Japanese Girls on Casual Gaming
Designfest Presentation Notes // Saturday October 8, 2005
Presented by Brandon Flowers
Headwinds Studio www.headwinds.net
FLASH PRESENTION:
click here to view my slides and video interview
NOTE: Use arrow keys to change slides
INTRO
1.5 billion mobile devices in the world today, more than three times the number of PCs.
"The market for mobile content is set to be worth $42.8bn by the end of the decade, with kids' content earning the operators billions more than adult content.
Of this $42.8bn, mobile gaming will be worth $11.2bn, with 15 per cent of people downloading and playing a game on their handset by 2010."- According to analyst house Informa Telecoms and Media.
popular mobile games that girls play include:
JAPAN
The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something you carry with you"
This is presentation is not about Japanese Girls. It is concerned with people who play and buy games in Japan as compared to Europe and North America. Although kids can purchase games without owning a
credit card, they are spending their parent's money and can get into trouble if the purchase was not authorized. I am more interested in the purchasing habits of men and women between the ages 18 - 35 who can
freely buy games for themselves or as gifts for kids and friends.
Some stats from the Yankee Group Report sponsored by Macromedia about Flashlite:
"Programming in Flash makes it easier to run the software and reduces programming overhead."
- David Collier, an excutive of Namco.
EUROPE
Finnish youth earlier referred to cell phones as 'teenagers teddy bears.' Now they are affectionately called 'kanny'(an extension of the hand).
Large number of cell phones are left behind on London subway trains, outnumbering umbrellas. There is no connectivity in the tube so this implies that
people are holding the mobile phones in their hands and interacting with them playing games or using the applications.
"A mobile marketer in the UK says the cell phone has the reach of television, the accountability of the Web, the personalization of email and the precision of direct mail."
"Mobile Branding: The Future is Now" Strategy. September 2005
"mobile phone games company I-play recently rebranded itself to become more consumer friendly after recognising that women are the future of the mobile gaming market. Their research shows that one-thumb and casual games are especially popular with women, who play mobile games more often and for longer periods than men."
Natalie Hanman, The Guardian.
The team that made up the Sims was 40% female. 60% of the players are women. visit:Sims 2 official site
In Britain, women make up 27% of the gaming market. In the British game industry, 17% of the workers are women.
MOBILE GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
The key elements ofa mobile game design document do not differ that much from those of console game. They actually are absolutely the same! The only difference being what is discussed in each section has a mobile context
and the designer will need to consider the technical limitations of the mobile hardware.
"easy to learn, difficult to master" is the convential game design approach but mobile/casual gamers like games that are easy to learn AND easy to master! simple one-button mobile games are widely popular in Korea.
"In the realm of game playability, there is a need to go beyond basic interface game usability evaluation to assess additional properties of the game experience including game play, story, and mechanics."
CONCLUSION
Do not show anyone outside your game development team your game until you are finished the prototype.
Women have an important role in game development and should be encouraged to build and design more games.
The games that women enjoy are not radically different from the games men play. It seems that women prefer games
that challenge their mental abilities but they are also interested in brutal combat games especially those with strong female
lead characters. Games with drama and social interaction like the Sims are also appealling.
Women between the ages of 25 - 40 have disposable incomes, own credit cards, and have no trouble purchasing mobile games.
ARTICLES
http://www.gungho.jp/
http://www.perpetual.com/
COMPANIES
http://www.nttdocomo.com/ (Japan's largest mobile company)
http://www.kddi.com/ (Japan's second largest mobile company)
Gamespy Article featuring American McGee talking about strong female roles
RESOURCES
http://www.gamasutra.com/
http://www.gamedev.net
http://www.igda.org (International Game Development Association)
http://www.shojobeat.com/
Net Ease Mobile Portal
Tokyo Flash
Gamespot Article
Gamespot Article
Bluesky North which makes Flashlite software
Article
Macromedia Article on Flashlite Game Development
www.snda.com
Gamasutra Article: Future of Mobile Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Success Factors of One Button Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Nokia Keynote on Next-Gen Mobile Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Eric Zimmerman CEO of Gamelab on Self-Publishing
Presented by Brandon Flowers
Headwinds Studio www.headwinds.net
FLASH PRESENTION:
click here to view my slides and video interview
NOTE: Use arrow keys to change slides
INTRO
1.5 billion mobile devices in the world today, more than three times the number of PCs.
"The market for mobile content is set to be worth $42.8bn by the end of the decade, with kids' content earning the operators billions more than adult content.
