Helping clients imagine more for their titles | Liz Corless from Keywords Studios

foreign to be joined by Liz Corliss from keywords how are you doing today I'm really good Bang from you I am well we're heading towards the end of the day and uh still got a few a few things to do but how's your show been so far oh it's been incredible it's been really great I love coming to these things you walk around you bump into everyone that you know and actually really gamma connects has got so huge now and the scale of it is just incredible um so really is um one to Mark in the diary for everyone I think within the games industry well we're lucky to have you and to be here after everything that happened over the last few years so maybe if people aren't familiar with keywords what is it that you folks do so keywords is a global end-to-end service provider to the video games industry and also entertainment Industries so the team is about um tile thousand plus globally uh we have around

70 Studios and it really is you know a huge company that works to be a Pretenders agree of the top 25 gaming companies um around the world so a massive company that really does have a lot of exposure to everything that's going on in games and it's a great place great great place to work um lots of really cool Studios So when you say end-to-end Solutions perhaps folks that maybe on the Indie side might not know specifically what that means what do you mean by that sure so our services are um tied up into free service lines so we have create which is Art services and game development then we have globalize so everything to take the game or a product to Market so that may be you know QA so um testing localization anything to do with making it more available within more markets and just being making sure that it's really going to work all of the different audiences that we have and then we have our gauge and kind of the finals that within the process and So within engage we have marketing Studios

for creating any campaign assets that needed as well as a lot of strategy building and fostering communities and then we have our players called mayor insight as well so that's really about looking after the communities that we've built but also making sure that they're really happy within the games and just recently um we Acquired helpship and so help shift Ari in our customer support letter so we really do have this ability now to be keeping players in the game making sure they're really happy but then also taking all of that feedback we get from the product and using it to then iterate and we go back into creative again so that we can be looking at making the game better making it look better so the idea being that actually this this cycle goes around around and the gates get better we built on board if there's a little players within those games and really get people to call in love with with game franchises a lot of the time now we're finding that um fans like particular game companies and the games that they make or particular genres of games so it's really important that we recognize those communities and so

that's how we're set up and it's working really well that's quite a broad Focus compared to I speak to a lot of service providers and they'll maybe tackle one perhaps two elements of that when you have it all under under the one house I imagine there are huge benefits to that as in you can keep that flow like you say end to end going are there any like do people feel like they might be restrictive in some way like you're tied into one element and if you perhaps say I'd like to do the development bit and the publishing marketing bit but maybe not the support there like is there an option for that or should people be really buying into the whole thing no absolutely you know they're all about plugging in where we're needed so you know when we team up there's obviously a lot of magic that happens in that moment because we come together you know if you team up with you know if you bought two different companies together that were maybe not part of the same group you may find it harder to get them to have those synergies from day one to understand each other's processes from day one but actually because we're all part of the same group and that comes very naturally you know we can send out one invoice or have one contact and could actually ever

if a client um there's commenters that say I just need you to do the art Services side of things or you know I just need some game development or a marketing campaign that's absolutely how we're used to working so we just work on a you know project a project basis but when we do team up obviously we can offer more there as well ultimately the way that they work it's about allowing our customers to imagine more for their titles so you know whatever that may be we can work with and to essentially make um what could be a fixed cost into a variable cost so you know they can they can lean on us for what they need but they don't necessarily have to you know build an entire team internally to handle what might be just a part of a long-standing project so we allow them to have um a workflow that can expand and contract based upon their their needs as of when they need it and also sometimes we find that um customers will come to us at one stage and then we see them maybe a year later there's something else within the same product which is really nice actually because

you see how um a particular game has evolved or how they've created audience or maybe they've sub launched it already and they're making just get up to speed on on the status and then take it from there so you do really we do really get a sense of almost being you know in a true partnership with them and just plugging in where you're needed um any one time is there an element of that development cycle that you feel most developers or at least perhaps first-time developers Overlook because there's a lot of focus for Indies certainly where they develop the game they're very excited they get to the end they go oh yeah maybe I should do some marketing and maybe build some monetization into that and that's where a lot of people trip up because of the limited bandwidth is there an area you feel gets neglected a little bit I think you know ultimately you have lots of different um skill sets within a game that's the beauty of gaming I love gaming I've worked in it for 19 years I love the fact that there's so many different people and with different skills and different focuses so when it comes to games it's inevitable there's going to be

um you know a full focus of where you know a particular class of math um is pointing all of their um you know all of their energies and that often comes from you know essentially if you're looking at a smaller team that are launching the very you know um I suppose an indie product a lot of the time you're only going to have a very closeful team to start with anyway and so ultimately their their skill sets probably going to be focused on a few key areas rather than everybody a bit where we come in is that we can you know quite quickly get up to speed and understand the areas where they maybe do need some support and plug in there whilst also you know really being respectful of what what's there that skill set that magical big idea for a game um you know that baby and something in the mix where you're like you just we don't want to touch anything to do with you know the visual side of the game because you you've really nailed it let's just leave that alone so we're going to help you to actually understand you know through your audience is how you're going to take this to Market there's so many going to get launched all the time and and I think sometimes

there's parts that are forgotten it's just a real shade um because I think we can definitely help with those areas and when the time comes so whether it be about actually understanding who your target market is who you're actually talking to what the opportunity is there or even being able to identify a particular Market where we haven't necessarily considered bullets you're gay but actually there's huge investment there and gaining to really taking off on this particular platform and we can help there so um really it's about having that conversation as early as possible in the process and it may be like see you in two months time or that you see you in two years time and but I like to think they'll be able to help anybody with any part of a game in the process and also help them to identify maybe the parts but they have potentially not considered a future investment when actually it's essential for the successful products well true ahead jumping off from that when is the best time to get you folks involved if I was a developer how much information do you need from that person

to help you do what you do so I think it really depends on the title product because obviously certain games have longer um London Cycles than others but if you were looking um at say um a first person shooter for example um you know kind of you know maybe like a console platform or you know it's on like a PlayStation or an Xbox and I would say at the point where there is um some initial sketches around a game you know an idea of what the visual Nook would be that's a really great time to actually engage us as a company because it's at that point that we can help to identify that need and also map everything out so a company that I um Studio had like itchy um they worked on a game I think it was four years out the run out and so getting the super early and talking about the game talking about um here with the child is that and actually starting to look at the positioning of that product out into the market being

that fresh pair of eyes and that sounding board so this is before you had anything any game uh code any kind of vertical's Life any game art really um you know on a kind of a large scale and it was the best time to be involved because we're going into hand and looking at um something that essentially is inception which is a really exciting time to be involved um and then you know obviously work for a while and then it might see you in here three years time for a barking campaign you know and then maybe another Studio might get involved at that point so yeah as early as possible but also it's never too late you know who work for products when you know they've already launched they've been out for ages and actually we're looking you know at A New Path for expansions or you know maybe a new iteration of the game and so it's never too late to talk to keywords um but I like the the really early stage products because I really like to see something that's just a little feeling result to look at it together and work out how you're going to make us into a huge tree so yeah I'm like them is that

part it's a lovely note everyone thank you so much for talking with me today [Music]