Gaming as a Service

[Hamilcar]

HI Fellas,

I had been wandering around the idea of creating a sustainable business and gaming studio around the concept of Gaming/Gamification as a service. I have most of the paperwork already done and have most of the business plan already in the works of being financed by potential investors.

I wanted to hear your ideas, thoughts, comments around this crazy idea of mine, since ultimately, while It may or may not change my perspective, it could provide additional insight or help in contingency planning as I develop the content for investors to buy in.

Have you ever thought of delivering a service where, you would deliver a unique interactive experience/game to your clients where they would be the stars of their own story?

I think this is the main concept of our idea and I think the market could be ready for something like this. While I may not be able to reveal more strategic details, I wonder what your initial thoughts are when you hear about this concept of business.

Thanks!

P.S I actually just created my account to ask you guys.

Hamilcar.

 

[Zevia]

I don't quite follow what you're getting at. Do you mean it's a QA group to test other peoples' games? Do you mean you want to make a company of Let's Players? Do you mean a client does all the writing for a game and you're creating a dev team that makes everything else?

 

[Hamilcar]

Fair enough. The platform would contain a set/fixed number of predefined "template" or base games with a defined duration ( 1-5 Hours of game play ), under a variety of Themes ( Western, Space, Fantasy, Zombie, etc.. ) and under 3 Main Genres ( Hack n Slash, A-RPG, Puzzle ) where the client would be able to browse and customize certain aspects of the game to their liking from a limited, defined catalog to browse.

Our team ( Art/devs, composers, etc.. ) would then take the required criteria/specifications from the customer and deliver the final interactive experience through a variety of delivery methods.

Would this help provide more information?

 

[Uzuki]

I've heard of something like this. Basically it's a pre-made game and they have little things here and there to "make it your own".

 

[Hamilcar]

Yes, this would describe it to a certain extent. However, we have the "little things here and there" and the "big things here and there" too. The idea is to make it as unique and as personal as possible, without making it too complex and expensive to produce. But yes, this would be the idea. Uzuki, what was your impression of the previous knowledge you say you had on this concept?

 

[Alexander Amnell]

I've heard of something like this. Basically it's a pre-made game and they have little things here and there to "make it your own".

   Isn't that... kind of the definition of role playing? The idea doesn't sound like it would generate much interest to me as described as from the sound of it the changes made to the game would be superficial for the most part. (at least from the sound of your descriptions thusfar.) I think that this kind of idea could appeal to a certain group of people as a lot of people have ideas for a 'dream game' even when they have no interest in getting into game creation, but I'd believe at least that the margin of success would grow the further away from 'premade templates' the service went and closer it came to a fully customized experience by a client to client basis. Granted, that would also make time and costs go up, though initially I'm skeptical of the "template with a limited list of customizable features" aspect.

Disclaimer: This is personal opinion from a man with no real experience in marketing games, take it as you will.

 

[Andar]

Similiar things have been done even centuries before, when poets wrote love letters for aristrocratic clients and were paid for that - often they only substituted the names of the loved ones in already existing poems.


However, your concept probably requires more work than just substituting names - you have to implement part of the story according to the client's wishes.


Using a prefabricated engine (for example like the RPG-Makers) this might be commercially viable - but it all depends on getting enough customers willing to pay for those modified games.


Good luck, I don't think that the number of gamers wanting to pay enough money for this is high enough for a company with several developers to live on that business alone...

 

[Hamilcar]

I agree with all of you and I kind of expected this point of view from the gamer community. What if we changed our target audience to the one we're targeting? Think about the audience out there that is always craving for an original gift idea, cool original, different ways to get the WOW factor out of their loved ones?

What If I tell you that you could make your own story into our games, make the Princess look like your Girlfriend and you to be the Knight in shining armor that goes to rescue her? and that you could also fight that Douche bully you struggle with in School and finally defeat  and kick his sorry arse to oblivion with your amazing sword skills?

