GENERAL INTEREST
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 Jessica TAMS Founder & Managing Director Casual Games Association From Chaos to Clarity Paul THELEN Founder, Chairman and CSO Big Fish Games The games industry is evolving, converging and fragmenting simultaneously and the Casual Games industry is both a participant and a catalyst for the changing landscape. How does a company separate the real opportunities from the hype of the latest “shiny metal object”? Industry veteran of pretty much all things games, Paul Thelen will discuss the changing landscape of platforms, business models and game mechanics to provide guidance on where the opportunities are from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective and how to tackle those opportunities. Developing Games for PLAYSTATION®Network George BAIN Developer Relations Account Manager Sony Computer Entertainment Europe The presentation will cover PSP™ and PLAYSTATION®3 development and publishing opportunities in emerging markets. The main topic of the presentation will focus on PLAYSTATION®Network. The opportunity to produce downloadable content for PLAYSTATION®Network has generated much interest from game studios around the world. The process of how independent game studios can create and publish downloadable games on PLAYSTATION®Store will be discussed. An introduction to the PLAYSTATION®Home platform will also be presented. PLAYSTATION®Home is a real-time 3D, networked community that serves as a meeting place for PS3 users from around the world, where they can interact, communicate, join on-line games, shop, share content and even build and show off their own personal spaces. This presentation is sure to give developers and publishers an insight into PlayStation® family title development! The Big Picture: A bird's eye view of the casual games industry Alexander LYSKOVSKY Founder & CEO Alawar Entertainment Alexander Lyskovsky, CEO and founder of Alawar Entertainment, will host this session featuring an overview of the casual games industry. Lyskovsky will leave no stone unturned as he discusses the size of the industry, its major companies and its significant trends. He will also provide an outline of the research surrounding the casual games industry and compare the business with other industries. This market-focused session will be global in scope, covering not only the condition of the U.S. casual games industry but also the state of affairs in Eastern Europe. Audience members will leave with an understanding of the recent growth of the industry and how it paints a clear picture of where the casual games business is heading. |
DESIGN
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Principles of Game Design Andrey MATKOVSKIY Producer I-Play Alex BESSONOV Founder Floodlight Games Vitaliy ROMANOV CEO Nevosoft Igor ELOVIKOV COO Playrix Why doesn't my great game sell? It has perfect graphics, terrific sounds, 150 levels. What else do they want out there?” – these are typical questions of many developers. The answer is: your gameplay. How good is it? Four experts with proven track-records in game design will share their recipe on how to create appealing gameplay, and gradually, how to develop games that sell. |
COMMUNITY
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It's Always More Fun with More Than One - Success with Multiplayer Games Kenny ROSENBLATT CEO Arkadium Everyone wants to make multiplayer games, but how do you ensure they will succeed? The business of making successful multiplayer games is challenging. This session is intended for game designers, game developers, and gaming executives who want to know how to develop online multiplayer games that fit into the industry and become successful. What are the best multiplayer platforms in the market? What is load testing and why is it important? Do I need to worry about scalability? How do I monetize my multiplayer game? What are the common pitfalls I need avoid when designing my multiplayer game? Can Flash really handle real-time multiplayer? The answers to these questions and a helpful multiplayer checklist will be discussed in this session. Free-to-play MMO Games: Finding the Right Balance Between Casual and Hardcore Alisa CHUMACHENKO Director of Marketing and Advertising Astrum Online Entertainment There is a universal rule in free-to-play MMO Games, which is the easier the game is the more people play it and the lower is the average revenue per user. The opposite is true as well: the harder is the game the fewer people play it and the higher is the ARPU. Let’s try to find out how a developer can find an ideal formula for his game which will allow him to increase the number of players and not to lose in monetization! The report will be covering the following topics: 1. How to use a free-to-play business model in MMO games? 2. How to create a successful MMO Game finding the right balance between casual and hardcore games. 3. A brief overview of Russia’s online market. |
PRODUCTION
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Our Secret Recipe for Success Alexey MELESHKEVICH Founder & CEO Melesta Andrey GONCHAROV CEO GO! Games Yaroslav YANOVSKY CEO Enkord Igor BUKHMAN COO Playrix Entertainment Pavel RAIKKONEN Director of Marketing Nevosoft Ernie RAMIREZ CFO Reflexive Entertainment Andrey FOMIN CEO Puzzle Lab Alex BESSONOV Founder Floodlight Games Come and hear CEOs and founders of established casual game developers talk about their path to success. Learn about the ups and downs of running a casual games studio, pick up the tricks of the trade and walk away with ingredients to your own recipe for success. The panelists will discuss their experiences, recall some common mistakes that can be avoided and share their ideas on a number of topics related to the operation of a game development studio. User Testing: In Theory and Practice Aaron NORSTAD Sr. Producer PlayFirst Tatyana GARAT Marketing Director Absolutist Join Tatyana Garat, Marketing Director of Absolutist Ltd and lead game designer of Dairy Dash™, and Aaron Norstad, Senior Producer for PlayFirst, Inc., as they share the kind of key user insights and testing protocols necessary for building a hit game. Walking through the game development of Dairy Dash– a spin-off of PlayFirst’s immensely popular Diner Dash® series—Tatyana and Aaron will explain how different phases of research helped shape the game into a hit. Specific areas of testing to be discussed include informal one-on-one testing, usability, company-wide play dates, and formal ‘first peek’ programs. |
ADVERTISING
