The day begins with Play-Doh.

The first keynote of the second day, All Play Is Meaningful, was given by Leigh Anne Cappello, a “Play Futurist” and Vice President at Hasbro (who own both Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley and, hence, have a dominant share of the US board game market). All of the tables had packages of Play-Doh, with which we were instructed to play; however, I opted out when the sound of opening containers made it harder for me to hear her. She said that their slogan is “Inspiring the Human Need to Play” (although I could find no references) and described fun well with a couple of dozen discrete words. Then the talk distilled the essence of play to being “appealing“, “healing“, and “revealing“.

What our keynote speaker (and futurist) did not say, however, is anything about the future. When asked directly, she explained that Hasbro would not allow her to comment. Having run into this litigious company in the past, I was not the least bit surprised by this. I will note that overzealous lawyers were never mentioned or included in any part of “fun”. Nevertheless, the talk was worthwhile, and it pointed me to the quote at the end of this blog entry and also alerted me to the fact that the United Nations (in Article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child), have recognized “the right of the child … to engage in play and recreational activities.”

During the next period, I attended a panel entitled, Suitable for all ages: Game design for the 60+ demographic. (I am not going to name all of the 13 presenters.) The session had several rapid-fire talks about studies and provided loads of detailed numbers, including:

• 46% of people over 50 play games daily, and 62% play at least 5 times per week;
• seniors preferred the PC, and 90% would not change platform;
• more than 60% of seniors prefer card games (including solitaire);
• in general, seniors enjoy games puzzle elements of games and are loyal to their current software;
• seniors seem to prefer mouse over keyboard, ideally using only one button.

A member of the audience pointed out that the entire panel consisted of European researchers and questioned whether or not the findings could be extended to American senior citizens. Of course, in the current global marketplace, the study participants are a good portion of our audience.

The next session I attended was Making an Impact: Serious Issues in Non-Serious Games, given by Monica Evans (University of Texas at Dallas). This talk was basically an overview of some serious games and then a discussion of how serious topics were handled in three commercial games: Ratchet and Clank, Sim City Societies, and Beyond Good and Evil. One highlight of the talk was a pointer to an experimental game, Execution, which one can only play once (without cheating) and takes very little time. Give it a shot!

After that, I participated in the only roundtable of the conference, When Will Games Grow Up?: Handling Adult Topics In Video Games, moderated by author Damon Brown. I found the topic fascinating, especially given that I was one of the oldest people in the room, and the prevailing attitude among the mostly young and single was different than mine (even though I am closer to the median player demographic). Nobody, obviously, was offended by the idea of sex in games, but some felt that it did not provide desired escapism, failing to realize that not everybody may have such opportunities in the real world. This was a good session.

The closing keynote for the second day was Serious Gaming: Assumptions and Realities, given by Ute Ritterfeld (VU University Amsterdam). The talk discussed a three-part study, the first part being about the kind of serious games that are being made, the second about what qualities make a game succeed with game reviewers, and the third an experiment with applying the assumptions to actual serious games. This talk contained lots of interesting information.

In the first part of the study, 612 serious games (every one the researchers could find in May 2007) were examined, and it was found that more than half were academic, with social change being the second largest group. The largest target age group was middle and high school students, followed by elementary level, then (combined) college/adult/senior, and finally pre-school. Again, unfortunately, more than half of all the serious games of the time were just for practicing skills.

The second part of the study looked at game reviews and categorized the positives and negatives leading toward an overall score. These game characteristics were grouped into five categories (highlighted below) and when analyzed, it was found that there were three basic thresholds. An acceptable game (threshold 1) succeeded in the areas of technical capacity and game design. A good game (threshold 2) passed threshold 1 and, additionally, succeeded with aesthetics, visual and acoustic. For a game to be great (threshold 3), it had to pass both previous thresholds and also succeed in the final two areas of social experience and storyline (“narrativity and character development” is too long). Few games reached the final threshold.

