• LOGIN Reveals Its Hidden Agenda
• Still Time to Save on LOGIN Registration
• Interview with Riptide Games' Brian Robbins
• Party Sponsorship Opportunities at LOGIN 2010
• Additional LOGIN 2010 Speakers Announced
• Industry Highlights
• Indian firm buys half of British game publisher Codemasters
• Schell: Why games will take over our lives
• Data Mining Social Games To Find The Most Valuable Players
• Nintendo shuts down fan-made Pokemon MMO
• Community: The Third Element
• IARPA Soliciting Info On Intelligence Training In Virtual Worlds
• Spacetime Reveals iPhone, iPad MMO Pocket Legends
• SecondShares: Zynga Could Be Worth $5 Billion

LOGIN Reveals Its Hidden Agenda

We’re done keeping one of the best kept secrets about the 2010 LOGIN Conference. We’re now in the open with our complete conference schedule. Almost every speaker, lecture, panel, reception and more is now posted on the 2010 LOGIN Conference website. After taking a look, we hope you take away the impression that the schedule represents viewpoints from a wide range of companies, regions and disciplines within the online game industry. You name the important online game industry topics of 2010 and beyond; LOGIN speakers will be talking about it: social networking, online mobile gaming, MMOs, international markets, user generated content, security, the future of online gaming and much more.

Not only that, you can see the conference offers a wealth of high-powered networking opportunities throughout the day, from the first cup of coffee to the last sip of wine at night.

The agenda embodies almost seventy sessions and over one hundred speakers, and reflects a snapshot of what the LOGIN Conference is all about – diverse companies and attendees from all over the world showing up in Seattle to network, to share information, to do business in a professional but intimate setting.

Remember that time is running out to register online and avoid paying late registration fees. For those from outside the Seattle area, be aware that our official room block at the official conference venue and hotel, the Seattle Waterfront Marriott Hotel, is nearly full, although we are securing additional rooms at the discounted conference rate.

We hope you'll join us at one of the best game industry conferences in 2010. Now you don’t have to just take our word for it, because the agenda shows what LOGIN has planned all along.

Peter Freese Director LOGIN Conference

Still Time to Save on LOGIN Registration
Save $100 by registering online

You may have missed the early-bird registration rate that ended in March, but there's still time to demonstrate to all your colleagues how smart and thrifty you are. The LOGIN Conference is still one of the best deals of the year, and by registering online now, you can save $100 of the onsite registration price.

Just what does attendance get you at the LOGIN Conference?

• First-class content. You'll have access to over sixty lectures, panels, debates, and roundtables over three days, covering topics important to the breadth of the online game development world, including business, legal, production, new technologies, virtual worlds, social networking, community, and much more, delivered by some of the industry's most influential and knowledgeable speakers.
  
  
• Networking opportunities galore. Whether at the classy LOGIN welcome reception, the official conference party, the LOGIN business lounge, or one of the speed-networking breakfasts, you'll have more opportunities to rub elbows with some of the online game industry’s most powerful movers and shakers than any other event. Since LOGIN is more exclusive than other events, you can have the time you need to get to know just the right people without being lost in the mob.
  
  
• Incredible amenities. Ask anyone who has attended in previous years: The sit-down lunches, gourmet snacks, and fine wine are just a part of what regularly makes LOGIN one of the most memorable and superior game industry experiences of the year. Everything at LOGIN is step beyond what you've experienced elsewhere.

One pass covers just about everything at the LOGIN Conference. No separate expo passes. No tutorial passes. Just one pass that lets you be part of the game industry’s premiere conference. If you’re ready to register for LOGIN, get started here:

Once you've registered for LOGIN, we definitely recommend booking your stay at the official conference hotel, the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Not only are you conveniently located at the center of all the official conference action, you’re staying at one of Seattle’s finest hotels at a specially discounted rate.

I always look forward to coming to LOGIN. The event always has a great signal to noise ratio. I learn a lot when I come, and perhaps most importantly, the people there are almost always exactly the people that I’m always trying to find at other larger events. Simply put it’s attended by the people I want to talk to.

- Brian Robbins, President and Founder of Riptide Games

Interview with Riptide Games' Brian Robbins

Brian Robbins, President and Founder of Riptide Games, is at the forefront of game development for several mobile platforms. Apple’s iPhone has been eating into mobile game system market share, is arguably the core of their iTunes and App Store strategy, and at the forefront of innovative game development, monetization and promotion strategies. Brian gives us a preview of his LOGIN 2010 sessions, Strategies for success on the iPhone and Developing for iPhone from start to App Store and beyond, with a sampling of his views about the iPhone, development for this platform, as well as the just-launched iPad.

PAUL PHILLEO: Brian, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us about iPhone development. How is Riptide Games involved in iPhone game development?

BRIAN ROBBINS: Riptide is focused on next-gen mobile development. Today the largest market is the iPhone and now iPad space, but we have a game coming out very soon for the Palm Pre, and are looking into Android development as well. Our goal is to support viable platforms with our projects and for our clients. As such we’re officially platform agnostic, but acknowledge that right now the iPhone space is the only one that we have found to drive appreciable revenue.

