The Process of Process

Making games is tough, it's a long and grueling cycle of creative input and iteration that hopefully culminates in a successful commercial product. We often get so caught up in the end product, that we forget the significance of the journey it takes to get there. But guess what? The process of making a game is an art form in itself. I recently discover how actual art (paintings) is made. Stupid as I am, thinking art was created by these genius artists on a whim…when in fact the genius is not necessarily just the painting itself but the process of producing it. (Funny enough this was recently voiced by Elon Musk when talking to Joe Rogan about manufacturing and how infinitely harder it is than designing the car)

Feel free to checkout one of the most inspiring YouTube channels, Great Art Explained and the video below about Van Gogh’s journey. 

Now the reason this video specifically stood out to me, is because I realized that Van Gogh’s style of art was in fact a process of developing the necessary tools, confidence, style, technique, knowledge and conditions that allowed for that specific art piece to be produced. Van Gogh spent years creating the exact same style of painting in various forms until reaching the point where we got the end result, “The Starry Night” among others. 

With that being said, the process of making games is an often neglected key part of making games. From forming the team behind the game, to the initial game concept, iteration and finally polish. All of these steps requires rigorous planning, execution and a clear vision of the end product. What is usually sad however is the lack of conversation about the processes we employ to hire people, or how we develop a concept, or how we iterate on design and development etc. 

How things get done is a vital part of production and I can’t help but think that many young and veteran developers pay little to no attention to this. Because ultimately, without a proper process in place, we can be stuck in loops of iteration or creative un-control that can result in a lot of damage and time wasted.

So with all that being said, here are a couple of pointers I think we should take with us when we are starting a new company, game or project.

1. There is a process before the process: Before we start creating a new process, how about we define what the process is to change and iterate on that process? This is probably the most important point here and should be on top of mind in everything we do.

2. Be precise when planning the process: Clearly define the steps and milestones in your process. A well-structured plan should provide a roadmap, which hopefully prevents aimless wandering in your development journey.

3. Transparent communication and getting people onboard: Discuss and document processes and ensure everyone involved understands their role and the overall objectives. If everyone has access to and understands the process, then people can operate under the same framework and contribute to its iteration.

4. Embrace iteration, but with actual purpose: Iteration is essential, but ensure each round serves a specific purpose. Avoid aimless revisions by tying iterations to clear goals and objectives. Also, how do you iterate? Se #1.

5. Learn and evolve from process: Continuously evaluate and learn from your processes. Be open to adaptation, refining your methods based on both successes and failures. But keep in mind, #1.

I hope you found value in this and that you also start thinking about the process of process before starting a new project.

P&L Template for indies

TLDR Summary

Games are a business, and you need insight into your game's financial success. That's where our P&L tool comes in. It breaks down your game's financial viability based on your input data, helping you understand costs and potential earnings. Use it to gauge your game's performance or learn from other games. It's free because we aim to help indie developers understand game economics and make informed decisions for better financial outcomes.

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Games are a business

Hello and welcome developer. You might be a newly graduated individual trying to make your first game or a veteran dev leaving a big publisher to try and make it on your own. Regardless of your situation, making games is business, and at the end of the day we all have to eat.

So, would it not be wonderful to at least have an educated guess about how well your game would fare in the real world? How will your future look like and what do you need to do to impact it differently?

Well we have the tool for you!

Profit & Loss

The P&L is a breakdown of your games financial viability. It will provide a high level look of your games overall financial performance based on input data that you provide. Information such as retail price of your game, developer salaries, first party royalties etc. are all taken into consideration to provide you a better understanding of what it takes to become financially successful with your game.

To be as accurate as possible, we recommend that you do some market research and look at comparable games to the one you are making. By doing so, you can use real world data and input that into the sheet to give you a more accurate P&L that will tell the story of your games financial future.

Feel free to use this tool to understand how your game will fare in the real world. Or why not get a better understanding of how other games are performing? Most publishers and investors have smart people doing the math for you, but this P&L template can be a good tool to show that you are well prepared and know your business.  

Why is this P&L Template Tool free?

I have been working with indie developers for a while. What I learned is that many of them lack the understanding of video game economics. Where does money come from and where does it go? So for example, something as simple as royalties from unreal engine and how to deduct them from your game sales can be confusing and a chore.

That is why I decided to solve this problem once and for all. Provide a comprehensive tool that can aid indie developers in quickly understanding what impact different decisions can make on their bottom line.

Credits, feedback and paying it forward

Please share this tool with other game developers. This would help both us and everyone else make better business decisions.

If this tool has helped your game in any shape or form, then we would really appreciate a mention in your games credit list (not mandatory, but greatly appreciated).

Finally, if you have any feedback on this sheet. Feel free to reach out through our website contact form.

Wish you the best of luck!

Who are we making games for?

Highly recommend people making games to listen into this episode of The Game Design Round Table with Mark Rosewater. The quote below highlights one of the biggest challenges I have seen indie and seasoned developers struggle through of making a game, but not understanding who the audience is. Very inspirational speech at the end, for me it highlights the importance of everyone in a studio understanding the target audience and not just the designers.

