1 Introduction
2 Background and Related Work
3 Research Methodology
ID | Company name | Company age (years) | Number of people | Type of company | Game genre | Experience (years) | Role |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | BBI | – | Incubator | – | 10 | Business coach | |
B | Mana Brigade | 3 | 5 | Indie startup | Adventure | 3 | Founder/ CEO |
C | The Station | 10 | 35–40 | Internal startup | Simulation | 14 | Founder/ Game director |
D | Blackdrop Interactive | 8 | 4–5 | Internal startup | Warfare | 8 | Founder |
4 Results
4.1 Technical or Digital Prototyping
4.2 Controlled Game Tests
4.3 Mock Reviews
4.4 Presenting and Pitching in Game Conferences
4.5 Social Media Engagement
4.6 Early Release of Vertical Slice
5 Discussions and Conclusions
Practice | Purpose | Challenges |
---|---|---|
Technical/Digital Prototyping | Understanding the game complexity and team capability | Missing skill-sets and expertise in-house |
Controlled game test | Understanding if users understand the game concepts and mechanics | Funding to hire professional game testers |
Early (vertical) release | Build user base and get early revenue | Find the right audience, maintain the reputation |
Social media engagement | Build user base | Need high effort |
Mock reviews by game journalists | Estimate the review score | Funding to hire professional game journalist |
Presenting and pitching the game | Understanding the market potential and securing funding | Explaining the game’s concepts and design to publishers |