The final part of the study took a playable serious game (for learning biology/human physiology) and did controlled studies of different levels of interactivity, including the full gameplay experience, watching a video replay of the game, limited interactivity, hypertext/graphical information, and straight text. The gist of the results were that the more interactivity involved, the better the learning and retention. The one deviation from this pattern was that the learning between full gameplay and replay only (sans control) were comparable, but followup showed that the latter group, without being able to directly interact with the game, did not retain the information as well. Conclusion: Interactive education can work.

Shortly after the second keynote, a Happy Hour Gathering was held at a local brew pub (Harper’s) where pizza and beer were supplied. I had some great conversations with several local (Michigan and its neighboring Canadian province, Ontario) attendees. I talked more than I either ate or drank, but my mind was full of ideas and my spirit was overflowing when I left (though my throat was a little sore).

Finally, I attended a local book reading and signing with Damon Brown (the roundtable moderator), who is promoting his new book, Pong & Porn: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider, and Other Sexy Game
s Changed Our Culture. The reading was followed by a discussion that dovetailed nicely with the earlier roundtable, and I also learned from chatting with him in both venues that he attended high school in Lansing and (although he is younger) we share some common area references. I was too tired to read beyond “Foreplay” (the forward), but I plan to post a review later.

This was a busy day from start to finish (as the length of this post attests), so I will just leave you with the promised quote:

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.
— Plato

International Academic Conference on Meaningful Play

This was the first day of Meaningful Play 2008, and armed with my name tag and program schedule, I went to the Student Union at Michigan State University. I left behind the “goodie bag” itself which was, in fact, a cool laptop bag, the rest of the contents, including a 1G USB drive/pen, and the conference shirt (in black). I guess that “regular attendee” conveys some tangible benefits.

The first keynote, The Game Designer as Change Agent, was given by Richard Hilleman, Chief Creative Officer for Electronic Arts. Honestly, it was not what I expected based on the title, but rather was more about some internal EA processes for identifying and training executive producers (or perhaps for developing lists of confusing and pointless acronyms). Nothing inspired me to yearn for such a position. However, the talk did yield three noteworthy facts:

1. Larry Probst still holds the EA record for largest hotel repair bill;
2. Pogo “casual” gamers are predominantly women aged 30-40 and average 20 hours/week of play; and
3. Flash (“a ubiquitous platform”) has recently surpassed 1 billion installations.

The first actual session I attended was the presentation of three academic papers on Emergent Gameplay. All three were interesting, but the paper by Felan Parker, The Significance of Jeep Tag: On Player-Imposed Rules in Video Games (PDF), was the most interesting presentation. The other two papers were on UML diagrams of game play interaction (a different way to look at games), and using games to generate new game ideas (of which I already have more than I can use).

After lunch, I went to the Talent, Incentives, and Infrastructure: Growing the Game Industry in Michigan panel, with Gjon Camaj (Image Space), Matt Toschlog (Reactor Zero), Tony Wenson (Michigan Film Office), and Brian Winn (moderator). The verdict is, quite simply, that this state is a great place to do business as a game developer: we have the development talent, we have the infrastructure, and now (since April), we have tax credits of up to 42% of expenses for building games here in Michigan.

I stayed in the same room for the next presentation, The Emerging Flash Game Industry and the Opportunities for Meaningful Play, given by Jared Riley of Hero Interactive. This talk was the most practical and directly relevant to our company and future plans. In his PowerPoint presentation he discussed the revenue sources and business models for Flash game developers, which was particularly interesting. The use of an example figure of $50K as a potential maximum income of a hit game, however, did hammer home the point that profitability in this area requires fast turnaround of product.

The second/final keynote of the day, The Unknown Possibilities of Existence, was given by Ian Bogost (Persuasive Games). In the talk, he attempted to define a term for which he admitted dislike, “artgame”, and then explored which games, in his opinion, fall close to this category. I found it interesting, although some of the initial discussion was lost on me, as it built on understanding of certain traditional artwork concepts/genres with which I am unfamiliar.