Mark says:

"There is a moment when you realize, that you are not the audience. I think when you first start designing, the impulse to design when you begin, is wanting to make the game that I want to make...

That is a great reason to start, but if you want to get into game design as a career, one of the things that is really important to understand is that the vast majority of players want something different. Part of being a good game designer is doing the work of learning who is your audience, what do they want? why do they want it?...

That is the biggest breakthrough in game design. Realizing that you are making things for people who are not you."

The Mighty Diamonds Network - A Super Hero Team of Consultants

Due to recent layoffs across the #gamesindustry, some people I know started going into consulting. One door closes where many open.

I have with other industry friends decided to start a simple cooperative network for professional industryconsultants, The Mighty Diamonds Network.

Imagine the High Table from John Wick, but a strictly non-competitive network aimed at helping games industry consultants succeed together. Our principles are simple, keep it simple, transparency and stronger together.

Want to join, just follow the link:

www.mighty.diamonds

Evo Gaming #151 - How to build & maintain a production pipeline for live service

Join Adam Miller-Bettridge in an insightful episode of Evo Gaming as he explores the intricacies of building and maintaining a production pipeline for live service games. Our esteemed guests, Daniela Fontes, Product Manager Live Ops at Star Stable, Kit Eklof, Producer/Product Owner at DICE, Casey Al-kaisy, Consultant at Ashes & Diamonds, and JerOme Ortmann, Director Marketing Communications at FatShark, share their expertise and experiences in managing successful live service game production pipelines. Gain valuable insights into the strategies, challenges, and best practices involved in delivering continuous content updates and engaging experiences to players. Don't miss this enlightening conversation with industry professionals who know the ins and outs of live service game production.

My trip to Riyadh and Gamefounders

Samer Abbas giving a speech at the Gamefounders showcase day in Riyadh, 2023.

I while back I was invited by my friend Samer Abbas and GameFounders to come help mentor and judge projects and teams as part of their accelerator program in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I just came back from my trip, and I am so happy I went there. What an awesome country and people. And what is cooler is the experience of getting to know the passionate teams and people building games in the region.

Saudi people are passionate about video games, I have always known this since my old days as a MENA CM. What I did not know, is their passion for making games. I was very impressed with the projects I saw, and I am looking forward to seeing some of these games show up on western markets sometime soon.

One of the most impressive things I witnessed during my time there was that +40% of the accelerator’s participants were women. This was a very empowering experience, and I am so happy to see that Saudi women are out there kicking ass.

Finally, wanted to thank Jussi Autio and Kensaku Nakata for being such awesome mentors at the program. Samer Abbas, thank you for making this an awesome experience.

Best of luck and Godspeed.

Evo Gaming #80 - Maintaining Player Expectations in Live Service

Adam Miller-Bettridge writes on Linkedin:

“The first podcast release of 2023!
Episode 80: "Maintaining Player Expectations In Live Service"👩‍🎨🎙

This week our great guests are:
Casey Al-kaisy, Live Service Director at Arrowhead Game Studios
Giorgia Arena, Art Director at King
Stanislav Stankovic, Creative Director at Northern Stars studio

⭐Some great discussions around adding value for players, road mapping and keeping players engaged consistently⭐”

Evo Gaming #29 - Remaster are they the future, or should they stay in the past

Jordan Lound writes on LinkedIn:

“I've got to say, this podcast was one of my favourite that I've ever recorded. Remasters: Are they the future, or should they stay in the past? This discussion was brilliant and you dont want to miss this one! 🎮

The guests:
Scott Ginyard - Associate Product Marketing Manager - Star Stable Entertainment AB
Oscar Del Moral Negugogor - Managing Director - PLAION
Matthieu Sloves - Product Manager - Ubisoft
Casey Al-kaisy - Live Service Director - Arrowhead Game Studios”

Building communities & effective communication

This was a digital talk done at Level Six Esports Incubator with Amuka Esports in 2020.

Breaking down the excellent live service and engagement tools of Modern Warfare, 2019

Note: This piece was written back in 2020 and was never finished, please excuse the shortcomings.

This image breaks down the entire progression system of Modern Warfare, 2019. Considering how simple it is, it’s astonishing how they managed to create such an engaging loop.

TLDR Summary

Games as a service or Live Services (GAAS) have become more and more prevalent in modern video games. As this happens, thinking about AERM (Acquisition, Engagement, Retention and Monetization) and how to use it is therefore extremely important to have a healthy user base. The implications of where you chose to invest resources will have different outcomes in the behaviour of your player base.

Engagement is in many ways key to unlocking a healthy user base. It’s not just about the systems and mechanics we create, it’s about the mindset and approach we have to our player base. Creating good engagement and retention systems is about providing automated mechanics to the player that will keep them occupied with our game over a long period of time without us having to spend a lot of resources on creating new content.

Modern Warfare (MW) has demonstrated a near perfect approach in handling AERM and respecting the players intellect. The principle of achieving this is simple, prioritising engagement and retention over monetization is key to a healthy user base.

