Little Industry

Gulmer
Gulmer
Jul 20, 2017 · 6 min read

Two weeks ago I participated in the GameIS2017 game development conference, marking a special 10th “anniversary” of Israeli game industry events (but who’s counting).

Being there for the events since the early days have to admit: it has been a wild ride. Going 10 years back I still remember meeting awesomely enthusiastic people, but not a lot of actual employment opportunities for a fresh computer science graduate who simply wanted to make games. Israel’s flourishing Hi-Tech sector was much more lucrative, so that’s where I went.

Queue flashback interlude

But even back then, when events were small and mostly informal and revolving around pizza & beer (pretty much the driving force of the industry), there was a feeling that new opportunities loom behind the horizon. That was before social and mobile as gaming platforms were a thing… the Xbox 360 and Steam had just recently launched, and digital distribution was at its infancy.

Fast forward a few years, and I found myself taking an active role at annual events, and doing general evangelism for the Israeli industry at GameIS, the NPO tasked with promoting the local industry. Every year I was surprised by the events we managed to conjure based on volunteer work, by the international talent we managed to draw to local conferences, and later by the fact that some of our locals (myself included) were invited to speak about our experience and about Israeli success (and failure) stories abroad. At first it felt an Impostor syndrome on a collective level.

It took a while to realize how the industry evolved from technology focused startups (some not surviving the global changes that hit shortly after, others making it big time) into prominent successful studios producing actual game content, riding on the shoulders of giants in the form of social networks and mobile distribution platforms. I ended up in one of these studios myself, so the master plan did turn out well in the long run.

A GameIS Conf, one of many (Image credit: GameIS/Nir Miretzky)

This year’s love

So, yeah, the annual conference: in past years my focus of attention was to attend every interesting conference talk (running from one track to another) and network with the international speakers, some of whom are considered superstars in their fields. In every local and international conference I attended I either had an upcoming must-have talk to get to, a meeting to attend, a track to host or my own presentation to polish.

But this year I took it easy. Instead of hopping from one talk to another, I decided to chill by an game exhibition area packed with game showcases from local indie studios. This means I missed a lot of talks including ones I regret skipping (like SUPERHOT), but it gave me the time and chance to try some games, and more importantly to discuss them with the developers.

There were over 30 games at the conference exhibition area (including Fort Triumph, which I mentioned in my previous story), and I think I managed to cover a good deal of them before realizing the day was almost over. I played the games, talked to developers, made some suggestions and in some instances even tried to hook people up: Sometimes all it takes is dragging people from the Microsoft booth at one corner of the event hall, and introducing them to an indie team working on a battle car racer that would be a natural fit on home consoles.

Keep control

I think that this is where indie developers still struggle: I saw some amazing games and new innovative ideas from highly creative people, but they’re sometimes clueless as to other aspects of the business and don’t know how to leverage their ideas. Pretty straightforward, as creating a game on a shoestring indie budget is a very timing consuming task — and you simply don’t always have the time to properly follow up on everything else going on.

The adventurous nature of self funded indie studios stands in stark contrast to the calculated approach of established studios where our local industry already matured and struck gold (social, mobile, kids, education, casino). Indie means the creative freedom to do whatever you want with your game and pursue more interesting and ambitious goals, but you can’t throw everything else out the window, assuming that having a good game is enough to hit the jackpot.

Also, the age of “golden tickets” on Xbox Live Arcade, on Steam, on mobile, on Social networks is long gone, and it’s highly unlikely that the stars will align in your game’s favor and you’ll be the one catching the next trend at its peak (at least without proper preparation and thorough market research). You need to learn the market in order to understand where your game fits, what platforms to pursue, and what business model would work best (hint: a few exceptions notwithstanding, a crowdfunding campaign for a free to play game simply doesn’t work - even if the game itself looks amazing).

P.S: make sure you change that screen when pitching a game to Microsoft (Image credit: GameIS/Reut Kertz)

Beautiful day

So throughout the event I mostly found myself playing a hell of a lot of interesting games, throwing around ideas and making suggestions: “This game? You guys should definitely focus on consoles, so let me find the right people to talk to on the other side of the hall”. “That game? I’ll hook you up with our BizDev guys, because we publish mobile games and and can help with distribution, if your KPIs are good”. “What are your players’ stats? Oh you don’t collect analytics yet!? Stop whatever you’re doing now and check out these services for fast integration”. “And what about that game over there? This just screams twitch integration — remind me to follow up and introduce you to someone I met there”.

I obviously had my share of actual game feedback, but at times it felt as if I was playing a matchmaking service to people who just found out there’s a dating world outside. If there’s one key area I’d recommend indies to focus on? Develop research skills and habits (and industry networking, by extent).

I still expect to see at least a portion of the games I saw at the conference turn into success stories — keeping the local industry and indie scene rolling in an ambitious direction. It’s good that there’s also a realization of how minuscule we still are in terms of global impact - meaning less ego and rivalry, and more willingness to share and collaborate. After all: if your project fails, there is a chance that you’ll end up working with/for your industry peers on another game.

It’s hard to imagine how the 20th anniversary conference will turn out and what the industry would look like. I’m sure the local scene will keep growing with more global success stories, and hopefully I’ll be able to take part in some of them. I‘m definitely RSVPing a ticket already, hoping to enjoy another casual talk with some developers and oh-wait-a-minute-let-me-introduce-you-to-that-thing-which-would-be-a-perfect-fit-for-your-game.

So here’s to another decade.

)

Gulmer

Written by

Gulmer

Personal musing on the video game industry. Principles expressed here are solely my own, and if you don’t like them… well I have others

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