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Nurturing Positive Impact Game Development Through the Game Corps

Author Gaurav Mathur Creator, www.gamedevmap.com Senior Artist, Toys for Bob / Activision Blizzard

Abstract The author proposes a model through which the Federal government can nurture the growth of startups and indie studios making positive impact games.

Scaling Beyond Indie Positive impact games are at an embryonic stage of development where best practices are not established. Most small studios are struggling to survive in a crowded marketplace and cannot afford to plan for the next project while working to finish the current one. The games-as-a-service model that is emerging makes “finishing” a game even more challenging. These studios cannot afford to build on lessons learned from failed experimental prototypes or pivot in any kind of dramatic fashion based on lessons learned during the prototype phase. Many startups are built around a game idea rather than company goals and long-term strategies, and it’s typically a one-way trip towards what a studio hopes will be a fun game and a financially rewarding project. Commercial developers have a certain amount of iteration built into their process. They have an advantage in that they can leverage a core team’s shared experience and accumulated knowledge from working together over multiple projects. Indie studios and startups can be that core team if they are surrounded by the support and resources to ship multiple games. Success in shipping games together builds on itself, and the small businesses that can make the transition from one project to the next increase their odds of survival. A project’s success in the marketplace is dependent on a diverse set of factors that are beyond the scope of a small team to manage. Indie game developers and startups in both academic and commercial sectors do not have the resources to compete for enough of an audience share for their efforts to be self-sustaining and impactful in the long term. In addition, positive impact games currently have the additional barrier of “educational software” to overcome with consumers and the media. There are very few stable players in the positive impact games sector who can create the next “Oregon Trail” or “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” games. Even though there have been sequels and modernized re-releases, the original games continue to be the gold standard for fun, inspiring positive impact titles. President Obama called for an investment in innovation at this “Sputnik Moment” in his 2011 State of the Union speech1. I posit that a such a push is needed in this sector of the game industry to ensure it can be self-sustaining in the long-term and create the kind of innovation in games that will inspire people to make positive change in the world. I take further inspiration from the National Aeronautics and Space Act2, which expressed clear national goals and priorities for space exploration and created the framework for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Space Act brought together diverse groups to overcome the challenges of space exploration with an emphasis on planning and effic iency to avoid the duplication of efforts. Under the mandates of encouraging the commercialization of 1 “Remarks by the President in State of the Union Addess”. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/25/remarks-president-state-union-address 2 “The National Aeronautics and Space Act”. http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html#POLICY

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space and technological advancement, it released research and spin-off innovation into the public domain. And finally, this concerted and unified push towards space exploration brought generations of students into math and science careers. What started with the Space Act has gone on to inspire the imaginations of artists, storytellers, and the general public in the years since.

Bringing It All Together with the Game Corps I propose the creation of the Game Corps: a mix of a small number of permanent positions and rotating seats of domain experts, support personnel, and experienced game developers drawing from the public and private sectors. This organization would exist to support the vision of indie game development studios and help them create fun positive impact games that could coexist alongside commercially released titles. It would be the helping hand that would lift up some of the most promising small projects and the most innovative small businesses. It would augment a small core team and give it the scale and expertise needed to create compell ing content. The Game Corps would work on small internal projects to explore and iterate on best practices for indie development, training partic ipants along the way. It would help spread the lessons learned from development to a wider audience and have a role to play in increasing game literacy across the nation. The Game Corps would also inspire more participation in positive impact game development. Pushing on all these fronts would help get more positive impact games to market and strengthen their chances for commercial success. The Game Corps would develop good pipelines, toolsets, and models for game design through its own ongoing positive impact game projects which could then be released to other studios working in this space. This might incentivise more startups and indie studios to make positive impact games. Beyond actively engaging in product development, the Game Corps would be public-facing to seed positive impact game development across America through methods like public “Ask an Expert” type question and answer sessions, project reviews at schools and colleges, mainstream media appearances, writing articles, and speaking at game conferences. The Game Corps should be the first place anyone with questions about positive impact game development could go to. The Game Corps could also help identify promising talent and projects by assisting with selecting companies and people to participate in incubation programs. Members could review portfolios and applications for student scholarships, and serve on panels to select games for awards and funding. The Game Corps could also provide more structured consulting services to external positive impact game projects and companies.

