NEW LEVEL ACHIEVED: I visited the Rovio Studios in Helsinki (Finland)

July was a month full of good stuff! I started my second post-doctoral research in my new academic house, PUC (São Paulo). I’m studying the acquisition of digital goods and social belongings using the game Marvel Snap as the main subject.

For the project’s kickoff, I traveled to Europe to achieve some missions. First, I was talking with some specialists from Paneurópska Vysoká Škola (Bratislava) about my project’s theme. And, to complete this first step, I’ve already interviewed some people for the initial clues of my project.

However, the second mission achieved was an epic win: last week I visited Rovio Studios in Helsinki. Of course you know Rovio, it’s the studio behind the Angry Birds game. My Brazilian friend Cenildon Muradi (a.k.a. Thunder) works in the studio and made this visit possible.











The place is awesome and, of course, ludic. But, I want to highlight that spending one day in Rovio Studios was a master class of game design, business models, and marketing.

I’m returning to Brazil full of ideas to write in my project. I’ll post news very soon here.

Keep following!

#GoGamers

A Word About the Brazilian Gaming Market

(NOTE: this content is a teaser from my HCI's 2019 paper and the last post of this year)

The Brazilian gaming market is full of opportunities and peculiarities. The country is well-known abroad for being an emergent field where new game ideas can be explored, andalso for its high levels of piracy, unfortunately. In a certain way, the country is a unique “ecosystem” where different business models and creative processes can be explored, given the size and the diversity of its population, of almost 220 million people.

The gaming industry in Brazil is not consolidated though, and under many aspects it is still in an initial stage. As a first step into our discussion, we can highlight some attributes of the Brazilian gaming market, using as reference the data collected in an important survey named Game Brazil Research 2018 (Pesquisa Game Brasil 2018, in Portuguese), conducted by the company Sioux Games.



In its fifth edition, the research comprised interviews with 2853 people, in an attempt to investigate some demographic, consumption and behavioral aspects of the Brazilian gaming field. The first information we need to highlight is the fact that 75.5% of the Brazilian population plays games in a wide range of platforms, like smartphones, tablets, computers, consoles, portable consoles, etc.

According to this research, the gamer audience in Brazil is mainly cross-platform,with 74% of players experiencing games on more than one device. Smartphones lead the numbers as the most popular gaming platforms in Brazil (37.6%), while consoles occupy the second place (28.8%), followed by computers, in third place (26.4%).

Another interesting piece of information from Game Brazil Research 2018 concerns the self-image of the Brazilian gamer audience: only 6.1% of the respondents considered themselves to be “hardcore” gamers. Most of the interviewed people identified themselves as casual gamers.

It was also remarkable, in the research about mobile games, that 60.7% of respondents said they played while in transit (bus, subway or car).

Finally, it is noteworthy that 53.6% of Brazilian gamers are women, and among the female audience the favorite platform is mobile (59%), in which they spend an average of one to three hours a week playing games.

From these preliminary data, it is possible to understand that Brazil is a fertile ground for mobile games and a place with high potential for new gaming business in this field.

There are no massive game publishers in Brazil yet, and mobile platforms like App Store (Apple) and Play Store (Google) constitute interesting opportunities for game designers, indie studios and small gaming companies to showcase their work, in Brazil and abroad.

#GoGamers

Highlights from Brazilian gaming market & 10 facts about games and women in this scenario

The Brazilian gamer consolidates with a cross-platform profile - 74% play on more than one device. The smartphone remains the most popular (77.9%), followed by computers (66.4%) and consoles (49%). Despite all the popularity of the games, only 6.1% of the respondents consider themselves as "hardcore gamers". Most identify themselves as a casual consumer, who uses games only as a simple form of entertainment (54.1%).

The preferred device to play is the smartphone, chosen by 37.6% of gamers, followed by consoles (28.8%) and computer (26.4%).

Their favorite game category is Strategy (50.9%), followed by Adventure (45%). An interesting fact is that these two types of games are among the preferred for both sexes, however, Action, Racing and Sports games are only present in the top 5 of men, while Cards, MatchThree and Trivia games are those that Complete the women's Top 5.

There are several places where the consumer plays. With the smartphones mobility, 60.7% of respondents say they play when they are in transit (bus, subway or car). However, contrary to previous research, this was not consecrated as the moment of greater consumption of games, since 71% of gamers also said to use the smartphone to play at home.

Source: Pesquisa Game Brazil 2017 (English version)

• • •

Fact #1
53,6% of Brazilian gamers are women.

Fact #2
59% define themselves as “casual gamers”.

