CGDC '97 Roundtable Report

A Profile of the Attendees

All three roundtable sessions were heavily attended by people actively engaged in the development of product. Creative management was well-represented by Creative Directors, producers and project managers. In addition, there was a significant amount of writers and designers. On the third day we were joined by several programmers. Attendees represented well known developers and publishers. Some smaller developers (6-10 employees) were also represented. It appeared that the majority of the companies represented produced games and children's edutainment

The Focus of the Discussions

The roundtable discussions focused on the obstacles to developing original content for interactive entertainment. The assumption behind the title of the roundtables was that the process of developing original content expands the medium's power to engage an audience. This, in turn, can help expand the size of the audience itself. A larger and more diverse audience is more likely to provide a consumer base for original content - and for the small and medium-size developers who are often the hothouses of new and quirky ideas.

The Obstacles to Original Content

At the present, original content is a hard sell when it comes to proposing projects to developers and publishers. The market has been flooded with titles and the quality has varied widely. As one roundtable participant put it, retailers "feel burned because bad software has been shoved down their throats." The solution? Play it safe. If you are a retailer, stick to successful franchises and title sequels and focus on the mainstream of interactive entertainment: popular game genres. The retailer's buying habits of, course, send a clear signal to publishers and developers. It says "If you want your product to make to our shelves, send us what we like. Send us more of what's selling." As Greg Miller, a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times noted in a recent article, "Many of the industry's creative leaders fret that the chance to do innovative work is fading...they say that reluctance to take risks may mean not only fewer flops, but fewer masterpieces."

Other obstacles to developing original content included lackluster marketing and company cultures that discourage (usually unintentionally) internal proposals from anyone outside a small coterie of managers who have the authority to propose and green light ideas for new products. Several participants pointed out that too often, insufficient funds are budgeted for marketing and titles get lost in the marketplace as a result. In such cases, original content that might have found an enthusiastic audience 'bombs' by default. Unfortunately, the lesson that retailers and publishers take way from this experience is that the content wasn't up to the challenge of the marketplace.

Another obstacle to original content is the company culture that looks only to its marketing arm for guidance on the kinds of titles that are worth pitching or publishing. The problem here is that not all marketing executives are as knowledgeable about the medium or their audiences as they should be. In addition, ignoring or discouraging the input of a company's creative teams means bypassing the ideas of people who understand their audience and have an ingrained sense of how the medium can meet and exceed that audience's expectations.

Solutions

Roundtable participants proposed a variety of solutions to 'make the world safe for original content.' It was pointed out that some companies have a formal process that allows anyone in the company to pitch ideas for new titles. One developer employs a process that factors in the expertise of all company departments from the creative area to marketing and accounting. Each area helps to shape the assessment of the proposal's viability. If the proposal passes muster creatively and in terms of projected budget and earnings, it stands a good chance of getting a green light. Interestingly enough, the company that had the most formalized process also had marketing people who were gamers. And speaking of marketing, it was also suggested that developers get a publisher's contractual commitment to provide a certain amount of funds and resources for marketing the title. This would help to prevent released titles from sinking out of sight prematurely because a publisher decided to shift its priorities and/or funds to other efforts.

Other ideas focused on how to become the best possible advocate for your project when presenting to a publisher. These included exploiting current software tools to create a highly-prototyped demo, drawing a clear picture of how your project is tailored to appeal to a specific sector of the market, and seeking out and concentrating on publishers with a reputation for favoring products that are original and innovative. Finally, participants generally agreed that developers had to improve their ability to pitch original ideas. This involves learning to how to communicate with publishers of all sizes and realizing that publishers don't have all the answers. In certain cases, it's the developer that has a greater knowledge of the consumer in specific market sectors. Developers can turn that knowledge into value for publishers by showing how their product ideas are a good match for a certain type of consumer.