Introduction

We have come a long way since the release of the original Modern Warfare (MW), released in November 2007. The game industry has undergone several changes across a multitude of disciplines, some obvious such game design and graphics but also player engagement, time value and monetization. With AAA games costing more to make but still sold at $60, Games as a Service (GAAS or Live Services) have become more and more prevalent and important for companies. As any other industry, undergoing change is a process and the ugly part of that process is thankfully over.

A lot of other changes in the industry have revolved around business models. A heated subject that is constantly under the microscope. Since the original MW, we went from standalone DLCs to season passes to loot boxes and at some point, we had a hybrid season pass - lootbox model. We finally ended up with Battlepasses, made popular by Fortnite in 2017. In combination with direct purchases, the Battlepass is currently the most popular live service model on the market in new games. Now, all these business models are created to increase sales and make up for lost revenue from free content such as new maps, weapons, experiences etc. But where many failed to understand, is the need to balance monetization and respect player intelligence.

In today’s gaming landscape, even single players games such as Mario Odyssey have some live service elements to them post launch. The battle for precious player time is currently not just fought between games or gaming platforms, today we as an industry are also fighting other entertainment services such as Netflix, HBO and even YouTube and Twitch.

Engagement is King

To break down live services, it is important to point out what is important for the desired customer behaviour we are looking for. We all want players to come back and play our game every day. The principles of operating live services consist of acquisition, engagement, retention and monetization. In acquisition, you are either reaching out to players to ask them to try your game or they are seeking you organically due to factors such as history or desirability.  Engagement refers to people interacting with your product, in this case we are referring to people who login to play or engage with the game in other ways. Retention is about creating systems that will allow players to continue to engage with the product. Finally, monetization is about offering additional services to the players post the original release.

(Please note! Researching this subject may result in you finding incomplete models such as the ARM Funnel, which leaves out engagement. Engagement is not necessarily a gaming exclusive term, but traditional or non-entertainment business might either ignore this part completely or fold it under retention. In gaming, retention mechanics are different from engagement mechanics. For example, a base progression system might fall under engagement mechanics, but a leaderboard system might fall under retention mechanics. It all depends on your data and the drivers behind them, same mechanics in two different games can have varied outcomes.)

(insert AERM image)

The philosophy of which principle precedes which is another heated topic in live services, you as a game developer or publisher have goals you are trying to meet, and it simply comes down to priorities. Unfortunately and in many cases, economics get the better of us and that is when bad or short-sighted business decisions take place.

Now why is engagement so important in all of this? Engagement is about providing mechanics that allow the player to continue interacting with the product. If the customer is not engaged, then down the line, there will be no one to monetize on. It is that simple. Now MW employees a very comprehensive collection of engagement systems in the base game. If we take out important but expensive engagement drivers such as the release of new content (maps, modes, weapons etc.), the underlying systems that is carrying the player forward in MW are both vast and deep. To make the most bang for your buck, investing in engagement systems is going to be a key driver in maintaining a healthy player base.

MW took an extraordinary approach in handling engagement in relationship to the audience. Instead of having a linear curve that everyone must follow, IW chose instead to further open up the funnel to casual players and allow them to feel badass. At the same time, they made sure to not let their core players feel left out by building deep reward mechanic that will keep them engaged for months on end.

Another factor in Engagement that we rarely pay much attention to is the future of the product we are working on. Prioritizing engagement and making sure the player is first and foremost having fun, will eventually breed a healthy player base but also a long-term player base. With every decision we take, we need to ask ourselves, is this decision going to benefit the player in the long term? Will this decision make the player come back next year for our next title? We have all had a bad experience of some sort, both inside and outside of gaming. You as a developer or publisher have the power to decide if you want to have a short- or long-term relationship with your customer.

I have been playing Mario games for +20 years and today my kids are enjoying Mario as well. We must think a bit more about the lifetime value of our customers, but also beyond that. The focus of engagement is at the core of this conversation.

Engagement in MW

Before we dive into the engagement systems of MW, I feel it is important to point out the secret sauce behind Infinity Wards (IW) Live Service. With the original base game offering, the developer delivered solid single player, multiplayer and CO-OP experiences. Post the MW base game release, the title is offering heavy engagement and acquisition drivers such as free updates containing new weapons, maps and modes. The beauty here is that they created a strong marriage between the engagement systems in the game and the post launch content with focus on engagement, not monetization. Nowhere are they being in your face about wanting your money, this is one of the keys points to their current success. They are forcing you to want to give them your money, and this is important to keep in mind. Because ultimately, it comes down to mindset and playing the long game.

The base idea behind everything in MW is simple. How do we make sure that players feel rewarded or have a clear goal in every single session they play without us having to provide new content for every new session?

Here is a list of all MW engagement and monetization systems (again, I am excluding costly engagement drivers such as maps, modes and weapons). Notice the stark difference in the columns between the free vs paid content. Contrary to what people say on the internet about live services, IW has delivered a comprehensive package that will satisfy most of their audience. The original offering is extremely strong and seeing how their seasonal offerings are currently going, they are just adding more and more without putting anything behind paywalls.

