Dmitry Vysotski’s Post

🎮 Turn Gaming Dreams into Reality with Brickken’s Tokenization Revolution 🚀 ㅤㅤㅤ Got that killer game idea but strapped for cash?💰 Dive right into the future of fundraising with Brickken’s novel tokenization platform! It’s designed to give indie developers the edge they need. ㅤㅤㅤ 🕹️ Crowdfunding may be the traditional route to raise capital, but we’re about to change the game. Literally! ㅤㅤㅤ Benefits of Adopting Tokenization with Brickken: ㅤㅤㅤ 🎈 Breaks the investment limits barrier 💌 Offers fractional ownership to gamers of all budgets 💡 Gives backers a say in project’s milestones 🎁 Opens up exclusive perks and content 🌍 Facilitates a more inclusive, efficient, and engaging ecosystem ㅤㅤㅤ Fact: Gamers as stakeholders are the real deal and the best promoters of their favorite games. Advantage: Developers enjoy a vibrant community, ensuring long-term engagement. ㅤㅤㅤ ⚡️GUESS WHAT⚡️Brickken Gaming Awards have just opened their gates! The spotlight can be yours. Up-and-coming developers can choose to turn their vision into reality with a $10K marketing package and full tokenization support (all for free!) ㅤㅤㅤ Tokenization with Brickken isn’t just funding, it’s much more. It’s blazing a trail to a new tomorrow where indie developers thrive and creativity rules! ㅤㅤㅤ #BrickkenTokenization #GamingRevolution #IndieGameDevelopers #GamersUnite #InvestInGaming #TokenizationBenefits ㅤㅤㅤ —————– ➡️ For more information: https://lnkd.in/d4ZJ2Mjt. ➡️This content has been and posted by a fine-tuned ChatGPT model. ➡️Follow us for more updates on Web3 and tokenization.

Would you reallocate some of the development funds to marketing? Recently, I came across a Web3 mobile game development startup that launched the first version of their game. The beta version is currently in testing. They also launched a token a year ago, which now has a market cap of approximately $90K. The challenge the mobile gaming startup is facing now is stagnant user growth and declining player engagement. They realise the need for marketing, social, and community support, but most of their funds are allocated to game development. What should they do? #web3marketing ✍️ What's your thoughts on this?  ♻️ Reshare if this was helpful.

🚨 SPEEDRUN APPLICATIONS CLOSE IN 24 HOURS (🔗 in comments)... Who Gets Ordained: - AAA devs and publishers make a very limited number of bets - They heavily favor commercial veterans for posts running game teams - Even the veterans are subject to executives who maintain authority over creative, team comp, etc. The Changing Environment: - Phil Spencer said it best: "AAA publishers are milking their top franchises but struggling to refill their portfolio of hit franchises—most AAA publishers are riding the success of franchises created 10+ years ago." - VC-backed game studio / publishers have emerged over the past 10 years, disrupting creation and distribution (Riot, Scopely, etc) - All the while, access to game development tools and engines have become cheaper and more accessible - The incumbents aren't well-defended <<< The Funding Environment: - VC's have dabbled in gaming over the past decade, but have generally invested like publishers (big bets on veteran teams) - Untested game developer founders haven't had an on-ramp - it was either a big raise or nothing --> ENTER SPEEDRUN. An accelerator where you get 500k, meet the best in the industry, and have the chance to start making the games you want to make, with the people you want to make them with. TODAY'S THE LAST CHANCE - APPLY IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA, THERE'S NOTHING TO LOSE!

Key takeaways from the Web3 Gaming Deep Dive I hosted this week: – INVESTMENT: Traditional gaming studios are consolidating and often struggling to raise funding, while web3 gaming is receiving tons of investment right now. Why? Traditional gaming studios can take +10 years to get a return on millions of dollars invested in a AAA game. There are much faster rates of return for web3 gaming investors through NFT sales, token launches, and presales. We may witness more web3 integrations into traditional games to shorten this wondow, or we may see a shift as financial incentives bring heavy hitters from traditional studios into web3 gaming (especially if traditional studios continue to struggle to raise funding). – LEGAL QUICKSAND: Creators are increasingly frustrated with navigating legal guidelines around what verbiage is 'safe' to use on their posts. The landscape is quicksand right now and shifting constantly. KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) are working with crypto-specific tax software as well as 1:1 tax advisors to stay proactive and use best practices as policy continues to develop. – NEED MORE DOPAMINE: Web3 games are launching in this cycle, but users can't get completely hooked because they finish all of the quests/levels very quickly compared to web2 alternatives. As games improve in complexity and scale, web3 games will become more addictive and attractive to users. – SLOW IS SMOOTH, SMOOTH IS FAST: The space is so nascent that there are very different playbooks for web3 content creators looking for short-term gains vs. someone with intentions to build a career long-term in the space. Anyone looking to stay involved long-term has to be extremely cautious about what projects they associate themselves with. Thanks to Sam Steffanina and Andrew Cooper for coming on the Live this week. Great discussion. #web3 #crypto

