Welcome! G@meOn - Casual Game Making Lecture April 2 nd 2008

1. Welcome!G@meOn - Casual Game Making Lecture April 2nd 2008 Presentation by 3 Blokes Studios

2. Who we are • 3 Blokes Studios • Duncan Curtis: (founder) senior programmer, game designer, handles a lot of the admin of the company • Marko Grgic: (founder) lead programmer, game designer, handles slightly less of the admin of the company • Nick Frawley: contract artist for Magical Forest • Our studio has only recently moved out of the shoebox that was the birthplace of the company and Magical Forest

3. Where we were this time last year • Sitting right where you are now! • Attending John Passfield’s lecture on Casual Games • Working on a hardcore 3D RTS game • Realised how long it was taking to make the hardcore game and we saw an opportunity to make a casual game in a significantly smaller amount of time

4. Where we are now • Launched our first casual game titled Magical Forest • Working on a contract for a publisher for cash-flow until the revenue from Magical Forest comes through (about 6 months from release until the majority of the money comes in) • Recently moved offices to Wynnum because it provides us with enough space for our new employees for the same cost

5. How we got here • Attended John Passfield’s lecture on Casual games • Went back to the office that day and began working on a casual game (first we had to download a few things) • Worked up to 60 hour weeks for 7 months on the game • Contracted out the artwork for Magical Forest to a friend of ours (for a percentage, because that’s all we had to give) • Got a lot of help from people like John Passfield • Attended all the G@meOn talks we could • Finally finished the game and sent copies to all the major portals (iWin, BigFishGames etc.) • Got a publishing deal with iWin after being rejected by most other portals

6. Financing Having just graduated from University, we applied for N.E.I.S. (New Enterprise Incentive Scheme) which is a government grant which basically gives you 1 year of Youth Allowance payments to start your own business. Note: There is a lot of paperwork, but it is well worth it. So we survived on that for a year until we got a contract from a publisher to do some work for them (what we are doing now) while we wait for profits from Magical Forest to come in.

7. Tools There are several tools that we used to make Magical Forest, most of which are free or there are similar free versions available. Engine: • For our engine we used the PopCap framework http://developer.popcap.com/forums/pop_index.php • Other free frameworks include PlayFirst’s framework https://developer.playfirst.com/ • Programming Editor: • Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition is a free editor http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa975050.aspx

8. Tools Art: • Photoshop is not free, but is a great program. Free programs include Art Rage http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html which John Passfield used for Brainiversity http://www.brainiversity.com/ Sound: • Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/is free and a great program for sound recording, editing and converting. • We also bought a lot of sounds from websites such as Sound Dogs http://www.sounddogs.com/and Sound Rangers http://soundrangers.com/ DRM (Digital Rights Management) Wrapper: • Most portals have their own wrapper, however, if you want to distribute your game on your own website you will need to find a suitable wrapper to protect your game. Suitable ones include TryMedia’s ActiveMark, just be careful about signing away the right for them to distribute your game as the TryMedia network falls under most publishing agreements

9. Past and Present Hits

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13. Our Game

14. Hot Trends in Casual Games • There are a number of Hot Trends in casual games at the moment. • Hidden Object Games (think Where’s Wally) are doing really well, but the market is heading towards saturation for this type of game.

15. Hot Trends in Casual Games cont. • Social Networking games are getting really large in the casual space, this includes games on Facebook, MySpace etc that get players interacting with others.

16. Hot Trends in Casual Games cont. • Simulation games (casual versions of The Sims) and the like seem to be making a bit of a return to casual games.

17. What you need to get a start in the casual games industry • It really depends on whether or not you want to start your own games company or work for someone else • If you want to start a games company: • If you want to start your own games company then jump in and do it. Get a few friends together and get cracking. However, make sure you have an agreement beforehand as to how the games profits will be split up. Also expect a few friends to pursue other interests after realising that this is not their life calling. • If you want to work for someone else: • Our best advice is to get experience. Get together with a couple of friends and make a small casual game. 1-2 programmers, an artist and (if you are lucky) a sound engineer. Make something like solitaire, this will show that you’ve got the ability to see a project through to the end and looks great on a resume. • The second option is to create a game by yourself from start to finish; but keep it small (there are a lot of really easy and simple to use programs out there where you can make a game without having to be a programmer and if you’re a programmer; use programmer art!)

18. What employers in the hardcore games industry are looking for • If you are looking to get into the Hardcore games industry, then just build your portfolio however you can. • If you are a programmer; work on a range of demos that show off your skills. If you are a 3D modeller, work on a range of models that you can show to prospective employers. • If you are an animator, download some free models from places such as Turbosquid www.turbosquid.com, rig them up and get them animating. • If you would like to be a games designer then search on the web for an example GDD (Game Development Document) and then start filling it out for an idea you have, your idea most likely won’t become a game (You can also add some ideas you think would be cool or some features that would improve an existing game and why. • It might be a good idea to look at what sort of games the company you are applying at has developed and show them you have a feel for that genre), but it’s the fact that you’ve done the work is what employers are looking for.

19. How long does a casual game take to make? • Not that long… right? • We thought we would have our casual game done in 2 months. 2 months later we scoped it down because we realised it would take us another year to finish what we had planned; the new estimate is that it would be done in 1 1/2 more months with all the cut-down features. 1 month later we decided to scope down again . This repeated itself throughout the project until finally the game was completed and was sent off to beta (in our minds ready for release) after 6 months of gruelling hard work. It was another 2 months of polishing and talking to publishers before our game was finally released. It took 8 months from start to finish; albeit with a learning curve and complete re-constructions of the game throughout. • Summary: It should take roughly 4-8 months to make a casual game depending on the size of the game and the experience of the team.

20. Know your local casual games industry • Red Sprite Studios (John Passfield) www.redspritestudios.com • Games: • Brainiversity • Word Shake • Wild Fire Studios www.wildfire.com.au • Games: • Tumblebugs 1 & 2 • Jungo • 3 Blokes Studios www.3blokesstudios.com • Games: • Magical Forest

21. Thanks for listening Questions? Please feel free to contact us at threeblokes1@optusnet.com.au This presentation should be up on the IDGA forum sometime soon.