PROGRESS REPORT: Alanya Castle Games Project METU Royale Flush Reporting Period: March - April 2009
Table of Contents
1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 2. Project Description…………………………………………………………….. 3. Progress Summary …………………………………………………………….. 3.1 Completed Tasks …………………………………………………….. 3.1.1 Determining the Game Type and Region…………………………
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3.1.2 Design of Expansion Games……………………………………... 3.2 Forthcoming Tasks……………..…………………………………….. 3.2.1 Presentation and Advertisement………………………………….. 3.2.1.1 Online Advertising…………………………………………… 3.2.1.2 Real Life Advertising………………………………………… 3.2.2 Further Projects…………………………………………………... 3.2.2.1 Online Games………………………………………………… 3.2.2.2 A Complete PC Game………………………………………… 4. Problems Encountered…………………………………………………………. 5. Change in Requirements……………………………………………………….. 6. Overall Assessment of the Project……………………………………………... 7. References………………………………………………………………………
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1. Introduction To begin with, providing useful information about Alanya Project for employers and sponsors is the purpose of this report. It tells about completed tasks until 20.04.2009 and tasks which are As well as giving assistance with increasing the popularity of town and its castle, helping economy of Alanya to grow is considered as the main objective of the project. However, one of the most significant issues is guessing possible legal or economic obstacles that might be encountered during the whole project and how to deal with them. The steps of this report can be summarized as below: 1. Completed Tasks a) Determining the game type and region: This section tells how game type and region is decided. b) Design of expansion games: This section gives information about land and environment, scenario and historical places. 2. Forthcoming Tasks a) Presentation and Advertisement: This section gives information about online advertising and real life advertising. b) Further Projects: In this section, some information about online games and complete PC games. Researches, producing and marketing of these games are planned here. In addition to progress summary, this report tells about the problems encountered when making expansion packs and the problems that might be faced with in forthcoming tasks. Change in requirements is also mentioned at the end of the report.
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2. Project Description
Under these circumstances, as a team, we decided to create computer games for both single player and multi player types. By this method, we wanted to emphasize that Alanya and the Castle is suitable to integrate them into computer games whose industry is highly profitable. Additionally, as it is a global industry, designing computer games gives the chance of good global presentation. In order to put this idea in action, we firstly categorized our tasks, then set our beginning time as 01.03.2009, and finally assumed the ending time as 15.09.2009.
Timeline for the Alanya Castle Games Project
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3. Progress Summary 3.1 Completed Tasks: 3.1.1 Determining the Game Type and Region Determining the game style and the region which will be integrated into game is subdivided into four major concepts. The first decision to be made was about researching video games industry in order to choose the most convenient category for the project.
As PricewaterhouseCoopers report(Androvich, 2008)
indicates game industry is thought to have 68.3 billion $ of sales by 2012 and by looking at the list of the best-selling PC video games(wikipedia,2009), it can be clearly seen that strategy games will also maintain their precious positions in the future. In addition considering the historical values of area and historical background, strategy games are found as the best choice for the game which gathers attention for further projects. The second decision was about whether creating a new game or making expansions for the most played games. Considering the case that Alanya is subjected for a video game for the first time, it is more appropriate to create expansion packs for popular games than creating an entirely new game without any reputation beforehand After deciding the industry the next step was choosing the games for expansion packs. Thus, the game which we need should have been popular and must have been suitable for custom designs. By looking at the list of best selling pc video games, we came to a decision on Age of Empires II and Empire Earth as they suit our expectations. The last step of research was for the background which we need for development of the games. Firstly, we elaborate visual sources could be used in order to intensify the charm of Alanya during the game play and historical sources to mastering the historical background of town for creating the most interesting and informative scenario for players. By this way we can arouse interest of the one’s that haven’t came to Alanya yet or increase the satisfaction of the trip for ones have came and seen Alanya.
