October 27, 2007

Me being snarky at the Austin Game Developer's Conference

I was just minding my own business not drinking the free beer when these three zombies accosted me.

GameZombie.tv Presents Heatwave Interactive

Posted Oct 21, 2007

GameZombie.tv Presents a conversation with Anthony Castoro, Founder of Heatwave Interactive, "an entertainment software company whose mission is to create original, character-based games that unite the power of online gaming with the excitement of traditional video games." Filmed at the 2007 Austin Game Developer's Conference. VJ'd by Jessica Frasher, Music by Chris Bates, Produced by Spencer Striker, Edited by Tyler Mager

Posted by SunSword at 03:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2007

In response to MMO != VC

Over on Terra Nova.com, Dan Hunter commented on the sad state of funding for online games.

It frustrated me because the MMO development as a whole suffers from the scarcity of funding. Since I consult for one of the few venture groups that actually funds MMOs, I get a chance to talk to MMO developers. Specifically, I spend a lot of time hearing one thing: “VCs and I.Banks don’t get us.” I am a gamer. I want people to understand the industry. I want my colleagues to get the MMO industry, so they fund good games.

Obviously, this topic keenly interests me, as Heatwave is considering taking on some external funding in the near future.

Part of the problem is that MMO Companies aren't great at having a strong business plan that VC's can understand. I think this is widely true of the game industry in general. It's also a hit driven business and unlikely to support as many companies as the forecasted market numbers may indicate at first blush.

To complicate matters, it's really really difficult to find developers that actually have all of the right components put together for a likely successful liquidation event. I can't fathom the number of online games that I evaluated last year that were non-starters within 15 minutes. Wrong idea, wrong staff, wrong business plan, wrong technology...

MMOGs are hard. Perhaps the hardest thing to do in this business. I imagine it's a scary place for traditional VC's and banks to find success. I can only think of one major exit of an MMO company, and that's EA's purchase of Mythic. I'm sure there are others, and yes the industry is young.

In all honesty, I've assumed from the beginning that we'd get our funding from non-traditional sources. Mostly because of the kinds of stories many game developers tell of the difficulties associated with traditional VC's. Control issues and external pressures don't always mesh well with a highly creative, iterative process. So it's possible the problem goes both ways. MMO companies may not want VC funding in the first place.

Well, anyway, there's my perspective. I too bemoan the lack of funding in the game industry, but I also believe that it takes a special kind of backer to understand what it takes to find success in the MMO business. If you know any of those folks, feel free to send 'em my way ;).

Posted by SunSword at 01:46 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2007

Heatwave lights up the East Coast

Since my previous post, Heatwave has already passed some very important milestones. We've made an offer to our first employee and landed our first business contract, all in the space of a few days!

I can't discuss our first client, but I have to say, I'm pleased to see Heatwave already in the black. Assuming our first offer of employment is accepted, I think Heatwave is off to a solid start.

I'd like to thank all the well wishers for their thoughts and advice on this new venture. I know some people may have felt a little "left out of the loop" because they didn't know what I was up to, and I'm sorry for that. I'm also flattered, as I didn't know so many people cared :). Allow me to explain. We have a very specific business plan that focuses on our first client and then bringing on a more sizeable staff. My experiences in the past have made me extremely aware of the affect my actions can have on other people's lives, and I'm going to make damned sure that we're only getting people excited and involved if I'm supremely confident that the time is right. That might seem like an obvious thing to say, but I've learned that even the slightest hint or indication can be taken by some as reality or a promise. Maybe that's because my enthusiasm is so infectious, but nevertheless, I've had to very carefully keep my expressions of excitement limited to a close group of trusted people.

However, now I can talk about it! So, if you're interested in working with me at Heatwave or just talking about what we're up to, you can always drop me a note at anthony ||at|| heat wave interactive . com. While we're not aggressively hiring at the moment, I'm always happy to talk with people who are passionate about making games.

Today, I'm in Philadelphia, PA. I've never been to the city of brotherly love before. So far it's been great. We came in from New York on Friday night, having completed some business there. We took the train from Manhattan and arrived in Philly about an hour later. The 30th street train station is an amazing structure. I'm staying with my business partner and Heatwave Co-founder, Donn Clendenon, in his very cool converted fire house.

The weekend has been spent working on business plans and taking care of miscelleanous corporate details, such as a failed attempt to open up our corporate bank accounts. I suppose that's a tale worth retelling...

