Casual Games SIG/Conference Calls/May 2007
International Game Developers Association
Table of contents |
[edit] Role Call
[edit] Who's Here
Jason Akel, James Gwertzman, Charles Merrin, Brian Robbins, James C Smith, Wade Tinney
[edit] Who's Not
Robert Carrol, Kane Minkus, Allen Partridge, Margaret Wallace
[edit] Next Call
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 2pm ET / 11am PT
[edit] White Paper Update
- Margaret, Brian, Kane
- Margaret will ask Allen Partridge to edit the update and Alex St. John to be associate editor.
--Margaret will do a formal hand off on Wednesday or Thursday of this week to Allen. this will include a list of list of potential volunteers.
- Primer will be created to be referenced in the Spring quarterly.
--Allen was asked to have an update for casual connect, but this is a very aggressive timeline.
- Deadline for full update will be September 1
--this is aggressive, but Allen has just released a book on casual games. He should have a good foundation already.
- Two new sections: Glossary of terms, new section on Casual MMOG.
[edit] Quarterly
- Spring issue
- Will include a primer (i.e. short form) of the whitepaper
--Margaret will follow up with Wade to determine the print deadline. The schedule might be tight, but Allen is being encouraged to have something ready.
- Print for Casual Connect; Approval from Jason D. but wants us to look at getting sponsor to help offset costs
--Initial reprint budget is expected to be ~$600 per issue.
--Jason / Wade: Will determine the right model to propose for sponsorship. Two ideas were suggested: 1. traditional model where the sponsor gets in-publication advertising, such as a full page ad, and 2. the "NPR" model where the sponsor gets simple attribution, such as "brought to you by ..." Another question is whether we should see sponsorship for a single issue, or for a set of issues (e.g., three issues). The goal is to avoid having to find sponsors each quarter so we can focus on other important issues.
--Charles offered to have Real sponsor the first issue(s), but asked the question about whether we should be concerned about implied favoritism - Charles had preferential position. One member suggested this was a "just reward" for participation in the group. Wade will make the determination as to whether we should see additional / alternative sponsors.
- Some topics will include:
--Top 10 list / update: James
--Interview with Exent: Jason
--Post mortem on VV2: James
--HR issues in Casual Game industry, possible roundtable with Digital Artists Management and others?:" Wade
- Will send HTML email to mailing list subscribers
NOTES FROM CALL
--Wade has draft or final text for all pieces except one (post mortem on Flow). The Post Mortem article may get pushed to next issue. He hopes to have the initial draft layout by next Monday, 7 May, and an HTML draft out to everyone by 14 May.
--He expects to print this issue for Casual Connect in Seattle (17 - 19 July).
--There were still some questions about sponsorship. Wade is OK with taking sponsorship if it is done in a tasteful way. For example, a line at the bottom of each page. Jason is suggesting that the sponsorship be part of a larger "package" - see last month's notes for more details. It would be a "SIG Sponsor." This idea was generally (but not formally) approved.
--we discussed the logistics of how to define the sponsorship, gather bids, and determine the sponsors. There will be three sponsors for teh SIG. Each will be treated equally in all of the appropriate materials.
Action Items
--Jason & Wade: Will determine what the appropriate package looks like, and the baseline amount needed to fulfill it.
--Jason: will set up an IDGA account - casualgames@idga.org? - for the bids to be sent to.
--Charles: will write an email asking IDGA SIG members to bid on the sponsorship. He will send the draft to Jason Akel who will post it to the list.
--Charles: Once the bids come in, Charles will review them and rank them. We will choose the 3rd highest bid and let the top 3 pay that amount. All money will be deposited to a dedicated account.
[edit] Initiatives Overview
[edit] Data Royalty Reporting Standards Initiative
- James G.
- NPD group is finally really interested in creating a data service for casual online games.
- James has introduced VP at NPD to 10-20 portals to try to get everyone introduced
- Reflexive has been sending reports for a while
- PlayFirst is close to rolling out and has made a few revision suggestions to the format, which we plan to incorporate
- PopCap is hoping to support the standard shortly :)
- To help with generating support there needs to be convincing reasons for why. Other companies may be worried about privacy or sales issues?