After the completion of daytime activities (plus enough of a break to return home for a bit), there was a conference reception at the brand new East Lansing Technology Innovation Center (ELTIC). There were poster presentations as well as software exhibitions, which included several interesting titles. Among these were Brain Powered Games, a suite of games designed to “energize your mind”, including Headline Clues, an original word game with puzzles generated dynamically from RSS feeds from news sites, Two Men and a Truck Game, sponsored by the eponymous moving company, which helps children deal with the stress of relocating, and Pebble It, an abstract puzzle game which seeks to harness the innate ability of the human brain to solve graph pebbling problems better than existing computer algorithms.

The conference organizers, Brian Winn, Ethan Watrall, and Carrie Heeter, are to be commended on a very well-organized show. Everything (including registration) has run smoothly and on time, and the content so far has been first rate.

Designing and Studying Games that Matter

We now interrupt your program to bring you breaking news…

For the next three days, Michigan State University is hosting the first edition (of many, I hope) of Meaningful Play here in East Lansing. Meaningful Play 2008 is about “exploring meaningful applications of games” and “issues in designing meaningful play”. In other words, it is about why games matter to us and how to achieve significance in our game designs, whether for “serious games” or those developed primarily as entertainment.

This game conference will feature six keynote speakers (one to open and close each day), as well as eight periods in which there will (each) be a speaker session, two presentations of academic papers (on different topics), and a discussion panel, so there is plenty of information to be presented. I expect that the format will be similar to Future Play 2005 (held at the same venue), as some of the organizers are the same. Since attendance is limited to 250 participants, it should be a good opportunity for networking, too.

Looking ahead, I am intrigued by the keynote entitled, All Play is Meaningful (Friday morning). I have not been able to decide on where I want to be for each session period, but I expect that I will be attending the panel (excessively) named, Talent, Incentives, and Infrastructure: Growing the Game Industry in Michigan. That has been an important goal of mine, and I like to think of myself as part of that Michigan “talent”.

Early registration begins today at 6:30pm and, wonderfully, is within easy walking distance of my home. If you attend Meaningful Play, be sure to introduce yourself (if necessary) and say, “Hi!”

Check here for daily updates during the conference.

The Early Years

In early 1982, I had officially formed Sophisticated Software Systems. Prior to that I had been programming games (or parts of games) for several years. However, with the founding of a company, I now needed a first product, so I focused on a BlackJack game for the TRS-80: ShackJack.

Having had to beg, borrow, and (not quite) steal computer time, my best opportunity was while I was helping to run to computer lab at East Lansing High School, which at the time consisted of 13 diskless TRS-80 Model 3 (16K) computers “networked” (via a switched cassette port connection) to a master Model 3 (48K) with dual floppy drives. (This was the early incarnation of the computer lab that Larry Page would have used almost a decade later before going on to found Google.) I was able to spend up to an hour and a half per weekday, minus (considerable) time spent helping other students learn programming and debugging, working on my game.

Finally, when I had completed and thoroughly tested what was certainly the best BlackJack program available on that platform, I took out an advertisement in Computer Shopper, which was at the time merely a collection of classified computer ads on yellow newsprint. Regrettably, I did not keep an original copy of the (single) issue in which the ad appeared, so I do not have the publication date, but the copy read as follows:

BE A WINNER WITH SHACK JACK the best Black Jack program yet! Just like Vegas. Seven players, multiple decks, splits, insurance, double down. Start with any amount of money, computer keeps track of your winnings (?) It’s no gamble at $14.95 (plus 4% for Michigan residents). Specify 16 or 32K, tape or disk.

I only ran the advertisement once, and subsequently got only one “order”. My father received the envelope before me and bought pizza for dinner to celebrate. Alas, that double-cheese and pepperoni was my total income from that product. The order, from a church of all places, was for a model and media type that was not supported, so we could not fulfil it and, of course, never cashed the check.

Shortly thereafter, I got my first professional programming job, which over a couple of weeks in the summer netted me a grand total of $500, which was a lot of money for me at the time. Although it was nowhere near enough for an Apple, it was enough money to buy a Commodore VIC-20 and a tape drive. I did my research and discovered that the VIC-20 had a programmable character set, which was an exciting feature, so I decided to purchase one, along with a “machine language monitor” cartridge that worked as a single-line assembler. (I still have that computer in the original packaging, and it still works great.)

