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USA 2014 Video Coverage

Jamison Selby Is Keeping His Secrets | Casual Connect Video

August 27, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

Jamison Selby shared his knowledge and views on real-money gaming during his session at Casual Connect USA 2014. “By 2018, less than .01 percent of commercial mobile apps will be considered a financial success by their developers,” he said.

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JSelby2 — Jamison Selby, VP Games, b Spot

The best thing about being a part of the games industry, according to Jamison Selby, is, quite simply, that he gets to make games. He says, “I spend days creating new recipes for fun and testing them out.” He heads the Games team at b Spot, but refuses to divulge the secrets of how he joined up and exactly what he does there. State secrets, he claims. Or could they be industry secrets? But he admits that for years he walked the line between the video games space and the real money gambling world, an experience which he has found the perfect ground for his current endeavors.

He also reveals that he has had some great moments along the way in this industry, but he hopes the best moments are yet to come. He says, “Someday, I’ll get to show my kids what I’ve done. Ask me then.”

This busy father clearly makes his family a priority. With two young children, he spends his time chasing, splashing, running, dodging, reading aloud, and cleaning. And occasionally sleeping.

But he does find time for some game play. However, these days GTA5 on the Xbox often gives way to Wonder Pets and Octonauts. Currently, he is playing Wasteland 2 Beta and Broken Age. And his preferred platform is whatever happens to be available.

There seem to be quite a lot of choices available, since he says he has all the usual consoles, including his Nintendo DS which “shall never sunset.” For mobile gaming, he uses both Android and iOS depending on which game he is playing and claims the most interesting place he has played mobile games was in the crew bar of a cruise ship late at night in the middle of the Baltic.

JSelbyGamer (1) — Selby is a busy father, but he does find time for some game play.

It Started With The TV

Selby became involved in the games industry while working on TV game shows. The trivia content was the jumping off point for him to dive into the games industry. He became the head writer for ODVD games, working on a series of trivia titles published by Hasbro. He states, “It was a big creative challenge and offered a very different path from the feast or famine world of TV production.” He believes if he had not joined the industry, he would be producing questionable reality TV shows or possibly teaching drama at a small Northwestern college. Or even serving drinks at a bar on an island without a zip code.

Here Come The Wearables

bSpotCashinko — “Every new innovation opens up creative possibilities, and we’re constantly dreaming up new ways to play.”

The next big trend Selby sees affecting the games industry is the explosion of wearables and VR technology. He believes this will bring huge opportunities for new content creation in the years ahead. He insists, “Every new innovation opens up creative possibilities, and we’re constantly dreaming up new ways to play.”

Selby has years of experience leading cross-disciplinary design and production teams to create multiplayer social games and interactive entertainment. He founded and leads the International Game Developer Association’s Real Money Gaming SIG. Previously, he launched the Monkey King Games consultancy and was the senior producer at TimePlay Entertainment, creating a new generation of multiplayer gaming in casinos, cinemas, cruise ships, bars, clubs and stadiums.

Europe 2014 Video Coverage

Amon Endt: Be Ready for What Happens | Casual Connect Video

February 19, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

Amon Endt is Founder and CEO of GamePoint, a developer and publisher of synchronous multi-player social games. Endt describes himself as determined, someone who makes things happen. Since GamePoint, after starting out in the Netherlands, now has a strong presence not only in The Netherlands, but also in Germany, France, Spain, the UK, the US and Canada, he clearly is someone who makes things happen.

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Endt now spends most of his working time on high-level matters such as strategy, finances, and planning. However, he admits he has a tendency to micromanage, and he also values interaction with the employees, so he can often be found on the floor working directly with his team.

The company also knows how to have fun. At Casual Connect Europe, GamePoint hosted the official Casual Connect party, Gold!

A Growing Company

The most exciting time in his career came in 2008, when GamePoint first started to generate revenue at a noticeable scale in a foreign country: Germany. It was a pivotal moment, marking the beginning of their international expansion.

The rise of Facebook as a games platform is a very significant development for the company, with a far reaching impact on GamePoint’s distribution and internationalization. In response, they have changed their internationalization strategy from partner- and joint venture-based expansion with local partners to international expansion through Facebook.

When Endt considers the future of the game industry in the next three to five years he says, “It will be either make or break for all the walled gardens. We either see the end of the ‘web’ as we know it, or the walls come crashing down and we all turn to HTML5. The one important thing to us as a company is to be ready when that happens.

Life Away From Work

Away from work, he has a variety of interests, including skiing, racing at the track, spending time with family, and, of course, playing games. His favorite platform for games is still the PC, but he is currently playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a turn-based strategy game on iPad. And a PS4 is on the way.

Endt loves free-to-play, saying it is wonderful because it is free and widely accessible. But he is much less enthusiastic when developers balance their games wrong and consumers feel pressured into paying.

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It Started With The TV

Here Come The Wearables