We went to an American bank here in Philly on Saturday. The lobby was a little busier than expected, but that gave us the opportunity to watch Barack Obama's speech while we sat in the waiting area. It was very interesting to watch the other bank patrons watch the speech. Regardless of your political bent, or your thoughts about him as a candidate, Barack is undeniably an interesting person to watch. As Senator Obama delivered his speech, the bank, which had been blubbling with the hubub of tellers and customers doing business, grew noticebly quiet. Donn looked at me to get my attention and then pointed over to the teller desk where everyone in line had turned to watch Barack talk about his entry into the presidential race.

I have to wonder if that will be something worth remembering, or just an interesting mote of experience, soon forgotten.

Oh, and it was a failed attempt because after all that waiting, the computer systems went down and never came back online. We'll have to try again on Monday...

Anyway, the "big thing" we've been discussing this week is the Heatwave Interactive Inc. logo.

More on that tomorrow...

Posted by SunSword at 09:36 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2007

ArchLord gains momentum

Regardless of whether ArchLord is the game for you, it is an interesting product to watch from an industry perspective. Since we announced in December that no subscription is required to play, the average number of players in the game each night is up by 100% (that is to say it has doubled). Why is this significant?

First, it is significant because the game still requires a box purchase. The game's increase in users is tightly connected to new accounts which have come from box sales. Why is this important? Primarily because retail was in significant decline only a month or two after launch. The new pricing model has had (in the very short period thus far) a significant REAL impact on retail sales and active server populations.

Okay, that's all very well and interesting for AL. I'm happy for the community and of course it makes the business much more pleasant.

The second significant item here is that it validates the assertion that the MMO audience has become more price sensitive.

The bottom line is of course that now that we've found the right price for the service, we can continue the work of actually improving the game and addressing the many and various concerns that the players have with it.

The last piece of the business to shape up is item sales. So far, they've been very popular (uptake), but are they enough to operate the game service profitably in the long term (revenue)? Early indications are promising, but only time will tell.

Posted by SunSword at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2007

E3 transforms in "E for All"

According to "Next-Gen.biz" E3 will now be a consumer-oriented show (surprise) called "E for All." That name was selected from over 3,000 entries in a naming contest.

So what's this really all about? One line from the article sums it up:
E for All will be held at the L.A.C.C. October 18-20, 2007, just as the holiday gift-buying season ramps up. Attendees will be able to buy exhibitors’ products from the show floor.

And a little more about the format...
“For companies that produce and develop games, interactive toys, and all things related, our goal is that 'E for All' will foster promotional and relationship-building opportunities that only face-to-face contact can create,” says Dolaher.

As a consumer-focused expo, E for All will be open to the public at a fee of $100 per ticket for full three-day access to the various events held at the expo, Dolaher confirmed to Next-Gen.

Now the real question is, who is going to participate? And are they going to participate in a big way? Has the demo crunch just moved to a shipping crunch? But now that it's openly and honestly a consumer show, I'm going to guess that the format will be even bigger than it was...sans the boothbabes as it's now a "family-friendly" expo.

Posted by SunSword at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2007

How I got back into the game industry

Thanks to Damion, I got to read a "way back when" post on UO by Dan Rubenfield. Mostly he concentrates on the amount of ganking and griefing that went on in UO, but it brought back some memories.

One of the stories he told is almost an exact retelling of the event that brought me back to Ultima Online, and more importantly prompted to me to leave my cushy Unix consulting gig to return to the game industry.

From his site:
Everyone talks fondly about it, but there’s never a happy story.

It’s always the shared moment of getting slaughtered in a dungeon, losing your stuff, hiding traps in your backpack and killing people who snooped and more.

But regardless of the tone, people still loved it. The fucked up moments, the slaughter of the innocents, the absolute depths that you could sink to.

When it first released, people would break into your house, steal all of your stuff, sapping you of thousands of hours of gameplay. Then, not content with having ruined your experience, they would leave you a book on the floor of your now empty house, with a note in it.

“You Suck”

When they broke into my house, they left all the furniture stacked in the back, with a book in the armoir. The book said "Thanks for all the cheese."

Now, I don't have the best memory, so I'll give you the romaniticised version of what happened next. I called Raph Koster on the phone (whom I had met when I was working in QA at Origin through an informal game design group called "Project Brainstorm" (memories anyone?)).

As the story goes, I told Raph, "Dude, you need to hire me so I can fix your game." A few months later and I was working my first large system in UO: House Security. Looking back an the resulting system, it seems like a fairly crude game design solution, requiring chat commands for a lot of functionality. But it sure did make houses more secure!

Thanks for the memories, Dan. Happy New year!

(As an aside, it seems like a UO day for me, as it keeps coming up. This morning I ran across the MMORPG.com Interview with UO Producer Aaron Cohen.)

Posted by SunSword at 05:04 PM | Comments (1)

January 03, 2007

A day in the life of a community manager...