Over the second half of 1982, having my own computer for the first time in my life, I learned the VIC-20 inside and out and wrote several games for it. I chose one game, Gremmaray, to market first. This game was based on an old (1978) black and white video game, Blasto, by Gremlin. As one can see on the game flyer (not the flip side), the cabinet instructions talked about firing your “dreaded Gremmaray”, which amused me, so I used that as my product title.

For me, the defining characteristic of Blasto was its mine explosions, which could cause incendiary cascades that would clear whole areas of the playfield. (That was viscerally satisfying beyond anything in Minesweeper.) I maintained that prominent feature while implementing similar gameplay, adding color and keyboard (along with joystick) control, and introducing a third mode of play, in which the player could compete against a computer controlled (AI) opponent. I also created three versions, saved on one tape, for different game speeds. Remember, too, that the entire game, including character data, fit into only 3.5K (merely 3584 bytes!) of an unexpanded VIC-20.

With a product ready to go, I undertook (this time) to sell the game into retail stores which carried software for Commodore computers. I started with a handful of large companies, including Kmart and Meijer, that were headquartered in Michigan. My father and I produced a game flyer and cover letters using desktop publishing software on a Xerox Star (the original Macintosh), and printed them using the very first laser printer I had ever seen.

On May 24, 1983, I mailed out several free copies of Gremmaray along with this flyer and cover letter. [PDF, 158K]

Needless to say (for those who know the business), I received no responses to this contact. Still being only 16 at the time (my primary excuse for the naivete), I was slightly disappointed, but I moved on to programming other games, finishing high school, and entering the workforce in my chosen profession. I never sold a copy of either of my first two attempts, although both are games of which I am still very proud today.

Looking back, there are several lessons learned:

First, advertising is a matter of getting noticed. Placing only a single ad in one newsprint weekly is certainly not enough to get started. It was all I could afford at the time, and with no valid orders, I could not bootstrap anything, and ShackJack never really got out of the gate.

Second, sales is not a matter of one cold contact and then waiting for the phone to ring. At the time, I thought that a purchasing agent would simply play the game, enjoy it, and place and order, but now I know that it is unlikely that any of the cassettes ended up anywhere but the “circular file”. Certainly, followup calls would have been a necessity under even the best of circumstances.

Third, retail is not a game that independent developers are going to be able to play (directly). Almost all retail stores buy through distributors who command/demand large quantities of cash and/or product (usually both) just to be listed, and only then does the battle to get onto shelves even start. The system may have been more open 25 years ago, but I was too naive to know that retailers would require at least a 50% margin (where I was only offering 35% in the best case). In retrospect, Gremmaray was never destined to be on a store shelf.

Finally, to tie all of these together, one really needs sticktoitiveness (definition: dogged perseverance; resolute tenacity) to succeed. In my first two real attempts, I was able to bring a program to fruition, but not a product. Had I continued to advertise ShackJack and market the game to locally-owned Radio Shack stores, I may have been able to succeed with it. Had I followed up with telephone calls to purchasing agents, while pursuing other possible channels for selling Gremmaray, that may have been a breakout success. As it was, I did not get much beyond completing the programs (an achievement
in itself), but they were never seen and enjoyed by more than a few people.

Of course, I was not finished yet.

Next: Part III: A Shareware Venture…

The Founding

It all started for me back in 1978, when I had my first programming experience with personal computers. Earlier that year, my good friend Brennan Hildebrand and I had each moved away from East Lansing during the summer. His family moved to Southfield, Michigan (near Detroit) and I went to Houston, Texas, but we visited each other whenever possible.

During the next couple of years, although I did not have a computer of my own, Brennan and I used the Apple ][+ that was in his house to learn programming and play computer games when we were there. I bought him a copy of More BASIC Computer Games, by David H. Ahl, for his birthday, and we spent untold hours, and many late nights, typing in listings and modifying them for our own amusement.

While in Houston, I met and became friends with Eric Comstock, who had a TRS-80 at home, and we also spent time writing programs and playing games on that computer. Perhaps more importantly, though, we worked together to encourage The Awty School, which we both attended at the time, to purchase its first (three) Apple ][ computers. The computers only arrived a few months before we both left (in 1981), but we both made great use of them during that time.

