Frogmind CEO Johannes Vuorinen on making Badland: its perfect game

so good morning everyone uh I'm going to start the day talking about Badland and uh how we as a two man company managed to create this game which eventually became the ab store game of the year last year so uh first of course we needed a company so we started a company frogmind in April 2012 uh we were two Founders so I worked as a programmer and Yan Mish was the artist and we were uh colleagues from redls and universo univers is no longer that here but it was a Finnish company Finnish mobile company so we knew each other for a couple of years in those times so uh so we started frogmind and our goal was to basically develop the coolest touch bait games targeting ourselves so we wanted to create a game perfect game for ourselves that was the thing and how

well we wanted to uh stay 100% independent and and do not hire anyone just be the two of us and we didn't want any Publishers or investors so we basically wanted to keep it as simple as possible just to this game by two of us and we wanted to focus 100% on the game experience and not that much on the business model so we chose the paid model because of that and that was of course the easiest model uh for for that purpose so uh we didn't have any uh previous experience on running a game studio so this was the first thing for us we didn't have any press contacts we were just coders and artists in our previous companies uh we didn't have any platform contact so we didn't know any from from Apple or Google or from anywhere and and we we didn't have any marketing experience but what we did

have was uh actual real game development experience for about 5 years both of both of us of course lots of Indie spirits and spirit and uh we got lots of tips from fellow Finnish Indie Developers for example from mountain sheep and cornr and brothers and and all these awesome Finnish game developers here in Finland and and we had this strong belief that if we create an excellent game it will sell when well enough for us as a Twan company without any marketing budget so uh but but we still knew that we need to do some marketing so uh I'm actually going to give some tips about this during this talk so how how we did this kind of indd or do it yourself marketing so in June 2012 we announced frogmind and our first upcoming game so this was about 10 months before the launch so we we

basically posted this page in our website frogmite games.com and uh we just told that hey we are two industry veterans with five years experience and we have made this games Trials Evolution and Moto Heroes and we went we wanted to go India and we went India and our first game will be announced soon so even with this we got like actual first press press contacts and and first articles so uh even even though we didn't have any game to show so uh for example an interview with gamasutra and even Pocket Gamer made this article so uh it was it was a good start so my first tip background stories background stories are interesting so even if you don't have any game to show yet just think about if you have an interesting story like press can pick those even if you don't have any game to show so then

July came and we announced Badland so this was the front page of Badland game.com in back in July so we had this one beautiful picture and uh we we said that it's an action adventure game coming to iOS and we started our development blog so well we didn't have too much to show so it was mostly text text based blog post so something about gaming experience and balance visual Inspirations and so so on so and and we got a couple of well a few hundred followers already at that point for the game and uh so my second tip is that well announce your and start writing and teasing about your game early and be open so especially this is important for paid games as as you need to have that huge amount of followers already before you launch so that at least those guys will will buy the game immediately when

you're launch so uh so this is really important and also you get early feedback to your game so maybe you can even change something before you launch so then we started to post uh screenshots uh but but we didn't get for example touch arcade.com uh right about the game so we needed to do something so so we created this video I'm going to show it so this was in October 2012 about 7 months before the [Music] launch so we use a used a camera to record this though show that players really show that it's running on actual iPad

and these sounds are are all faked so they weren't in the game so our audio guy yonas Turner made made the audio in post process so it it looks like a almost like the final game actually and actually this level is in the almost identically in the final game as well so in this video we we almost like added every possible feature we had at that time to the to the level and really wanted to show everything to get the best possible feeling of the final game yeah well it it goes for one minute but uh

but yeah this this proved to be pretty successful so now we got those touch our gates and uh Destructoid and Edge for example writing about the game so that was really successful us and what's what's great thing about this is that once these sites start to write about the game they tend to continue to do so until the game is launched and and and then they will even review it so this was great news but what but what was maybe even more more greater it was that we got an email from Apple the following night so uh we got an actual apple contact with I guess with this with with this video I guess they are reading uh Touch Arcade and all those SES so I guess they picked the game from from those sides and and they said to us that hey this looks cool and and we're interested when when are you going to launch the game so uh so that was great news because we we knew for for example from Mountain ship and Fox guys that uh

apple contact is really important to get that featuring once you launch so we were super excited at that point so third tip publish a video gameplay video as as soon as you some as soon as you have something cool to show and and I I suggest that you record it with a camera because that way you can really show how the game is played and then that it's not faked although we had the sounds faked but like the gameplay was real so uh and and that's really cool way to get good feedback so we got well lots of positive feedback but also some some negative as well so uh it it was really useful and maybe maybe if you do this kind of video early on and see that like hey no one's interested maybe maybe it's then maybe time to think about the whole project so I think this was a this is a good way to get that early feedback before the launch so uh

