Virtual Frontiers on why open dialogue is key in game consulting

[Music] we are mid-afternoon here pock gamer connects 2019 in London I'm joined by a on a loose tenon yes a virtual frontiers Oy what is it that you guys do for anyone who isn't familiar with virtual frontiers so we're so fond tears is a gamification company actually based in kyani Finland we have been offering consulting and gamification services for more or less traditional industries so far when you say gamification I mean people are familiar with the term and the idea of making something that's functional be fun yeah so what are you using it for are you talking about like perhaps companies like which are making apps that you want to make it interesting and engaging who have you been working with so far for example up I have a client in Denmark with them we are creating this game avoid cycling platform for recreational professor my users and it's called the

word to go you can actually check that out where we create for example the virtual environments the avatars the users of the platform can customize their avatar or they their bike stuff like that so rather than just being a standard how many miles have you cited or tracking you're trying to make it keep trying to make it fun I've seen some of this stuff implemented for example with running apps where they turn it into like you're being chased by zombies or something like that that's it that's a kind of familiar one so how much of an emerging market is this this idea of taking things that are functional and putting introducing play into it and is this something you've been doing how long's the company been around for we actually started in December 2016 so we have been around a bit more over than three years but still quite a fresh spot yeah so what are the biggest challenges in terms of working with the companies because presumably they say can you we've got an idea for releasing an apple we're doing something online can you make it fun please and

then do you have to just okay I come up with the entire idea do people approach you with like we want it to be like this I think I think the best solutions are the best outcomes from a good dialogue with the client but what are their goals what are the challenges currently in their platform or in their you know in their product or in the service that they would like to gain before and then really diving into that doing an in-depth analysis of that that what could be a good solution is it like data visualization is it simulation or is it then some sort of a gamification layer like you were talking about that makes it somehow fun so the spectrum of of tools is pretty wide and I think the challenging thing is I think nailing down down the scope and the ultimate solution then bear in the end right because many clients might have a a really large idea in their head but what should be should be the solution

and then you need to like that's the politically correct way this thing at yeah so when you're faced with developers all you're faced with people who just have an idea and say that the dialogue is the big strength of it but how much of the weight does actually fall on you guys and have you ever had an instance where they've approached you with an idea we want to make this fun and you've had to kind of go I don't think we can has there ever been like we just can't find a way to make this a game the game that's and that's a good one that last you need to admit to fear anything but I'm just interested to see is there a limit to what you can do with this of course and I mean they always needs to be a balance between the game why the lemons and the utility component they're in the end so that the gamification doesn't become detrimental to the utility to the function exactly so finding that balance is is I think on

our corner and then there are times when you think about that should we really do this is this good - good thing to do in the first place so so yeah what's something it works on where you think you really nailed it what was a really good success for you guys in terms of a project where you thought yes we the outcome really met the expectation well actually the recycling before my amends to do about I think we have done a really good job in there in in creating creating a really reasonable and pleasing experience for the other cyclists and for exercising in general because it's it's usually pretty pretty heavy and pretty hard on you as a person be personable exercising so so I think that has been a pretty good success for us and then once you've created the the app once you've created this this game of fire that version do you guys deal with things like user acquisition and and and advertising networks was that something you then hand off to somebody

else it is usually something we we hand off like I said of course totally depends on the on the nature of the you know of the nature that we are dealing with the client that what kind of the contracts that we have that are we supposed to take care of that but usually we we hand it off to someone else's and how BIG's the team he say been around for like a couple of years at this point is it is it large yeah we are now at fourteen people paying for this so yeah it's it's been growing pretty steadily we started out with six people and then we have not grown to a voltage so it's very very good and coming to events like this what's the benefit from you and your company I've been asking everybody because it's always interesting everyone has a slightly different answer what they want to do some people are quoting existing clients and keeping them happy some people are looking for new uni business what are you here for I think for us is just to made our existing development

partners discovering no one's just general networking and it's also interesting to see about mobile games industry is going because it's also close to our hearts and of course maybe we'll find a new client or a tall fellow in here who are not and you have to create well best of luck with what you do find if people are watching anyone to get in touch with you and seek out your services where do they go that's our website www.ultratrust.com [Music]