Category Archives: Games

Anything related to the gaming industry

The Gap between Core and Casual – the Premium Casual

Posted on by
Reply

Video Game Timeline

If you spend enough time observing the game industry, you know there are primarily two markets – the traditional Core market, and the red-hot new Casual market of today. The traditional Core market has been in existence since the days of Atari decades ago. It has evolved from simple games with ASCII art to complex games with close to real-life graphics. Step into any GameStopand most games you see in the shop would fit into this category. They are complex, deep, visually stunning, and often focus on serving the Core gamer market – male from 18 to 35. You see a lot of shooting, fighting, sports, racing, fantasy/sci-fi, military/war, action/adventure games in this market today.

The new Casual games provide socially connected solo experiences on platforms everyone has access to – mobile and social networks. They often offer bite-sized gameplay, cute graphics, simple control mechanism, and hooks to keep players addicted. They are also low cost, often free, with the ability for players to purchase in-game virtual goods. You see a lot of city/farm/shop building games, along with plenty of puzzle, wedding, restaurants, word games. They appeal to the mass, and have done a great job introducing people who previous wouldn’t play games to the gaming world. 

However, I believe there’s a third market in-between these two that’s hasn’t been discussed enough – mainly, people who enjoy the easy-to-start, none-violent nature from Casual games, but desire the complex and engaging experience from traditional Core games. I call this the Premium Casual market. It’s the middle ground between Core and Casual. These are older gamers who grew up with core games but no longer find kill-everything-that-moves fun, recently converted casual gamers who want more than clicking and waiting for something to happen on a farm, a city, or a tower, or anyone who’s discovering the joy of interactive entertainment but haven’t quite found something for them.
 
And this is the market we’d like to serve. We want to combine elements from core games and causal games to create an experience that these people will enjoy. Are there games serving this market? I think games such as Flower, Worms, The Sims, Kart Riderare great examples of Premium Casual games. And as casual gamers continue to grow their appreciation for games and their appetite for better deeper games, I expect the Premium Casual market to grow and more developers to make games for this market.

Eventually the lines will blur as the industry continues to grow. I can’t wait for the day when the size of the game market equals the size of human population (minus the infants). Everyone will be able to find games that appeal to them. And I hope what we are making at Studio Pepwuper can contribute to this goal.

Posted via email from Next Level with Brandon

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

FWD: Brandon Wu Interview – From EA, To Sony, To Indie And Beyond! – Game Rant

Posted on by
Reply

“In an exclusive interview, Brandon Wu discusses changing his professional career from working at big-wig AAA companies to founding an indie studio that caters to a starving market niche.” – Game Rant

My interview on Game Rant.

Brandon Wu Interview – From EA, To Sony, To Indie And Beyond!

 

 

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

FWD: Making My First iPhone Game From Scratch Part. 1 | Gamesauce: Global Inspiration for Game Developers

Posted on by
Reply

“A little more than a year ago, I was working in the strategy division at the Sony headquarters in Tokyo, busy making financial forecasts for new ventures and evaluating business deals. I had a typical MBA job, working with spreadsheets, writing feasibility studies and business plans, and meeting with executives to discuss high level strategies for one of the largest consumer electronics company in the world. My job couldn’t be further away from what I am doing today.
Armed with an education only in Economics and Business, I had no experience with programming a game, creating 2D and 3D art assets, or making sound effects and music for games. Not to mention my lack of proper game design experience. In the beginning of 2010, when I quit my corporate job, I had nothing but a desire to make games, and an idea for the first title. Insane? Maybe, but at that point, I had already decided that, no matter what it took, that game had to be made. Here is the series of events that led to the birth of “Megan and the Giant.” “

Part one of my article on Gamesauce on getting started with the development of Megan and the Giant from scratch. The rest of the article here.

 

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

FWD: Indie Game News Interviews Brandon Wu of Studio Pepwuper

Posted on by
Reply

1/ What first made you start thinking about becoming an indie developer?

It was a result of two trends in the gaming industry:

First, in 2009, I noticed that the rise of social and mobile platforms (Facebook, iPhone) enabled games to reach an audience that didn’t have an interest in games before. I’ve always believed that video games can be a medium capable of appealing to everyone, and I was excited to see these new platforms drawing more people into the game industry. 

 

Secondly, it was the growth and availability of development tools such as Unity, Shiva, Torque…etc. These tools lowered the barrier to entry for game development, especially for people who aren’t seasoned programmers. I started playing with these tools in 2009 and was really excited whenever I saw something I made moving on screen. It was all very basic at this point, but it led me to think that maybe I can make games myself. 

 

I grew up with video games, and even after I stopped playing games, I still found the creative game industry fascinating with ever evolving technology and ideas. My passion for the game industry, my desire to make games for the non-gamers, combined with the tools and platforms available, were the major reasons why I started thinking about becoming an indie game developer. Or simply, I just wanted to make games that my non-gaming wife would play. :) 
Interviewed by Indie Game News. For the rest of the interview go here.

