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Archive for February, 2009
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Tiny Mantis is currently preparing to attend GDC. The prep work includes arranging meetings with clients and creating presentations that are engaging and informative. Yesterday, we had a chance to try out one of the presentations at a meeting with Scholastic. While the presentation was informative, it seemed too long and too in-depth to be engaging. When we returned to the office I had a chat with Tommy who also agreed that the presentation was too long and was missing one key factor, the old “what’s in it for me” mechanic. Sure, we are proud of our history, our processes and our company but honestly, we hadn’t produced a presentation that was talking to the client directly. Now, Scholastic is made up of the nicest people on the planet (as far as I can tell) and they very politely asked us to skip to the good stuff, mainly iPhone development, the reason that we were sitting in their office. It was a very clear request to answer the question, “How can you help me?” We did skip to the end and wound up having a very enjoyable meeting, but if Scholastic wasn’t so nice and patient, we might have missed our opportunity.
I am currently revamping the presentation to a) go quicker, b) highlight what we can do specifically for the customer, and c) hone the presentation to directly relate to the product. For example, we had included almost every project we have worked on in the presentation. You can imagine Scholastic’s suprise when some of our more bloody, riske titles appeared. Not only were we providing too much information, but our bloody Caligula game was almost a turn-0ff to the Scholastic image. (Thankfully, Viva Caligula was followed by some SpongeBob games so we didn’t look like complete maniacs.) It was clearly something that they were not interested in.
How does this effect GDC presentations? Well, now I am creating several types of presentations, one that is kid-friendly, one that is liscenced material friendly, one that is adult friendly, etc. While this does create more work, I think that we will have a much more effective presentation for our one-on-one meetings with prospective clients.
Tags: game development, GDC, meetings, presentation, Scholastic
Posted in Industry, Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
 Our latest game for Nickelodeon is live! We worked on this with our good friends at THIS IS POP. It is a SpongeBob game centered around shooting massive hordes of jellyfish called Demolition Sponge.
You get NickPoints if you have an account with them. There is one particular power-up that is pretty cool. The Star power-up comes out after you have killed a certain number of jellyfish and then SpongeBob just goes crazy shoots out a ton of bullets!
There are no codes if anyone is looking for them.
Tags: demolition sponge, nick, spongebob, spongebob squarepants, this is pop
Posted in Games | 2 Comments »
Friday, February 20th, 2009
First there were record labels decimating Napster in the late ’90′s and more recently is the lawsuit Viacom brought against Google and their subsidiary YouTube. Why don’t these large companies full of intelligent people not understand that services like Napster and YouTube are new avenues to hawk their merchandise. Basically, media sharing sites are run on public desire. They are asking for these services in a manner that is overwhelming and sustained. Now I can maybe understand that Napster was a completely new idea and made the record labels nervous. But in hindsight, they sure did miss out. They could’ve made a deal that was equitable to both Napster and themselves. They didn’t believe in the viability of the new technology and now we have iTunes and a slowly collapsing music industry.
OK. So the music industry missed the bus. But what about Viacom? Shouldn’t they learn the lesson of Napster and use YouTube and Hulu in a more constructive way? I think so. More people are staying home for amusement and almost everyone owns a computer with internet hook-up. I would say that there is a large market waiting for some great services. At very least Viacom, and any other similar corporate giants, could add a “buy me” function to the free South Park episodes I sometimes watch on YouTube. Instead of cutting off a market because of a lack of creativity, fear of a changing world or just plain greed, large media companies should find a way to exploit these markets in a more productive way.
I notice in the game community, that we love to occupy new niches. iPhone development has gone crazy, to the point where I am already asking what comes next. Of course, this question is akin to asking, “What are the winning numbers for Lotto?” It is difficult to predict the next big thing but as with lotto “you gotta be in it to win it.” Whether being “in it” refers to going to GDC, joining IGDA, reading industry news, etc., it doesn’t matter just be aware of the world you operate in. Who knows where the next market rests.
Tags: new markets
Posted in Industry | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
We have a Facebook page now! You can become a fan of the page and we’ll let you know when we have interesting updates for you.
You can also friend our mascot, Tony Mantis. He has a profile badge on the left.
