Assembly09 post mortem (from my viewpoint)

Four sunny summer days were well spent indoors at Assembly09. I was promoting a game concept & prototyping competition, meeting friends and following compos. There was high number of fast and extreme music entries, some nice fast graphics entries and - as expected - some amazing entries to 64 and demo compos. Some of my favorites (any category) were Proof of Concept, Frameranger and irrelephant. Check out all Assembly Compo entries from Assembly TV.

For those who don't know: Assembly is one of the biggest demo scene & gaming events in Europe. Assembly Summer gathered ~6000 participants out of which 500 are girls! Awesome - Go girls! Assembly is about participating in compos (in music, graphics, programming demos etc.), hanging around with friends, playing games (lots of WoW and and CS players around), chatting, staying at the Arena 24/7 for 4 days and eating lots of junk food. It must be overwhelming experience for the youngest participants which were not much more than 10 year olds. It was also nice to see some people staying overnight with their small babies. That was kinda cool - Go Next Gen!

Besides gaming and compos there was ArtTech seminar running on various topics. I followed indie sessions. Cactus gave a good preso [the same (?) as at GDC09], Blueberry Garden show didn't give that much new ideas and Petri Purho was such a Prince Charming as always. He were basically going through a set of really funny and cool indie games. My favorite was the "get that f**ing raccoon out of the gears!" game (EnviroBear), turning levels thingie (Punishment) and Cactus stuff (Psychosomnium) of course. If not groundbreaking new ideas, at least we got good laugh by watching Petri playing.

Paf Concept & prototype competition will be running until the end of August09 and the results will be out by the end of September. Assembly compos were dominated by men but I truly wish to see entries from girls to this concept competition. All in all -- it is all about good new ideas!

2nd chance: blogging on games at Tilt.tv

RT: My game blog at Tilt.tv blog (in Finnish).

Happiness is a state of mind

Top 3 dancing videos for raising the level of happiness:

1. Unity one minute rave

2. Where the hell is Matt?

3. Brown pants' party / wedding video

Editing a book and preparing for Assembly09

I am putting together a book focusing on three pioneer countries of the 1990s in digital networking (wired/wireless). The book focuses on 15-29 year olds in Japan, South Korea and Finland and shares very interesting hands-on examples of digital networking and how it is changing the work life as well as ways to spend spare time. It will be out next year! We will also be sharing quite a bit of research data and articles online. More about that later. One relevant / related data from comScore: "Social networking has become a mainstream online activity among all age groups, with 80 % of the total U.K. online population having visited a site in the category in May09. Penetration was highest amongst 25-34 year old Internet users, 89 % of whom visited the category during the month, followed by 15-24 year olds (86 %)."

"15-24 and 25-34 year olds averaging 5.4 hours per user per month compared with 3.7 hours per month among users age 55 and older. Social networking was the second most popular online activity in the U.K. based on average time spent per user (4.6 hours), trailing only instant messaging (8.6 hours)."

Age Profile of U.K. Social Networking Site Category Visitors May 2009 Total U.K., Age 15+ - Home & Work Locations Source: comScore World Metrix
Age Segment	% Reach	Average Hours per Visitor
Total U.K. Internet Audience	80%	4.6
Persons: 15-24	86%	5.4
Persons: 25-34	89%	5.4
Persons: 35-44	79%	4.3
Persons: 45-54	77%	3.9
Persons: 55+	67%	3.7

*Excludes Internet activity from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

This is also interesting: "Kids from two to 11 years of age are spending 63 percent more time online than they did five years ago, says a report released Monday from Nielsen Online. Children in that age range were online an average of 11 hours in May 2009 versus just 7 hours in May 2004." (Source: Nielsen/Cnet)

I am also preparing for Assembly09 which is just nine days away. I (together with the Paf crew) have been putting together concept & prototyping competition. I am especially hoping that women will see that competition as an opportunity. A prototype of a game is always a bonus but not a must. All in all -- Assembly is really fantastic event, I would recommend anyone just to check it out. It is quite pricey (35 euros) but there is lots of things happening, concerts and dj sessions every night etc. Hope to see you there!

Insanely twisted shadow planet

Video Games | Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet | Exclusive Extended Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

A cup of coffee and some exergaming in South Korea

Five years ago I was in the lead of a research project titled Exergame at the Technical Research Centre of Finland. Back then we estimated that exergames will become a big business within the next 5 years. Our guessing came true. Nintendo Wii is one of the most exposed example of it. Then again I would say that Wii is just a start. I am expecting to see more exergame innovations appearing especially for mobile terminals. Smart phones and iPhone has changed the idea of a cellular phone and with cheaper components phone manufacturers can integrate gyroscopes and measument techniques into portable devices. Naturally things will also evolve in pc and console gaming. Sony and Microsoft (Natal) are behind Nintendo but still already far away in developing their own motion control solutions for games.

