+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted May 21, 2009 Subscriber² Share Posted May 21, 2009 Nearly 24 hours after it went out in mid-April, John Warner checked on the numbers for Raycatcher - a game he and a partner designed and distributed over Steam. The first day, it sold 1,000 copies for $5. But pirates had also made 35,000 copies for free. Warner, 25, an environmental artist who had worked at Relic Games on Dawn of War II, expected to lose copies to piracy. He'd already begun pondering what might be a third option in the ongoing zero-sum struggle between keeping gamers happy and ensuring they give you money for your work. But if nothing else, the torrenting of Raycatcher provided a good argument that someone in the indie sector should try building a game supported by product placements and in-game advertising. And after this experience he figured, why not him? "I think people are voting - they're just not interested in paying for games any more," Warner said. "The DRM is getting cumbersome, and everyone hates it. I think we're at a point where indies have to consider a new revenue model. Because it takes a long time to make a game." Warner and another partner, Mitch Lagran, 22, formed Vancouver-based Greener Grass Games to explore just that - a free, browser-based and ad-supported game. The thought of in-game advertising may make the skin crawl for the gaming cognoscenti who form the most evangelical constituency of independent development. The practice may be, on the AAA retail level, a disappointment so far, with slender prospects until a terrible economy rebounds. And browser-based games may have yet to catch on in North America the way they have elsewhere. But games are not built for free, and these two developers- and others - think it can be done at this smaller scale. "I don't want to do anything The Man-ish," Warner said, acknowledging the stereotypical disconnect between an indie developer, who's supposed to be making better games because he's freed from corporate trappings, and product placements, a nakedly capitalist practice. "But in order to make games consistently, we need to make money," said Lagran (left). "Otherwise, we can't pay the rent. And if people pirate a lot, advertisements make sense." Warner had no illusions that Raycatcher (built with another partner) was going to make him rich. Just getting it onto Steam was a learning experience and an accomplishment, he said, akin to a writer getting one's first novel published. But the aftermath - from piracy to patching - poses disincentives to the independent developer, who began wanting to make the cool game he always dreamed of making, and finds that he's inherited a lot of problems and obligations he hadn't imagined. "The money we're making off Raycatcher, it doesn't justify working on a project for a long period of time; I can't support myself on it," Warner said. Especially when you release a game, and it has bugs, and you have to fix them. In a certain sense, when you release something for money, it's almost like you create a liability for yourself." The way Warner (right) sees it, the game he and Lagran really wanted to make - a narrative, 3D first person adventure set in an alternate reality - can be done quicker, more cheaply, and with fewer of the headaches that come from a commercial downloadable release like Raycatcher. In their development histories, Warner as an artist, and Lagran as a programmer, shared the same zeal for the immense back story that is created during a game's design, and only partially revealed during its play. The game they are building, untitled as of now, opens that faucet of creativity. Through exploration and observation, players uncover how they got where they are, what they're supposed to do, and advance the story to its conclusion in a game reminiscent of the Sierra and LucasArts adventures of those companies' 1990s heyday, with elements of Myst. Such a dependence on observation lends itself to advertising. What kind will players see? Their game, still untitled, will be a 3D, first person adventure, so everything you might see in the real world is on the table, Lagran says. Unity 3D, the engine they're using, supports video texture mapping, so a television displaying a video ad is one example. Outdoors, billboards are a given. Product and brand placement could show up as a poster in a character's bedroom. "If there's going to be a poster on the wall, and a brand on that poster, you might as well make it a real one," said Lagran, a programmer whose experience includes work as an artist on PowerUp's Night of a Million Billion Zombies. Other possibilities include getting a link to a magazine article, targeted to their player demographics. Or opening up a laptop in a university setting in the game, and getting directed to the web site of that university, in real life. For all of these, however, Lagran and Warner have to make separate and sometimes competing sales pitches, to gamers as well as advertisers. For advertisers, they're hawking a new and effective way to reach a targeted audience's eyeballs. For gamers, they're saying in effect, don't worry, if the advertising is done well, you'll barely notice. "I've definitely played