During one cozy IT event, someone asked me if it's the right time to develop a game, given the tough times without big marketing budgets or a strong IP brand, and without a superstar team. Is there opportunity for a just good game to succeed in such a competitive market? The gaming industry is in the “darkness”. While the number of releases has increased, revenues remain unchanged and have shifted to corporations buying up ad space and pushing out indie developers. Players end up consuming bland, mass-advertised games. With the cost of player acquisition rising, it seems like the worst time to start game development. Throw your money out the window instead, you might say. But then again, hasn't it always been “darkness”? Maybe it's time to look at the situation differently. While big corporations have the money, their size makes them slow, which could be an advantage for agile, rule-free companies. Yes, many small startups are closing, perhaps a reaction to the COVID-19 boom, but if it leads to less competition with cookie-cutter games, isn’t that better for your unique product? I disagree that we are in “darkness”. With today’s technology accelerating development and so many market research tools available, if you want to create a truly good game, now could be the time. It won’t be easy, but it’s possible.May our gamedev future be bright and sunny! #GameDev

The guest speaker for this week's Game Business x Product session on Friday is Gus Viegas, who will share some of his +10 years of expertise from within the game industry. He has worked for Rovio, Supercell and many more, during which has organized the launch of over 50 games. As a head of growth, he has overseen the marketing and ad monetization of multiple studios, from startups to corporations and multiple game genres, from strategy to casual and hypercasual. When asked about the biggest issues in the Finnish game industry, Viegas says that studios still primarily focus on the games solely as fun products and not as structured businesses. He says it doesn't take much to stop and think about the business plan before executing the game, and it's a necessary step. The second local issue spotted is around the industry copying itself. There are multiple products that are quite similar in mechanics, tone and more. Viegas says the reason is removing risks for the investor stakeholders – you need to show returns and lower burn rates. Focusing on known products creates benchmarkable numbers and gives short term security. "But in essence, we're cursed with experience and seniority. In the past decades there´s been hits after hits from Finland, and some of the ones behind them are relying on the old success formulas. And when most do the same, the ecosystem remains the same - and that's not good for Finland in the long run." When asked about younger generations, Viegas continues - "When people are starting, they want to create their dream game. But all the newer game makers need is to finish a title and publish it. Once you release a game you find how the tools, code, players, markets and funding reacts. And once you have that experience under your belt, initiatives like Business Finland and other funds open up. VCs and other investment comes later in careers, focus first on getting things out there - the money will come." And if one of us fails, everyone learns something. And everyone learning is what stimulates the economy, says Viegas.

Now that NZGDC is done and dusted, here are some summary thoughts from the panels, office hours and coffee chats I had with teams:   💡 Goal: Are you building a studio or just a game?  There's a critical difference with implications for the team + resources you need.   📝 Plan: Make sure your game(s) are realistic for your team.  What do you want to build (passion), what can you build (capability), what can you sell (market)?  You need all three to succeed.  Young studios learn so much and get so much credibility from shipping their first game.  Beware the "build your dream magnum opus" hype; just because you are passionate about something doesn’t mean you can build and sell it!  Talk to NZGDA studio peers who have actually shipped games for real insights.   💰 Resource: Choose the type of funding and partner that best suits you based on your journey and stage.  For first time studios this should normally be: - Bootstrap. Revenue is the best funding. Gig, hustle, experiment. Build in the background, test it with friends; have you found the fun? - Grant funding. Talk to CODE NZ - New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence (they are awesome and there to help).  It's free and even if you don't get a grant you get amazing feedback and plugged into a great community of other young studios. - Publishers. As a new studio you're going to be good at building but rubbish at selling, because you're not selling as a day job! Publishers bring production and selling expertise alongside funding, so you learn a lot from working with them if you get the chance.  That's why successful big Kiwi game studios typically partnered with publishers on their early games! - Investors. There are a few, from kickstarters to angels to funds. Understand what each wants and the value they can bring beyond $. Diligence them heavily - talk to people, research the deals they have announced, the deals they have done and also haven't done. Equity is your scarcest resource, once sold you can never get it back so do your homework.   🎮 Execute: Remember gaming = “interactive” media.  You have to sell the sizzle AND the steak to win.  You need to build a community around your game, have great engagement and feed them with updates and creative content (art, trailers, game play etc) before you launch.  But ultimately you have to deliver a fun, playable game.  Without a well executed game build, the narrow set of distribution channels either won’t be open to you (e.g. console) or you run the risk of poor audience response and refunds of any sales you do get (e.g. Steam).  Remember, successful studios are known for their games, not their trailers.   None of this is easy but we are lucky in NZ to have amazing talent, a supportive community and a global reputation for high quality game experiences thanks to some amazing trailblazers. #levelup

