The views expressed in this post are my own and do not represent the views of my employer. Even further, this post is just a fun thought experiment expressing a contrarian view to current popular opinion. Fortnite: The Cultural Phenomenon! Fortnite is a cultural phenomenon with over 40M downloads on PC and console and bursting […]
Building a Successful Team through Determined Optimism: Winners vs. Whiners
Some of the philosophies and lessons I’ve learned from my life experience don’t have scientific backing but I have come to absolutely believe in through real world experience. More specifically, building a successful team through determined optimism is one such lesson. The Power of Optimism The belief in the power of optimism is not something […]
An Open-source Mobile Gaming Taxonomy
Context: Every mobile gaming company has their own system for describing different types of mobile games. In other words, a mobile gaming taxonomy or classification system. Unfortunately, no industry standard exists. Further, I’ve been very unhappy with the current taxonomies developed by the various research firms out there. As a good friend of mine stated […]
Crazy, Destructive Executives and the “Giant Spider” Problem
Introduction Steve Jobs was famous for creating some of the most successful products ever built. He made significant, positive impacts on the the product teams and with product decisions. However, with many executives we find the opposite phenomenon happening where high level executives make poor decisions that negatively impact products teams and product decisions. Steve […]
The World’s Greatest: Why Activision Needs to Acquire Glu and Ember Entertainment
Context: Huge pent-up demand exists for Blizzard IP based mobile games (e.g., Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo). We see strong market evidence of this demand in the countless number and success of infringing mobile games that operate without formal licensing with Activision Blizzard. Especially for fantasy gamers, the ultimate IP in mobile gaming is from Blizzard’s […]
The “Strange Attractor” in Video Game Design
Context Before gameplay, mechanics, monetization, or any other key design consideration, a new video game design needs to consider the most important aspect of all: a good concept. Feature film screenwriter Terry Rossio (credits include Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin, and many others) developed the notion of a “Strange Attractor” to help other screenwriters understand how to […]
Mobile Game Design: Iteration vs. Planning, MVP = Dangerous!
Mobile game design typically follows two primary schools of design philosophy: Iteration based design = Just get some core mechanics in and then keep iterating until you get something fun; some initial but not extensive design before development Planning based design = Think through all of the features, every key screen, all of the dependencies […]
Mobile UI and Game Design: Screens vs. Flows
Context: Mobile game design by flows refers to the concept of mapping out the entire set of screens a user can tap through in a mobile game: the user flows. While many of the larger mobile game studios such as Zynga or GREE routinely design UI/UX by flows, many mobile application designers are still designing […]
Implications of “Alpha” and “Beta” in Mobile Gaming
Bear with me on this post. There will be some financial jargon and a bit of math but the conclusions drawn I believe will be worth your read (at least I hope so!). Let’s first start with some financial theory which will form the basis of the arguments I make. In finance, the “efficient markets […]
What’s really going on with Facebook gaming?
According to Facebook and the press, Facebook gaming is booming. Headlines from the media indicate: Wired: “Facebook gaming thrives” The Next Web: “last three months of game revenue are a record” c|net: “Facebook’s games business stronger than ever” Wall Street Journal: “Facebook Racks Up Record Games Revenue“ Facebook CFO David Ebersman: “Q1 represented our largest three-month quarter of […]
Psychology & Perception: How Games are Like Wine
In January of 2008, a Cal Tech and Stanford Business School research study showed that the perception of a wine can influence the actual physical enjoyment of the wine. In this study, people who drank the same wine that was priced at $90 vs. $10 did not only believe that the $90 wine was better […]
Design & Implementation of Mobile Analytics
There is a better way to make your mobile analytics far more effective and to dramatically reduce your integration time! Further, I illustrate how the best person to manage analytics not only understands metrics but also has a good product sense and should have a deep understanding of the mobile app itself. Read on… BACKGROUND: […]
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