GENERAL INTEREST
Click bar to return to index  |
 Jessica TAMS Founder & Managing Director Casual Games Association The State of the Casual Games Industry in 2009: Market Trends and Opportunities Alexander LYSKOVSKY Founder & CEO Alawar Entertainment The hardships facing the world economy are affecting the casual games industry as well. Consumers have become more selective and are spending less on games, distributors are probing new markets and developers are exploring new platforms. The global recession is forcing everyone to look for new opportunities, and the time has come to set new standards that will meet the needs of today's consumers and business environment. Alexander Lyskovsky, CEO of Alawar Entertainment, will analyze the events that have affected the casual games industry in 2009 and share his vision of its continued development under the new conditions. Casual Games - A Global View Don RYAN COO Oberon Media Past, present and future overview of the industry. How 'social networks' have created a global casual gaming revolution and will continue to drive awareness and sales of casual games. |
DESIGN/PRODUCTION/DEVELOPMENT
Click bar to return to index  |
Sharing Best Practices: Partnerships Done Right Marina SAPUNOVA Managing Director MediaArt Robert ADAMS Executive Producer I-Play Alex BESSONOV Founder Floodlight Games Jeremy SNOOK Director of GameHouse Partners RealGames Tatyana GARAT Marketing Director Absolutist It's no secret that the most successful titles are born as the result of a highly productive partnership between a publisher and developer. But it's also no secret that many partnerships fail. It turns out that combining the expertise of the publisher, and creativity and talent of the developer is not always enough. Witness a confession of notable partnership experiences which led to the release of successful titles. The audience will have a unique chance to get an insiders look at the challenges faced, difficulties overcome and mistakes delt with during the development process of hit games. Emphasizing on Game Design Matthew GILLIKIN Senior Producer GameHouse Partners Patrick BAGGATTA Senior Designer PlayFirst Dimitri KIRIN Director of International Merscom Denis KONOVALOV Development Department Manager Nevosoft Terri HARDIE Arcade Producer Reflexive Entertainment In our rapidly changing and highly competitive marketplace, game design becomes more crucial than ever. The entertainment value of game design is not linked to any well-understood discipline such as graphic art or program engineering. A game can have brilliant graphics, a powerful engine, outstanding effects, and fantastic character art while at the same time being frustrating or an uninteresting experience. The challenges of crafting a great game design which will serve as a stable basis for the whole development team are numerous. Players demand interesting and compelling stories, but do not like to read through long paragraphs. Players are looking for unique and interesting challenges, but get frustrated when they can't solve the puzzle. We often seek for innovations in mechanics, beautiful graphics, great technology, or a big license to contribute to game success but don't focus enough on game design. The main discussion points will include the story, the world, and the gameplay as vital part of the game experience. Game Development Challenge -- Part 1 Kenny ROSENBLATT CEO Arkadium Tom RASSWEILER Manager of Game Production Arkadium Will BREDBECK Art Director Arkadium On the first day, participants will talk about game genres and objectives as well as outline who the target audience will be. Participants will then work together to outline an idea from defining the story of the game to creating ideas for different levels and power ups. Once the game concept is developed and details decided upon, Arkadium will then get to work in creating a working beta overnight. On day two, the game sample will be shared back with the team and participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and make improvements to how the game came together. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of what it takes to create a game concept from scratch. They will learn collaboration skills with designers, programmers, marketers, etc. of different backgrounds and skill, and learn how to stand out and backup their ideas. Seeing how their game concept comes together will be both an enlightening and fun experience. Unstable Times: Staying on Top Sean ELLIOT VP of Business Development and Marketing Playrix CJ WOLF CEO iWin Alexey SEREBROV Co-founder & VP of Production Nevosoft Igor BUKHMAN Co-Founder & President Playrix Maryann KLINGMAN Sr. Producer PlayFirst Daniel BERNSTEIN CEO Sandlot Games Join top-tier casual games developers/publishers to get the scoop on their secrets of keeping the leading positions during challenging times in the industry. Get an insight on their strategies and thoughts on emerging trends. The Myth of the 7-Hour Gamer: A Race to Zero Sean VANDERDASSON Senior Vice President, Publishing WildTangent There is a dangerous theory being propagated throughout the casual games industry that all games are played for about the same amount of time -- seven hours -- and that therefore, all games should be priced the same -- $6.99. Developers beware. The seven-hour gamer theory simply represents an unfortunate and unnecessary race to game commoditization and a break-neck sprint to the