Engagement/Retention systems in MW:

-          Progression system

o   Rank progression unlocks (level 1-55)

o   Officer progression (level 56-155)

-          Weapon progression system

-          Operators unlocks (MP personas)

-          Mission System

o   Daily Challenges

o   Weekly Challenges

o   Missions

-          CO-OP unlocks

-          Battlepass progression system

o   Free tier

(Excluding mp maps, co-op missions, modes, weapons, characters etc.)

Monetization systems in MW:

-          Battlepass progression system

o   Paid tier

-          Direct purchases of bundles

Let’s have a look at every one of these systems and see how they work together to bring the player back to the game, day after day.

The progression system

-          Progression system

o   Rank progression (level 1-55)

In this part of the progression system, players unlock all base equipment that they get to use in battle. All of these items are functional items. Players will unlock:

§  Weapons

§  Gadgets

§  Killstreaks

§  Field upgrades

§  Perks

o   Officer progression (level 56-155)

§  With every rank progression beyond level 55, a unique challenge unlocks for the ability to clear a mission and earn prestigious emblems. This rank reset with every new in-game season.

(insert image over progression system)

The progression system in MW is split into two parts. The first part is related to all base equipment players use in-game. Earning this equipment depends on a linear curve and all player go through the same journey as they get more familiar and comfortable with the game. The journey here in this part of the progression system is short and to the point. By keeping this journey short, IW are doing a couple of things.

1.       They are incentivising low skilled players to keep playing and deterring them from churning out early.

2.       They are teaching the players how to play the game and use new equipment in steps without using tutorials.

3.       They are making sure you are not overburdened or exposed to too many things at once.

4.       They are also making sure that you get all the tools early, so you don’t feel you are at a disadvantage against other players.

Once you are done with the first part of the progression system (level 1-55), you unlock the second part, called the Officer progression (level 56-155).

The Officer progression system is all about showing off your dedication and progression in each season. This part of the progression system has two good points to highlight. The first is providing yet another engagement tool for the player. Say you already unlocked all base equipment, IW made ranking up further meaningful by letting you unlock new emblems with missions associated with officer ranks. The other point of the officer progression is that the officer progression is tied to the Battlepass and seasons. With each season the officer progression restarts, and you are presented with a new opportunity to unlock exclusive emblems with a new season. Thus ranking up becomes meaningful for every new season.

The Weapon progression system

-          Weapon progression system

Each weapon has a set of attachments and skins the player can unlock by leveling up a desired weapon. Players level up their weapons by playing the game with that specific weapon and performing actions with it. Weapons can be leveled up to 100, but you stop earning rewards at level 70. The weapon progression system helps players unlock:

o   Attachments

o   Weapon skins (camouflage) and weapon skin missions

o   Weapon Sight reticle progression unlocks

(insert image over a weapon in menu)

The weapon progression system let’s player diverge and dive a bit deeper into overall progression by leveling up their weapons and unlocking new attachments. IW has been very smart in this department by making a lot of the weapon unlocks the same across all weapons. As an example, a majority of weapon sights, skins, attachments etc. are present across all weapons. But you will still need to unlock them separately for every single weapon.

What is special about weapons and attachments in Modern Warfare is the Gunsmith system. The Gunsmith system is where players get to customize their weapons, both from a visual perspective but also from a functional. The developers have essentially turned Gunsmith into a mini-game of sorts, allowing players to experiment a lot. Figuring out your playstyle and needs all depends on how you customize a weapon in the Gunsmith. There are many extremes you can pull a weapon towards, completely changing the behaviour of the weapon but also your character. How you customize your weapon isn’t limited to the weapon behaviour, customizing a weapon also changes your characters behaviour, parameters like character movement speed, aim movement speed, speed to aim etc.

The Gunsmith is a huge part of the modern warfare engagement loop, where you are constantly going back and forth between different weapons but also being able to create multiple versions of the same weapon. All behaving differently and giving different results. And to top it off, the game allows you to save your modified creations as “Blueprints”, so that you don’t have to redo your customization every single time you make changes.

The system they built here encourages experimentation. You want to try out different weapons to understand how you can alter their behaviour. And it is thanks to this system that there no ultimate weapon or OP weapons. Everything in the game can be countered in some fashion. You need to be creative when approaching different situations and develop weapons to counter them.

An example of something MW has solved is shotguns, usually shotguns are useless in multiplayer shooters. With Gunsmith however, the developers have managed to make shotguns and single action rifles valid weapons. It’s not just about SMG’s or Assault rifles, you constantly see different weapons being used by different players. This is also the reason why IW gave players 10 slots of loadout customization. Depending on the problems and situations you find yourself into mid-game, you will need to adapt or bring in a new strategy to counter what is going on in a match.