Throughout these years, we all talked about how we could program and sell computer games ourselves. Remember, this was back in the day that games and other software often were little more than a floppy disk and a thin manual inserted into a plastic bag that computer stores stocked by hanging on a peg board. Even when I did not have access to a computer, I “programmed” in pencil, writing out long BASIC listings on paper. Finishing and distributing one of these games seemed within reach.

I finally decided that it was time to stop talking about how cool it would be to sell the computer games we created. In late 1981, I decided that we needed to finally take action, so Brennan and I brainstormed about the first step to take: decide a name. We came up with and decided upon the alliterative name, Sophisticated Software Systems, and also sketched out several “logo” ideas, one of which did actually end up on our first letterhead many years later.

Unfortunately, there were two marketing problems with the original company name that I only learned several years later. First, there were a few “Sophisticated Software” companies that sprung up over the years. We very well may have been the original (and the only one with “Systems”), but that did not prevent the occasional support request for software we had never heard of, and as late as 1999 we received letters demanding that we certify that programs from a different company were Y2K compliant. The second issue, simply, was that we wanted to make games, yet the name gave no clue to that at all.

I did the research to find out how to create a company, which turned out to be much easier than I had imagined. So, I picked up the paperwork for creating a partnership at the county clerk’s office, read it through, and then waited for the next opportunity when my friends and I would be together to sign it. It was at this point that my father gave me my first piece of excellent business advice: Don’t wait!

Acting on this advice, I instead filled out the paperwork for a sole proprietorship, got it notarized, and on January 13, 1982, walked into the office of the Ingham County Clerk, paid my $10 (after waiting for the couple before me to be married), and formed Sophisticated Software Systems.

As it turns out, Brennan and Eric never ended up joining me at Sophisticated Software Systems, but both are successful software entrepreneurs in their own rights, albeit not in computer games.

Next: Part II: The Early Years…

All things considered, I guess a lost week is none too significant.

Going to a new accountant, we have recently (up to the present) been going through seven and a half years of corporate paperwork, which reminds us of how long that has been and how much has happened during that time. That extends back to when our association with Goodsol Development involved piecemeal artwork and no programming, and the word “terrorism” was not uttered in every news broadcast.

Thinking back, though, it is somewhat surprising to realize that this company had so many years of history before 2001, with so many projects and stories having already occurred by that time. My personal programming history goes back 30 years (later this year). The history of my company reaches back more than 26 years, and we have been full time for 13.5 years. The corporation itself has been around since March 1996, and we have outlasted almost every employer I previously had, not to mention the vast majority of companies in the game industry.

This has been my full-time employment since I resigned from Spectrum HoloByte in December 1994, which was over 700 weeks ago, so a “lost” week here or there, representing less than 0.15% of this time, is probably not a disaster.

As we all (should) know, though, one cannot make up for a slipped schedule solely by working harder, especially when a deadline has already passed, so we realistically redefine our schedule and continue to work intelligently and diligently.

Next: Part I: The Founding…

Good Riddance to the past 7 days.

Have you ever had one of those days where you seem to be going in several directions, always doing something, but then at the end of the day find yourself unable to pinpoint what you actually accomplished? Have you ever had it extended to a full week? Well, now I have.

This was supposed to be a very productive week, with most of the family out of town, but what started out promising resulted in a whole bunch of… I am not really sure.

Perhaps it was the spam. I received more than 21000 spam messages in only 10 hours. (I stopped tracking it after that point.)

Perhaps it was the slipping deadline. I have been feeling an unhealthy amount of stress lately, which is not exactly conducive to productivity.

Perhaps it was the partially fallen tree. We finally had all the dangerous parts removed, but there is a reason that the sounds of chainsaws and heavy machinery (just outside the office window) are not featured on relaxation tapes.

Perhaps it was the uncertainty. Several things in which I am involved (often peripherally) have had crises arise (some real, and some manufactured), including one that is affecting several thousand of my dollars.