Inflation isn't just the cost of eggs. Frost Giant Studios, Inc. has raised ~$35 million dollars to make its upcoming RTS, Stormgate. So what does Frost Giant CEO Tim Morten tell GamesIndustry.Biz? "The reality is that big games that get made today are spending in excess of $100 million. So, for us to go up against AAA games, for us to be a game that really stands as the next-generation RTS of the coming years, it does require a lot of investment. We’ve raised just under $35 million to date — that’s a big number, but it’s a much smaller number than most AAA games actually deploy against building their products. And we are really fortunate to be in a position that we got the funding that we need to get to our early access launch, but we want to launch strongly, and we want to launch in a way that puts us at the same level as AAA games from other publishers." This is such an important statement for players, investors and yes, all of us in the #videogameindustry to really truly understand. There's been a lot inflation in #gamedevelopment and when you couple that with the increased interest rates in the macro economy (which he also mentions in the interview), it creates a very challenging environment to make new games and for #gamepublishing to successfully launch them. Sharing ownership with your fanbase sounds chaotic but makes a lot of sense to me when you're making a game in a genre that has lost its appeal to most massive game publishers. We'll see if the gambit pays off soon. https://lnkd.in/giSpXB2t

Here is a post from my fellow Partner Jason Della Rocca. If you are an indie studio, well worth a read (full article is actually in the comments of Jason's post below). Have a read and let us know what your thoughts on this are. #indierevolution #Nocturnegames

𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 Back in 2009 Happy Blue Fish was founded as one of the first mobile game developers in France , with a vision to make games accessible for everyone and not just core gamers. Fast forwards 7 years later, after hearing a Ubisoft speaker at a game conference saying “Ideally we would need one game (tuning) for every player”, we were inspired to test if that could actually be done with AI and machine learning, and make it a business. The very next year was a pivotal moment in our history: we raised the required funds, got new talents, built askblu.ai [Every Player Counts] from scratch, and got some first studios on board. For this I'd like to thank the support of all my shareholders, Bpifrance and the amazing help of the AWS for Games team. We succeeded in pre-launching our platform and developing multiple models, but unfortunately we did not have enough income nor funds left for a successful launch. I am sad to announce that the Game is Over for Happy Blue Fish and its flagship platform askblu.ai (same player won’t shoot again !-). The French mobile gaming eco-system has a few great publishers (Voodoo, Homa, MadBox, PlugInDigital, etc.), but no big Ad Techs nor Game Techs, and no Mobile Gaming VCs. Our ambition with askblu.ai was to be one of the first French Game Techs successful on the international mobile gaming market. Now we hope that other French Game Tech startups will rise! My super-team is already looking for their next big challenge and getting job offers, so hurry up if you want a chance to hire these great people: Jonathan Dixon our CTO, Phala-Winhéros SEN our Lead Developer and Bassel Masri our Data Scientist. For my part, I will continue to provide consulting services to mobile gaming startups (studios and GameTechs) with the aim to make a difference on the worldwide gaming market. For this I am leveraging the numerous relations I have made over the years in many countries, with mobile game studio founders, international publisher leaders, great AdTechs and GameTechs, and mobile gaming focused business angels and VCs. “To dare is to engage your imagination beyond mere certainties.” "Oser, c'est engager son imagination au-delà des certitudes.” Jean-Louis Etienne