Now moving on to the Weapon skins, for each weapon players can unlock a set of skins. For each skin-family there is a requirement to unlock a particular skin. For example, some skins require a set number of headshots or kills while crouched etc. More on that in the next section.

(insert image of weapon skins menu)

Finally, players can also unlock different weapon sight reticle designs. You do so by equipping the correct reticle type and performing a set action required to unlock the next one in line. Once you unlock the next one in line, you get a different requirement until you unlock all designs for that type of reticle. Reticle designs get unlocked across all weapons, contrary to how skins work.

The Mission system

-          Mission system

The mission system in MW consist of three parts, daily and weekly challenges as well as missions. Daily and weekly challenges reward XP, Calling cards, emblems and charms. Missions reward all of the mentioned as well as weapon variation and operator skins.

o   Daily Challenges

o   Weekly Challenges

o   Missions

§  Base game missions

§  Operator based missions

§  Battlepass based missions

(insert image over barracks)

In MW, missions/challenges are one of the most important tools that developers use to engage the players in the core loop of the game. Missions are literally everywhere in the game, and they act as a motivator that continuously propels you forward. There are two ways that MW communications missions to the player, either directly via the mission system or indirectly through thresholds and criteria players need to meet.

Missions that aren’t communicated directly

Missions that aren’t communicated to the player directly tend to be mostly targeted against veteran players. The missions usually take longer time to complete and requires players to spend time in the game. MW is filed with these missions, everything from unlocking new weapon skins, to operators to new sight reticles. All these items require a specific action that you need to fulfil to be able to unlock. These missions are described on each section of the player menu, but you have no way of tracking them while playing the game. So checking progress is a continues effort on the players part to back to the menu to check progress. This might have been a deliberate choice by the developers, so to not confuse or overflow the player with information.

Most often these missions are fulfilled automatically by playing the game. For a start, players will start earning weapon skins, or operators randomly, but as soon you start diving into the different sections of the game, you will notice that there are requirements to unlock these items.

(show image of non communicated mission)

The system that was built here will often force the player to play in a different way and that is not a bad thing. If the player gets to comfortable doing the same thing repeatedly, eventually they will get bored and churn. But if the game is constantly asking you to do things outside of your comfort zone, you will automatically find new reasons to continue playing. This is why these missions would be classed as something targeted at a veteran audience.

The communicated mission/challenge system

With season two of MW, the development team introduced Weekly Challenges. Prior to this, players had access to Daily Challenges and Missions. Generally speaking, mission systems are standard engagement tools that developers use to get players to have a purpose during their play session. In MW missions and challenges always yields a reward, either in the form of XP or a visual reward such as an emblem, charm or calling card.

(show image of mission mission area)

Mission and challenge systems play a vital role in engaging and retaining players by giving them purpose in every play session as well as reason to come back the next day for a new session. Different parts of this system have different goals in terms of retaining and engaging players. An important thing to point out for building engagement systems like this is the running cost. Fortunately for us, the return on investment here is very high. We only need to build this system once and after that it’s going to be virtually free to create endless amounts of challenges for the player. The only other input we need to add is the reward.

To explain how these missions/challenges work. The daily challenges are self-explanatory really, players login and there is a set of three daily challenges players need to meet. Usually in MW, these challenges ask the player to use a new set of equipment or weapon type that they don’t normally play with. Weekly challenges work more or less the same way as daily challenges, only key difference here is that it’s a big set of challenges and they refresh on a weekly basis.

The mission system is a bit different from the daily and weekly challenges. In the mission system, developers have given this part of the game multiple purposes. Acting as a tutorial, training ground as well as unlock mechanism for important or expensive items. The mission system is a manual mission system where players have a choice from a list of missions. The player can only have a single mission active and each mission is devised into a set amount of challenges, each one with a unique reward. Upon completing a mission, the player is rewarded with the ultimate reward for that specific mission.

A cool thing to add in relation the mission system is that a lot of these missions require the player to do other actions to be able to start/complete the mission. In many cases, players are asked to equip certain weapons, gadgets etc., but in other cases some even ask the player to equip a certain operator. Now all operators in the game behave the same, there are no operator perks. But by asking the player to change operator, you are forcing the player to engage with operators, but also with the Battlepass and seasonal system that IW built.

Battlepass progression

-          Battlepass progression unlocks

The Battlepass helps players unlock weapon variations, new operators, watches, emblems, calling cards, XP tokens, XP and operator skins.

o   Free tier

o   Paid tier

(show image of Battlepass)

With the first season of MW, IW introduced Battlepass to the players. As we know, Battlepasses are a monetization and engagement system aimed at rewarding players for playing the game over a period of time. A Battlepass is divided into tiers with the player unlocking a new tier as they progress in the game.

Now unlike Fortnite or PUBG, the Battlepass system in MW is much smarter. Instead of demanding skill (XP) from the player for unlocking Battlepass tiers, IW decided to widen the player funnel significantly by making the MW Battlepass based on time spent in the game and not skill. This meant that anyone, regardless of their skill level have the chance to progress, engage and enjoy the Battlepass. Without having the feeling of missing out or being less worthy that others to earn the final reward, MW’s Battlepass allows all of its players to feel included.