- Best argument is that a developer or portal's own sales sell best on their own network. If you don't participate your game sales may be under-represented
--Charles: will follow up within Real to see if the blocking issues are gone, and when Real can begin sending the XML to partners.
[edit] New Business / Initiatives
- List Communications
- Due to the fact that some important SIG committee announcements are lost in the shuffle when posted to the mailing list, we will send an HTML email direct to the email subscribers PLUS a link to the HTML email on a server will be posted to the mailing list.
- these emails would only be used for major issues / announcements.
- Still need minor help with graphic design
- James G has tentatively volunteered a couple hours to this
- Jason will investigate costs to send via third party tool, discuss options/reimbursement with Jason D.
--estimated cost to sent each email to 1000+ people is $50 per mail. We expect to send 3 - 4 per quarter, for a total quarterly expense of $200.
--there was some discussion on how to pay for them. One suggestion was to include this cost in the Quartly sponsorship program. So for $800, the sponsorship would cover printing plus emails for the quarter. This idea was generally well received.
- Jason will look into HTML email creation.
--including investigation into whether the IGDA already has a tool / system we could use.
--Update -IGDA does not currently have a tool we can leverage, per Jason D. - maybe in future
- Webinar/Roundtable Broadcasts
- No update at this point - Kane can you update manually?
- Roundtables for Casuality?
- Audio - Kane
- International Opportunities for Casual Games - James G
- Technology Roundup - Brian
- Consumer Marketing Techniques and Sales - Jason
- Other developer-focused talks?
- In order to highlight topics in a more timely fashion and in a more accessible/interesting medium, we will explore running webinars and audio broadcasted roundtables. We would record and archive on SIG wiki homepage.
--we would probably use a roundtable format, similar to what Wade did at GDC, with the goal of filling gaps in Jessica's agenda. We are not trying to compete with her agenda or pull people from her sessions.
--Question of whether we can record and make the session(s) available on our site. It could be the beginning of a more robust content archive for our SIG.
- Discussed Casuality as being first launch of this (Need to approach Jessica about this).
--Margaret and Kane have volunteered to talk with Jessica, with Margaret taking the lead.
--Need to get our proposal together as quickly as possible. The deadline has technically passed (was April 1).
- Sessions might include audio, doing deals with publishers, etc.
--Margaret will compile a list of potential topics for casual connect and get input from SIG committee before submitting.
- Making these a regular event beyond any specific show (e.g., casual connect)
--We need an owner for handling the tactical execution of each session - Manager of Webinars?
--Kane will take the first token to research the methods, and be the faciliator. He will ensure that whomever is running the specific webinar is on track, has the resources, manages the cost, etc. He may not be the permanent Manager of Webinars.
--Need to figure out how to pay for them. Unlike the HTML emails, there could be a significant cost associated with each webinar.
- Reach out to Audio SIG
- Kane was reaching out to them, but no update as of right now
- Kane reaching out to Michael Sweet of non-IGDA Audio SIG and see where we might coordinate initiatives on audio education in casual games.
--Kane's initial research indicated that most audio SIG activity, such as the IAG SIG, was focused on web and mobile projects, not downloadable games.
--Kane feels (and most seem to agree) that it would be valuable to educate the audience about the advancements in audio, but isn't sure about the right way to do it? Thoughts?
--Suggestions on how to accomplis this task included: Writing articles for the quarterly and whitepaper, most aggressive pursuit of panels / lectures (N.B. Apparently Juan and Jessica are very interested in lectures for Casual Connect), polls / notes inside the new HTML-based emails.
--Please send other ideas to Kane and / or this list group.
- Casual MMOs
- To be addressed in whitepaper by Allen P. Margaret to inform Allen.
- Steering Committee selection
- Brian will send previous e-mail used for Jason
This has typically been done annually at the summer casual games conference. We try to give 4-6 weeks notice for nominations so we'll need to get this out in early June.
