A Design for Success

Taken from giantbomb.com and ign.com

    For our startup to be successful, our first game has to have the properties that will make it the most likely to become popular. While most of our group had the mindset of making the games we love to play - mostly 3D and requiring years of development -, we have to keep in mind the scope of our experience. Therefore, we accepted that we would only be able to make a 2D or 2.5D with our skill set and the time we are allotted to create our project.

     In order to create a game that will appeal to the most people possible while simultaneously making us the most money, we researched multiple genres and demographics. Through magazines, websites, and polls, we discovered the most popular genres were action or puzzle. For demographics, while the younger groups often played more often, the age group 25-34 paid more in-app than any other, while playing only slightly less often than the leading age group.

     Moreover, we needed a low barrier platform to host our game. We choose Kongregate as a team. It is a popular site with a low barrier entry, allowing us to keep our copyrights. While Kongregate would allow us to keep 15% more profit should we host our game solo on their site, we decided to post it to multiple sites in order to attract the most people possible. We looked at sites like Yahoo!, Google Chrome Apps, and Miniclip. Some we discarded due to their conditions or difficult entry, others we agreed would be worth the time and/or money for maximum exposure.

    While many of us are anxious to design the games we would buy, our starting point is this game. As a team, we will learn together what it takes to make even the simplest games come to life.

Our futures

Wallpaper taken from lemontree

From the recap of the first week of class, I understood that this course is to prepare us for future careers in the gaming industry.  It was wholly clear, coming in on the second week, that high school group projects had not prepared our members for the intense cooperation required in designing the Black Tide studios.

For our top five rules we focused on team efficiency and communication. Failure to complete a task causes setbacks for the entire team. Failure to communicate could mean an oversight, which again, creates a setback. Creativity prospers with the combination of open-minded individuals passionate for their project, and that is the vision we have for our group.

Individually, we assigned members of our groups to learn about and explain a variety of legal forms which everyone is subject to. To learn and understand these now will ensure we understand the terms and conditions to which we accept a job offer.

The LLC, or Limited Liability Company, is ideal for a startup company due to the flexibility allowed in both management and accounting aspects. It is also designed for the owners to handle losses for the first two years, rather than relying on investors or a larger corporation. We ruled out C- (standard corps with unlimited shareholders and strict meetings) and S- (smaller corps with a restriction of 100 shareholders) Corps due to our absence of shareholders.

We chose to include a NDA, non-disclosure agreement, to our company so our ideas and plans remain confidential from third-party groups. Meanwhile, the NCC protects the company’s actions if an employee were to leave the company. It may keep a previous employee from joining its competitor and revealing company plans. The NCC usually ends after a specific period of time or only applies to a certain area/company.

IP (intellectual property) agreements protect the “creations of the mind,” generally involving any form of art including: animations, logos, literature, music, words, phrases, etc. There are laws to further protect these which include patents and copyrights. As our company involves a great deal of artistry and innovative thinking, a well thought out IP agreement will protect our employee and the company from disputes involving creative properties.

EULA, or end-user license agreement, allows the purchaser – our customers – to use a copy of the licensor’s – our – software. The user must accept the EULA before using the product. It may protect the licensor from extensive cost of damage should the software cause damage through improper use.

We are currently subject to many of the legalities above without investigating them at all. To be a successful startup or employee, one must understand the concepts and their importance. Learning about these terms is a step in creating our futures.

Turning Passionately Overwhelmed into Devoted Efficiency

Take from Old Fort Church's website.

        Any product created through passion is art. A passionate person could have in mind a masterpiece, but may not share due to lack of design.

        During week 2’s class, many of the team members were not working within the scope of their job titles. The desire to work and the desire succeed were present. Passion was present, but chaotic.

        Our roles within the group reflect the experience we have, as well as the future careers we aspire to. With an artistic background, I was placed into the marketing team during my first day. Once the leaders recognized my ambition and how valuable my input was to the group, they promoted me to CCO, or Chief Creative Officer. This role gives me both the flexibility to coordinate with the marketing team and the power to participate with the leaders. In the future, this role will provide me with the insight of my bosses, as well as the opportunity to learn how to pitch ideas to a group of people in an attractive way.

       By the end of the day, we had settled more into our roles and the team was more comfortable following the orders of our leaders. While there was development within our ranks, there is room for improvement. The quieter members often are talked over and, therefore, many ideas remain unheard. Encouraging each member’s input creates more diversity and ingenuity, which is so important to create a unique and inclusive company and game.

       Our current improvements are exciting; I look forward to witnessing our team progress further.