Monetization in MW

Monetization systems in MW:

-          BP progression system

o   Unlocking non-free items in the Battlepass (roughly 90% of all rewards)

o   Battlepass shortcut, unlocks 20 tiers

-          Direct purchases of item bundles

o   Bundles with predefined content that might contain, weapon variations, operator skins, new operators, emblems, calling cards, charms etc.

(show image of Store)

Another aspect of MW which is really good is that it made away with any confusing currency systems. There are only two things players need to think about, 1) XP, you earn XP by playing the game, some of this XP is action/item dependable, but overall you as a player will not be confused about this part as it acts automatically towards your rank and weapon progression. 2) COD Points, you purchase these through the store or earn them through the Battlepass. That is it. These two currencies govern all systems in MW where you need to interact to unlock something that is behind a requirement or criteria.

Lack of pay to win

Up until today, MW has made sure not to alienate the player base in any form. There are no pay to win mechanics, everything you buy is purely visual. Players can buy weapon variations and unlock attachments without leveling up their weapons, but we can simply see these as shortcuts and not power. If you decide to buy every single item in the store before you level up your account, all you will be getting is a very short head start into some weapon attachments. Because we know the game is balanced and rewarding when played, this does not matter much. The same attachment that you might get with a weapon variation, you can earn by playing a full session with that same weapon (1-2h).

The store

The store is very simple in its structure and with season two IW have updated the look of it. There are three types of items you can buy with COD points, the Battlepass, Battlepass shortcuts and bundles of items. The Battlepass is self-explanatory, purchasing the Battlepass will basically allow you to earn every single item in it. The shortcuts are divided into two, either you buy single tiers, or you buy the Battlepass upgrade which includes 20 tiers.

The item bundles in MW are all themed after something different, things such as animals, sports or gaming. A bundle usually contains a minimum of three items ranging from weapon skins, charms, calling cards, emblems, sprays, weapon variations and character skins or new operators altogether. These bundles are straight forward and easy to understand as they lay out and explain all the contents to the player.

Summarizing the core game loop

Now that we have figured out the engagement mechanics and systems IW have built, let’s break down the core game loop. The core game loop is divided in several loops all integrated in the larger system. These game loops work in tandem or complement each other to hit different notes, needs and purposes for the player.

(create images of the core loop)

Main Progression loop

Play MP games -> unlock new equipment -> experiment with new equipment -> reach rank 56 -> unlock officer progression missions -> unlock seasonal emblems -> play MP games -> New season progression

Weapon loop

Play with weapon -> unlock weapon specific attachments -> experiment with new weapon attachments -> unlock weapon specific attachments -> equip new weapon

Weapon skin loop

Play with weapon -> Level up weapon -> unlock new skins -> unlock all skin types -> unlock ultimate reward -> equip new weapon

Weapon reticle loop

Equip scope type -> play and fulfil criteria for next unlock -> unlock new reticle -> unlock all reticles -> equip new scope type

Daily challenge loop

Login on day-> play MP games -> collect rewards -> return next day

Weekly challenge loop

Login on week -> play MP games -> collect rewards -> return next week

Mission system loop

Go to barracks and select mission -> play MP games -> collect reward -> Go to barracks and select new mission

Battlepass loop

Play MP Games -> Collect reward -> Play MP Games

The principle of MW’s engagement system

With the understanding of the core game loops as well as the detailed explanations of each mechanic, it is clear the extent that IW has taken to provide systems which would entertain players for years to come. MW has taught us the importance of prioritising engagement over revenue and as we design and model our version of AERM (Acquisition, Engagement, Retention and Monetization), we can look at IW and say they did it right with MW.

Now every game is unique, and one size does not fit all, but the core principle is the same. Engagement should take priority over other systems as you build your game. As we have stated, there is no point in monetizing a dead or empty game. If we can make sure our players are entertained first, then we can start thinking about how to monetize them.

(insert image of operator pointing to player)

Building a customer journey

This is a talk that was done at IQPC on June 2019.

Player Journey in a live service

This was a talk I did at Nordic Game back in 2017.

Why having a Live Service team is important!

There is an evolution happening in the gaming industry that people are actually very silent about. We keep talking about new technology and how we can make video games better. Remember the 3D-TV fad that came and went away even faster? Or motion controls? And everyone is currently talking about VR, it might become a success, who knows (I do believe in this one though, it’s freaking cool). We definitely shouldn’t stop innovating or creating new ways to experience gaming. However, more importantly we currently do have technology to be able to make the player experience much better than it currently is. There is so much data to collect and read it is impossible to fathom. Yet, this is an untapped area of video games that even big companies are not paying much attention to (Free 2 Play games, mobile games, MMO’s have been doing it for years though).