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Project Funding and Logistics Game Corps projects should be well-scoped so as not to exceed a single contiguous year of development time. Shorter timeframes on projects would allow for a smoother knowledge transfer between transitioning participants. This will keep the cost per project low and allow lessons learned on one project to be rapidly applied to the next. An approximation of the traditional game development cycle with regular builds of the game would provide the framework for funding, scheduling, review, and external support. With many grants in the sub $100,000 range, fundraising is a significant effort for many startups. Ideally, the Game Corps could spread a pool of funding consolidated from several sources to a larger number of smaller projects to diversify the risk and increases the chance for the sum of the investment to break even. Rather than awarding tens of mill ions in high-risk loans for a single large enterprise as some governments have done, studios -- with assistance and training from the Game Corps -- would have to raise $1-3 mil lion through a combination of funding sources to participate in a production cycle with Game Corps support. Startups and indie teams need legal support to set up the proper frameworks to protect their work and to put together contracts for goods and services. Whether developing boilerplate documentation tailored for game development, assisting with company setup and corporate governance, or giving legal advice in a more active role, the Game Corps should provide pro bono support and someone for teams to talk to. This legal support could help core teams retain ownership of their intellectual property, see suffic ient financial rewards to allow for sustainable growth, and help them structure other favorable deal terms following active participation in the Game Corps program. Game Corps participants will utilize American third-party tools and services used in commercial game development so that they will have minimal ramp-up time and will leave the Game Corps with portable skills. This will mobil ize tools developers and service providers to support positive impact game development and become invested in its long-term stability. Three months should be the minimum duration for short-term/rotating involvement with the Game Corps. Game Corps members participating at this level will be asked to remain “on call” for one year to share their expertise and experience with others who follow. Why three months?

• Three months is a financ ial quarter. Roll-on and roll-off dates can be structured to more effic iently manage Game Corps resources.

• Three months is enough to develop a game prototype using off-the shelf tools, a business plan and pitch documentation, or preproduction on a short form narrative game.

• Three months is the time it takes for a person to learn a new skill or habit, practice through implementation, and integrate it into their lives.

• Three months is suffic ient to take a project through Alpha and Beta with rigorous user testing, QA, and bug fixing.

• Three months is a quarter at most colleges and universities and would be the ideal period for a paid internship or some kind of formal class-based collaboration.

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Game Corps Internal Structure The Game Corps will grow into a fully-formed entity over time with appropriate gates and oversight along the way to ensure that the organization can scale effectively to support more positive impact game development.

Startup Phase Preproduction: Identifying concepts to best support positive impact game development Team: 25 seats over 1-2 physical locations Project Scope: 3 small iOS projects Goals:

• Experimenting with best practices • Putting infrastructure in place

Growth Phase Prototyping: Tuning concepts developed during preproduction into “startup kits” and systems Team: 50 seats over 3-4 physical locations Project Scope: 3 small to medium scale iOS projects, 1 short-form AAA narrative game Goals:

• Expanding project scope • Evaluating how processes scale • Adding regions across the United States to the Game Corps

Sustainable Long-term Operations Phase Full Production: Scaling the Game Corps Team: 100 seats based in vibrant IGDA chapter locations across America Project Scope: 5 small to medium scale iOS projects, 2 short-form AAA narrative games Goals:

• Distributing working “startup kits” • Deploying teams for regional development

The Game Corps would have an active fundraising arm that would seek to assemble partners and raise money to distribute to the projects “on deck”. This is where public-private partnerships could truly shine: investors could trust the Game Corps collective experience and “seal of approval” for several small projects, and studios could find a healthier balance between fundraising and game production. The Game Corps could also work on ways to streamline the grant proposal and awards process so that funds raised could be used in a timely manner. The urgency for a studio to raise money for its survival would be greatly diminished if the Game Corps could sustain an ongoing effort to keep its larger pool of funding replenished.

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One way to gain public support for funding this program could be to explore the “swords to ploughshares” concept of converting military resources to civilian use. What could the Game Corps accomplish for the cost of an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank ($6.21 mill ion)3? What could we do for the cost of an F-35 Lightning II fighter jet ($197 mil lion)4? Visualizing costs in these terms along with the benefits of positive impact game development may make spending money on game development more palatable in the current economic cl imate. How can the Game Corps take technology and processes developed for violent first person shooter games and turn them into tools to benefit the average American citizen?