Within the last few days exergaming has been on the headlines around the world. In Finland playful Move and Play exhibition is currently on at Heureka science center in Vantaa, Korean Arirang today tv show had an interesting story on Xergames (click the link & register to see the video starting at 40:45). Additionally Nintendo will launch Wii Sports Resort shortly (at Times Square in NY). I also received a press release claiming that: "Kids as young as three years old are picking up the joysticks and clicking away at computers, especially if they have older siblings whom they wish to emulate. It's important to catch kids at an early age to teach them about fitness". My Gym promotes children's fitness centres in the US and provides information regarding nutrition and everyday exercise. Basically My Gym and exergames have the same goal and somewhat similar means to reach the goal -- being: positive feedback, easy access, casual exercise, playful and fun context, self-acting state, instant feedback and measuring performance.

I am happy to be a part (or additional power behind the scenes) of a R&D project focusing on novel exergame solutions. The project is run by MoFun (the creator of Circus game) and Technical Research Centre of Finland. I also heard that social gaming initiative is about to start in Finland. Even though it focuses more on social gaming for adults than actual fitness gaming or exergaming -- I am sure you cannot 100% separate those from each other. I will write more about the initiative as soon as it is up and running.

Gamers' Night at the Movies

Night at the movies got totally different intrepretation when IGDA Finlandinvited IGDA volunteers to experience big screen gaming at Sello Bio Rex movie theater. After the last screening ended in the night, gamers started entering the building. Three screening rooms were reserved for game playing until next morning. Gamers got to choose which NES, PS3 or Xbox 360 games they would prefer playing and did so until it was already sunny and quiet Sunday morning outside the theater.

Movie theatre gaming was an immense experience! Playing Deadspace on a big screen truly was scary but also Ghostbusters and GTA4 did well on a big screen. Besides horror, shooting and adventures, social games such as SingStar was played along with NES classics Mario and Chip 'n' Dale.

Movie theatre gaming was an event to remember and positive feedback is a reason enough to arrange the event again. Besides tournaments and party gaming we might also experiment 3D gaming next time.

User inclusion in games

User Inclusion in games development, focusing on development process

User inclusion in games

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Game Business Development

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Game Business Development

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Obsessed with customers

The business of iGaming (= online money gaming and/or gambling) has changed forever. Internet is normalizing gaming for money and bringing new customers in. At the same time customers are more digital-savvy, expecting more and faster but also willing to take part in building the total experience in return for perceived value. The role of the consumer is being transformed from passive buyer to active co-creator.

The recognition of consumers as active players extends the locus of core competencies from companies inner knowhow to the enhanced network. According to IDC Global’s recent study, 75% of Retailers and 58% of consumer products manufacturers rank consumer centricity among top 3 keys to success. At the Indian Gaming 2009 conference one of the leading slot machine manufacturers, Bally highlighted that: “now more than ever innovations must be built on customer needs and on a solid foundation of dependable, scalable, and efficient technology backed up by strong professional, technical, and customer-support services”. Along the progression of social media business money gaming providers too have to realize that consumers expect more dynamic changes and possibilities to interact and participate than ever before. The huge rise of microblogging service Twitter or social networking service Facebook are good manifestations of this. People want to share, stand out from the crowd and have their opinion heard. In iGaming that is very crucial lesson to be learned. By the general development of the Internet the potential customer is now potentially anyone who finds (money) games interesting.

Competence is a function of the collective knowledge. Ways to make online money games’ interesting is to facilitate dialogue and consumer engagement among dynamic consumer communities and heterogeneous individuals--all eager, and some able, to co-create their own experiences. Consumers are moving toward instant gratification and getting used to the idea of an active dialogue with providers of products and services. Money gaming operators have to utilize that dialogue in design, marketing, consumer support and testing. Additional challenge is speed which is becoming even more central source of competitive advantage. Thing have to happen now, instantly and interactively with the customers.

To adapt and succeed in the current economic environment companies need to build a new set of capabilities: cross-platform innovation, real-time interactive communication channels with consumers, open collaboration and supporting digital processes.

Adult gamers are boring

Just reading Nielsen report "The state of video gamer - PC game and video game console usage Q4/08". I found this figure interesting. Look at the "Usage min % and Age group. I have assumed that 360 and PS3 compete off the same target group but that is not the case according to Nielsen. Also it is quite surprising that the Wii target group is 6-11 yrs. After all Wii is the family-party-fitness-workplace console. Active user % is also surprisingly high for Wii.