Perhaps it was the damn telephone. Every professional person (lawyer, accountant, etc.) we have had contact with in the last few months, and then some, chose last week to telephone. Throw in five more important calls, some technical support for extended family, and a healthy dose of telemarketers, and I am ready to throw out these phones.

Perhaps it was the lack of my usual support “staff”. The post office box did not empty itself, and the bank failed to anticipate and handle my financial needs alone. Meals required effort on my part.

Perhaps it was my commitment to quality. It seemed like every time I had something almost completed, there was a niggling little issue that required a minor change, and another, and then another… I cannot abide shoddy code. Of course, this is one thing I do not intend to change.

Whatever it was (probably a combination of everything above and more), last week was a wash. I am drawing a thick vertical line right here after the month of June. From this point, I simply move forward.

One crisis at a time…

… and the doing is busy…

As of last Friday, at about 7:59pm local time, we have either started summer or, as I prefer to view things, moved into the second half of summer. In any case, we have entered into a period where business, and life in general, tends to be a little slower.

If only.

Although I would dearly love to take some much needed time away, our projects are just coming to fruition during the next month or so, leaving precious little time for relaxation. It is getting fairly exciting around here, not only due to products taking shape, and the introduction of new development platforms, but because of the extracurriculars of the seasons.

At our “Delton office”, Winter took out not one, but both toilets, and the plumbing underneath the kitchen sink. Spring saw the demise of the front steps (which makes moving new ceramic fixtures rather interesting). [The high scrap metal prices also led to the disappearance of my ice racing car around the same time.]

The first part of summer saw fit to drop a huge tree limb outside the back steps at the main office, after being redirected through contact with the roof above my head. This lead to “emergency” removal of the larger, cracked limb that threatened the desk at which I currently sit. [Because of all the storm damage in our area, this actually took nearly two weeks to start, and we still have to wait another week for the rest of the (now unbalanced) tree to be dismantled.]

Nevertheless, despite the distractions, morale and development progress are quite good here. We officially doubled our staff to get some part time and piecemeal help for advancing a project that has been planned/stalled here for many years. We hope to launch a new web site on August 1st.

Before then, however, there is another project for Goodsol Development that should be announced fairly soon as we prepare to begin beta testing. This will be our first launch of a product on both Windows and Mac platforms in rapid succession. (In truth, it could be a simultaneous release, but because of the marketing required to accompany each SKU, one will probably proceed the other a bit.)

Three and a half platforms are in action at once. We are doing some PHP/MySQL development, C++ (native) development for Windows, C++/Carbon development for Mac OS X, plus a minuscule amount of using XNA Game Studio 2.0 (Windows and Xbox 360) when I can find a spare minute.

The fish may be jumpin’, but I wouldn’t know…

Schadenfreude!

On Wednesday, the Florida Bar requested that publicity mutt and raging loony, Jack Thompson, be disbarred for at least 10 years. This follows disciplinary proceedings (similar to a trial) late last year in which he was found guilty of 27 acts of professional misconduct, including “knowingly making a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal” and “engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation“.

For many years, this [censored] has manufactured controversy about video games and put himself at the forefront. Unburdened by facts or even relevant knowledge of the games in question, he has blamed video games for what seems like every violent act in this country in the last decade or more. I note that NPR recently [Talk of the Nation, May 1st] dismissed him quickly when he admitted that he had not played the game (Grand Theft Auto IV) he so vociferously denounced (though Fox News reportedly still uses him as an “expert”).

For some excellent and in depth coverage, visit GamePolitics.com’s Bar Trial Series.

The final disbarment decision will be made by the Florida Supreme Court on or around September 2.

East Lansing High School Theater program is en route to Edinburgh.

While I have been hip deep in development, the youngest member of our family has been working toward some success of his own. He and his fellow performers have put together an amusing video which tells it all (and then some):

“In the summer of 2007, East Lansing High School’s Theater Department won the incredible honor of representing the State of Michigan at the 2008 Edinburgh (Scotland) Fringe Festival…“

The Kiltinator
[YouTube – running time: 9:47]

Enjoy!

(For your convenience, here is the link at the end of the video: www.elderly.com/fringe)