Experimental Game Dev Podcast Show

Podcast Interview: Mike from BlitWise Productions Talks About Game Development

Mike, from Blitwise Productions talks about game development. He talks about some of the games he developed including Pocket Tanks.

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/blitwise-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/blitwise-podcast-32.mp3

Be sure to add your game blog, game site, or indie game to our Indie Game Dev wiki…

Take care,
Action
Free Kids Games
Coloring Pages

Casual Golf MMO: PangYa

Hey folks,

Here’s another casual MMO idea…a casual MMO golf game.

The one mentioned here is 3D…but consider doing something 2D in Flash.

Single-player indie golf games have sold well. Maybe a community around a casual golf MMO could work well too.

You can read more about PangYa here…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PangYa

Take care,
Action

Browser Based Games…

Check out this list of browser based games mentioned on Wikipedia. It’s not complete, but it’s a good start.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_browser_games

There are some interesting casual games mentioned there including…
a game where you have to build your music career (Popomundo) …
and a web-based Risk game.

Take care,
Action

Casual Dance MMO: Audition…

Audition is an MMO out there focused on dancing. Players have to perform dance moves to earn points. To perform dance moves, they use their keyboard to press the arrow keys at the right time. They can compete with other folks…you can also create dance routines with other folks too.

The game is free and their business model is the “virtual items” model.

You can see videos of the game here…

Here is the wikipedia entry for the game…

Here is Raph Koster’s good description of the Audition Game…

They started out in Asia and recently (about a month ago)..released in the USA.

There are other Dance MMOs popping up in Korea and other places. Acclaim recently released its entry into the market here…
http://dance.acclaim.com/index.htm

Take care,
Action

Indie MMO Series…

Hey folks,

Inspired by the Game Developer’s Conference sessions and the interview by the Acclaim CEO…and a lost interview with Joe Lieberman (he had some great marketing suggestions, but the interview didn’t record properly). He mentioned that there is an untapped niche…the “casual MMO”…

This series will focus on developing an Indie MMO.

Take care,
Action

Moonpod Games Interview…

Nick, from Moonpod, talks about indie game development UK style. He talks about developing Mr. Robot and Starscape among other cool things 🙂

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/moonpod-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here…
dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/moonpod-podcast.mp3

Be sure to add your game dev info to our Indie Game Dev wiki…

Take care,
Action
Free Kids Games
Coloring Pages

Indie Game Dev Wiki Released…

Hey Folks,

We’ve released a wiki for indie game developers. It’s a place to list your games, your game studios, and your post-mortems (among other things).

Check it out here…
http://indiegamepod.com/indiegamewiki/index.php

Feel free to update it with your info.

Take care,
Action

Caravel Games Interview…

Erik, from Caravel Games, talks about open source game development.

You can download the podcast here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/caravelgames-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here…
dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/caravelgames-podcast.mp3

Feel free to send over any comments or feedback on ways to make the show better.

Also…Join the Indie Game Development Network … there are going to be some interesting and very useful features we’re going to be adding soon.

Take care,
Action
Free Kids Games

GDC Session Summary for “How to Develop Social Networks As Part of Community Management”

Hey,

Went to a really interesting talk about applying web 2.0 to online MMOs. Specifically, Rich Vogel talked about community design.

He mentioned these principles critical to community design…
1) Create social spaces for the players
2) Highlight player contributions in the game
3) Develop a viral presence on the web. For example, XBox Live created those profile cards that could be posted on people’s blogs, etc. So it became viral.

These are some other interesting things to build community….
1) Develop social spaces (spaces for players, spaces for guilds, etc.)
2) Have a character builder so players can create/express an identity
3) Show off; allow players to express themselves
4) Build relationships
5) Facebook-like network out of game; profiler in game.
6) Highlight Player Contributions
7) Develop Viral Presence on the web. Use “Portable content” via widgets. Check out XFire and how they did this. Check out those XBox Live Character sheets.
8) Character Sheets
9) Quizzes
10) Portable Content (tickertape, in-game honors, etc.)…can wrap it up in a widget.

The Future….
1) Web will be the definitive content delivery platform
2) Community management will change how products are marketed
3) MMOs will become the next generation of brands

Quick Interview with Acclaim CEO Howard Marks…

Hey folks,

Sat in on a great presentation by Acclaim CEO Howard Marks about the future of MMOs. His presentation focused on the non-hardcore MMOs that are taking over the market. He cited many examples from Korea, China, and Japan. He also cited some of the other MMOs geared towards teens and kids like Runescape, ClubPenguin, etc.

Anyways, after the talk…I stuck around to ask him some questions. He thinks MMOs are the future. This is a summary of the conversation….

I asked him about whether MMOs are going to be “winner take all”…in the sense that there will only be one defining MMO for each category niche…like the way MySpace dominates the Social Networking scene.

He said that in Asia, that is not the case. In fact, folks get tired of MMOs quickly and move onto others. I asked him whether the Asian MMOs have “user generated content” like MySpace…and he said no.

So…my opinion is that it may be “winner take all” for MMO category segments…especially if users invest time to create content.

I then asked him about using MMOs for work. Things like Second Life and IBM are doing things where work takes place in the virtual environment. He wasn’t as focused on that, but said it could happen. I brought up the “Google Maps Airplane” game and how there could be “Information MMOs” where folks collaborate and work on some information environment like Google Maps. He found that interesting, but seemed to be more focused on entertainment MMOs. I wanted to know if Acclaim was going to do work-based MMOs…and it doesn’t seem like it.

Finally, I talked to him about business models. Mainly, the idea of physical-based products promoting the MMO. I mentioned some kids games online that give out candy with a web-code…so that kids can go online to play the games. I asked him if physical-based promotion is worth it…especially for indie game developers since profit margins for physical goods are much lower.

He said that physical-based promotion can definitely work. He then talked about a deal Acclaim is doing with a shoes company. The shoe design will be in the MMO…and at the same time, there will be a physical shoe that looks the same…that folks can buy. That will help brand things…so that the MMO becomes a lifestyle brand.

Finally, he also mentioned that this space of emerging MMOs is perfect for young folks looking for an opportunity in the game industry. Emerging MMOs seem like a great opportunity for indie game developers too…and most folks will find out that they are much easier and faster to make nowadays.