zero-dollar price point that threatens to stifle innovation and reduce developer profits. Sean Vanderdasson, executive vice president of publishing at WildTangent, will help game developers understand how to avoid the rapid commoditization of their games and how to avoid the race-to-zero trap common among some buy-only game portals. Sean will provide developers four important steps to follow as they develop and market their games to ensure they maximize revenue through the extension of a game’s lifecycle and diversification of business models. Game Development Challenge -- Part 2 Kenny ROSENBLATT CEO Arkadium Tom RASSWEILER Manager of Game Production Arkadium Will BREDBECK Art Director Arkadium On the first day, participants will talk about game genres and objectives as well as outline who the target audience will be. Participants will then work together to outline an idea from defining the story of the game to creating ideas for different levels and power ups. Once the game concept is developed and details decided upon, Arkadium will then get to work in creating a working beta overnight. On day two, the game sample will be shared back with the team and participants will have the opportunity to reflect on and make improvements to how the game came together. Participants will walk away with a better understanding of what it takes to create a game concept from scratch. They will learn collaboration skills with designers, programmers, marketers, etc. of different backgrounds and skill, and learn how to stand out and backup their ideas. Seeing how their game concept comes together will be both an enlightening and fun experience. Transformer or Gobot - which one is your game? Matthew GILLIKIN Senior Producer GameHouse Partners In 1977 Star Wars was released in the theater and effectively changed the world. Hollywood and TV networks were caught off guard by the unexpected, massive success of the space opera and found themselves scrambling to fill their service with content to meet the desires of their customers. Having little offering stateside they looked abroad to Japan where a plethora of space-themed entertainment could be found. The first of these offerings to land stateside was "Battle of The Planets" and an American love affair for "Japanimation" (now called anime) was born as space and robot themed products poured out onto American TVs. One of the products brought stateside as a result was the "Transformers" and "Gobots" toy line. While the premise of these two products was the same, they were vastly different in their success due to their individual implementation. The Transformer toys were sleek and sexy with complicated moving parts that made them more than a toy - they were a puzzle. At a time when the "Rubix Cube" was a household name, this gave them extra appeal. The Gobots however were not as appealing an offering. Every aspect from the act of transforming to their lore and even their character names was unappealing - almost laughable. Is the product you are offering to your consumer sleek and sexy, one that appeals on many levels, or does it misses the mark? This is the topic of this session - which one is your game? Transformer or Gobot? Game Design: Made in the Former USSR Eugene SOKOLOV Founder Alawar Five-BN Alex BESSONOV Founder Floodlight Games Denis ILYIN Owner Artogon Igor ELOVIKOV COO Playrix Oleg ROGOVENKO Founder & CEO Awem Studio Anton RYBAKOV Founder JoyBits Listen to the experiences of successful East-European games developers on how game design changed over time and whether some of its principles can still be used while creating casual games today. Best (and worst) Development Practices from Sandlot Games Daniel BERNSTEIN CEO Sandlot Games Vitali VOSTRIKOV St. Petersburg General Director Sandlot Games Every development process is a push and pull between wanting to innovate in product design, technical requirements and the almighty schedule. We will discuss what has and has not worked from a technical, product management and communications standpoint when dealing with two offices 5,000 miles apart working on hit games such as Cake Mania and Tradewinds. Using Windows 7 Features for Casual Games Evgeny MARCHENKOV Developer Evangelist Microsoft In this session, Evgeny will present the new features in Windows 7 and how to use them in casual games. He will also review information about Windows Error Reporting and Corporate Error Reporting in Windows 7, and will present real examples of the WER usage in the game industry. |
PUBLISHING & DISTRIBUTION
Click bar to return to index  |
Winning the Project: How to Win Work from US Publishers Lloyd MELNICK CCO Merscom This session will help developers win development contracts from western casual game publishers. I will discuss the key points to make in the developer's proposal, the various weightings given to different attributes, how to overcome weaknesses and mistakes to avoid. I will also show the best format for a proposal and how to approach companies to get included in their RFP process. Introduction to Publishing Games on the PlayStation®Store George BAIN Developer Relations Account Manager Sony Computer Entertainment Europe This presentation will cover both PlayStation®Portable and PlayStation®3 publishing opportunities including the new PSP minis category on PlayStation®Store. The opportunity to distribute content on the PlayStation®Network has generated much interest from game studios around