2004 Web and Downloadable Games White Paper 

IGDA Online Games SIG 

2. 

Market Research 

Just as writers need to read, game developers need to play lots of games. For development teams, 

playing and critiquing games together is a great way to stimulate new ideas and to grow a vocabulary of 

references that will make it easier (not to mention faster) to discuss their own games. Analyzing non 

game interfaces that are used by the target demographic can also help identify  best practices , or at 

least widely familiar conventions. 

3. 

Working with Distribution Partners 

It is critical to leverage the developer/publisher relationship in order to maximize the likelihood that a 

particular game will succeed. Distribution partners have the advantage of analyzing the download and 

conversion data for their entire catalog, and can help identify key features that are affecting these 

numbers. They may also have plans to focus (or not) on a particular area of their catalog (i.e. sports 

games). The developer should try to start this dialogue as early as possible so that any guidance can be 

taken into consideration early on in the process. However, it is also worth pointing out that if mishandled, 

this type of risk management may discourage real innovation and foster a homogenous, undifferentiated 

field of games. While distributors recognize the importance of innovative games in growing a base of 

repeat customers, the risk aversion that is typical of those larger companies may not support this idea, or 

the distributors may have specific ideas about the flavor of innovation that they're prepared to support.  

Publisher/Distributors will often pay a higher royalty in exchange for exclusive content, but developers 

should weigh the benefits of an exclusive deal against the smaller audience it implies. In other words, it is 

often better to get a lower rate, in return for being able to distribute more widely.  

There is an innate tension in the developer/distributor relationship that grows out of divergent goals. The 

developer is interested in selling as many copies of their games as possible, and so benefits the most 

from steady promotion over a longer period of time. The distributor, on the other hand, needs to keep 

their content fresh and tries to keep players returning on a regular basis (particularly if they are also 

selling advertising space). Unfortunately, this churn rate further restricts the genre, scope and depth of 

the games that can be profitably released into the market by effectively limiting the return of a given game 

on a given channel. However, by recognizing this situation and working with the distributors, the 

developer can devise strategies for working around it and maintaining the placement of their content 

through level packs and other add ons, web versions, et cetera. These strategies should be considered 

early in the development cycle to come up with the best solution.  

4. 

Managing Clients 

In the world of advergames, ad agencies will impose their sensitivities along with the sponsors/licensors, 

so approvals may require additional time. A more disciplined approach to project management has a 

clear benefit when there is a fixed project budget, as is usually the case with these games.  

For marketing based games, managing client expectations is the most critical area of risk to manage. 

Additional effort put into detailed design documents and interface mockups can go a long way towards 

streamlining the approval process and minimizing the number of change requests once the software is in 

production. 

5. 

Technology Choice 

Changing technology is an issue with all forms of digital games, but it is particularly exacerbated in a web 

environment. Web developers must contend with a dizzying variety of OS 

s, browser versions, processor 

speeds, connection speeds, and plug ins. Currently Java, Flash, and Shockwave are the norm, and the 

time required to download and install any new plug in can turn a player away from your game. For 

marketing games, the client will often have information about the target audience that will influence 

decisions about which technology to use. For downloadable titles, developers should choose a 

technology carefully by keeping in mind the hardware limitations that may exist within their target 

audience. Technical considerations are covered in much greater depth in the Technology Overview 

section of this paper.  

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