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Making Money Off Web Games – The Pain Free Way Ada CHEN Product Marketing Manager Mochi Media Meaningful advertising opportunities are beginning to emerge as means to support a fast-growing community of Flash game developers. But to go the advertising route alone, developers have to spend untold amounts of time hunting for advertisers and sponsors. Rather than spending their time wooing advertisers, developers can now dedicate their efforts solely to creating great games thanks to a wide range of methods to help developers gain access to marketing, distribution and monetization. This session describes monetization and distribution opportunities in the evolving web games industry and how important barriers to growth are being overcome thanks to developer-oriented solutions. Building a world class gaming brand & taking it global - A case study for the emerging markets Rohit SHARMA COO Zapak Case study on how one company created the most sought after gaming brand out of thin air. Zapak with its tremendous success in Casual games business has single handedly created the entire Indian games industry. Learn few strategies from the COO of Zapak on how to setup the casual gaming business in emerging markets & then taking it global. How online games made big revenues within first year of its existence will help many budding entrepreneurs to create their business plans. This session will also cover the great opportunities for game developers & content providers in Indian market. How to Develop Blockbuster Online Games Joel BRETON Creative Director AddictingGames Global demand for online games is growing at breakneck speed. Development teams that create hit game franchises stand to win from this explosion of online games. This session will outline the key ways that casual game developers can prosper by creating hit games for the online game market. |
MARKETING
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From North America to Western Europe Stephan SMITH CEO FreshGames Jeremy SNOOK Lead Producer RealGames Konstantin NIKULIN Managing Partner Intenium Alla KHRAMTSOVA VP Business Development Intenium “35-year old women are the typical casual game consumers” – this boring phrase was learnt to everyone in the industry by heart. Does it convey too much meaning? Not really. Do the customers in North America and Germany or the Netherlands have two different profiles? How to use knowledge about your customer to deliver games that they would buy? Which games do they buy? This panel will be answering those questions showing deeper perspective on the subject based on own data of the participants for different geographical regions. Co-Production: How to Structure a Media Relationship in a Way That Really Works Lloyd MELNICK CCO Merscom In 2007, Merscom and Lifetime entered into a co-production arrangement to create and publish a game based on the Blood Ties TV show. Rather than a traditional licensing or for-hire model, both companies shared the risk and the benefits. The result was a stunning success. This business model has formed the basis of Merscom's relationship with Starz Entertainment/Liberty Media, which resulted in the #1 title, Righteous Kill as well as upcoming projects with National Geographic and Granada. Just as creation of junk bonds and the junk bond market in the 1980s created a whole new way of financing projects, the co-production model has opened up a new way to create hit casual games. This session will discuss in detail how to structure a co-production relationship, the strengths and weaknesses of the model, how to pursue it and who would make the best partner. Rather than relying on theory, Lloyd will focus on real examples from Merscom's experiences. The explosion of a "brand" new market Tatiana CHERNOVA Marketing and PR Director Alawar Entertainment For years, the casual games sold in Eastern Europe were merely the localized versions of games developed in the U.S. This was because the cost of developing a casual game exceeded the revenues that could be earned in Russia alone. This is no longer the case, as the growth of the market and careful control over production costs have made it possible to create first-rate offerings based on local brands. This is an important step in the growth of the casual games industry in Eastern Europe because the use of branded characters will appeal to people who normally wouldn't play a game. Branded characters also serve as an effective cross-marketing tool because they encourage casual gamers to take notice of the brand, thereby helping to develop its market. |
BUSINESS
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Game Development in Eastern Europe Kirill PLOTNIKOV Senior Producer Alawar Entertainment Alexey MELESHKEVICH Founder & CEO Melesta Maxim MILEEV CEO DayTerium Dmitry LUTSENKO AlterLab More than 30 percent of the casual game content released each year is created in Eastern Europe, with developer-laden countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus leading the pack. In fact, many of the top offerings on Big Fish Games and Real are from this part of the world. And yet it costs two or three times LESS to create a high quality game in Eastern Europe than in the U.S. As a result, the development of casual games in ex-Soviet countries has become a major industry, with hundreds of people involved in the process. The industry has matured beyond its "garage band" roots to support teams of ten or more skilled developers working together to create the best possible games. Smart business tactics, organized development processes and highly motivated teams made this growth possible. This session will feature reports from the leaders of several premiere development companies in Eastern Europe, all of who will be disclosing the secrets behind every aspect of their success – from the number of people on their staff, to the technologies they use, to their development pipeline and beyond. Is There Money Out There?Alexander LYSKOVSKY Founder & CEO Alawar Entertainment Dmitry DUBOGRAEV Managing Partner FEMIDA.US Taras TARASOV CEO Bubbler Media Few casual game developers are also experts on how to develop the financial viability of their companies. Even talented game makers can be uninformed when it comes to securing investments, selling a company, remaining private and making an initial public offering. This session will explain in easy to understand terms the different ways for a casual game developer to raise money. Lyskovsky will also describe the nature of investors, clarify how to estimate the price of your company and point out the things to which no game developer should agree when considering an offer. While investors can be a great asset to a casual game developer, it's important to realize they're in business to serve their interests, not yours. You'll come away from this session with the ability to discern what investors want and the wisdom to only go with an investor whose needs match yours. |