In general, which sorts of companies are well-suited for developing iPhone games, and which ones are not?

In theory any company can develop for the iPhone, but in reality the best strategy for success is to keep projects limited in scope, and be ready to build and expand on them if they take off. As a result, I believe that companies which are not able to think small, and look at ways to reduce and limit the scope of their ideas are likely to have a rough time in the space. Further some companies are simply too big, I’ve heard of several projects over the last couple years that were killed because even if successful the returns were in the 10’s to 100’s of thousands of dollars, and the developers couldn’t justify the effort when compared against their typical multi-million dollar projects.

If you're a smaller developer for the iPhone, the challenges for developing a competitive app have to more difficult in many ways. In general, how do you limit overhead costs while creating a competitive product that can be monetized in a marketplace awash with apps?

That’s the key question regardless of size! I’ve always looked to keep overhead costs down by maintaining a small and nimble team. Most of the work Riptide does is through highly talented senior level contractors and team members. We know how to work well with each other, and we can count on getting the things done that need to be done. As such we don’t need to force more regimented production practices and layers of oversight because of the implicit trust we have in each person getting their portion done. This has helped us keep costs low, while still delivering compelling products.

What tips can you offer a developer considering developing any product for the App Store? How best can they stand out?

Always have some sort of hook, or reason for people to be interested in checking out, and talking about your game. Without a hook the title is far more likely to get lost in the mix. As a specific example with Gravity Sling we had a couple cool hooks. The first was that we developed it at the 360iDev iPhone Game Jam, and the initial version was created in 12-hours, and the first release was just 3 weeks later. Additionally it was one of the first games on the iPhone to be a free title with In App Purchase, as opposed to the “traditional” lite+upsell model that most developers were using.

How would the landscape for iPhone developers change with the potential inclusion of Verizon into the exclusive club of carriers distributing and servicing the iPhone?

As of right now this hasn’t been confirmed yet, so we can’t really say. Introducing another carrier in the US, especially one as big as Verizon would be a great boon for iPhone developers as it could potentially expand the market out even wider than it is now. Over the last 6 months we’ve earned over 68% of our revenue from the US, and we have seen about half of our user base comes from iPhone devices (the other half from iPod Touches). So obviously anything that can help expand the US iPhone user base will be great for us.

Technically speaking, do you think the iPhone’s technical limits in graphics, audio, memory capacity and coding complexity have been reached?

Not at all. I never cease to be amazed at what developers can do to push devices to new limits. Certainly the 3GS is not being pushed as most developers are continuing to focus on support for the less advanced hardware that still makes up a majority of the audience.

I’d be remiss if I didn‘t ask you about the iPad. What do you think about its potential as a game platform and could it cannibalize the momentum and talent that have been focused on iPhone development so far?

I’ve only had my iPad for a couple days and I have worked on 2 apps with an iPad version released with the iPad launch. So far I have been very impressed with the device. The speed and size of the screen make it a great improvement for some types of apps, and I’m looking forward to doing more and seeing what others do with it. I don’t think it’s going to impact iPhone development much as the real money in this space still comes from iPhone and iPod Touch devices. In the long-run the real question is going to be how many iPads get out, which we won’t really start to see until the 3G version is released and then start to get long-term sales reports later this year.

You’ll be delivering two talks (Strategies for success on the iPhone and Developing for iPhone from start to App Store and beyond) centered on the risks and rewards of iPhone development at LOGIN this year. How are these talks different, and which audiences should attend each of them – and why?

The two talks are actually quite different. The Developing for iPhone talk is going to walk through the process developers need to follow to get started developing for the platform. It’s targeted for people who aren’t developing for the platform but are interested in getting started. The Strategies for Success is much more business focused in that it’s going to cover the various models that I have found to be successful over the past 2 years. It will cover a lot of my own experiences, and should provide practical advice to anyone that wants to get into this space. It’s more targeted to smaller indies and the like but could apply to groups within larger organizations as well.

You've been a speaker at every LOGIN conference since its inception. What aspects of the conference and which sessions are you most excited about this year?

I always look forward to coming to LOGIN. The event always has a great signal to noise ratio. I learn a lot when I come, and perhaps most importantly, the people there are almost always exactly the people that I’m always trying to find at other larger events. Simply put it’s attended by the people I want to talk to. It’s tough to pick out the sessions I’m most looking forward to as I’d be hard pressed to choose ones that I don’t want to attend. In an effort not to just avoid the question though I’ll suggest a couple. :) The Indie Obstacles session on Tuesday should be really good with some incredible people on the panel.  I also think the Mental Accounting session on Wednesday will provide some good insights into game design for all scopes of games.

Read the full interview and comment

Party Sponsorship Opportunities at LOGIN 2010

Time is running out to take advantage of sponsorships, with several sponsorship deadlines ending this week. There are quite a few outstanding opportunities available that could perfectly fit your company, but time is running out, and once the deadlines pass, they'll be gone forever.

We've just announced a great new opportunity for companies to get involved with promotion at LOGIN: the Official LOGIN Networking Party Package.