games with (in-game advertising) and it's never bothered me," Lagran said. "The only time it does is when it's out of context, the random logo that doesn't fit, like you're in a sci-fi world and you see the Apple logo." So it's clear that the sponsors are going to have to fit organically into this story, somehow, says Warner, who offhandedly confesses a "seething hatred" for pushy, repeated or conspicuous advertising, probably because he's studied hypnosis. "I don't hate products or people making me more aware of products - I buy my clothes the same places as everybody else. But people getting leverage on me emotionally - Axe (body spray) makes people insecure about their sexuality for example - it's very manipulative and a form of bombardment. There are more tactful ways." And that's where his and Lagran's sensibilities as artists will help an indie developer do it better. "I could be delusional, but I haven't seen anybody else, really, doing it at this level," Warner says - meaning advertising within fully-rendered 3D games played online. That points to another condition of the gaming market they hope to exploit: Low expectations. Casual flash games with advertising, while showing an audience increase (67 million in 2007 to 86 million in 2008, with a 28 percent bump in ad views, isn't looked to as any kind of a memorable gaming experience. "They're almost so casual that they're not considered real games," Lagran said. "We want to capitalize on the idea that these browser games are nothing, and make one that feels like a full-fledged game that you'd download…. I think that's where the industry is going to go." Of course, it already has, notably in Asia, with North America lagging behind. One portal under development, also based in Vancouver, is Dimerocker, and it too envisions enough potential for in-game indie advertising that it has secured venture capital and is building an API to serve ads to developers that list games there. J. Joly (he goes by his first initial), Dimerocker's founder and VP of content, considers his venture very much borne of the indie-scene aesthetic, envisioning a portal where users and developers communicate with no middlemen, in a give-and-take of release, adoption, feedback, revision and re-release. The portal is also geared toward distributing games built with the Unity 3D engine, which Greener Grass Games is using. Both studios consider it the fastest way to get a professional quality game into production. "A great Unity game can be done with a 2 or 3 man team and $100,000," Joly said. That translates to considerable development agility and, by using the advantages of browser-based games, can target them to specific emerging markets such as, say, Brazil, skipping the overhead of traditional retail or downloadable releases, while making money back using Joly's API. Lagran and Warner contend they don't need eye-popping numbers to do well. "I think we're looking at between 50,000 and 100,000 impressions in a month, and we should be pretty good." That's the concept, anyway. It's not something so ahead of the cutting edge that everyone's shooting it down, but it's not to say in-game indie advertising is unqualifiedly the next great thing. "I'm a venture capitalist; I support the little guy," said Jeremy Liew, managing director of Lightspeed Venture Partners, with an expertise in social media and casual gaming. "The short story here is in-game advertising has been a little bit of a disappointment. It's not lived up to expectations as a major driver of revenue. That was true even when the ad market was strong, and obviously there's an advertising recession going on right now." Even though recent (and not exactly disinterested) research projects a $2 billion in-game ad market by 2012, the company releasing that sort of figure, IGA Worldwide, is itself in trouble, trying to secure additional funding but also exploring selling itself off, after losses of $11 million in 2007 and $26 million in 2008. Microsoft also just laid off a quarter of the workforce at Massive, its advertising service. Sure, the scale of the ad sales operation undertaken by an indie game house might not be so large that it needs to hit the kind of numbers larger publishers want to see. But "I guess it depends on what you define as a success," Liew said. "The challenge still is one of demand. And if you're smaller and more targeted, you do have fewer things to offer." Liew understands Lagran and Warner's instinct to shift to web-based games, but wonders if the in-game advertising is even necessary. "Piracy is what led people in Asia to shift to free-to-play games with digital distribution models," Liew said. "This is a solved problem. Perhaps we can consider using the solutions that are out there." Dimerocker would be one of those solutions, with plans for a traditional model of free play leading to premium content, with some microtransaction capabilities. But that doesn't particularly differentiate that portal from the others in that space, which is part of the reason why Joly's pushed into it. This of course is the business plan; what it may meet in reality bears watching. "Most marketers characterize in-game advertising as experimental," Liew said. "Given the