Marketing and Discoverability The biggest challenge for many small studios is getting continued exposure and interest in a space that is populated with hundreds of thousands of competing products. Let’s consider just one digital marketplace: as of March 2012, there were 550,000 apps in Apple’s App Store5 and over 248,000 registered iOS developers in the United States alone6. According to analytics firm App Annie, 36 of the top 50 iOS app publishers in 2011 were game publishers7. These game publishers clearly understand the iOS marketplace and are able to offer the titles they release some competitive advantage over the thousands of apps available in the marketplace at that moment. Positive impact games and the teams that make them need that kind of support. The Game Corps is not purely a startup incubator, nor is it a publisher. It would need to partner with commercial publishers to leverage their media connections and execute on marketing plans for positive impact games. In exchange, publishers would get access to Game Corps documentation and research material, right of first refusal on future projects, a percentage of profits, and other terms that could offset the resources they would invest up front in each positive impact game project. Over time, the Game Corps would facil itate the creation of a rich catalog of completed positive impact games covering a breadth of age-appropriate subject material, and provide the studios under its care with media training to give them voice to promote their products, message, and brand to the world.

3 “M1 Abrams”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1_Abrams 4 “Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II 5 “Apple hits 25 bill ion App Store downloads”. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-03-05/apple-app-downloads/53372352/1 6 “Creating jobs through innovation”. http://www.apple.com/about/job-creation/ 7 “App Annie Blog: Analytics and Insights”. http://www.appannie.com/blog/

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Partners in Production In order for the Game Corps to take a project through a development cycle and distribution, it will need to leverage existing efforts underway to support indie studios and startups.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) The government can better serve positive impact game development by partnering with the IGDA to strengthen its chapters across America. With the addition of one permanent staffer, a regional chapter can become a magnet for startups and indie studios. Currently most chapters -- even in thriving centers of game development like Austin -- are run by volunteers who are either students or professional game developers. There is a perpetual sense of frustration among the members of these chapters at the disconnect between the goals of the larger organization and what local chapters are able to deliver. Volunteers tend to last for a couple of years before burning out, forcing chapters to reboot. I served on the Advisory Board for the San Francisco chapter of the IGDA for several years, and was able to see the difference one permanent staff member with Advisory Board support could make. A chapter that could remain stable for the long term would be able to increase its membership rolls to self-sustaining numbers and could provide meaningful support to startup and indie studio members. Beyond that, the IGDA could play a critical role in promoting game literacy across the world by actively promoting its events to the public, not just to its members or local studios. Not only would this make game development more transparent to the public, it would also be way to promote studios and developers participating in these events. A permanent staff member at a chapter with a support staff of volunteers, an Advisory Board, and some kind of effective feedback loop/performance evaluation from local chapter members would be better able to undertake the logistics of such work. In addition, there is meaningful work being done by the larger organization’s Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that would benefit from Game Corps support: Quality of Life, Game Credits, Business and Legal, and so on. Every few years there is a bump of progress as a group of volunteers attempts to further the state of discussion by releasing a white paper. To have a group of professional game developers doing practical implementation of some of these concepts and actively contributing to this public ly accessible knowledge base would be a step forward towards addressing the kind of exploitation of workers that the game industry is notorious for. Crunch mode alone turns a lot of people away from the game industry, and is impacting the diversity equation, as well. The Game Corps can build on what the IGDA has done and lead the way by demonstrating how these healthier practices can bring more balance between workers and their project without stifling innovation and quality.

