Realpolitik & The Flash Game Developer Network

Realpolitik & The Ideal Flash Game Developer Network
Using Political Science to explain a Game Distribution Network

As a political science major I took away two main camps of thought.

1) Idealism
2) Realpolitik

Idealism was the way the world should work and realpolitik was the way humans cause it to work. The Idealists' belief system is complex but 'usually' holds true across a community regardless of class and standing. On the other end of the spectrum, Realpolitik's belief system is anarchic and volatile to one's class and stature.

Machiavelli - The Embodiment of Power Struggle

When applying realpolitik to any market one can see the inequities more clearly and give light on the solutions to these disjunctures. So lets stay on track - First, look at why cleavages exist between game developers and game publishers - Second, analyze why a better developer and distribution network is in order.

Before I jump into the guts of this argument, let me spill some disclosure. I've never taken a game to market. I've never shopped a game or idea around and thus I don't understand the hardships associated with the task. But I can empathize.

As a developer and designer I see a disjuncture in the market. As an indie developer it's hard to find a publisher to take your game to market. By taking a game to market I suggest a two-fold action 1)stream it to an existing community 2)find a way to monetize it. The process would be nice if the game developer had more bargaining chips. Creating a grassroots community around a single or a few games is difficult, especially when you compare your offerings to that of a miniclip.com - with a large shelf and lots of traffic. There's a current evangelical movement around social gaming and casual games, I see Venture Capital firms and large publishers shifting their attention to casual games.

It's an exciting time to be an Indie developer but lets keep it in perspective using simple market equilibrium.

Yes, it is an exciting time to be an indie game developer because tools such as XNA and other platform SDKs are becoming mainstream, less complex and cheaper. On the other end of the stick, there is going to be a splurge of games hitting the market. More games than the market knows what to do with. The games that will prosper are the exceptionally great games and okay games with exceptional marketing budgets. As the market matures in the social games space, I conjecture that there will be so many 'exceptional' games that only those with large budgets will prosper. This is only one edge of the sword, the other end of the sword is that these tools XNA, Papervision3d, will mature just like any other software lifecycle.

indie games are becoming less indie

I dislike using the word casual/indie because I know these games will become more complex, require more resources to compete and thus blur the word 'indie-game'. It's like the term indie-music 15 years ago, before it used to mean an artist that didn't have access to a multi-million dollar studio. Now it doesn't exist ... since a macbook pro, logic and cubase makes you an artist. Some may argue that the difference between indie and non-indie, is the intent of commercializing the musical tracks or game. But this argument is defunct since a game developer's, whether a greedy Machiavellian or a parochial developer's, intent is to have as many people playing the game as possible. The argument stands that this massive influx of casual games will require a network to distribute games.

In order for this indie-games surge to become sustainable there must be two things 1) a platform in order to link publishers and developers 2) community tools for the games. The platform will allow developers to demo their games and publishers to place bids, contact the developers and buy licenses to the games. The community tools will add value to the games, make them more pervasive, more engaging and create networks around the game.

The platform that will link publishers and developers doesn't need to be very advanced, it need only allow the developers to create a profile, list their current and future games, analytic tracking for the game and allow the publishers to speak about their current offerings. This network could disrupt and create a power shift between the publisher and developer. It is costly for a developer who eats granola and yogurt for dinner to travel halfway around the world to meet with publishers who will likely say no. By creating an incubator for the developer, where income streams can be realized without the support of a full-blown publisher than the developer has bargaining chips that didn't exist before.

I've recently blogged about the importance of community tools and why it is important to create a space for your flash, pc or console game instead of only plugging it into a network where your access to data is limited. At no point do I pretend to deny the importance of the potential reach a social network (myspace, facebook, bebo) can provide your game. My purpose is to explain that there must be a space, a place that the developer (or publisher) owns in order to create a space for recurring face time with new product offerings, brand loyalty and additional revenue streams.

Hopefully, I've explained why the current power structure exists between most developers and major publishers. The paradigm will continue to exist if no platform steps up to the task of creating a horizontal communication web tool so developers can see their options more clearly. Although I believe there are market forces that create a constant struggle between the pursuit and possession of power - it is important to apply idealistic solutions to cause drastic shifts in these kind of power structures. These drastic shifts in power structures force improvements in market transactions, leading to leaner costs of doing business, with the end result of creating better and more engaging games. And that's what this is all about ... creating more valuable games.