For just $3,000, a sponsor will get banner placement, an executive pass, and one hundred drink tokens customized with your logo to distribute during the party as you mingle and network. It's a fantastic deal, but availability is extremely limited.

To learn more, contact Cynthia Freese at cynthia@loginconference.com, call 1.425.533.5973, or visit the sponsorship page on our website.

Additional LOGIN 2010 Speakers Announced

We're pleased to announce additions to our all-star cast of speakers for LOGIN 2010. We'll continue to announce speakers each week in LOGIN Beat, and you can always see the most current list of speakers on the conference speaker page.

See the complete list of speakers

Industry Highlights

Indian firm buys half of British game publisher Codemasters

India’s Reliance Big Entertainment has agreed to acquire a 50 percent share of British game publisher Codemasters, the maker of hit games such as Dirt 2. Codemasters’ annual revenues are in excess of $150 million, but the company hasn’t disclosed its profit status. Reliance Big Entertainment, which is part of Reliance ADA Group, is investing alongside existing investor Balderton Capital, the European venture capital firm that invested in Codemasters starting in 2005. Reliance Big Entertainment’s Zapak Digital Entertainment, a publisher of casual and massively multiplayer online games, will oversee Codemasters. Besides Codemasters, Zapak also controls Jump Games, a global mobile game maker. »

Story on GamesBeat

Schell: Why games will take over our lives

Jesse Schell, a game designer and Carnegie Mellon University professor, says toothbrushes will be hooked-up with Wi-Fi Internet connections within five years. The point? If the entire Internet knows how often you brush your teeth and for how long, there's an incentive to brush more often. Schell says dental hygiene -- and, really, just about everything else -- will become a game. He thinks the "gamepocalypse," the moment when everything in our lives becomes a game, is coming soon -- if it's not already here. »

Interview on CNN Tech

Data Mining Social Games To Find The Most Valuable Players

Can gamers be treated like shoppers—get sliced, segmented, and targeted? A year-old startup with offices in New York City and San Francisco called Turiya Media is building a business around applying data mining techniques to social, massive-multiplayer, and mobile games to help game developers figure out which players are the most valuable. As more free-to-play games become the norm and selling virtual goods becomes the way to make money, game companies are relying more and more on a small fraction of players (typically 1 to 3 percent) paying to level up or for that shiny new virtual sword. Finding that 1 to 3 percent of players or getting more to pay for virtual goods can have a big impact on game revenues. »

Story on TechCrunch

Nintendo shuts down fan-made Pokemon MMO

Nintendo has issued a cease-and-desist notice to the creators of the open source Pokémon MMO Pokenet, requiring that they take down their website and surrender the pokedev.org domain name used for the game, claiming unauthorized use of Nintendo trademarks. Pokenet was a work in progress, with the "Valiant Venonat" version of the beta nearing release, but it was already operating online at the time of shutdown. "Nushio," one of the programmers on the project, told us that over 7,000 players had logged time in the game, which set every player as a Pokémon trainer in the regions of Kanto and Johto (with more coming later). »

Story on Joystiq

Community: The Third Element

Star Wars: The Old Republic systems designer Damion Schubert has penned a nice look at how community-oriented MMO design has influenced the way the game will look when it debuts. "Community is the crazy notion that massively multiplayer games are more interesting when other players matter. Advocates of this viewpoint savor competition and cooperation above all else. Community-driven players want, above all else, to be able to interact and gather with other players, in a civil way. They share ideals with the other schools of thought: community-driven players tend to value balance and fairness, but they also want the freedom to express themselves and interact with others." »

Developer Blog on official SW:TOR site

IARPA Soliciting Info On Intelligence Training In Virtual Worlds

Last month the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) posted an RFI looking for quantitative research--and theories and proposals on how to obtain it--on the effectiveness of using virtual worlds for intelligence analyst training. Responses are due April 12 as the agency is aiming to incorporate the information received into a two-day workshop in May. It says the information will help it set an agenda, with some respondents getting an invitation to the workshop itself and an opportunity to set the stage for a multi-year competitive program. »

Story on Virtual Worlds News

Spacetime Reveals iPhone, iPad MMO Pocket Legends

Austin-based independent dev house Spacetime Studios releases its first project, a fantasy MMO called Pocket Legends, developed for iPhone and iPad. Pocket Legends is treading on new ground for Apple's mobile platforms. It's a real-time 3D MMO based not based on an existing IP, and released simultaneously for iPhone and the just-launched iPad. »

Story on Gamasutra

SecondShares: Zynga Could Be Worth $5 Billion

Zynga, the leading social-gaming company behind Facebook hits such as Farmville and Mafia Wars, would likely be worth as much as $5 billion if it were publicly traded instead of privately held, according to SecondShares.com, a group of former equity analysts who spend their time researching the value of private online companies such as Zynga, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. SecondShares based its estimate of Zynga’s value on the number of outstanding shares, estimated revenue per user, growth rate and other metrics, and projected that by 2015 the game-maker could have a theoretical market value as high as $10 billion. »

Article on GigaOM

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