OK. I volunteer. In square brackets my comment and time to check the photos.
title: "Soldat - Polish multiplayer game with community. Can one
make a living out of that?
MM:" In high school I drank much alcohol"
audience:"HAHAHA"
MM:"But seriously, in high school there was a game called Liero, do
you know it?"
audience:"Yeah, sure"
MM:"There were two players on one computer, and it inspired me.
We played it whole time in highschool. I had a hobby back then - I
was coding and making some little games. I thought then "why limit
the game to two players? Why not make it playable to whole class?
World even?" This idea was a beginning of SOLDAT. This was a
game I created in my spare time, in bedroom that is my office, early"
audience :"haha"
MM:" And the game is about little soldiers walking in 2 dimensional
arenas fighting each other. There is a lot of shooting, explosions and
fun. It was released in 2002. At first there was very few players, but it
grew fast without any marketing..."
audience guy 1:" How it was released?"
MM:"Through the internet"
audience guy 1:" For free? It was downloadable?"
MM:" Yes, I just uploaded it on some web page, forums... and it went.
Download went up, and this year It has 500000 players [times
downloaded I suppose - translator]. My dream came true, it's played
worldwide, it was described in many magazines in Europe and USA
many gaming sites, few television stations in UK and Poland and so. I
didn't expect the growth of community, and these are people not only
playing, but also making mods, addons, tools for murder
statistics..."
audience:"HAHA"
MM:" They make map creating programs, but also things for fun -
like comics"
audience:"haha"
MM:" People make tournaments, LAN parties or just meet and play -
few photos... There's a girl playing my game"
audience:"HAHA" applause
audience guy 2:" The only in half a milion players?"
MM:"The only documented. Two years ago we met in Poznań with
Polish fans and we played and talked. And these are my grouppies
[3:15]"
audience:"HAHA"
MM:" this women also [3:22]"
audience:" ooooo!"
MM:" She's my fan too. Now let's talk about business. You probably
wonder if there's any money out of it. My game is free. No one has to
pay for it, but I still can make a living out of it. Soldat since it's release
made, let's say 92 000 $, and it's a decent result as for it"
audience guy 3:" What were the costs?"
MM:"At the beginning - none"
audience guy 3:" But all in all"
MM:"umm"
audience guy 4:" 91 000 haha"
audience:"haha"
MM:" I made it alone at the beginning there was me, my computer
and internet - and that was all the costs - and to the day we speak I
didn't spent any..."
audience guy 3:" but you didn't earn in that time"
audience talking, hard to understand
MM:" but these aren't any real costs."
audience guy 2:" So how you made money?"
MM:" I'll say later. In comparison to other games, Tribal trouble made
60 000$, and that game is not free - you have to pay, similar Gish
121 000 $ and they had much larger production costs... [MM
mantions other games some have few hundred thousand $ a moth
with milions of downloads]. What's the future of gaming market and
do I want to, is it worth to attend to it. And the question "sellery in time
of crysis" [last word not shown on slide show] too large font"
audience:"haha"
MM:" We had to cut the costs"
audience:"haha"
MM:" In my opinion games are one of few market generating income
in times of recession, and that's because people need fun in these
dark times, when they're losing money on stock-exchange. Statistics
confirm this. The chart cannot be seen, it has been cut... In October
this year [2008] game selling increase3d by 18%, an expansion pack
for world of warcraft has been released, there were enormous
queues in shops and the record for number of copies sold on first
day was highest ever. So what are my planes. I started Soldat alone,
but over time few people gathered around me, form the community
and these are people who wanted not only to play but they had the
talent and ambition so we started cooperation to make other games.
They contact me via email, we started talking and created a group.
We called it the Transhuman Design. It's a group of visionaries ts who
want to dominate the entertainment market."
audience:"haha", applause
MM:" In order to show it, it's not a typical firm/company, we have a
different philosophy. I'll show it in analogy of metal band. Metal band
is a group of let's say five people who meet and want to make some
project. They go to studio, record the album and then go for a
tournee - that's the way they work. And so do we, but instead of
music we create computer games. And we have a few members, and
interesting thing is that I didn't met anyone of them besides one
face to face. [talks about the crew and from where they are]. And the
most important part are the players - we live because of them. Our
philosophy is - we make our games free [8:20]. We want to have as
many players as we can. They play for free and make marketing for
us by telling a friend about our great game and so. And we make
money on loyal fans, who are ready to pay us. That's not a donation
but a pro version. We sell professional version - a upgrade for the
game, addon. In Soldat for instance, if you pay 14$ you'll get in-game
profiles, statistics, MP3 player, minimap, yeah it was a request, they
wanted it so I gave them what they want - they pay me for it."
audience:"HAHA"bla,bla
(...)
MM:" Additionally we want to sell gadgets - currently I sell t-shirts but
we plan some more: CD's good for a present, albums with graphics,
design documents [I have no idea what he has in mind]. And the
advertisements of course - that's the way of income too. I have a
possibility of placing an add in loading screen and on servers menu -
players spend quite a time in this menu. Also adds in forums, web
sites and so. What's next? Well, in time speaking we're making three
games: Link-Dead a realistic post apocalyptic war simulation,
Berserker a realistic hand to hand fighting game"
audience:"haha"
MM:" And Hunter-Killer which is a realistic secret project and I can't
say much about it now. It's first time mentioned in public.
Teacher/dude behind the desk:" Are you planning to make some
games for children?"
audience:"haha"
MM:"They shouldn't play it, but it's good when they play it" [?]
audience:"HAHA"
MM:" also a community website is planned where we will gather all
the players and they will be able to check statistics there, talk, make
tournaments and so. A quesion was asked what problems I ran into
when making that game. There are only problems, so I don't have much to say.
audience:"haha"
MM:" I'll say what I've learned through these actually five years. I learned how to gather and make a team, creating a community around the game, how to organize people around some idea, how to fight evil people - hackers which really want to destroy this game. Also selling and marketing. But most of all I learned to trust my instincts. I didn't really learn anything from books and to be honest I don't know what kind of and where to look. I had to trust my instincts.
So... Do you want to make games? ym, maybe not games but any projects, whatever really on your own. And what do you need for what? [word "need" has not shown, like some time before, on the slide show]"
audience:"HAHA" (...)
MM:" While working on such a project you'll have a constant problem and if you want to make anything valuable in your life, so have to meet the obstacles. And in order to overcome them you have to use all your strength, will, intelligence and heart actually. I think it's very hard to achieve something having only money in mind, because it's not sufficient motivation. In order to make your dream come true, You have to like what you're doing. You have to have a bigger goal in all of this. You really have to like what you're doing, love it even. And not only the top goal, but every day work you have to do to reach it. And that's why I make games. Because I like it. And I want to make the best game ever. My philosophy is that the smiles and energy of players come back to me and ... That's it"
audience: great applause
END.
damn. please be understanding, translating is not the thing I do every day.