Additionally:

• Good portion of PlayStation 3 console usage occurs during the television prime time hours
• Top games played by 25-54 year old (women or men) are BORING! Someone should help them to find better games from the web ;)
• Most popular PC games are pre-installed Windows card games at the age group of 25-54
  
• Chessmaster Challenge is getting closer to WoW nr. of unique users - BEWARE!
  

The shape of things to come - IA Inc. map of the net

New version (#4) of the Web Trend Map is out "mapping the 333 most influential web domains and the 111 most influential internet people". They are currently after comments for the draft. If you have something to say, better say it now!

Just some quick comments:

• Pirate Bay has rather impressive building on the map!
  
• There aren't that many microblogging, gadget/widget stuff on the map. Let's see if the picture will be different next time.
  
• Additionally I was wondering aren't (teen) virtual worlds influental at all? At least I couldn't find them. Blizzard (WoW) and Disney (line of MMOGs amongst other services) on the map, but Sulake or Neopets/Nickelodeon isn't despite of their (obvious) influence to virtual communities and networking.
  
• China and Japan are somewhat on the map but Korea isn't. Maybe some Koreans should correct that, after all Korea is the birthplace or capital of MMOGs and home of CyWorld and Baegsoo - both very impressive services.
• Indeed WordPress is so much bigger than Blogger
  
• Next time I also expect to see some Finnish services on the map (well - Dopplr has some Finns directing the service)
  
• Barack Obama on the map?!
  
• Newspapers seem to be pretty nicely on the map (go Aftonbladet!) but for how long... Also do newspapers have better web presence than tv-channels?

Some hope for Danish game development

I am currently living in Denmark where the economical recession is really doing lots of damage. Already at least three very relevant and interesting game companies have had to close their doors due to lack of funding. That’s how it goes – no money – no games I am afraid.

There is something positive though. Limbo project (PlayDead) just got relatively nice funding of 11 million Danish kronas (~1,5 million €). Limbo got funds from Danish CAT Science by RUC, FAHU and Vækstfonden. I get to know Limbo more than a year ago through Nordic Game Program where I am at the Expert group evaluating the applications. Limbo charmed us too but whereas Nordic Game funds are good incentive for the developers it is (naturally) remarkably smaller than VC funds. And without these bigger funds development of a project like Limbo would be so much harder and slower.

But what’s so special about Limbo? First of all it is very much designer / artist driven project. When you look at game video or screen shots it is clear that the visual style is one of the key drivers of the game development. GameDaily wrote an article from IGF09 (btw: Blueberry Garden won – congrats!) where they described the style as “Scandinavian” referring (also) to developers like Petri Purho (Crayon Physic Deluxe), cactus and Niflas (Knytt). Could Limbo’s style be similarly Scandinavian? On the other hand it is a bit Japanese and has certain Ico-feel (black-white, blurred edges, hazyness). Also Samorost comes to my mind for some reason. The story is quite unique (Scandinavian? Remember The Brothers Lionheart / Bröderna Lejonhjärta? – Limbo is about a boy who is looking after his dead little sister in Limbo – mythical space in between heaven and hell.

I met Arnt (artist/designer behind Limbo) at the Nordic Game Jam. After meeting the designer the project felt even more clear and justifiable. Limbo seems to be based on a strong vision and demand to keep all the strings at their (PlayDead) own hands. According to Danish press big game companies have contacted PlayDead but they want to stay indie. I have nothing but respect to that – that is the way to innovate and reshape the game industry piece by piece. I hope Limbo will be stimulating Danish game industry, bringing hope to other developers as well.

IGDA Finland Presentations: Killer games from Finland

If you are in Finland (Helsinki) on March 10th, I would warmly recommend you to join IGDA Finland Presentations session. We have an excellent line-up of speakers talking about iPhone gaming (Zenbound is doing well!), Finnish MMO development (Tweehouse) and indie innovation Crayon Physics Deluxe. It won Seamus McNally Grand Prize last year and is great!

Presentations will be held at Diana auditorio from 5.30 to 7pm. Check out further information from IGDA Finland. After presentations we'll continue the evening at Cuba Café.

iPhone - the future of mobile gaming?

According to comScore over 32% iPhone users have downloaded at least one game to their phones. iPhone users differ from random mobile phone users and their user profile is also different but still: gap between 32% and 3,8% (mobile phone users downloaded a game) is huge. Is iPhone the future of mobile gaming and will Apple save developers from porting their games to various mobile platforms?

comScore also shares the following data: 34% of those who downloaded a game in Nov08 used a smart phone. 14% of these are iPhone users. Mobile gaming - especially iPhone gaming - has set up high hopes for the massive growth of mobile gaming revenues. No wonder - the device is cute, it has a big screen, interesting technical features and many iPhone games truly fit well to the casual sector following titles like Bejeweled, Buzz and Zuma.