What If you could not only edit some of the base elements of our pre-made games, but you could also include some unique personal emotions, or story elements that pertain and are relevant to you and your Significant Other? wouldn't that be awesome? and what if I tell you that you could actually physically gift the final product to them? not only through a simple download link?

Have you guys seen those RPG Maker Marriage Proposals? Think about THAT audience.

 

[amerk]

So let me see if I have this right. You're talking about reaching out to people who either don't know about RPG Maker or have a desire to make their own game or even the funds to hire somebody to make a full-fledged game, but maybe they have an idea or story they think would make a good game, and seeing if they would pay a substantially smaller fee than hiring a big company to get your team to design the game for them implementing some of their ideas into the actual game.

If that's not right, then I'm way off base. If I am right, who retains the rights to the game afterwards. If the person you made the game from, can they make copies and sell the game?

 

[Hamilcar]

So let me see if I have this right. You're talking about reaching out to people who either don't know about RPG Maker or have a desire to make their own game or even the funds to hire somebody to make a full-fledged game, but maybe they have an idea or story they think would make a good game, and seeing if they would pay a substantially smaller fee than hiring a big company to get your team to design the game for them implementing some of their ideas into the actual game.

If that's not right, then I'm way off base. If I am right, who retains the rights to the game afterwards. If the person you made the game from, can they make copies and sell the game?

Hi amerk. 

Not quite.

Let's say it's Valentine's Day. You are struggling to get out of the typical flowers and chocolates with romantic dinner stereotype..... You've been dating for a couple of years so you know you tried this last year and you don't want to do this again.... god not again.

You browse the web for cool gift ideas, original gifts if you will. You find the typical web sites where you could buy him or her some nice jewelry or a nice watch or a cool shirt/suit, maybe cigars. or you could get her a nice dress, some exclusive designer stuff, who knows... but you also kind of tried that... what now?

Well. you find this place where you could tell your romantic story through a game that you could ask the company to personalize for you, based on the selections you made from their platform, before Valentine's and what's best... you can afford it. It's a great place where you could actually get a cool gift for your significant other and instead of giving him or her a watch or a jewel.. you would gift them.... A GAME with unique elements, awesome effects that has YOU and your S.O in it!.

 

[Hamilcar]

Hi Fellas,

What do you think of the idea of selling games that can be customized by the client ( limited choices ) that they could then use as a gift to their significant others?

In other words, games that you could use as a Valentine Day Gift, or a Christmas gift, or Anniversary Gift, where the customer could add some personal touch to the game to make it feel unique and they could then offer them as a gift to some one else?

I want to hear your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

 

[The Prince of Sarcasm]

Sounds cool, but also like a lot of work on the receiver's part, especially if they don't have rpg maker.

 

[Celianna]

Merged topics, please don't make multiple threads about the same thing.

 

[Hamilcar]

No, no, we already make it very easy for them to show us what they would like to have in their game, what emotions or events would they like to explore or communicate and we would only ask them to fill in a simple form with some information. We would take care of the rest.

 

[Hamilcar]

Merged topics, please don't make multiple threads about the same thing.

No worries, being new to this Forum is all. thought I could get a different kind of audience is all. Thanks!

 

[Sharm]

Hamilcar, please read the forums rules before you post again.  You keep breaking them.

 

[BadMinotaur]

I agree with all of you and I kind of expected this point of view from the gamer community. What if we changed our target audience to the one we're targeting? Think about the audience out there that is always craving for an original gift idea, cool original, different ways to get the WOW factor out of their loved ones?

What If I tell you that you could make your own story into our games, make the Princess look like your Girlfriend and you to be the Knight in shining armor that goes to rescue her? and that you could also fight that Douche bully you struggle with in School and finally defeat  and kick his sorry arse to oblivion with your amazing sword skills?

What If you could not only edit some of the base elements of our pre-made games, but you could also include some unique personal emotions, or story elements that pertain and are relevant to you and your Significant Other? wouldn't that be awesome? and what if I tell you that you could actually physically gift the final product to them? not only through a simple download link?