then we started to uh submit the game to probably every possible competition there was so uh this is the site called Pro promoter app.com there's this cool calendar which shows every upcoming competition there is so uh uh for example this uh very big Indie pitch that is happening here or happened yesterday so we start uh submitting Badland to every one of these competition and uh we ended up actually winning uh one in November 2012 in um game connection Europe in Paris and of course this was huge for us it validated the pro uh the game even more to us and and of course we were super excited and and now we started to talk about the game as an award-winning game which which was awesome so my fourth ined tip submit your game to every competition it it doesn't take too much time and uh well

you can get lots of good exposure if you happen to win or happen to uh well happen to succeed there okay uh then December came and Christmas and and New Year's Eve but we knew that we don't have the game yet in ready enough stage so we knew that the game will be uh available somewhere next year or 2013 so um we were silent during December but in January uh we posted this new video where we showed the uh this new feature uh which was the local multiplayer mode for for Badland uh we had this uh feature already already back in uh Autumn but we didn't want to talk about it yet because we wanted to have something new to show uh more near to the actual launch

date so with this video we we got these same sites right about the game again so we we're back in their radar although the year was has changed so my fifth tip keep showing new stuff regularly before the launch do not play all your cards once so I I I think this is also important to get like multiple of those uh new species from from these new uh from these uh different websites and and so on so uh do not play all your cards once okay then February we we showed some new screenshots in March uh we we posted yet another Gameplay trailer and this time we showed this new uh background or this new scene in the game dusk section and uh and we also announced uh the release date that was going to be the April 4th

but but then I'm but before I go to the actual launch date I'm like going to give the most obvious tip that like if if you don't have this like nothing makes sense so so uh yeah you need to have a really cool and unique game this is like well the most obvious thing to to stand out from the crowd so uh we in on purpose for Badland we we wanted it to stand out from the crowd because with the visuals and and and and with some choices we made to the design that it's it's not like uh yet another Angry Birds type of game or some other like casual game so uh so we on purpose wanted to it to stand out from the crowd that way and uh I think the trust your vision thing is also important because although you get lots of feedback from from uh from users I I think it's important to not just get that all that feedback and change your game because I guess that way the game can end up being some kind

of like average of all that feedback and not any anymore any kind of cool game okay so then April 4th Badland was launched and then we immedi immediately got the editors Choice globally which which was super awesome so uh that meant for us about 100,000 copies sold for for the first week and since it was a paid game it for $4 it meant it meant that we were uh posit positive Revenue immediately so uh it was great news and we knew that okay now we can continue in this pro project and and make updates and so on so this this was an awesome awesome awesome day for us and uh after this we have got plenty of new featurings such as the uh Apple design award and uh we were part of this five years of App Store promotion in in July where Badland was free and we actually got 7 million downloads during

that week and and finally in in um December we got the iPad game of the year uh which was which way which meant really nice sales for the Christmas times so where ban is now so we have ported the game basically Now everywhere on mobile so uh uh App Store Amazon app store Google Play Windows Phone BlackBerry World and Samsung apps so we are with the same paid model almost everywhere but except Google Play and Amazon app store and on Google Play We actually uh have ads so it's it's you can actually play the game for free if if with ads so some numbers numbers are always interesting so uh 9 million downloads on iOS well well most of them are free downloads because of that promotion week uh about seven or 8 million downloads actually at the moment on Google Play and our revenue from last year 9 months was $1.5 Million so so that you get the

picture what kind of uh numbers these uh successful paid games uh can give you so total downloads uh well App Store and Google Play are pretty dominating Windows phone is not yet here but it would be like in the same range at the moment it was just launched two weeks ago media downloads per day well Google Play is dominating this one uh because it's free there so it it's get receiving about $20,000 per day while app store is about $1,000 per day total revenue app store is winning uh basically it was launched already back in April there and and Google Play was uh launched last December so in average revenue per day actually Google Play is performing better but still uh app store is winning so our future we we want to focus on Badland we want to create new games in that universe uh we we have already a new game coming

or in the works and uh we have expanded from two to seven so a huge growth uh and and it's awesome because we can now do more things at once and and we are still looking for new talent to join us okay thank you uh I guess we don't have any time for questions but I will be hanging here so feel free to ask me anything thank you