Oscar Clark   •  February 5, 2020

Over the last few years two very different approaches to the games business have risen out of the mayhem of the ever-shifting market for mobile games. Between them they affect the design, development, marketing and monetisation of games in profound ways. Game developers, whether they are on mobile or not, can learn a lot from looking at the strengths and weaknesses of both models.

Hypercasual

Hypercasual has burned bright in the last couple of years, rising and arguably falling in a relatively short period of time. However, this type of development has a razor-sharp focus on delivering the simplest, most scalable and lowest cost of iteration possible.

Games As A Service

The opposite end of games development strategy is arguably from Live Ops based experiences or Games As A Service. This approach requires require extensive, predictable, on-going development after release. This delivers an ongoing persistent experience designed to scale with more players, doing more things, more often for longer.

Design and Development

In this webinar, Oscar Clark will look at the core design and development lessons from both approaches and propose how any game developer can implement practical changes to improve their approach to creating games. He will show this by exploring the 5 core steps in building any scalable experience.

MARKET – Where are the gaps? Who are the players? What are our strengths?

MECHANIC – What do players do?; Is it extensible?; “Find the fun!”

CONTEXT – Why keep playing?; Where is the utility?; Why convert to pay?

METAGAME – Player lifecycle?; Social engagement; Super/re-engagement.

LIVE: Test & launch –  Ongoing events & promotions; Ongoing content & features.

Talk slides can be found here

Oscar Clark   •  February 5, 2020