Of this $42.8bn, mobile gaming will be worth $11.2bn, with 15 per cent of people downloading and playing a game on their handset by 2010."- According to analyst house Informa Telecoms and Media.
popular mobile games that girls play include:
- Solitare
- Jeopardy
- Sims 2
- Dinner Dash
JAPAN
The Japanese term for mobile phone, keitai (roughly translated as "something you carry with you"
This is presentation is not about Japanese Girls. It is concerned with people who play and buy games in Japan as compared to Europe and North America. Although kids can purchase games without owning a
credit card, they are spending their parent's money and can get into trouble if the purchase was not authorized. I am more interested in the purchasing habits of men and women between the ages 18 - 35 who can
freely buy games for themselves or as gifts for kids and friends.
Some stats from the Yankee Group Report sponsored by Macromedia about Flashlite:
- 30% annual growth -- over $4 billion market in 2004
- 15 Million NTT DoCoMo subscribers have Flash-enabled phones
- 4,3338 Official i-mode sites in 2004 -- more than 60% are based on Flash Lite
- 2,700 Developers use Flash-powered sites to sell their mobile content
"Programming in Flash makes it easier to run the software and reduces programming overhead."
- David Collier, an excutive of Namco.
EUROPE
Finnish youth earlier referred to cell phones as 'teenagers teddy bears.' Now they are affectionately called 'kanny'(an extension of the hand).
Large number of cell phones are left behind on London subway trains, outnumbering umbrellas. There is no connectivity in the tube so this implies that
people are holding the mobile phones in their hands and interacting with them playing games or using the applications.
"A mobile marketer in the UK says the cell phone has the reach of television, the accountability of the Web, the personalization of email and the precision of direct mail."
"Mobile Branding: The Future is Now" Strategy. September 2005
"mobile phone games company I-play recently rebranded itself to become more consumer friendly after recognising that women are the future of the mobile gaming market. Their research shows that one-thumb and casual games are especially popular with women, who play mobile games more often and for longer periods than men."
Natalie Hanman, The Guardian.
The team that made up the Sims was 40% female. 60% of the players are women. visit:Sims 2 official site
In Britain, women make up 27% of the gaming market. In the British game industry, 17% of the workers are women.
MOBILE GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
The key elements ofa mobile game design document do not differ that much from those of console game. They actually are absolutely the same! The only difference being what is discussed in each section has a mobile context
and the designer will need to consider the technical limitations of the mobile hardware.
- Introduction
- Background
- Description (Characters, Sample Level, Experience)
- Key features
- Genre
- Platform(s) ( How many Phones ?! )
- Concept art
"easy to learn, difficult to master" is the convential game design approach but mobile/casual gamers like games that are easy to learn AND easy to master! simple one-button mobile games are widely popular in Korea.
"In the realm of game playability, there is a need to go beyond basic interface game usability evaluation to assess additional properties of the game experience including game play, story, and mechanics."
- game play - the problems or challenges that you must face to win the game
- game story - plot and character development
- game mechanics - programming the behavior of how each unit reacts to the environment
- game usability - user interface involving the controls (mouse, keyboard, joystick) and Heads up display
- Prototyped in Flash -- screen shots that the user could navigate but did not allow game play
CONCLUSION
Do not show anyone outside your game development team your game until you are finished the prototype.
Women have an important role in game development and should be encouraged to build and design more games.
The games that women enjoy are not radically different from the games men play. It seems that women prefer games
that challenge their mental abilities but they are also interested in brutal combat games especially those with strong female
lead characters. Games with drama and social interaction like the Sims are also appealling.
Women between the ages of 25 - 40 have disposable incomes, own credit cards, and have no trouble purchasing mobile games.
ARTICLES
http://www.gungho.jp/
http://www.perpetual.com/
COMPANIES
http://www.nttdocomo.com/ (Japan's largest mobile company)
http://www.kddi.com/ (Japan's second largest mobile company)
Gamespy Article featuring American McGee talking about strong female roles
RESOURCES
http://www.gamasutra.com/
http://www.gamedev.net
http://www.igda.org (International Game Development Association)
http://www.shojobeat.com/
Net Ease Mobile Portal
Tokyo Flash
Gamespot Article
Gamespot Article
Bluesky North which makes Flashlite software
Article
Macromedia Article on Flashlite Game Development
www.snda.com
Gamasutra Article: Future of Mobile Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Success Factors of One Button Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Nokia Keynote on Next-Gen Mobile Gaming
Gamasutra Article: Eric Zimmerman CEO of Gamelab on Self-Publishing
posted by brandon at
10:16 AM