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3.1.2 Design of Expansion Games Expansion game design consists of three stages as creating the terrain of area, writing the scenario-campaign and integrating historical places according to timeline. 3.1.2.1 Land and Environment The first step was creating the land and environment which Alanya Castle is located. In order to do this mission sources like Wikimapia and Google Earth were used to make the sketch of the area. Forests, sea sides and all other natural environment were placed on the map as accurate as the map editors allow. For instance, in Age of Empires Campaign we located trees around the castle and a stream far away from the castle instead of Dim Çayı.
View of peninsula from satellite[4] and view of peninsula from our campaign
3.1.2.2 Scenario The second step is writing scenarios that compatible with the real historical background of the town. These scenarios should have been appealing in order to make Alanya Castle more interesting. Therefore making accurate research about 17000 year history of Alanya took a real effort (Homes of Alanya, 2007, para.2). In addition, in this step, behaviors and lifestyles of the people living in the era which is focused in game are integrated into game to make it more interesting and accurate. 3.1.2.3 Historical Places At the last part we integrate the historical places into our scenarios according to our visual and historical research. For instance in the expansion of Age of Empires that we make, we allow players to build castles only after the accurate time when the Alanya Castle is built and the accurate place where the castle is. By completing the terrain, natural environment and the localization of historical places we finished the expansion packs for Age of Empires and Empire Earth. 6
3.2 Forthcoming Tasks Next step after creating expansions is presentation and advertisement, and after gaining attention focusing on the further and extensive projects. 3.2.1 Presentation and Advertisement We will divide presentation of expansion packs into two subheadings. 3.2.1.1 Online Advertising The first subheading will be online advertisement. We are planning to give commercials to popular social networks such as Facebook which can also be used for creating fan pages or groups which helps us to know what people think about us. In addition, we will publish a webpage with the name Alanya Castle Games and we will use advertisement system of Google, namely Google Adwords, to make our site worldwide known. Finally, we are planning to add two interaction parts to our website. The first part of it will allow the game players to share their scores and to compete to win small prizes about Alanya Castle such as souvenirs or maybe in the future short holidays in Alanya. In the second part of our website, there will be chance of ordering CDs which contain not only the expansion packs but also information and pictures of Alanya. Cost estimation for publishing webpage (annual): Name of Product Small Web Hosting Package Domain Name TOTAL
Cost Per Year 22.00 $ + 4.40 $ 3.99 $+ 0.798 $ 31.188 $
Source natro.com natro.com
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Cost estimation for CD’s which contain expansion packs and information about Alanya: Name of Product Compact Disc CD Box CD Cover TOTAL
Cost 38.11 TL 49.90 TL 0,75 TL 163,01 TL
Cost Per Unit 0,3811 TL 0,2495 TL 0,75 TL 1,3806 TL
Source mavibilgisayar.com teknodijital.com TeknoArt
By this estimation and considering the case that the game will be first in that kind approximate price per CD could be thought as follows:
Profit Percentage
Initial Price
Price for the Following
Price after getting
3 TL 53.98
Month 5 TL 72.38
sufficiently popular >= 10 TL >= 86.194
Cost estimation of advertising on Facebook and Google Adwords: Advertisement
Approximate
Approximate
Approximate
Source Facebook Google Adwords
Cost Per Click 0,01 $ 0,01 $
Click Per Day Monthly Cost 100 30 $ 100 30 $
TOTAL 60 $ (monthly)
Cost estimation for prizes for the shared scores/game downloads from website: Number of Prizes (monthly) 4
Approximate Price of Prizes 3-5 $
TOTAL 12-20$
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3.2.1.2 Real Life Advertising The second subheading of presentation is focusing on more concrete aspects such as negotiating with local municipality and airport management to hire stands in places where have high potential in attracting tourists in order to sell our product. 3.2.2 Further Projects After all steps of the project until now become a success, we will apply our ideas onto bigger projects and our expansion packs will be just prototypes of these bigger projects. These future ideas will be creating online games, creating a total PC-console game and involving online real life simulations with our game. 3.2.2.1 Online Games Firstly we are planning to create an online game such as Travian and Galaxia online. We decide on these games because they give us a big opportunity to spread. They occur with every click on the Internet and a lot of people are joining these games even unintentionally. For example Travian has 414907[5] players although many people just close these links without a look. A view from Travian 3.2.2.2 A Complete PC Game Secondly, our plan is to continue and expand our success. We will create an entire video game with its every element like a software company. In this part of project, we are planning to make a game where we can entirely present Alanya and Alanya Castle. Therefore, we will work with professionals for both producing and marketing. Firstly, as we did in our prototype games, we will subdivide our process, as research, producing and marketing. We did not need a large budget in creating the prototype, however, this time we need a large budget and we are planning to sign sponsorship agreements with companies or getting support from charities and especially from city hall of Alanya and Antalya.
