Children are generally the first to adopt new technologies. With $21 billion in worldwide sales in 2014, game developers, brand holders, as well as toy companies are avidly trying to connect with this tech savvy and lucrative deomographic. Director of Research and Consumer Insights for SuperData Research, Stephanie Llamas spoke at Casual Connect USA about the current landscape for mobile games for kids. She identified the most important drivers of change in this market and also deciphered the early signs of what’s to come. One example she shared was that kids make up almost 8% of the worldwide mobile market. She explained, “We see that the kids games are fueled by developed markets like the US . . . We expect in maturing markets to see slow and steady growth in the kids realm.”
Using examples from the development of Halfbrick’s Bears vs. Art, Layton Hawkes, former Game Designer for Halfbrick Studios, explored the tension between the logic driven and the chance-based, randomized elements in puzzle design. Halfbrick found these elements influenced a player’s perception of difficulty, critical decision-making, and their experience of frustration and achievement. Tune in to his talk from Casual Connect USA and find out how to create more compelling puzzles by balancing logic and chance effectively. One of the ways to do that that Layton described during his talk was in understanding some psychology. “Frustration and aggression increase in what (psychologists) call the attribution of blame. Simply, this is where the blame lies when someone is obstructed or prevented in their efforts to attain a goal.” He advices to find the frustration your users are having and reduce the unexpected failures they often encounter. To learn more, tune in below.
So, you’ve just finished your casual game. Spent 6 months of development, setup social media channels, and gathered contacts. It’s going to be awesome! Your head is buzzing: acquisition, discoverability, monetization, retention rates. Yet, you’re stuck with a limited budget and the challenge to find and attract players. You need this to be a hit! Yup. I’ve been there. What if you could get valuable insight from players after only one day of development? Bart van den Berg, Co-founder and CEO of Blue Giraffe presented a postmortem at Casual Connect USA on how they use focus testing, play testing and bonded with players over prototypes. He advised,”Start playtesting from concept. Players love the connection, give great feedback and evangelize your game!”
In a continuation of his talk from Casual Connect’s conference in Asia earlier this year, Dr. Serkan Toto, Founder and CEO of Kantan Games spoke at Casual Connect USA about the possibilities the world’s largest mobile gaming market offers to foreign developers. He highlighted the size and structure of the Japanese game landscape, key differences to the West, efficient modes of entry for foreign game makers, and successful case studies from the past. “If you are a foreign game developer, the first thing you need to understand is that it’s an extremely mature and sophisticated market already”, he said.