Still there is room for growth. comScore estimates that 8,5 million persons downloaded mobile games in Nov08 (which is 3,8% of all mobile phone users as mentioned already). 8,5 million might sound a lot but if you compare it to MMS and video messaging (28%), receiving SMS advertising (24%), browsing news (18%) or using e-mail on mobile (17%) it is not that high number after all.

Are iPhone games all about casual fun, mazes and puzzles? Do they have some magic power in them? In a situation where close to 1/4 of iTunes applications are games there ought to be good examples to choose from. iTunes provides different lists but at first it is not clear would ”New and Noteworthy” be better pick than ”What’s Hot”. New and Noteworthy doesn't have any free games. Moreover Hot, Staff Favourites and similar lists evidently promote chargeable games. Top Free Apps (Finland) top 3 is Towerbloxx, Moving Maze3D and Pole Position. But heyhey - these are the same games that are popular in Facebook!?

It soon becomes clear that a typical iPhone game doesn't utilize iPhone's technical features and that the lists are full of console game brands, advergames and iPhone versions of known titles. On the other hand this evidently is the way to go. There is very limited information available about the games. Many free games have a word "free" on their title and the icon should also give some hint what the game is like -- or not. I decided to download Cube Runner because the icon was interesting and Cube Runner sounds like fun. But wait - I expected to get some further information when clicking the icon but instead the game was just added to the Applications list. Next surprise hit when I opened the game. It wasn't anything I expected it to be based on the icon. Instead it reminds me of one poor 3D game I had on my Sony Ericsson back in 2003. Is this it? Where's the magic?

In the name of reasonableness I have to say that this IS the way things tend to evolve on every new platform. First games are golden oldies from 80s or recycled ideas from hit games available on online portals. Well-known brand help players to choose from the set of icons. On the other hand unique or experimental games can get lost in the mass. Marketing-wise one doesn't get too far with awesome icon design or by placing the game to "games" category. Luckily I happen to know one special and unique game which just passed the sieve of Apple. That game is Zenbound (Secret Exit) which truly has magic in it. But when looking at iPhone games in general, I would claim that for the time being the "magic" is largely generated by the device and easy to use Appli store.

Ping.fm testing

Watched Social Gaming Summit 2008 videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVEIbb0O_vc
Customer acquisition strategies: recommendations, buzz, low entry barrier (easy access). David Perry said 10% users spend money for 3 months.

(And tested Ping.fm but Twitter, Blogger, MySpace, Facebook... are too different from one another. Ping.fm either provides crappy blogs or too long Tweets ;) Good idea anyhow - just have to find how to benefit from it the most).

Pelikone pelikilpailu 2009 (competition)

Hi, just wanted to remind all Finnish readers / indie game developers >> Pelikone competition is on. If you are developing a flash game why not to submit it to the competition?

Casual vs HC MMOs

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Casual vs HC MMOs

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Nordic Game Jam (Copenhagen)

Nearly 160 game developers jammed 48 hours during the last weekend in Copenhagen at the Nordic Game Jam (and over 1600 developers around the world!). First Game Jam was arranged at the IT University in Copenhagen in 2006. This year IGDAs Education Special Interest Group got inspired by the event and machinated Global Game Jam network. Over 50 locations take part to the Global Game Jam. The theme was “As Long as we have each other we never run out of problems”. Additionally each location had additional constraints. The constraint for Nordic Game Jam was that the games should be language independent.

Copenhagen had the biggest game jam with nearly 160 participants. People competed in two categories: Bring from Home and Global Game Jam. At the Bring from Home it was ok to bring a game that is 99% finished as long as they work develop, improve or polish the game during the weekend. The theme for the Bring from Home track was humor. The idea at the Global Game Jam track was to just show up with or without a team. The event would start with a brainstorm and group creation session.

The biggest winner of Nordic Game Jam was Make my Head Grow (Denmark). It won best audio, best visuals, innovative controls, audience award at the jury’s award. At the Global Game Jam track In One Piece puzzle game won the audience award and Sheep Away got the jury’s award. Petri Purho (Kloonigames) won the most innovative game title with his 4min33sec which was a tribute to John Cage’s avant garde piece 4´33” from the 1970s. 0 - - 0 had the best audio at the Global Game Jam track and Chopper + tank = bees won for the best visuals.

I think Unity could also be listed amongst the winner because Unity was probably the most often used game development tool at NGJ. Check out what type of games were developed during the weekend.

GuppyLife pre-registration is now open

GuppyLife will be released in English shortly. The pre-registration is now open! GuppyLife is a MMO / virtual world targeted at tween girls. It has been out in Danish since October 2008. GuppyLife has several unique features starting with the 3D style and Guppy AI. If you are interested to know more, check out GuppyLife.com and pre-register to the grand opening of the English version of GuppyLife.