Kyle Rowley, COG's RF Online Community Manager extraordinaire has penned a very readable article on MMORPG.com.

For those of you who are not familiar with myself, or my alter ego “Laeth” I’ll do a quick introduction. My “real name” is Kyle Rowley and I’m the Community Manager (CM) for Codemasters Online Gaming’ Sci-Fi MMORPG Rising Force Online (RFO). Professionally, some could call me a n00b in the Community Management business – I’ve only been CM for RFO for around 10 months after all – so my words are not to be taken as the bee's knees on what community management entails, or how one would go about doing this for a living; but it should provide some insight for those of you who are interested."

Certainly no n00b, Kyle has done an excellent job representing a difficult project developed in a far away country through a significant language barrier.

As a bonus, there are a few shots of some of my co-workers and our office out in the middle of the English countryside.

Posted by SunSword at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2006

Too close to home? Doubtful, I wasn't aiming at you...

I listed this entry under "site news," because the original post was about my site and the poor content frequency (if not quality). I feel the need to respond because someone I respect a great deal has considered taking offence (although I doubt he really takes offence).

As I didn't intend for this to become a snipe fight between myself and other people in this segment, and as I don't intend for it to devolve into such, I'm going to briefly make two points and then move on:

A) The post was about my failings on this site, and the contributing reasons. Yes, I made references to other blogs, but
I didn't call out anyone specifically because that wasn't the point. The point was that there are a lot of pressures that make posting both interesting and brutally honest articles about our industry difficult for me.

B) Scott, you only referenced one of my reasons, you left out the lack of personal time. To your point that there is room to comment on things you don't directly work on, or that are not projects your peers work on, I don't disagree, but I haven't had the time to assimilate all the data tertiary to my everyday dealings and then form a useful (and entertaining!) blog post about it. I leave that to you.

I suppose it is an interesting idea to poke the nest and see who reacts, but that wasn't my goal. Scott, I respect you perhaps above all when it comes to commenting on the universe of online games. I imagine that it is your critical nature that makes you as incisive as you are but also contributes to your own inner criticism. For anyone else tempted to take personal offense from my internal criticism, ask yourself why you assume I was talking about you. Is it because you have a popular blog? Or because you secretly suspect your site is unworthy? Either way, consider your reaction before you decide to take offense. I'm not going to get into it any further.

Posted by SunSword at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

WTF is with SunSword's Website?

I know, I almost never post. And when I do, it's either about family stuff you couldn't care less about or some boring alert related to work that you could've gotten off of a corporate news site or press release.

So, you ask, WTF? What happened to the guy who use to "tell it straight" and talk to the players like they were real people? What happened to the straight dope?

Ready for some honesty? Click to keep reading...

The first thing that happened? I worked my way up the corporate ladder to a point where my position was important enough that everything I said was under intense scrutiny, but I wasn't high enough on that ladder to be able to say what I wanted and survive.

Now, there are some people at the producer-level and up in the industry who really say what they think in their blogs, but I've found that the most active/interesting posts are by people who aren't directly responsible for the kinds of things they comment on.

Most of the really interesting blogs out there are by people who are independent of censorship, either because they're at the very top of their organizations, or because they aren't directly responsible (or aren't generally perceived to be) for the kinds of things they comment on.

And of course, some of the most popular and respected bloggers in the online game industry don't even deal in reality. Most of it is academic bullshit and spin. Which is understandable, because again, if people dealt in reality, they'd probably get censored by their organizations. Unfortunately, it means that most of the audience for this kind of material is having a very confused discussion fueled by misinformation, hype and guesswork.

The second cause of my silence is purely my availability. In the last 5 years I've had three kids, moved from Texas to California and from California to England. Life has been crazy, and I'm a family kinda guy, so I tend to prioritize family happiness over career and personal computing time. Those of you that have had kids know about the post-birth parental coma that lasts about 9 months. Those of you who haven't had kids have no idea what I'm talking about, really. I can't explain it, but I've been in it for about 4.5 years.

It is only in the last 48 hours that I've realized what a price I've paid for the hectic but amazing life I've been living. For the past 6 months, I've averaged about 5.5 hours of sleep a night. Since the holiday break, I've gotten 8-12 hours of sleep every night. I had no idea the toll lack of sleep and stress have been having on me. When I woke up on boxing day (the day after Christmas for my fellow Americans), I felt refreshed in a way that I honestly cannot recall.

It felt like waking from a dream that had lasted 6 months. All my ambition and energy returned in a rush. I realized that despite myriad crazy/cool things I've done in the last few years, I've been treading water professionally and creatively.

What the hell? It's about to be 2007? People are still rehashing the same ol' MMORPG format? Shit is about to change y'all.

