Gamersinfo.net: Hi Jay and thank you for sitting down to talk with us. My first question is the same as I've asked each of the speakers. Can you give our readers an idea of "who you are" in the gaming industry? Jay Moore: I'm a catalyst for change. An indie game developer's champion and business development consultant. I work to discover and build value in the next generation of talented developer studios. I started Indie Games Con in 2002, when 'Indie' was really only used in the film and music industry.
Gamersinfo.net: On the IMGDC website the title of the roundtable you're leading is "The Right Fundementals: Tech, Talent & Target". From the description it sounds like just having a great idea for a game isn't enough. Why is being able to define your target market so important to an indie game developer?
Jay Moore: Creation of successful games is definitely more art than science, but combining the right elements is part of the alchemy. Finding the right tech resources and a team that has both the right talent and passion for making a specific game isn't easy. Keeping your game design in scope with the resources you have and still viable on the platforms your targeting seems to be nearly impossible even for well seasoned game developers. Making the right game with the right team to leverage the right market opportunity becomes the most challenging strategery.
Gamersinfo.net: How can picking the right technology to build your game on make or break even the best game idea?
Jay Moore: The idea of “picking technology” is a new concept in game development. When it comes to technology in the past it has always been a necessity to build your own or acquire a company that has the tech you want. Today, no matter if your licensing or building tech, it can easily not be right solution for making the game you have envisioned or designed and the tools dictate the outcome more than the designer. Part of the reason games have such high production costs is that no tech today is not truly "genre agnostic" and it really is only good for making certain types of games.
The other element of tech is to recognize that it is a tool best compared to an instrument, and it takes the right creative talent to really make great entertainment using it. Having great tech doesn't guarantee making great games any more than having great instruments guarantees making great music.
Gamersinfo.net: When it comes to MMO's especially it seems that the big name studios have the market pretty well locked up, with most new MMO's being launched these days facing the "someone else already made this game before you" issue. The market seems to be saturated with fantasy based RPG's, for example. What can an indie studio do before investing time and money in development to find that "niche market" that they'll need in order to succeed? Jay Moore: There are a lot of things you need to do right in order to succeed. We all know MMOs that lack players or polish are rarely very fun or profitable. Many developers will make the game they want to play and then try to find enough players like them.
The key to finding the right 'niche' is to not do derivative design where your taking your inspiration from other games that have come before. Developers need to look at everything that is non-gaming recreation as well as other pop culture and entertainment trends for games ideas they'd really like to make.
Right now your seeing a trend of TV entertainment brands creating MMOs around they're franchises, it remains to be seen if these will succeed. If you look at hobbies like coin and stamp collecting, sailing, horse competitions, tournament poker, fishing, scrap booking and find the seed of the fun factor in those activities and find a play mechanic that works as a persistent community experience it may not be a simulation so much as competition for resources or economics game. I point developers to Neopets, Maple Story and Pogo for inspiration more than WOW.
Gamersinfo.net: Listening to gamers talk , those who play MMO's rather than make them, is often like listening to readers of romance novels who think that just because they've read romance novels they can write one. What is faulty in the "I've played every game out there, and I know I can make something at least as good as this, probably better" thinking? Can't a small team of developers have better control over the game they are creating, and thus learn from the mistakes of the bigger studios? Why isn't passion in "a great idea" enough?
Jay Moore: I'm guessing your wanting a smart pithy answer rather than a dissertation, but in some ways what your asking is why is game development so hard. Arm chair quarterbacking is popular, but no matter how passionate the guy who watches football on TV is about what their favorite team did wrong or because he thinks he could do it better doesn't ever get him on the field or even "coaching". So why the idea that just because you want to be a rock star game dev you will be because you play games and can draw or program isn't just as absurd to everyone escape me.
I'd like to finish by saying, if there was ever a time to think about indie MMOs as a exciting entry point into the game industry it is now. In the future I think game entertainment will be more like today's MMOs than the single SKU retail games we currently see on PC and console. Content will be delivered online and we'll be playing in more persistant entertainment spaces. The game studios that figure out how to build effective teams and processes for making this kind of content will be ahead of the curve as consumers move to the online model in the coming decade.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
