Getting the Most from Your Gaming Assets
July 30,2013, Independent Game Developers Association Summit, San Francisco, CA—Seth Crofton from sqwishland.com talked about the uses of transmedia in the gaming environment. Expanding reach through multiple channels calls for the use of IP in all aspects of customer acquisition, player retention, and new revenue channels.
Crofton gave a number of examples of partial efforts. The team for Eve made playing cards with game assets that helped show the characters and scenes in the game, but didn’t add anything to drive new players to the site. They also made a book with original sketches of the game artwork, but had never put in any playcodes or other calls to action. If you are going to make the effort to make a book, you have to put something in that will drive new players to the game and provide the book or playing card buyers with some reward for being a player and buyer.
At the other end, many physical assets are not good with stores and other outlets, since they require floor space and don’t help the store owner draw in traffic. In the bigger stores, the buyers are clueless and have no idea how to manage cross-platform promotions. For example, “Cut the Rope” made physical objects from the game and packaged them with augmented reality links, but didn’t allow them to unlock any digital goods. This effort took in marketing and branding, but is only a partial solution.
Given that companies are trying and more should get involved, transmedia is not overly expensive. The transmedia packages are methods to gain and acquire new players, while rewarding existing ones. For example, a hat costs about $2 and sells after customization for about $25. Posters are fairly low cost, but should not be given away. Instead, sell them from a minimal print run as a limited edition.
Transmedia demands a need to crosslink and offers a way to test the market with new assets. One good case in point is “Bok Choy Boy” which included a QR code and call to action in their physical offerings. The figurines are available as singles or as a full card and generate significant income for the developer. The price points are were set to allow for point of sale transactions as well as through smart phones.
There are many types of physical goods that can be associated with game assets. Trading cards and other single pictures are often associated with manga. Greeting cards, even physical ones are better than an app store function. Dice are good and can use any IP on the faces. The cost of goods for a pair of dice is about $3, and sales are about $14.95 for a custom set. This is an instance where there are only physical goods and no digital.
A successful program needs ergonomics and an ecosystem. “Skylanders” uses near field communications for contacts and the “angry Birds” franchise uses QR codes to draw in new users and reward existing ones. The goods become interactive toys and do well in the big box stores. However, some of the toys are only toys and don’t direct the user to play the games.
A successful campaign needs to be conceived and implementation work has to start with the game development. At least the work has to start before the game launch. Developing partnerships helps to reduce costs and can lead to other channels. Web comics have done well in exploiting the synergies of partnerships. A promotion can integrate with user-generated content and go through Zazzle to test the markets.
To maximize returns and minimize efforts, make a field guide for the game. This guide is just IP and some additional notes. “Berona’s War I” was a graphic novel. “Berona’s War II” was only the field guide and made much more money than the original book.
When possible, don’t design new toys. Use existing toys and repurpose with different packaging. Use existing toys for cross-promotional work or make them into blind collectables. You can generate cash flow from objects and also use them as a brand management tool and a customer acquisition vehicle. These goods can be used as a loss leader, freemium incentives, bought through micro-transactions, as a gift for subscribing, and as a reward for trying the game. For kids, goods can be the basis for viral expansion.
Some services like sandboxer can make upload 3-D assets, modify them for manufacturability, and print the goods. Different services have different ways to split the costs and sales. It doesn’t hurt to make a game with actual goods at the start, since some of the goods can be models for the game developers.
