I thought I would kick this blog off with a discussion of getting projects going. Seeing how I've been working for a few months to get this new version of our site off the ground
Web sites aside though the issue of getting a serious game project off the ground is a major issue in the space. In fact, this last month I've been struggling to get a new project off the ground with a non-profit that my company hopes to announce soon. None of the problems with getting this project off the ground is really all that abnormal to what I've heard from other companies working in the non-entertainment gaming space.
I thought I would kick this blog off with a discussion of getting projects going. Seeing how I've been working for a few months to get this new version of our site off the ground
Web sites aside though the issue of getting a serious game project off the ground is a major issue in the space. In fact, this last month I've been struggling to get a new project off the ground with a non-profit that my company hopes to announce soon. None of the problems with getting this project off the ground is really all that abnormal to what I've heard from other companies working in the non-entertainment gaming space.
At our December 2003 D.C. Serious Games Day Doug Whatley from Breakaway highlighted the lead time for a serious game project being one of the key problems for the space.
So what exactly is this problem?
The length of time it takes a serious game project to happen is heavily caused by the fact that many organizations thinking about building a comptuer game simply have never done so before. This of course raises the risk factor to the point that many groups take a very slow pace. Meanwhile the developer is struggling to get projects online and is wary of any client who isn't surefooted enough. With traditional game publishers you at least have an entity that makes decisions quicker (on average) and you don't have to waste time going over basic game devleopment issues. That still doesn't mean you jump through hoops or other problems - it just means you get a bit more fluid process and quicker reaction.
But the story is also deeper then just inexperience by the clients. There are other issues that cause problems with ramp up schedules:
1. Funding
Many serious game projects have to fight for funding. Whereas a commercial game publisher is seeking to allocate funds to game projects the rest of the world is not automatically doing this. Often a serious game is struggling to get funds allocated vs. a host of other projects (not just games) and that means the bar may be set a bit higher. In other cases the entity that wishes to see the game built is not the same entity that will fund it. This means you've got to not only sell the original client, but their backers as well. The funding agent then must have faith not only in the client but in the developer as well. Sometimes the client has clout you wish you have, other times they're as unfamiliar to funding agents as you are.
2. End Results
Another issue is that serious games must have end results that are different from most games. This can create a host of other project development issues that bogs down the greenlight of a game project. For example, an educational game may have to comply with a variety of cirricumlum standards and have a proper advisory council. Time spent putting this together and vetting the design is one more roadblock to approval. Another example might be a project that the client may want to test before the product even gets built by holding a series of meetings throughout the organization to try and gauge the acceptance of the product.
3. Organization Resistence
When a game publisher brings a product to market the only resistence points they worry about are the buyers at major accounts (do they like the packaging, will they support it with promotions, etc.) and the end customer acceptance. Throw the press in their as well.
A serious game on the other hand often runs into a series of resistence points especially at a point in time where the acceptence of games as anything other then weekend entertainment for kids is still fairly prevelant. Resistence can take many forms including the ever popular technophobia people may have about a particular project. Sure, at times you will actually encounter quite the opposite. The right executive may actually be a fan of games, but the conventional wisdom hits in the other direction.
So what can we do?
Having identified some issues that cause serious game projects to have long and labor intensive ramp approval stages what then can we do about it?
The biggest thing we can do is education (no suprise there) and also validation efforts that loosen the general resistence and fear organizations have about embarking on expensive software projects that rely on skills they don't have in-house. Within that though we can do a better job of identifying specific problems and resistence points and methodically smooth those out. For example, a number of government agencies expressed concern about game compliance with accessibility standards. As a result the Serious Games Initiative working with the IGDA's Accessibilty SIG is trying to produce a whitepaper and set of resources that will help agencies and other organizations dealing with accessibility compliance work through that issue.
What potential developers can do is educate themselves by helping to highlight sticking points and sharing them. As we identify consistent issues we can work together to dissolve them. Developers also should seek to take as much charge of the early discussions of a project because managing the client through the process can help speed it vs. letting them casually let it stall. There is a fine line between pushiness and client management but smart bizdev folks figure this out. And finally developers can work with us to learn how to do a better job at project development. As both sides of the equation get better at walking through a potential project the ramp-up times will decrease and that alone will go a long way toward growing the market.
Now it's your turn. What sorts of sticking points do you commonly come across trying to get a serious game project off the ground? What ideas have worked for you to cut decision times down and improve the productivity of a client's decision process?