game development at yoyo games
TRANSCRIPT
Game Development
at YoYo Games
Mark Overmars
Who Am I
• Full professor at Utrecht University
– Responsible for Game Technology program
• Creator of GameMaker
– First as hobby, later as company
• Co-owner of YoYo Games
– Responsible for developer
relations
• Co-owner of Qlvr
– Utrecht company
– Develops educational apps
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What is YoYo Games
• Company located in Dundee, Scotland
– 15 employees
– Small office in Utrecht
• Sandy Duncan, CEO
– Former head of Xbox Europe
• Privately funded
– www.yoyogames.com
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What is YoYo Games
• Development uses GameMaker, so we control our own development tool
• Through GameMaker we can easily add additional features
• Publishing demonstrates the quality and possibilities of GameMaker
• Publishing provides a service for the users of GameMaker
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GameMaker•Tool for very rapid game
development
•Deployments on many platforms
GameMaker•Tool for very rapid game
development
•Deployments on many platforms
Developer/Publisher•In-house and with independent
developers
•iOS, Android, PSP, Symbian,
Developer/Publisher•In-house and with independent
developers
•iOS, Android, PSP, Symbian,
GameMaker
• Lite/Standard Edition
– Create games for Windows
– Primarily used by amateurs, in education and in indie scene
– Downloaded 5,000 times per day
– Used in thousands of schools
• HTML5
– Available since September
– First full-blown game-development environment for HTML5
– Focus on professionals and serious amateurs
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GameMaker
• Studio Edition, early 2012– Export to Windows, Mac, iOS,
Android, Symbian, HTML5, …
– Already used in-house
– Easy FaceBook integration
– Integrated services for developers• Ads, payments, social, cloud, …
– Focus on professional developer
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Publishing
• Commercial games created with GameMaker– iPhone, iPad, PSP, Symbian,
Facebook, …
• 15 games in one year– 3-4 week production time
– They Need to be Fed, PolluShot, Simply Solitaire, Super Snake, …
– Featured by Apple/Google
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Concept
Document
Vertical Slice
Beta version
Final Product
Game IdeaDemographicUSPsConcept Art
PrototypesBasic GameplayFirst In-game ArtFirst Levels
Full GameplayLevel DesignMenu ScreensFinal Art
DebuggingPlay TestingTuning
MarketingMonitoringUpdates
Ditch
Ditch
Game Idea
• Getting an idea is NOT difficult
– Executing it is
• Look at successful games
– 80% of top iOS and Android games are 2D
– Why is Angry Birds such a big success?
• Check game review sites
• Think commercially
– If you make a commercial game
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What type of game?
• Demographics
– Age group
– Male/female
– Casual or hardcore
• Me too, but better
– Originality is overrated, but don’t be a copycat
– Find the key elements of a game and use them of
as the basis of your game
• Example: Angry Birds
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Mobile Game Design Tips
• Brief playing times
• Slow learning curve
• Integrated tutorial/help
• Collecting stuff
• Enough content (> 2 hours)
• Good single player mode
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Controls
• Controls should be natural
• Controls should be easy to remember
• Buttons are boring
– But sometimes the most effective
• Tilt is fun, but frustrating
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Social Features
• Online highscore lists
– Harder than it might seem
• Achievements
– Make it possible to brag about them
• Involve friends
– To help you play
• Multiplayer
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Concept Document
• 4-5 pages
• Title, genre, demographics, platforms
• Story, setting
• Main features, Unique Selling Points
• Concept art
• Team and planning
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Concept Document
• Let other people read it
• Listen to criticism
• If people don’t get it, ditch it
• Don’t start implementing earlier
• Maintain it when the game changes
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Prototypes
• Determine the greatest risks in your design– Are the controls natural?
– Does it run on the hardware?
– Can the tools construct the game?
• Build a prototype that reduces those risks– This is NOT a version of the game
– It does not need to be software
– Use a RAD tool
• Test the prototype
• Adapt the design
• Repeat until all risks are gone– Throw away the prototype
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Build through Iterations
• Make sure you have a working version very
early on in the process
• In each iteration add some elements or
delete some
– Prioritize your features
• Test after each iteration
• Start with placeholder assets and replace
these later
– Avoid making useless assets
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Vertical Slice
• Basic game play is in place
• One or more playable levels are ready
• Art for those is close to final
• No need for menu screens, tutorials, etc.
• Test with potential players
• Listen to them
• Ditch when it is not as much fun as you thought
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Build the game
• Continue to use an iterative process
• Maintain a game design document
– Overview of features, file formats, etc.
• Implement features you need in the level
design
– Don’t do level design at the end!
• Create menu screens
– Your game is as good as your worst screen
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Beta
• Should be feature complete
• Should be playable without instructions
– Integrated tutorial
• All menu screens are there
– Options, achievements, level selection, …
• All in-game art is close to final
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Testing
• Debugging
– Check for bugs
– Try anything ridiculous
– Can partially be done by yourself if you can put
yourself in the right mode
– If people think it is a bug, it is a bug
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Game Play Testing– Is the learning curve correct
(FLOW)
– Are the tutorial levels clear
– Do people understand the controls
– Do they like the visuals and the sound and music
– Do they understand how to solve the puzzles
– Are all levels doable
• You cannot do this yourself
• It takes more time than you think
• Take all comments serious and tune the levels
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Final Product
• Test the final product for a few days
• If you make a change, restart that process
• Don’t rely on updates
– You have only one chance for a first impression
– Also test updates carefully
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Marketing
• A game will only sell when people see it
– Name (e.g. Bygår)
– Icon
– Screenshots
• Twitter, blog, viral tools
• Create updates with
more content
• Self publishing is difficult
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Business Model
• Paid game
– Low price, many sales required
– Works poorly on Android
• Ad supported
– Only works when people play a game for a long period of time
– Only when they have time to see the ads
• Freemium
– Conversion rate is low (1-2%)
– Carefully select the free part
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Concept
Document
Vertical Slice
Beta version
Final Product
Game IdeaDemographicUSPsConcept Art
PrototypesBasic GameplayFirst In-game ArtFirst Levels
Full GameplayLevel DesignMenu ScreensFinal Art
DebuggingPlay TestingTuning
MarketingMonitoringUpdates
Ditch
Ditch