The Bridge Between 2 Worlds

Hello every one and welcome to my blog "The Other Side".

My name is Matthew Bell, since 2011 I have worked in the games industry in product development specializing in game design. At the time of writing I have been working for Konami Digital Entertainment Europe for just over 8 years, working full time on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. I am responsible for getting products from concept to delivery for all European territories (which is basically every territory outside of Asia and the Americas). My role is a little difficult to explain as it is much more broad than a normal product manager or a game designer role. Essentially I wear many hats and work with each department to release around 32-34 products a year. I am generally on a new project every 2 weeks and will be doing a huge range of tasks to take products from an idea thrown out in meeting, to the sealed product on the shelf that you go and buy.

The purpose of this blog is to share with you some of the ins and outs of the business decisions made for modern games from my perspective. Contractually, I am not allowed to discuss any games for my current employer, so this blog will not be focusing on Yu-Gi-Oh! or anything Konami related. My goal is to look at other games and help break down the decisions that I believe went into the sales vs game design.

From the player perspective, whenever money comes up in a game its usually taken very negatively by players. Consider any shiny new game coming out that you are excited for, then you see the E3 announcement that says it will include loot boxes. That feeling right there where you are booing the company is a very usual response from the modern player base. It's completely understandable why players react this way considering how some games have been very predatory with how they handle loot boxes. It's a very interesting and difficult balance to strike with players - how do you create incentives for players to spend money on your game while also not making the player hate you before your game is even released?

From the company perspective there is no reason to fund a game that will not make a profit. Point blank unless a game generates cash it cannot exist. Sure you may find some student or fun projects someone releases as a labor of love, but the golden rule of all projects that ever get green lit is that they must have a plan to make money. More than just the sales department are depending on the game to succeed and hit the targets set for the year. You have Debra in accounts, Jason in legal, Xin in IT and Gary in marketing whose jobs and lively hoods depend on the company making successful games. A large number of people with a stake in the game, actually have little to no say on the final decisions that will make or break the release. It can be easy to hate on the EA's and the Blizzard's of the world for their financially motivated decisions, but they ultimately get to make the call if a game will be funded and released. Companies will of course listen to customers if their bottom line is being affected, but you have to remember that is the only scenario companies will listen to the loud minority's complaints.

As the game designer, you are the bridge between these 2 worlds. In your heart you want to make games that people love to play and remember for years to come. You however also have to make sure the sales teams can hit their targets so that the share holders are happy and don't layoff staff. As such, a modern day successful games designer has to accept both realities and find a way to make it work for both groups. In many ways you need a heart of stone to be able to make tough calls. Some of the decisions are in the interest of the game play experience (the reason you became a game designer) and other cases you make a decision that fits the business model that allows the game to exist (the reason you are a game designer). These 2 realities frequently clash and cause tension across the teams. Sometimes a designer will not make a business decision but it will come from somewhere else and will get implemented. I personally think this is a mistake, if you are designing a game, you must understand how you intend to monetize it and build it into the design. When you try to bolt on in-app purchases after you finish the game, the players will notice and will call you out on it.

This blog will look at various games from table top to PC through the lenses of a game designer and I will try to break down precisely why decisions are made in both the design and business aspects. These break downs will be neutral. By this I mean that I will not be taking sides of the player or the company in any case. The objective is to simply help you understand and hopefully help those of you who want to be successful in games design to make it when you get your chance to do so.

- Matt