major budget cuts people are seeing, they're not feeling super experimental. And given the context that this has not lived up to expectations, in a recessionary environment, it's going to be a tough challenge for them." Perhaps, but at least the price of failure, if it comes to that, will be comparatively low. The episodic nature of their project allows them to either continue a successful IP, or cut their losses without having wasted time and development on a full game nobody really preferred. "Right now, we're 10 grand in the hole, and it's all borrowed money, friends and family," Warner said. "Even if the first episode is a bomb, my mom isn't gonna get the repo man after us." And they're banking on the goodwill of gamers who will give a game a chance and understand the tradeoff - that free content has to be supported some way. It's true that their exploration of advertising came about, in a sense, because gamers would not support a previous effort with their own money, and worse, pirates stole it. But gamers shouldn't feel that in-game ads are some form of punishment. "DRM," said Lagran, "would be a punishment." Source: http://kotaku.com/5264139/indie-devs-turn-...r-piracy-strike Long article and interesting read, it's nice to hear from the human faces behind such indie games many just pirate without a care in the world. However I still expect the first reply within an impossible time frame to have actually read the article fully along the lines of "Crap games need to be pirated" "Games are too expensive" "I buy after trying if I like" "Devs can't moan about numbers they just make them up" "Why should I pay for something that doesn't get 10/10?" "Who do these greedy indie devs think they are, they're swimming in cash and just want more" "What's with the back-seating modding attitude to piracy on Neowin?" "People download Windows 7, I can download games" "Someone just wants help with a game they've pirated, don't reply unless you can help them" That cover it? :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yusuf M. Veteran Posted May 21, 2009 Veteran Share Posted May 21, 2009 Piracy is a problem for developers, but I don't think in-game advertisements will curb it. I think it'll turn people away. I've played games with movie ads and people find it distracting. I certainly don't want to play an ad-ridden game. I want to play a game with unique environments and items, a game that doesn't remind me of Colgate toothpaste or Samsung LCD monitors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapadlo Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 I think it is an interesting concept. Especially for indie developers that do not charge the full amount anyway. Like they said, perhaps a different financial model is more applicable. While it is clear advertising alone would not be enough to power projects such as HL2, Crysis, etc etc. However, where it is a few select individuals and their costs are vastly lower I think it is viable. I for one would not object being subjected to occasional advertisement inside a game as long as it does not interrupt the gameplay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 In some games like driving games in particular, it can be blended into the scenery without causing too much offence, in fact it looks like it has a place there, but I am not so sure i'd like to see it in games like shooters. Advertising in loading screens would be acceptable, but for me I see too much advertising in my life already, and I like my games ad free. Personally i'd be willing to pay more for an ad free version of a game, so maybe they should do what the developers of FarCry did. Leave the paid version of the game and also release a free version with ads included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakey_snake Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Obnoxious ads will be striped from the games by the same hackers that currently crack DRM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akaruz Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 "The money we're making off Raycatcher, it doesn't justify working on a project for a long period of time; I can't support myself on it," Warner said. Especially when you release a game, and it has bugs, and you have to fix them. In a certain sense, when you release something for money, it's almost like you create a liability for yourself." sorry but releasing a game with bugs its Stupid and shows he wanted to get a few bucks as fast as he could , since well on an indie project i'm not seeing a BIG Deadline from the "publishers" I would love to see if there wasnt Pirates what they would say when their products would sell less than now or the same amount ( Ps never heard about this game , wouldnt buy it but i can tell you that if a friend had the game on a cd i would "Try it" or copy for me so i could see it I would love to know how the heck they know pirates had 35k copies made ....