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

Megan and the Giant for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store

Posted on by
Reply
Megan and the Giant

 

View In iTunes

  • $0.99
  • Category: Games
  • Released: Feb 01, 2011
  • Version: 1.0
  • 1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
  • Size: 46.4 MB
  • Language: English
  • Seller: Studio Pepwuper, Inc
  • © 2010 Studio Pepwuper, Inc

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.2 or later

via itunes.apple.com

Megan and the Giant is finally out of the door! Woot!

Posted via email from Next Level with Brandon

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

FWD: Spent the last year learning to make games, and it’s finally here! (pic) : IndieGaming

Posted on by
Reply

 

My post to Reddit IndieGaming (http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/) to summarize how Megan and the Giant came about. :)

http://www.reddit.com/r/IndieGaming/comments/f766y/spent_the_last_year_learning_to_make_games_and/

 

Dear Reddit, Here’s the story: After a lifetime of listening to what others told me to do, I got my MBA degree, went to work for one of the largest electronic companies in the world in Tokyo, had a great salary, lots of employee benefits, job security, and countless meetings with top executives in fancy meeting rooms in this gorgeous building (http://img577.imageshack.us/i/sonycity.jpg/). I worked/played with the latest gadgets during the day, and spent the nights exploring the extraordinary city of Tokyo. Life was great.

And then I realized I was turning 30.

I panicked. Do I really want to spend the rest of my life sitting at a desk, analyzing, researching, strategizing, and juggling spreadsheets and powerpoints? I would look out the window and thought to myself, why was I sitting inside this office building when there’s so much life outside? I also realized how much I love design and the creative industry, and I needed to be creating instead of analyzing if I want to really enjoy working.

So I quit my secure high-paying job in 2010. Moved back to my parents house with my wife, and started a video game studio to create narrative casual games.

I didn’t have enough savings to hire people to make the game for me. So I picked up a few books and started learning how to program, how to make 3D models, how to create sound effects. Lack of funding means I had to do everything myself. The first few months were hard, really hard. I was used to talking financial figures, and getting my head around programming just … well it was messy. But day after day, I got a little bit better, and the game started to look a bit better as well. But it was a long process. I wanted the game to be done in August. It was pushed back to October. Then December… Finally after countless delays, I submitted it to Apple App Store and it was approved two days ago. And in about ten days it will be available on iPhone App Store on Feb 1st! It has been a long journey, and not having income for a whole year was brutal. But it’s finally here and I can’t wait to tell the world about it. “Megan and the Giant” is a stealth adventure game for the whole family. I’d like to think of it as Pac-Man + Metal Gear Solid. You can find out more about the game here http://pepwuper.com/MeganAndTheGiant . I’ve also created a trailer here

.

You can say this game, “Megan and the Giant”, is the product of my quarter-life crisis. I’d like to think it’s a beginning of something big. :) Just thought to share with the Reddit community (especially /r/pics, which has kept me sane during the hardest times). Thanks!

tl:dr – quit corporate job, moved back to parents’ house, jumped into indie game development, made this thing ( http://pepwuper.com/MeganAndTheGiant )

 

 

 

 

Posted via email from Next Level with Brandon

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

FWD: One Chance. A game where you only have one shot at saving the world.

Posted on by
Reply

via newgrounds.com

 

I discovered “One Chance” a few weeks ago and was amazed by how simple and effective it is at making players “experience” a story. In this game, you are a scientist who discovered cure for cancer, but as it turned out, the cure also led to a new virus that could wipe out the entire population on the planet. You have 7 days to save the world.

What makes the game different is that you can only play the game once. There is no restart, no save, and no reload. Once you finished the game, even if you reload the page, you won’t be able to replay it. So every decision you make is final, and this forces you to think hard before making your decisions.

Interestingly, this also makes you feel more responsible for the outcomes of your decisions in the game. Even thought fancy 3D graphics and sophisticated controls, the game really puts the players into the story and has a way of creating emotions.

This is yet another good example of story-telling in games. Give it a try!

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

Getting a Game Prototype Done in 13 Hours? Quick Notes on My Experience with 360iDevGameJam #360iDevGJ

Posted on by
Reply

Tuesday afternoon, I noticed quite a few game developers I follow on Twitter mentioning the #360iDevGameJam that’s happening that night, a game jam session for the 360 iDev Conference. I have never done a Game Jam before, and the idea of only having 13 hours to come up with an idea and create a working prototype was very appealing to me. “It’ll be a good break from the multi-month project I’ve been working on” I thought.

 

 

Concept
So a few hours later, I got started. The theme of the Game Jam was “Change the World”. I knew I didn’t have all night to come up with an idea, so I quickly started sketching out different ideas that came to mind. A few criteria that I had when developing ideas:
  1. Small in scope: The scope of the game needs to be small enough for a solo team to finish within the short amount of time.
  2. iOS control: It needs to  fit the iOS interface (touch/click, drag, pinch, or swipe).
  3. Minimum art required: I am VERY slow with art.

