[casual_games] Business Models

[Wade Tinney]

Hi Brent-
 
I see other developers as competitors only in the weakest sense of the
word. Perhaps in the same way that one musical group *might* see other
groups as competition for the ears and music budget (which is to say,
piracy time) of a particular demographic. Frankly, I don't think many
music groups think like this and I don't see why developers in this
space should either. Obviously, there are limits to what can be shared,
but generally speaking, I think we all benefit from sharing information.
In fact, that is really an the central purpose of the IGDA and therefore
this group.
 
As for the business model question, my company spent 4 years doing
contract development of web-based promotional games for consumer brands.
We built a dozen games a year, on average, honing our production process
and socking away dollars to spend on internally funded projects. We've
never received, or sought, any type of external investment. Using that
strategy, we were able to fund (and find the time for) about 1
downloadable game per year. As of about a year ago, we are no longer
doing straight work-for-hire work; all of our projects are partnerships
in which we share the revenues from the game in an on-going way. There
are two reasons why we were able to switch over to this way of working;
1) revenues from our existing titles started to account for a meaningful
percentage of our monthly operating costs; and 2) we began partnering
with publishers or other IP owners who were interested in downloadable,
casual games. These partners have money and we have talent; its a match
made in heaven.   
 
Currently, we are working on a combination of internally-funded projects
and partner-funded projects. This mix gives us a comfortable level of
stability. 
 
We've done some licensing of the flash and shockwave game engines we
developed in those first 4 years, but its not a primary business model
for us. We also generate some revenue from licensing our downloadable
titles to developers who port and distribute them on other platforms. We
also distribute the games of other developers on largeanimal.com
 
Hope that helps. Let me know if you have other questions. 

Wade
 
Wade Tinney
partner, game designer
Large Animal Games
 <http://www.largeanimal.com/> http://www.largeanimal.com
wade at largeanimal.com
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: casual_games-bounces at igda.org
[mailto:casual_games-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Brent Lowrie
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 10:45 AM
To: IGDA Casual Games SIG Mailing List
Subject: [casual_games] Business Models



I know this is a topic that many are interested in but few are really
willing to talk about. We are all competitors after all.
 
We are a relatively small game development group fighting to establish
some independence within an interactive marketing firm. As the group
leader, I have been putting together a business plan of sorts and would
like to field some questions for those established developers with many
games in their portfolio. How did you go about producing so many games?
That is, was it self-funded internal development in the hopes of
licensing them? Were they games developed for clients that you retained
rights too and now offer a non-branded version for licensing? A
combination?
 
Thanks in advance...
 
Brent Lowrie
Games & Animation

RARE METHOD  
500, 1812 4th Street S.W. Calgary AB T2S 1W1
P. 403.543.4500 x341 F. 403.532.3004
www.raremethod.com
games.raremethod.com

Strategic Interactive Marketing
Provoke Thought Direct Action Get Results
 


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