Here is the deal, if you want to succeed in video games today with a multimillion dollar franchise, you need to have some type of live service that enables you to monitor and react to your customer’s behavior. I am not saying that singleplayer games are dying or that they are becoming extinct. Neither am I saying that every multiplayer game out there needs to be a Destiny or The Division. To the contrary, single player games are appreciated today more than ever due to the scarcity of them. But fact of the matter is, AAA games coming out these days all rely on some type of live service to a certain degree. Yes, that also includes singleplayer games. If you are an indie dev, then this should be more important to you since you will need to fight tooth and nail to keep players engaged and entertained inside your echo system (actually a lot of smart startups are incorporating live services in their games today).

Mask stash options menu in PayDay 2.

Making your game for years, releasing it in to the wild and forgetting about it does not cut it anymore. People have higher demands and expectations of gaming products. So you need to make sure that offline or online, the player needs to be thinking of your game. We as humans also like to think that we are special these days, which means the shotgun method of talking to your users is out the door. You have to start thinking about segmenting your customer base and targeting them with appropriate messaging.

So why is live services such a big deal? Well for starters, you need to understand consumer behavior. Let’s look at supermarkets, we all know why they have chocolate bars so close to the cashier and why milk is always the furthest away from there. Well, the digital side of things is not much different. After working in video games for several years and daily monitoring data, I can tell you that humans are proud to be numbers on an excel sheet. That means you need to look for the trends and make sure you can offer your players the services they want or are willing to purchase. Digital consumer behavior basically equates to KPI’s such as sales, engagement, retention, NPS etc. Video game consumers also have a life time value. People who played Super Mario Brothers when they were very young, most likely do play Mario games with their kids today. Making sure the consumer sticks with you equates to a life time value. All of this equates to money and you need money to stay afloat. So to summarize this part, live services will enable you to not only sell your product once, but also twice and many times over as long as you deliver the value to the player.

A fire-fight breaking out in The Division by Massive Entertainment.

So what do I need to run a live service? It all essentially boils down to three things, the people, the tools and the desire to accept, change and adapt.

The desire: This one is all about being truthful yo yourself. You have to accept that we live in a data based world where everything counts. So either you change and adapt to modern gaming principles or you perish like THQ (but I say this again, that there is room for quality singleplayer games if executed correctly). Even if you do not have the people or the tools below, you need to find ways to entertain your customers and keep them engaged (hacks work to a certain extent).

The People: Usually a Community Manager, an Engagement Manager, a Store Manager and a Data Analyst if applicable. If you are lucky, you might find people who can fill multiple roles.

The Tools: User-friendly back-end tools, I can’t stress this enough. Don’t make tools as an afterthought, be sure to include them in your game design from day one. Enabling your live service team powerful tools will make them react faster to trends and rely less on operation teams to help them with code.  

Once you got these in place, you will have to ask yourself, what can I do to make sure my player base is happy and healthy?

Here is what most of us are accustomed to see on today’s gaming scene:

• A game is released.

• Paid DLC is released in year 1-2.

• Occasional game update to fix bugs.

• Game is done, move on to the next thing.

The last bit is the sad part of how some companies are dealing with their games. Why they are happy with lettings thousands of players loose only to try and reel them back with a brand new product is beyond me. We need to ask, what else can we offer the player to make sure we are covering all their needs and then some? Because ultimately, once we decide to work on that sequel, we will have better success if we take care of the players that are currently with us.

So think about things like:

• Are you entertaining players with events (real life or digital)?

• Are you actively changing aspects of the game during seasonal periods (real life or fiction)?

• Are you improving the experience?

• Are you adding free content?

• Are you engaging directly with your community?

• Are you curating user generated content?

• Are you offering any kind of MTX based products?

• Are you engaging your users on other platforms? Mobile?

• And the list goes on…

A decent live service will extend not only the current products life cycle but also the franchise for years to come. We all know how people’s attention span is getting smaller and smaller, as life and the internet is getting faster. That is why it is crucial to have rigid and dynamic systems in place that can entertain your player, both inside and outside of the game.

What you need to do is create a plan on how you are going to take care of your player base for years to come. Because if you don’t, someone else will. This business is not built on sprints anymore, it’s all about the marathons. That is why you should include live services as part of your game design. 

Tess from Destiny giving the players rewards for completing special orders.

The history and meaning behind the 'Stealth genre'

The stealth genre of games in our generation is actually a sub-genre for the different actual game genres such as adventure, simulation, action and role-playing. The function of stealth has been widely used in a variety of games and comes to be more popular in recent years. According to The free dictionary[1] stealth is “The act of moving, proceeding, or acting in a covert way”. So the basic idea of stealth in games is based upon hiding and avoiding contact with the enemies present in games. Usually in these types of games the player has more freedom on facing the different challenges, obstacles and paths.

"...it really was Pac-Man back in 1980 that laid the foundations of “stealth”..."