 

So I eventually decided to go with a simple idea that has players grow trees while juggling three different elements of life – water, air, and the sun. Since the earth is constantly shaped by these three elements, I thought it would fit the theme as well.

 

 

 

Tool
A few things I used to work on the prototype.
  1. Inkscape
  2. Gimp
  3. Unity (Unity 3D)
  4. Notebook (Hiroshige Sea by Piccadilly)

 

Making of the Prototype
Once the idea is finalized, I wanted to first get the basic controls down. But after spending almost two hours on trying to make a “swipe” control, I realized to make it work smoothly and exactly the way I wanted it to work, it could take all night. So I decided to change my focus to other areas of the game – creating the three elements, and the basic gameplay of balancing them. Instead of working on the player interface, I went with creating the mechanism that controls the game behind the scenes. This went on to take another 4-5 hours, during this time ideas were added, removed, and re-adjusted.

 

After the mechanism of the game is done, I went back to dealing with controls. I decided to use a click-and-switch control rather than the originally planned swipe control to make sure I can finish in time and still have a control that works with the game. Not the perfect solution, but good enough for a prototype. The control took another few hours to finish.

 

After the basic mechanism and control is done, it’s time to make some art. I had less than 10 art assets to make with the simple design, and quickly after the simple images were made, a few more scripts were created to handle simple animation of the images.

 

(work in progress screenshot)

 

The final step was testing. This took much longer than I wanted, as bugs were found and gameplay problems were discovered. I had to go back to changing some of the basic mechanisms as a result, and had to “hack” together solutions to a few problems that I knew I wouldn’t be able to solve quickly if I want to code it properly. This lasted for a few hours until 4:30 am in the morning, at which time I decided it’s time to wrap up.

 

Result
Here it is. “Water, Air, Sun” – The prototype I created. It took 11 hours and I was very pleased to know that I participated in a game jam and successfully made a prototype within the time allowed. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback on it and I might eventually turn it into a fun side project. But for the mean time, here’s the prototype you can play in your browser. Let me know what you think! :)

 

Play it here or click on the image below.

 

 

 

Cheers,
Brandon Wu

Founder, Studio Pepwuper: http://www.pepwuper.com
Blog: http://www.plinan.com | Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/plinan | Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/wubrandon

Posted via email from Next Level with Brandon

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

Handy Tool: Right Triangle Angle And Side Calculator

Posted on by
Reply

For those of us who’ve long forgotten the in’s and out’s of high school math, here’s a handy tool to calculate angles and sides for right triangles if you ever have the need to when developing your games. Just enter the angles to find out the lengths of the sides, or enter the lengths to find out the angles. Especially great for 2D games!

Right Triangle Angle and Side Calculator

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

National STEM Video Game Challenge is Now Open!

Posted on by
Reply
Joan Ganz Cooney Center - Advancing Children

Inspired by the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, President Obama’s initiative to promote a renewed focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education, the National STEM Video Game Challenge aims to motivate interest in STEM learning among America’s youth by tapping into students’ natural passions for playing and making video games.

 

via cooneycenterprizes.org

 

The National STEM Video Game Challenge is now open to game developers big and small. If you have a game that promotes education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, don’t forget to apply!

 

 

Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.

Fight! – Competition in The Indie Game Industry #indiegames #gamedev

Posted on by
2
Fight!



Competition. If you are in the private sector, you know what I am talking about. Coca Cola vs Pepsi, Activision vs EA, Toyota vs GE. And I am all for having a healthy dose of competition. After all, without competition, there would be no need to improve, and no room for innovation. And the world would be a lot less interesting without different companies one-upping each other trying to impress you, the consumer.


But the benefits of competition only exist when the competition is healthy, meaning that companies compete for your dollars by improving the quality of their offerings, solving a new problem, or providing you with better and better customer service. Unfortunately, not all industries fight the right way. Copying competitor’s products, bad-mouthing the competitor, lying to the customers…etc. These vicious behaviors are infectious. If one company does it in your industry, wait for it to spread until everyone is doing it.


The best way to compete is to increase the value of your offering, while the worst way to compete is to do the exact opposite – to create an illusion of value for your products, and blind customers the value of competitors’.


I’ve been in a few distinctively different industries – foreign exchange, investment banking, books, machines, electronics, PC / console games. Not all of these industries have healthy competitions.


Good thing is, the indie game industry is different, at least from what I’ve seen so far in the last six months. From Indie Fund, Indiecade, to all the forums and blogs dedicated to the indie game industry, indie game developers compete by supporting each other and sharing resources, ideas, and opportunities. Maybe it’s the nature of being small, you know in order to compete with the big guys, you need to work together with other small guys like you. Maybe it’s the nature of games (without the huge corporate structure and pressure to please shareholders), it is a playful industry full of people who love to have fun after all. Or maybe I’ve just been very lucky to not see the dark side of indie game competition yet.


Build better games, attract more people to enjoy games, and discover new ways to have fun. There, our healthy does of competition.

Posted via email from Next Level with Brandon


Got an amazing game idea? See how we can build it for you at Studio Pepwuper.