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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Reclaiming My Soul: Why I Quit Making F2P Social Games
Speaker(s): Caryl Shaw
Company Name(s): Telltale Games
Track / Format: Production

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Overview: After years of working on AAA games, I switched gears to help create F2P social games on mobile. Now, several years (and several games) later, I've decided to venture back to the world of traditional game development. This talk will cover things I learned while working on F2P games, and why I decided to leave them behind (at least for a while). My experience with well-known F2P developers DeNA/ngmoco:) and KIXEYE has given me an opportunity to learn about metrics, monetization and the difficulties inherent in the young F2P mobile industry, and forced me to carefully consider the types of games I want to help create in the future. After spending the last few years on things like retention, revenue and ARPPU, I've shifted gears back to work on games that focus on immersing the player in a story by taking a job at Telltale Games. This talk will be one part inspiration, one part practical career advice, and one part reminder to never stop questioning how you think about and interact with the people who play your games.
Topics will include:
  • How to use metrics for good and evil. Almost all modern games collect some player data and I'll talk about how to learn from that data while still respecting your customers.
  • What can traditional games can learn from F2P games? There are many lessons that can be drawn from F2P, particularly with respect to the ways in which these titles categorize and learn from their extremely diverse audience. I'll share some of my insights on the lessons I'm bringing with me to my new job.
  • Why going indie isn't for everyone. It's an exciting time in the games industry right now (but then when isn't it?) and I'll share some of the challenges involved in changing career paths between traditional and F2P spaces.
  • My top five frustrations about making F2P mobile games and how I managed them.
  • How to transition back to a traditional game development role from F2P. Well, at least how I did it.

GDC Next 2014

Caryl Shaw

Telltale Games

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Production

Production