Tags: Facebook, facebook page, fb, tony mantis
Posted in News | No Comments »
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Gamasutra published an article titled Emerging Issues in In-Game Advertising. Coincidentally, Jessica Fiorini had also recently talked about advertising and games. In the Gamasutra piece, Greg Boyd and Vejay Lalla discuss the current and future issues with in-game advertising. A lot of what they talked about was very informative.
They go into some detail about the process of negotiating deals with agencies and brands and the possible issues that may arise along the way. The authors talk about the viewpoint from the game developer and the advertiser and this gives a clearer picture for both parties.
Parts about measuring goals and how to structure a deal so that both parties have a fair deal were enlightening. It is true that unlike tradional advertising–TV, radio, magazine, etc, it is hard to tell how much a game will sell beforehand. Sequels make estimating the number easier but, it is no where near as predictable as TV ratings or magazine circulations.
Massive, Inc., recently issued a press release on a recent Nielsen study. This study revealed that 70% of gamers agreed with the statement that the dynamic in-game advertising made the game appear more realistic, and thereby was effective in promoting brand recognition for advertisers and their target audiences. The study also reported that 82% of gamers surveyed said games were just as enjoyable with in-game advertising.
The market for in-game advertising should expand and grow with the expansion of interactive marketing utilizing social media and new technologies. The effectiveness of tradional marketing has been declining for years as people get their news and entertainment from new channels–mainly the internet. It is also no longer a smart strategy to scream at your audience but, to surround your audience in their environment and be useful.
Tags: advergaming, advertising, in-game advertising
Posted in Industry, Marketing | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
As an independent game development company that works on a lot of Flash titles–some of which are our own, it is always difficult to find ways to monetize our games. The landscape of generating income from Flash games have also changed over the years since Mosquito Project was first released to today.
Gamasutra had a great article talking about independent developers monetizing Flash games. The landscape for monetizing Flash games is likely to continue to change and the strategies in that article might not work in a few years or work less well.
As the social media expands and the Internet takes us into realms we’ve never imagined, there will be great opportunities for independent developers to monetize their wares whether it be in Flash or on some other platform. All it takes is some creativity.
Tags: flash, gamasutra, monetize
Posted in Industry | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
Here at Tiny Mantis we have noticed more and more customers have been interested in Advergaming to promote their product. Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term became popular after being mentioned by Wired’s “Jargon Watch” column in 2001. It has been applied to various free online games commissioned by major companies.
As more people are exposed to the internet, in North America alone there has been a 128% increase of users from 2000-2008, advergames have thrived. Often advergames become the most frequented portion of brand websites. They have become an integral part of brand media advertising in an increasingly multi-faceted media environment. Advergames boost repeat traffic to websites and reinforce brands. They are also a way to collect customer data through player registration. Furthermore, players may also invite their friends to participate, effectively utilizing the concept of “viral marketing.”
The advergame industry is expected to generate $312.2 million by 2009, up from $83.6 million in 2004, according to Boston research firm Yankee Group. Market researcher David Cole at DFC Intelligence expects revenue from online-game advertising to rise from $120 million in 2004 to $500 million in 2009.
Most consumers attempt to ignore banal advertising on the web, so why does advergaming work? Lee Ann Obringer says, “As long as the game delivers a fun pay off, consumers consider it a relevant and valid cultural experience. In recent brand-impact studies, associating a brand with the fun of gaming is known to lift brand metrics such as brand awareness, message association and purchase intent. After playing a game, consumers are more likely to remember not just the brand or product itself, but to associate specific attributes with it”.
(more…)
Tags: advergaming, consumer, customer, Marketing
Posted in Industry | 1 Comment »
Monday, February 9th, 2009
The old means of updating this website was difficult. We have now employed the magic of social media–mainly a blog–to facilitate quicker and more frequent updates. We aren’t dead! It just looked like it.
We’ve worked on a bunch of projects since the last update and we might talk about some of them in the future. We will definitely talk about future projects as we finish them, industry happenings, and other related topics.
You can look forward to more updates in the future as the process is now 5000% simpler!
Tags: tinymantis
Posted in News | No Comments »
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