Have you guys seen those RPG Maker Marriage Proposals? Think about THAT audience.

I get where you're coming from.

Obviously as a gamer this doesn't interest me at all, but I'm not the target audience. For the audience you're targeting, I think it's a great idea and one that could really make a lot of peoples' day. It would be cool to have a team together that could quickly generate a game for a specific event, or to commemorate some memory, etc. If the price were right, I think something like this could work well.

Now, I'm not sure about the demand for it even outside of gaming circles. Casual players are increasing all the time, so it might be larger than I'd think originally, but one challenge will definitely be marketing. As you see in this topic, getting people to "get" what you're trying to sell is probably a little difficult to word right.

Another challenge will be making sure the games you produce are actually good. It would really suck for say a mother to get this as a graduation present for her son for graduation, only for it to be really bad and him cringe through the whole thing. You'd want him to come away going "Actually, that was really fun," because five years down the road when he wants a clever proposal for his girlfriend, you want him to think of you.

And of course there's the technical side of things too. I feel if you set up an RPG Maker template project the right way, it would be possible to easily substitute all sorts of life events, etc. into the game with very minimal hassle.

Anyway I guess I kind of rambled but the idea is very interesting to me from a business standpoint. I love clever ideas for the games industry and this is ranking among the top of them. I wish you all the luck.

 

[amerk]

I really don't see there being a large audience for this, personally:

1. Developes won't need it, since they can do it themselves.

2. Non Gamers won't care for this or even understand the value of this.

3. Gamers may have an interest, but that's still a toss-up, assuming they have an SO, and they're open-minded about this idea. Then again, a lot of gamers also have some abilities in mods and may have their own ideas of what they're going to do which sort of goes back to point 1.

It might be nice to do this on the side, on spare time while working on something else, but I don't think you can rely on this as a sole source of income.

 

[Zevia]

To play devil's advocate, amerk, my guess would be the same thing was said about Facebook gaming - gamers won't be interested and Facebook isn't a gaming platform, so how could it ever have an audience or be lucrative at all.

I still don't exactly grasp what the concept seems to be, but if you feel confident and passionate about it, Hamilcar, I say more power to you.

 

[Hamilcar]

I get where you're coming from.

Obviously as a gamer this doesn't interest me at all, but I'm not the target audience. For the audience you're targeting, I think it's a great idea and one that could really make a lot of peoples' day. It would be cool to have a team together that could quickly generate a game for a specific event, or to commemorate some memory, etc. If the price were right, I think something like this could work well.

Now, I'm not sure about the demand for it even outside of gaming circles. Casual players are increasing all the time, so it might be larger than I'd think originally, but one challenge will definitely be marketing. As you see in this topic, getting people to "get" what you're trying to sell is probably a little difficult to word right.

Another challenge will be making sure the games you produce are actually good. It would really suck for say a mother to get this as a graduation present for her son for graduation, only for it to be really bad and him cringe through the whole thing. You'd want him to come away going "Actually, that was really fun," because five years down the road when he wants a clever proposal for his girlfriend, you want him to think of you.

And of course there's the technical side of things too. I feel if you set up an RPG Maker template project the right way, it would be possible to easily substitute all sorts of life events, etc. into the game with very minimal hassle.

Anyway I guess I kind of rambled but the idea is very interesting to me from a business standpoint. I love clever ideas for the games industry and this is ranking among the top of them. I wish you all the luck.

You are totally spot on in your analysis, this is why we have circled the idea around an actual panel of great minds in the industry and the general consensus was to make it approachable and intuitive. On the marketing side, yes, totally agree, it was difficult to word it since there are constraints I need to abide to that make it difficult to reveal the details like I would like to. We do have a marketing campaign already in progress, you may hear about this in the coming months with more strength as you browse stuff.

Thanks for the encouraging thoughts.

Hamilcar.