Fact #3
Their favorite categories are:
1. Strategy (48,9%)
2. Adventure (38,9%)
3. Cards (36,1%)
4. Match Three (35,4%)
5. Trivia (33,5%)

Fact #4
Features that like most in a game:
1. Several levels;
2. Strategy definition;
3. That is ‘light’;
4. Big challenges;
5. That is beautiful.

Fact #5
Favorite Platform:
Mobile (59%)

Fact #6
Where do you play on mobile?
Home (64%)
Traffic (64%)
Work (37%)
Friend’s house (35%)

Fact #7
Favorite Brands:
Samsung in mobile
Xbox 360 in console
Windows 7 as computer so

Fact #8
Play videogame between 1 to 3 hours weekly.

Fact #9
44% of women gamers play at Facebook.

Fact #10
50% of players search for news about apps and games on social network.

Source: Pesquisa Game Brazil 2017 (English version)

#GoGamers

Blood, sweat, and pixels: the triumphant, turbulent stories behind how video games are made

In this moment I'm reading the excellent book "Blood, sweat, and pixels: the triumphant, turbulent stories behind how video games are made". True stories about how the work in the gaming industry could be full of anxiety and despair.

Jason Schreier (the author) interviewed more than 100 professionals from this field and the result is a book with many different views about the creative process behind a game, the difficulties, the mistakes and victories.

Schreier (2017) in the introduction of the book discusses about why is so hard to make games. The author points out that: 1) games are interactive; 2) technology is constantly changing; 3) the tools are always different; 4) scheduling is impossible; 5) it's impossible to know how "fun" a game will be until you've played it. From this point to the end, in each chapter, one game is used as an example to explain the how this area (as the title of the book says) is full of "blood, sweat, and pixels".



Excellent reading.

Click here to buy.

---

Reference:

SCHREIER, Jason. Blood, sweat, and pixels: the triumphant, turbulent stories behind how video games are made. New York: Harper, 2017.

The Neurology of Gaming

Source: Online Universities

Article: Brazilian Gaming Market

Craving to disseminate information about the Brazilian gaming market, my friend Mauro Berimbau and I wrote a brief article explaining some peculiarities of this environment with many relevant research data. We want to share our feelings with you.



Click here to download the PDF. We are waiting for your opinions!

Essential data about the global gaming market

A world of possibilities in new platforms with many players.





Source: Digital Spy (2013)

New data about the brazilian gaming market

Brazil doesn’t have a formal gaming industry, and the country holds high levels of piracy. However, a recent survey made by a brazilian research institute shows that:

1 - There are 46 million gamers in Brazil (23% of the population);
2 - The most frequently used platforms: 67% console, 42% computer, 17% smartphone or tablet and 7% portable consoles.
3 - 47% of the gamer audience are women.
4 - The current market is US$ 500 million, but in 2016 the brazilian market is expected to reach US$ 2 billion.



There is no doubt that we have a potential market.

Then there is the question: why doesn't the market grow anymore?

The answer is: the lack of government incentives is delaying the development of the brazilian gaming industry. High taxes hinder progress. Bureaucracy keeps foreign companies away from our territory.

Isolated initiatives do not gain strength. What remains is to wait for better times.

Keep it simple

By Vince

This post is a kind of an advice for new game designers and game developing enthusiast.

Nowadays, we have a broad market for many categories of games and this is very good because we can target different kinds of players. Every game designer one day, possibly, dreamed about the chance of developing a complex console/PC game for a very specific type of player: the heavy user gamer.

But, don’t forget that a wide part of gaming consumption comes from casual gamers. The high numbers of casual/simple game downloads from platforms like App Store (Apple) and Play Store (Google) give us a clue of the enormous potential in this area.

More than 200 million people worldwide play casual games via Internet, and it’s impossible to forget the high numbers of casual gamers in mobile devices too.

The essence of the success in this area is the mantra: keep it simple. But “simple” (or casual) is not a synonymous of “poor”, and creating good simple/casual games is a great challenge for game designers. The “Angry Birds”, “Temple Run” and “Draw Something” are good proofs of this idea.



Keep the casual player on your mind all the time and don’t forget that a casual game requires good content, intuitive mechanics and well defined interface. It must be wonderful to create the new “Battlefield” complex FPS game, but it must be wonderful to create the new “Angry Birds” casual game too.

To finish this post I have a good hint for you: visit the site of the “Casual Games Association” (LINK HERE) to get more information about this growing entertainment market.

And I want to share this excellent presentation from Newzoo: the “Trend Report: Casual Social Games - February 2012”

View more presentations from Newzoo

Go (casual) gamers!