Bringing you a quick update on my current project which if you can remember way back was to create a new iconic video game character for my client and game company Shiny Money, which I can say is still ongoing. The character I do create will be (hopefully) the next big icon, gamers will care about the character, Shiny Money's official company mascot and for them to star in many games. So what is taking me so long I hear you cry? Well before jumping in I had to research the games industry so I could get my bearings but now most of that is done I'm now able to look into video game character development which I'll be making blogs about, after all this is the whole purpose of this full blog. I do have a few ideas in mind and will tailor it to the needs of Shiny Money, they have also said the game in which my character will be portrayed in will be of a hack and slash genre themed game but the character needs to be likable to all ages who play the game, this is no easy task folks considering characters are usually all serious, bad, don't give a toss attitude in these types of games but will do my best. So there you have it a small update on what I have been doing so I AM NOT TWIDDLING MY THUMBS! One piece of info, I'll be soon meeting an industry figure to further help me in my character development idea and just really to gain inspiration from him, keep your eyes peeled on the blog then to see how the visit goes. Until next time and thanks for reading.
Many video game companies in the industry have more than one role/job to fulfill especially if we are talking about the mega or global companies. This shows us companies just don't limit themselves to one particular role whether this is being a games developer or a games publisher, but rather companies sometimes do both. These roles of either a developer or a publisher are the industry's two most important jobs without them games wouldn't be made/created or wouldn't get the green light to be sold in shops.
We all know the job of a games developer, right? Well I'll be quick then explaining just what this role is should one be completely new reading this. The game developer role sees the creation and technical side of making games, for an example the programming elements in a game of a door opening or an action in the game taking place will be triggered due to the programmings putting these events in place, a publisher does not concern itself with such things. A game developer are the ones (company) who comes up with the idea but before any work begins on the project they must first find funding this is where publishers come into the mix.
A game publisher's role is to provide funding and marketing to a particular game that has been created by the developers who approached the publisher. A publisher handles all the business elements of a game project and rarely gets into the technical side as this is left for the developers to do. Publishers are often seen as the "suits" within the industry with some publishers having a "cut throat" attitude in the industry. Publishers decide whether a game gets made based on the pitch from the developers and if all goes well publishers will make sure the game is distributed to shops once the project has been finished.
Then there are companies who do both jobs as developer and publish their own games this usually involves such as Capcom who develop Resident Evil games as well as publish them, however recently Capcom have been handing developer duties to other companies to help them with their workload. Nintendo are another example of a company who not only makes hardware but develop and publish their own games too as all of the Mario games have been done like this. In fact Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are guilty of doing triple work as they make game platforms, develop their own games and publish their own or others games too.
Well I hope you enjoyed this insight on the differences between a publisher and a games developer but they all have one thing on common which is getting the games into our grubby hands :-) I also hope this post will be the last on the business jargon of the industry and we get onto the fun things such as looking at game characters very soon. Thanks for reading, time and your support........I shall see you next time then!
P.S Sorry but no flashy graphics/pictures for this post folks ;-/
This next post will describe what competition is like between the big game companies we discussed last time. Us gamers tend to make a big mistake in which we assume all the games industry is about is playing games, games and more games, but in fact it isn't as straight forward as that. We know this because of the earlier posts I have made, but we seem to forget there is a huge aspect of business involved in the games industry in which the gamers seem to forget. The main reason why gamers forget about the business aspect side of the industry is because all we care about is playing the games and rightfully so. So I promise or hope this post on competition between companies will be short and not as painful as you might think, plus hopefully you will learn something from it too.
Every game company whether it is a game developer or publisher will always have competition, due to there being so many companies wanting the sales and attention of gamers. There are other key things companies will strive for when going up against each other but as stated it is mainly the factors of who has the most sales and the biggest fan base of gamers. Competition between companies can be either be "clean" where there is no abuse given to one another i.e. bad mouthing off at the enemy's product on social media sites, or can be "dirty" where companies may start a verbal war with one another about who is best.
Usually it is the world wide game companies and those who think they've made their mark in the industry to start pointing the finger at their competition, whereas the smaller companies are aware of their competition but don't make a big deal about who is better, they just have a tendency to deliver the games and make their fans happy. It is also not a rare occurrence to see a company pour lots of money into a marketing campaign just to cheese of their competition, as this is widely done in the games entertainment sector. The perpetrators of such campaigns are usually link to the companies who have a games console in the market with one probably saying they are the best and most powerful gaming machine in the market.
A great example of heated competition between two game companies and at this particular time two console manufacturers would be SEGA's constant bashing of Nintendo during the 80s and 90s. When I write this hopefully some of you remember this or even lived through it. Basically, it was about SEGA saying they had the best console out which was the Sega Genesis in comparison to Nintendo's clunky old 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), plus that was SEGA's words not mine on Nintendo's NES. SEGA would have stated in their television commercials they do what Nintendo don't which was often seen as Nintendon't on their ads. Anyway, this shows us just how vicious competition can be between two game companies, below is some materials of the famous SEGA vs Nintendo competition marketing campaign.
Hopefully now you realize the companies within the games industry don't hold hands or sing Ring Around the Rosie with one another but instead fight it out for the very last gamer to follow them. So this concludes this post with only one or two more posts to go on the business speak or terms of understanding the games industry, then we'll go head in on characters in the games industry. Thank you for reading, your time, support and I hope your enjoying this blog as much as I am, until next time then.
Image (1) Cross hairs, Ref: http://trinketsandtees.com/webpics/crosshairs.jpg Image (2) SEGA does what Nintendon't, Ref: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/377390/blog/sega-does-what-nintendont-and-other-trolling-game-ads/?page=2#top_banner Video from YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7nsBoqJ6s8
Well known game companies (even your favourite) had to start somewhere and have established their name through many methods. There is no point in claiming that a certain company or your own company is the best in the world if no one has heard of them, because it is through publicity companies can establish themselves, this is where those methods come into play. These methods are marketing strategies the company will use so they can spread awareness of themselves to the public, once the public knows about the company they will tell others about them (this is the old word of mouth technique right there), with a good game catalogue and publicity this is how big game companies establish themselves.
Just like the title of this post, a company is the master with the marketing strategies at their disposal being the puppets,due to the companies being able to manipulate the strategies anyway they see fit for their own personal gain. Game companies are most likely to use conventions (public meetings) to showcase themselves, posters & leaflets, viral marketing campaigns, the games they make, magazines, social media and others all in the effort to make a name for themselves. Below is a small image showing some of the mentioned strategies and others when I was studying this topic in my college.
With that all pointed out this concludes our look into how companies make a name for themselves as well as getting themselves known in the industry. The next post will look at competition between companies in the industry so bring your sword and shield because it might get messy. Finally thank you for reading this, your time and support, until next time.
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