On Monday October 10th, I had the opportunity to sit on a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference in Austin (GDC Online). Our session was called Kids, Tablets & Family: Social Gameplay at Home. Alison from PlayScience reviewed data from a national survey about tablets in the home, Michael and Kate from CoolSchool shared their expertise from the kids gaming industry, and I showed videos of how apps can enable pretend play. Based on the attendance and attention we received after the session, there was definitely interest in making family-friendly games. But I wasn’t finished – I still had some things to learn from the gamers…
Be Epic
The talk by Caitlin Feeley of the MIT Education Arcade called Capturing Children’s Attention and Imagination with Investigative Play was an extraordinary session. With funds from NSF, the Smithsonian and MIT partnered to create a game called Vanished, where they used the narrative of “saving the world” to relay scientific concepts to school children in a multi-player gaming experience. Players were solving mysteries while researching topics like forensic anthropology. Caitlyn emphasized the capacity children have for problem solving, especially when they get to engage in a narrative of epic proportions: “saving the world is a lot more interesting than saving the community center”. I walked out of this session with a new definition of educational game.
Provide Value
PopCap Games came off strong in Successful Publishing on Smartphone Platforms: iOS vs. Android. If you are new to apps and don’t know PopCap – it’s worth checking them out (Plants vs. Zombies, anyone?) Aside from being a charismatic speaker, Giordano packed a lot of value into his hour session and outlined plenty of tips for developers. He said mobile games should be fun, distinctive, easy to learn/difficult to master, and playable in short bursts (we’ll need to triangulate that with being “epic” – can we be epic in bursts? Maybe not, but we can still burst out with some cool and creative themes). Assess your resources before going multi-platform, and cultivate your customer by updating often and providing value. After this session, I downloaded a few “gamer games” to get up to speed on their popularity and technique.
Spot Trends
Social and mobile, mobile and social – these were conference buzzwords galore. In other words, tons of people are gaming together wherever they go. They are using avatars, currencies and communities to build mobile micro-worlds from smartphones. Papaya Mobile was one of the conference sponsors who also spoke on several panels. Based in Beijing and San Francisco, Papaya Mobile is like a Facebook for Android, offering an SDK to developers to build mobile games on their platform. I’ll be curious to watch how they approach iOS, and whether they come out with a COPPA-compliant version of their SDK for developers who want to “Go Social” with apps for kids. They are also nice, approachable people who respond to twitter. If you have questions, I’d recommend contacting them @papayamobile.
Travel Far
During International Micro-Talks: Developing and Distributing Games for Japan, China and Korea – I learned that there are about twenty bazillion phones in Asia. No kidding! It’s almost like the growth graph is so steep it’s inverted. So don’t ignore China, Korea or Japan. When you decide to approach, tread carefully. Localization, culturalization, and government regulation are steep hurdles to overcome. Partners who specialize in these markets could be a reasonable way to proceed if you are curious to crack the code. The most widely adopted mobile platform in these countries is Android.
Heed Government Regulations
Asia isn’t the only continent with stiff regulations – the United States have a few too. When the partner at Loeb & Loeb put the COPPA slide up during the presentation, I felt relieved that Moms With Apps has been keeping current (thanks to actonline.org) on the regulatory activity for Children’s Online Privacy – phew! So if they are talking about COPPA at GDC, this tells me two things: 1) True gamers (not just kids who play apps) are getting younger, and 2) Government is getting tougher. Let your customers know what you are doing to protect their privacy, and follow through. Keep your policy clear and easy to understand, and look to other industry leaders for examples.
Well my back hurts, my legs are cramped, and I’m eager for this flight to end so I can get back home and hug my girls. This post is dedicated to my husband, who facilitated my attendance at two amazing conferences this fall. Thanks Mike – I learned a TON!
Lorraine Akemann | Editor | Moms With Apps