the world. The presentation will focus on the submission, marketing and release process of game content. This presentation will also give independant game developers insight into self-publishing opportunities on PlayStation® platforms. Simple Rules of Casual Games Publishing Kirill PLOTNIKOV Senior Producer Alawar Entertainment How should game publishers and developers coordinate their activities? How can a development company become successful? Should you take risks and experiment or follow a proven course of action? Kirill Plotnikov, Alawar Entertainment's vice president of publishing, will answer these questions, offer his insight into the mistakes novice publishers and developers make, and share his experiences working in the Russian and international markets. And, in keeping with the title of his session, he'll offer his recipe for successful publishing. |
MOBILE
Click bar to return to index |
Mobile Games and Application Stores: an OEM perspective Mike BERGEN Sr. Manager, Developer Relations and Partnerships Nokia With all the focus on smartphones and application stores, it can be daunting to bring your games to mobile. Come learn about the state of the mobile games market, and get an in-depth look at one particular application store, Nokia’s Ovi Store, and see what it means to developers from a long time industry veteran. Multiplayer Social Games - The Emerging Standard for Mobile Games and Portals Andrew REMOVSKY VP Business Development Europe Casmul Serge AGEYEV CTO Casmul The mobile games market has exploded and continues to grow in triple-digit numbers as new high-end mobile devices come to market. iPhone has just shown the way, and new Android and Nokia powered toys are bringing mobile apps to everyone. The mobile games market is far from saturation. The games just need to be adapted to the new casual audience who grew up playing multiplayer video games but has gone casual with the rise of social networks. Hit-driven distribution has tiny, ever-changing, head and a long tail, whereas service-oriented MP-social games can tune themselves for the demand and keep a loyal audience. This makes the games especially lucrative for advertisers who get extended data about MP-social players to effectively target their ads. With eyeballs moving from TVs to mobile devices, $50B in television ads are looking for a new home. Media companies entering the market are aggressively looking for multiplayer social games to offer to their audiences, and new centralized distribution models open to all offer developers the opportunity to become portals themselves. If you want to get noticed and gain reach, produce MP community-based games fast. This session will show how to add multiplayer and social functionality to your game in one day. We will also discuss different monetization strategies, and ways to grow from a game developer to a gaming portal manager. |
MARKETING/BUSINESS
Click bar to return to index  |
Reverse Thrust: Discover Your Consumer Tatyana CHERNOVA Marketing Communications and PR Director Alawar Entertainment While a game evolves from a concept to a shortcut on a user's desktop, it undergoes dramatic changes. Each member of the development, publishing and distribution process in the casual games industry pushes the envelope to add something unique to the product. But what do we know about our consumers? What do they like and how do they play? Tatyana Chernova, marketing, communications and public relations director of Alawar Entertainment, will host a session called "Reverse Thrust: Discover Your Consumer." She invites all casual game professionals to meet their target audience face to face and get up close and personal with them. Next-gen Casual: CMOG - Challenges on All Fronts Konstantin NIKULIN Managing Partner INTENIUM Denis PODLUZHNY Technical Director INTENIUM Dmitry SANNIKOV Producer INTENIUM Developers of one of the first truly casual online worlds, "Alamandi", will share their experience with challenges and issues they had and continue to be confronted with while developing the innovative concept. They will present facts, focus group testing data, marketing concepts, and business assumptions. Funding Strategies Nils-Holger HENNING CCO Bigpoint Shakespeare said: "all the world's a stage". In today's technology-infused existence, that metaphor shifts to the multi-level environment created by the world of gaming. Once the domain of teenage boys, gaming has become a powerful platform for building businesses, establishing relationships and generating money. From the creation of entirely new business models and economies to the use of gaming technology as a way to engage with customers and employees to the use of games as an avenue for brand development and marketing - gaming isn't just for kids. What is the future of television and why is it related to the gaming industry? We will have a look at online based massively multiplayer games as the new tool for TV networks to build up communities around their audience. Games are the asset to overcome the advertising income dependency of media groups to establish new stable revenue streams while entertaining their audience. Game Monetization on Microsoft technologies Evgeny MARCHENKOV Developer Evangelist Microsoft In this session, you will learn about Microsoft games technologies (XNA, XBOX 360, Silverlight, Windows Mobile), you will get a platform overview and see how to monetize games based on these technologies. |