Archive for October, 2009

1. How to tell an entire adventure – and get a laugh – in under one minute

   October 30, 2009

   The games industry still needs to learn how to deliver compelling narrative. While this example, from the advertising industry, is not exactly sophisticated, it made me laugh. But my question for you: is the games industry more advanced than this kind of storytelling, or have we not yet caught up with the ad-men?

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: advertising, humour, narrative, storytelling

   6 Comments

2. GamerDNA halves its workforce as games advertising enters terminal decline

   October 30, 2009

   GamerDNA has been through several iterations in its life. The social network and gaming community started life as Sparkforge Entertainment before changing its name to GuildCafe as it focused on the burgeoning MMO market. It even attracted $3 million in venture capital from Flybridge Capital Partners. The company is now focused on a sophisticated advertising [...]

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   Posted in: Game Over Zone

   Tagged with: advertising, gamerdna, job loss tracker, layoffs, redundancies

   4 Comments

3. Gamesbrief’s Weekly Tweets for 2009-10-30

   October 30, 2009

   RT @patlike: Sony's PS division has now lost almost $5 billion since launching PS3 – http://bit.ly/396PEa # Just posted: GamerDNA halves its workforce as games advertising enters terminal decline http://tinyurl.com/yjlxodm # Apple getting caught up in policing "he copied me, Dad, I did it first, kick him off please" #cgf09 # Just posted: Feeding the [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: twitter

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4. Feeding the funnel – turning users into profits

   October 29, 2009

   As I work with my clients, I’ve realised that all of them are trying to do the same thing. They want to pour users into the top of the business and get profits out of the bottom. In between, magic happens, and my consultancy is all about finding that magic. So I talked about it [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Marketing

   Tagged with: casual games, casual games forum, conferences, funnel, self-publishing, starred, web marketing

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5. MechScape cancellation costs Jagex tens of millions

   October 29, 2009

   It’s a brave CEO who cancels his company’s second largest project after four years of development and shortly before release. But that’s exactly what Mark Gerhard of Jagex has done with MechScape. The new MMO from the makers of Runescape has been canned shortly before release. When Mark was first appointed, I questioned the wisdom [...]

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   Posted in: Featured, Opinion

   Tagged with: jagex, mechscape, runescape, starred

   No Comments

6. Unity goes free – developers rejoice

   October 29, 2009

   Unity, the creator of the Unity engine for browser-based and iPhone games, has just announced that its game development platform will now be free. According to Venturebeat, the Unity platform which previously sold for $199 will now be available for free to developers which generate less than $100,000 a year in revenue from games based [...]

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   Posted in: Sandbox

   Tagged with: free, technology, unity

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7. Cabinet Forum showed that the UK games industry is leading the way in creativity and in business innovation

   October 28, 2009

   C&binet was a gathering of the great and good of the British creative industries at the swanky Grove Hotel. But did it achieve its aim of becoming a British Davos for our industry? The Cabinet Forum event has been overshadowed by Lord Mandelson’s announcement of a “three strikes and you’re out” policy against “persistent, illegal [...]

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   Posted in: Analysis, Featured

   Tagged with: book industry, cabinet forum, conferences, film, government, music, piracy, starred

   6 Comments