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob21 Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Its already happening :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subject Delta Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Obnoxious ads will be striped from the games by the same hackers that currently crack DRM. Probably yeah, they where stripped from Counterstrike pretty quickly when Valve introduced them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ylcard Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 As stated, it's a long article, so pardon me for not reading it. If they're blaming "piracy" for their lack of success then it's expected, why wouldn't they, beats the hell out of admitting their lack of talent. This funny example of 1,000 copies sold with Steam, and 15,000 copies downloaded for free is the most important mistake people make - now these poor ******* think that they were cheated by 75 grand. Hell, if a total of 20,000 people downloaded that game (one way or another) it must mean something to them. Blaming "piracy" became the easiest excuse for failure. Edit: Although 5 bucks is worth it, I'd consider it as a donation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mokthraka Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Piracy is a problem for developers, but I don't think in-game advertisements will curb it. I think it'll turn people away. I've played games with movie ads and people find it distracting. I certainly don't want to play an ad-ridden game. I want to play a game with unique environments and items, a game that doesn't remind me of Colgate toothpaste or Samsung LCD monitors. yeah look what it did to need for speed damn best buy ads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMartian Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Probably yeah, they where stripped from Counterstrike pretty quickly when Valve introduced them. But that wouldn't affect them, surely? The companies should have paid up for the ad placements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Audioboxer Subscriber² Posted May 22, 2009 Author Subscriber² Share Posted May 22, 2009 As stated, it's a long article, so pardon me for not reading it.If they're blaming "piracy" for their lack of success then it's expected, why wouldn't they, beats the hell out of admitting their lack of talent. This funny example of 1,000 copies sold with Steam, and 15,000 copies downloaded for free is the most important mistake people make - now these poor ******* think that they were cheated by 75 grand. Hell, if a total of 20,000 people downloaded that game (one way or another) it must mean something to them. Blaming "piracy" became the easiest excuse for failure. Edit: Although 5 bucks is worth it, I'd consider it as a donation. No, you probably should read an article before you go on a rant about assumptions you may think are in it. :no: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carmatic Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) i would mind the ads, if i paid for the game.... people dont like paying to see ads, but that doesnt mean that we should be against ads in games, because you might not actually have to pay for the game if the ads have already paid for it... putting ads that dont fit in the game is just stupid, it destroys the game and it tarnishes the ad's image, its a mutual loss... but if its done well, it might make the game better than if there were no ads at all, i remember seeing an article about how they found people actually enjoyed watching tv if there were ad breaks , or something, so there is a chance it could also have the same effect on games that video texture mapping for ads idea might be abit of a compromise... in real life we are accustomed to seeing fleeting glimpses of ads as we walk past televisions playing them , but the way the advertisers are probabaly going to want it, their TV commercial spot is going to play whenever we get in range of a television so its going to end up feeling abit like a nightmare... or they could try to show ads which are 'tuned' for games by being extremely attention-grabbing and having much higher levels of impact, again something that we dont see in real life... if the game that the ads are in bonks, the ads are not going to do well, so the advertisers are going to have to work with the level designers and artists, surely there are good and creative ways to make ads and games work together Edited May 22, 2009 by carmatic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S00N3R FR3AK Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 In some games like driving games in particular, it can be blended into the scenery without causing too much offence, in fact it looks like it has a place there, but I am not so sure i'd like to see it in games like shooters. Advertising in loading screens would be acceptable, but for me I see too much advertising in my life already, and I like my games ad free. Personally i'd be willing to pay more for an ad free version of a game, so maybe they should do what the developers of FarCry did. Leave the paid version of the game and also release a free version with ads included. I lik ehow they did it in BF2142, ou were fighting in run down cities and they had beat up looking ads that blended in. As long as it makes since like that I think its cool and adds to immerison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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