The Five Mind-Myths of the Micro-Mobile Studio Charles Cox Founder/CEO, 4gency

Who is this guy? Mobile + Tablet Games “Weekend warrior” mobile devs, 2 teams of four people $25k initial investment, 1.5 years in operation 2 games, 75k users, 4 platforms, 3 revenue models

Why is he here? Alternate Titles for this Presentation: “How Not to Spend Your First $25,000” “The Incredible Shrinking Revenue Share” “I Screwed Up But You Don’t Have To” “$1 Wines for CEOs on a Budget”

Why is he here? (continued) I’m here to share my experiences. If you’re just getting started… or if you’re near launching… or if you’ve had a few scrapes too… I’m with you. Let’s see how we can do better together.

4gency’s first year: hopes & harsh realities OMG a profitable month! Node.Hack Released Armored Drive Released

The Five Mind-Myths that nearly sunk us We’ll chase the market Forget marketing, it’ll sell itself Our game will totally go viral Ignore that metric, it’s lying to you One more title and we’ll get a hit

“The tablet market is super hot, you guys.” Success starts with a clear, articulated, supportable vision. Passionate. Backed by data. This wasn’t it. – Actual CEO quote

Myth #1: We’ll chase “the market” “The tablet market is super hot, you guys.” – Actual CEO quote No such thing! Micro-markets! Do you know yours? What do they like? What do they hate? What do they spend? Where do they find new games? Room for innovation Lead your market from something they know to something they will like Talk to them early! Our genres. Whoops. Could have used this about a year earlier, thanks

“Nah, I’d rather put my money in R&D.” – Actual CEO quote

Myth #2: Forget marketing, it’ll sell itself “Nah, I’d rather put money in R&D.” – Actual CEO quote You can’t have a product without development. You can’t have a successful product without marketing dollars. Better R&D wouldn’t have pushed the arrow further up the curve. Why didn’t we answer this question: how are people going to find us? Where we ended up I saw it in postmortem after postmortem, founders kicking themselves for not having marketing dollars. One day, in my most down moment, I stumbled on an old 2002 GDC binder of presentation slides. Back then they printed them. And one was from Kent Quirk of Cognitoy. In it he had the postmortem for MindRover. And right there: “Have a dedicated Marketing budget!” Why do we do this? A lot of us come from engineering backgrounds. We believe in the power of R&D. I come from that background. But it’s not the only thing we need these days.

“They’ll hit the Share button. A lot.” – Actual CEO quote

Myth #3: Our game will totally go viral “They’ll hit the Share button. A lot.” – Actual CEO quote Users are not an acquisition strategy. Acquire Retain Monetize Share (maybe) Yeah, that’s like 2% 1% This doesn’t mean “share button”

“IAP % can’t be that low. The metrics are wrong.” – Actual CEO quote

Myth #4: Ignore that metric, it’s lying “IAP% can’t be that low. The metrics are wrong.” – Actual CEO quote Pre-Release Test (Canada) Global Metrics Post-Release Forget statistical significance – zero is still zero Gee whiz, think you could have predicted that? CEOs may need a reality reminder from time to time. Numbers usually work, but sometimes… If in doubt, keep testing.

“We learned a lot. This next one will be big.” – Actual CEO quote

Myth #5: One more title and we’ll get a hit “We’ve learned a lot. This next one will be big.” – Actual CEO quote There’s a reason investors want to see recurring revenue. Keep asking: where will your loyal user base come from? Virality from title-to-title is even less than on a single title. How will your games influence and lead into one another? 50,000 Node.Hack Users 25,000 Armored Drive Users 250 Crossover Users How is this going to pay the bills?

All together now: the Five Mind-Myths We’ll chase the market Forget marketing, it’ll sell itself Our game will totally go viral Ignore that metric, it’s lying to you One more title and we’ll get a hit

$25,000 = one damn good education. Did anything go right? We’re still here, aren’t we? 75k users, good ratings on App Stores Pocket Gamer Silver Medal for Node.Hack Valuable post-mortems on http://4gency.com Fodder for portfolios and resumes A commitment to risk harder and smarter In all… $25,000 = one damn good education.

The “Anti-Myths”: how to get it right Find your niche and serve it Have dedicated marketing budget Acquire, acquire, acquire users Test, verify, and trust your metrics Think beyond each title

Thank You! Mobile + Tablet Games We’d love to hear from you! Visit us and Node.Hack at the Indie Showcase Charles Cox Founder/CEO, 4gency charles@4gency.com