Universities The subject experts, the research into usability and design that maximizes learning, the initial prototypes, and even the core teams for many positive impact games have come from university settings. Harmonix grew out of MIT’s Media Lab8. Peacemaker9 was started as a student project at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. American universities provide a setting for experimentation and iteration that most corporations cannot match. This can be achieved through formal structure: academic program design, campus-based incubators, and co-op/internship programs. Informally, the campus setting itself can serve to get students away from their computers and out of their dorm rooms, and bring them together for purposes of discussion and action. I served as a GDC Scholarship Judge and Mentor for several years. Whether modifying Grim Fandango to teach Spanish, creating experimental tools for Game Sketching, or developing iOS

8 “How MIT’s Media Lab gave birth to Guitar Hero and hyperviolins”. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2010/10/how-mits-media-lab-gave-birth-to-hyperviolins-and-guitar-hero/ 9 “A videogame that seeks to make peace, not war”. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12423759/ns/technology_and_science-games/t/video-game-seeks-make-peace-not-war/#.T7BVQOjpATY

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apps for preschoolers, the work students I met were doing inspired me to think about how we could push the boundaries of game design. Their positive spirit and dedication was contagious and renewed my faith in the way our games can make a positive difference in people’s lives. The active combination of commercial game industry and university students working on projects together is one element that will energize the Game Corps program. There are many domains of study that we could bring in to further our exploration of best practices for game development. There is a growing body of brain research pertaining to the long-term health of knowledge workers. The Game Corps could assist with this research as it pertains to game developers and our unique challenges. Law school students could research some of the legal gray areas of game development and be a first stop for Game Corps participants. With oversight, students could also assist with putting together business and marketing plans, and also participate in a studio’s accounting and human resources work. The Game Corps could work with educational institutions to review their game-related programs and course offerings. At the post-secondary level, finding an appropriate balance between developing professional-level game projects and providing the foundational breadth and depth of study for its students is something that the Game Corps could advise on. Game Corps participants could be guest lecturers and student advisors. Whether for student placement or more specific feedback, participants could leverage their professional networks to act as conduits between the academic world and the commercial game industry to bridge that traditional gap.

Publishers The publisher role in the Game Corps structure is critical at every stage to build positive impact games that are commercially viable. Beyond providing up-front funding, publishers can help core team participants put together media/marketing plans, assist with staffing, run usability and playtesting sessions, provide quality assurance support, and in general provide the structure that their internal teams use to take games through to release. By being involved from the beginning of a project, the publisher can ensure that the core team approaches development with a “product focus”, and that the finished product will fit within its brand. Publishers can foster innovation and new intellectual property creation in the game industry by building relationships with startups and indie teams through small-scale project development. This can be done while continuing to develop their mainstream franchises. Most funding that startups have access to covers development, but doesn’t include marketing. Marketing games costs publishers mill ions of dollars -- in many cases, exceeding the cost of developing a game10. By creating a sub-label or adding a category in their digital marketplace, publishers can give positive impact games a wider reach than they have traditionally had.

10 “Marketing of Halo 3”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_of_Halo_3

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Conclusion Government support of positive impact games through an organization like the Game Corps can provide the needed short-term scaling-up and stabili ty for indie studios and startups to thrive. The Federal government -- in collaboration with multiple stakeholders -- is uniquely poised to transcend existing corporate structures and bring together the diverse groups of people required to release commercially successful positive impact games. This undertaking can turn participating indie development studios and startups into successful small and medium-sized businesses to further drive the growth of the positive impact games sector. By spinning off the innovation generated through the Game Corps, we can catalyze the American game industry in general and retain our position as the world leader in this space. As President Obama said to the children of TechBoston in his “Winning the Future in Education” speech: “I’m calling for investments in educational technology that will help create … educational software that’s as compelling as the best video game. I want you guys to be stuck on a video game that’s teaching you something other than just blowing something up.”11 Rather than focus on funding technical innovation like the Finnish government has done for its game industry, or offer tax incentives directed at regional job creation like the Quebec government has done, I propose that the Federal government should nurture personal development of promising talent. Beyond fostering innovative game design in the positive impact game space, we need to train creatives to be better entrepreneurs. We need to support the growth of a new generation of socially-minded thought leaders who can share their knowledge and experience with positive impact game design to inspire the nation and the world.

Bio Over the last sixteen years, Gaurav has contributed to titles including the critically acclaimed "Grim Fandango" and "Psychonauts", and the bestseller "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron". He is employed as a Senior Artist at Toys for Bob, where he recently worked on "Skylanders Spyro's Adventure" and "Skylanders Giants". Gaurav is responsible for creating www.gamedevmap.com, which has become the game industry's authoritative curated geographic database of game development organizations. Gaurav lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his son.

11 “President Obama on Education at TechBoston”. http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2011/03/09/president-obama-education-techboston#transcript

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