So what does that mean in reference to this post? Well, sunsword.com is going to change quite a bit. I'm going to separate the personal from the professional. I'm also going to take a new tact with the professional, to be revealed in January. I'm also considering bringing the forums back, let me know what you think about that. I found forums to be a more satisfying, interactive experience than blogs and comments.

On a personal note, I'm also going to start prioritize sleep. And on that note, see you in the AM.

Posted by SunSword at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

The really unpleasant side of being a publisher

There are some obvious downsides to being a publisher of 3rd party games. I'm sure many of you know or could quickly come up with a pretty decent list. A few examples include indirect control over the a games development, communication snafus, time zone conflicts (for example Codemasters Online Gaming has 2 games in Korea and 2 on the East Coast!) payment problems, juggling launch windows, etc...

But of all the things that I have to deal with in this new role, the most unpleasant experience has been saying "no" to people who have spent years of their lives building something that they really believe in, but just isn't right for our needs. Sometimes it's heartbreaking. I tend to be a very direct person, I'm quick to criticize, but I also lay on the praise, and I hope that means developers never have to guess where they stand with me when it comes to a publishing opportunity. But being direct and honest can be painful. Especially when it’s time to deliver a final answer.

I often consider going off and starting my own project one day in the future (what game developer doesn’t?), but this is a damned hard industry to break into. That’s why I’m constantly surprised and reassured by the number of indie projects out there, particularly in the online field. On the other hand, I’m relatively dismayed by the number of those projects that are fundamentally flawed from the get go. How do these projects get 3 years into the making, with millions of dollars blown, and be so totally broken?

Projects that I have to reject usually fall into one of the following categories:


  1. kookie idea+poor execution or

  2. Slightly off-target idea+poor execution

  3. reasonable project just not right for our publishing portfolio

Let's start with #1: kookie idea+poor execution

It might seem like this is two categories, but only on the rarest occasion have I run into "kookie idea with great execution." Generally, I get an email or voicemail that says “We’ve got this great idea with “Project X!” We have a playable demo and we’d like you to check it out.” 45 minutes later, having downloaded the game, installed the demo, I’m scratching my head thinking, “WTF? Who thought a Massively Multiplayer Parallax Side-scroller featuring bikini-clad amazons who strive to build monuments to Zartoid the Almighty by creating 10 trillion clam pies was a good idea? And more importantly, how did they get it funded to the point of a playable (almost) demo???”

A phone call or email later and I have to deliver the bad news. I suppose I don’t even really have to respond to all of these pitches. But I figure if you’ve got a team of 40 people, you’ve spent three years on your game and run out of money, the least I can do is call you up and find out what you’re thinking. Maybe I’m missing something. Usually not…


#2 Slightly off-target idea+poor execution

This is another common one. Perhaps the game isn't such a bad idea. It's a fresh idea in the me-too wasteland of Fantasy MMORPGs. With a little sheparding, perhaps they could change a thing here or two about the concept and it would be a great idea. But they've been working on the game for SEVEN years and it looks like it should have shipped 5 years ago. Oh, and it crashes constantly, there are obvious bugs all over the place and it runs at 10 frames a second on my monster machine. AND they only need $3.5 Million and 18 months to finish...

Finally, and perhaps hardest of all. #3 A good idea/solid development, but it's just not right for the portfolio. Happy to point them to another publisher and put in a good word, wish I could help them finish. Hate to let a good game slip buy, but as a publisher, having the right projects in the right cadence is essential.

Anyway, I've had to say "no" a lot in the last year. And I thought I'd just share the fact that it really is the toughest thing I have to do, even if it's transparent to most people around me and particularly to players.

I just hope after I get done saying "yes" to this next project, I'll have the opportunity to say it a lot more to many more teams.

Posted by SunSword at 11:57 PM | Comments (2)

July 12, 2006

How to get into the game industry

Someone has suggested that I give my thoughts on "how to break into the game industry." Sure. Why not? Everyone else does it. More on this tonight...

***Updated***

Okay, "in a few days" would have been more accurate.

I only have a few thoughts for you, the first of which is a cop out.

Go visit Zen of Design's Breaking In Page and follow all of the links. Plenty of good advice there.

In no particular order, or mixed together do the following:

That's it. It's not genius. As my mom has said to me in the past about the book trade, "Writers talk about writing. Authors write." Get out there and make something. It won't be brilliant at first, but as everything in life, the skills you need to succeed in this industry are not latent. You must build on whatever talent you have by constant practice. The end result will be some rudimentary skill and something demonstrable to talk about when you apply for that entry-level position you found on http://www.gamasutra.com.

Posted by SunSword at 07:37 PM | Comments (3)