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a) Research and Producing For research stage, we are going to make a deep research on video games market in order to decide the type of the game and the target audience. Following that, we will decide the best area of Alanya Castle for integrating into game and we will work with professional game studios for creating a copy of this area without any alteration. Secondly, we will hire writers for the scenario of the game. Similar to creating the game setting, we will again work with the professionals, because there is no chance of selling the game without a scenario which gets the attentions of players. Working on the most appropriate area of Alanya Castle and the most interesting scenario, we are planning to create a game which has no chance but to be in best-sellers. b) Marketing and Advertising After completing the game, we will distribute some copies to magazines and authorities in video games industry in order to impress them and make them write and talk about us. In addition, we will give targeted advertisements in online media. For marketing, in the first months, we are planning to set a lower price than other games and increase the prices as the demand for game increases. As we get income from sales, we will be able to go back and donate money to city hall and charities which would help us or would not help us. Making the last mentioned step will also help us to be more prestigious in the eyes of people and so to increase the demand towards our game. Financial summary of the producing complete PC game will be studied according to the circumstances and opportunities of the initial states of this stage. 4. Problems Encountered 4.1. Problems in making expansion pack We had problems especially in making the expansion pack. Fitting a real area to a game map is a difficult job. It is even harder in Age of Empires as it is an old game and does not provide a convenient technical support for expansion. Furthermore, we did not have enough visual sources to design the exact map. Therefore we have worked hard in order to make it as accurate as possible. Moreover, the sources in English about the history of Alanya Castle are so rare that we had to translate from the Turkish
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sources in order to put in our expansion pack. Although it was a hard job, we have accomplished with an effective group work. 4.2. Problems in Forthcoming Tasks The second one is about the problems that we can face in the forthcoming tasks. As we are planning to sell our product, we have to advertise it very well. For a good advertisement and introduction, a great deal of money must be paid. Moreover, if we succeed with the first expansion pack we are planning to take our works one step further and create online games as well as a total game for consoles and PC which also costs a lot. In order to solve these money problems we are planning to find sponsorships and negotiating with Alanya municipality to make them support us. 5. Change in Requirements At the beginning of our project we did not have an idea of taking our work further and creating a total game or online games. After including this step in our project plan, we realized that we have to find more money sources in order to be successful. Therefore, we also included finding sponsorships and negotiating with Alanya municipality.
6. Overall Assessment of the Project Although our progress until now almost meets our expectations, the tough part of our project will just beginning after this part. In order to provide more accurate financial information and attain knowledge about needs of a game software company, we are planning to negotiate with a professional. After all, we need to improve our business plan to reduce risks of starting this new company.
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7. References Androvich, M.(2008). Global games industry sales $68.3 billion by 2012, says report from http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/global-games-industry-sales-68-3-billion-by2012-says-report Wikipedia. (2009). List of best-selling PC video games. Retrieved April 13, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bestselling_PC_video_games Homes of Alanya. (2007). History of Alanya. Retrieved April 13, 2009 from http://www.homesofalanya.com/history-of-alanya.html [4] http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=36.5367778&lon=31.9913292&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=1 [5] http://www.travian.com.tr/?ad=10181_1073911300&g=1
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