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Getting Serious About New Opportunities: Let's face it, the games business isn't all fun and games, because sometimes the business of making games isn't as much fun as we'd wish. It's tough out there - business is hard, and publishers don't always want to be your friend. Wouldn't it be great if there were some other markets to prospect, and you could diversify, ignoring the general whims of publishers, cellphone carriers, portals, and the general gaming public at-large? But diversifying in the games business isn't very easy - we can't suddenly shift gears and start a resturant or consumer goods company. However, you can diversify by selling to others who have a need for game developers, besides the usual suspects. Who is Doing What? In an earlier issue of Game Developer Magazine, I authored a Soapbox piece that talked up the other markets are looking at games, including training, defense, government, health, and education. I'll refrain from the usual abstract discussion of cause and opportunity here, since it's not always too helpful to talk about a market in abstract.
What about specifics? Who among the industry is benefiting from this work? Arguably, the studio with the most success is BreakAway Games. It has made many early forays into the world of building games for the military and other clients. Its location in the Baltimore suburbs puts it a stone's throw from many government and non-government clients. BreakAway has built projects for Booz Allen Hamilton, The National Institute for Justice, and recently started a project for the Institute for Non-Violent Action which will be previewed at the upcoming Serious Games Summit. Other projects of interest? My company, Digitalmill, is working with Persuasive Games on a contract to develop a series of games aimed at teaching principals of science and technology related to telecommunications, underwritten by a non-profit civic action group based in Denver, Colorado. MIT's Comparative Media Studies department is working on a grant from Colonial Williamsburg to mod Neverwinter Nights into a game about the American Revolution. Newly founded Destineer Studios in Eden Prarie, MN, and veteran studio Atomic Games of Austin, TX are both working on titles for the U.S. Marine Corps that grew out of an existing relationship Atomic had with the Corps. At least one of them will follow in the footsteps of America's Army and Full Spectrum Warrior and see a public release. There.com has a large $1.5+ million dollar grant from the Army to work on an MMP project for training soldiers about to deploy to new cultures and war-zones. ChiSystems in Philadelphia is adapting game technologies for a similar project that is more single player oriented. A newly founded company in Britain is using game development approaches to build games that emphasize teamwork skills, both generally and for specific industries. UK developer Desq built a game that was used as an ESL tool in Hong Kong. The folks at VRPhobia.com are building games for use in treating phobias, by modifying Unreal and Max Payne, and combining those environments with counseling and VR headsets to create the virtual therapeutic environments. Further interesting projects include MediaOptions' "Building Homes of our Own", which was underwritten by the National Association of Homebuilders. This sizable project has sold thousands of copies for the company, and is used in a number of schools. Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center working with grant funds has been building a game for firefighters and other first responders to train with. The FDNY will be using it in some trials soon. Going with a 'develop first' approach and self-publishing model, Newberryport, Massachusetts-based Muzzy Lane Software has built a strategic management engine that they can adapt to teach history at both a high-school and collegiate level. The early beta-testing of the game was covered recently by the New York Times. The company views the engine as a digital printing press for interactive history textbooks. This is a sampling of projects military, non-military, and educational. They represent millions of dollars in committed development funds, and the majority shown here are funds that have gone to private development studios not just public institutions. While the university world - especially with their burgeoning game development programs - will be a key developer and recipient of grant funds, this isn't a market that is exclusive to those institutions. At this point, we'll assume you've drunk the Kool-Aid. You're likely to be saying "Now what?", and asking how easy or hard it is to break into to this so-called 'serious games market' I keep yapping about. Well, nothing in business is easy, but a few quick lessons may help. Lessons on the Serious Games Market There are two major business lessons for the non-entertainment game market. Firstly, non-entertainment games have their own design quirks and requirements. The business methods are somewhat different, too, and the three biggest issues are:
First, I would argue since most games fail to earn out their advances, the majority of developers are in the work-for-hire industry already. Second, most non-entertainment clients are more amenable to allowing you re-use, without major objections, the IP you generate for your project. Clients aren't in the 'serious game' business needing to protect themselves from competitors - they're looking for you to solve their problem and move on. Third, project sizes trend smaller and "cheaper", but this can be a blessing in disguise. Often you're keeping your IP, and the client isn't asking you to build something of current commercial quality (since only gamers have the hardware to run the latest games.) Frequently you will have extra time to create these titles, and the result is slower burn, ownership of code, and less stringent production requirements, so you can still maintain some profit margin. What sometimes hurts all of this (and your chances for cracking the market) is the exceedingly long ramp-up requirements. It doesn't matter if you're working on a grant, government contract, corporate contract, or something else - things will just be slow. The business development requirements mean lots of unearned effort. Despite all the work to push them, games are on the outer edge of most people's comfort circles. Development costs (even if reduced) make it nearly impossible for clients to act impulsively. Often, projects in these venues will require many parties to sign off on them. You have to work extremely closely with the prospect to get to the finish line. The big winners in this area will be those who find ways to get through the variety of project gauntlets and organizational politics, and actually get projects moving. Publishers are no darlings either, but they bring a level of experience that can eventually expedite things. In this market, expect to answer a lot of basic questions - even after a project is given a go-ahead. In fact, in terms of turning leads into work, 'serious games' have a low ratio. Given the leap of faith needed to commit, most possible clients will be dissuaded from jumping, once they are made aware of details of the task. It's the price of working in this field.
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Introduction
Features
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