biggest barrier, he notes, are technological challenges involving servers and hardware, and significant leap in game design and live operation complexity.
He believes major innovation and investment in server technology are required to support modern designs on all platforms. Anticipating this trend, Brett is investing in companies that are addressing the issue. He also notes that Americana Game Studio has made it a pillar of their competitive thesis. “Simply put, we can pull off designs that very few other studios can at this moment. We’re working to maintain that advantage and capitalize on it with uniquely compelling entertainment.”
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