There has been an evident evolution among this genre and today we see that more and more developers started to incorporate stealth elements into gameplay. Some games use these mechanics without really being aware of it and some even use it when there really is no need for it. Even though it really was Pac-Man back in 1980 that laid the foundations of “stealth” (in other words avoiding confrontation), it wasn’t until Castle Wolfenstein (1981) was released before the genre itself was born. Created by the programmer Silas Warner (1949-2004) for Muse Software the game was set in World War II and featured a fresh way to approaching games at the time. The objective in the game was to retrieve war-plan documents from a castle that was infested with guards. The player faced two types of enemies and had numerous of options on strategy, clothing and equipment. The game was set to deliver several sequels and established the basic definition for the stealth genre.

Opening a chest in Castle Wolfenstein takes time.

After Castle Wolfenstein various known and unknown stealth titles were released, to mention a few; 005 (1981), Sneak’n Peek (1982), Beyond Castle Wolfenstein (1983), Metal Gear (1987) and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990). Alongside core stealth games, other games were also released that did have some type of stealth elements/parts in them, games like; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989), Live A Live (1994), Aliens vs Predator (1994), Clock Tower (1995), GoldenEye 007 (1997) and Final Fantasy VII (1997).

The stealth genre really took off in 1998 when three core stealth games were released that same year. They were Tenchu: Stealth Assassins, Metal Gear Solid and Thief: The Dark Project. All of these games had their own take on stealth and were all well received by public and media. Tenchu: Stealth Assassins was a ninja game that took place in feudal Japan. The basic storyline of the game is that you work for a certain Lord with the idea of protecting your province from corruption and injustice. The game featured two characters with their own weapons, abilities and play styles and the player also had choices among an assortment of different type of equipment and weapons such as ninja stars, smoke grenades and healing potions. Because of technical limitations at the time, the game was always set in the dark and the player could only see a certain distance ahead, but that did not keep it away from being “the first 3D stealth game ever”[2].

"The game that really made the stealth genre popular among mainstream was Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid"

Thief: The Dark Project was the first game to introduce stealth gameplay into the first person view point. The game was also first to introduce elements of lightning and shadows for hiding[2]. In this game you assume the role of Garret, a thief who takes on different missions of stealing valuable items for clients. The story then opens up to reveal a more complicated situation in which the city he lives in is threatened by destruction. The game is set in a medieval type of setting with industrial revolution elements. Many of the games that followed years after borrow concepts and mechanics that Thief: The Dark Project established. Beyond that, the game also paved critical foundations for modern stealth games.

The game that really made the stealth genre popular among mainstream was Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid. The game featured a thrilling experience unlike any other at the time with heavy emphasis on a great cast of full voiced characters, beautiful and cinematic cut-scenes and of course innovative stealthy gameplay. The plot is set 6 years after Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and revolved around our hero once more being sent to infiltrate a base with terrorist threatening to launch nuclear weapons. Even though Metal Gear Solid was a game with serious stress on story, it was self-aware with many references to “gaming” itself. Some examples of these references are; enemy characters telling the player to put down the controller, or mentioning that “there are no continues”. These small but significant details were all a contributing factor to the brilliance and importance of this game and what it represents for the genre.

Solid Snake hiding behind a tank.

After these three cornerstone games were released stealth became more or less intertwined into video games. Most modern games of today use stealth in some way or another. Be it for a small short of time, parts of or throughout the whole game. Many more core stealth titles were released and also spawned several sequels, games like; Hitman: Codename 47 (2000), Dues Ex (2000), Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (2002), Sly Cooper (2002), Siren (2003), Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004), Crysis (2007), Assassin’s Creed (2007) and Fallout 3 (2008).

"...stealth became more or less intertwined into video games"

The basic idea behind stealth as mentioned before is avoiding confrontation with enemies, but stealth has also evolved in many ways since then. What only used to be hiding behind cover or in shadows has changed to being traversal actions, disguises, gadgets and getting leverage. The gameplay has also changed in the way that it can now be applied to a broader and more realistic simulated world. Not only has stealth been revolutionized on the single player front, but also in multiplayer were players can now use stealth tactics to overcome challenges and opponents. Examples of multiplayer games that use stealth are Team Fortress 2 (2007), Aliens vs Predators (2010) and Killzone 3 (2011).

Some of the most common actions the player is able to do in stealth games are for example disguising the character, dragging and hiding bodies of enemies, delivering quick take downs on enemies, vertical and horizontal hiding, sneaking and crawling, using gadgets, destroying lights and cameras and blending with environments and crowds. To the contrary, game designers must ensure that the AI characters the player faces must be balanced and aware to a certain degree of their environments and choices on tackling the player. Usually in these types of games if the player alerts one of the enemies then the difficulty level will increase and lead to more foes showing up. Therefore accomplishing total stealth in games usually leads to rewarding the player.

Looking at two important titles that incorporated stealth in our generation, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) and Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009) we see that stealth has more or less become a standard way for the player to tackle different segments in games. Even though some segments in these video games are designed to require stealth, ultimately it’s up to the player on how the rest of the game is traversed. Hopefully the rest of the games industry will follow in these brilliant game’s footsteps on tackling stealth.

Batman waiting behind a corner to strike.

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[1]The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stealth). [2]Shane Patterson, "The sneaky history of stealth games: Hide and seek through the ages", February 3, 2009 (GamesRadar.com).