The top 11 talks from Pocket Gamer Connects London 2016

Nuggets of key knowledge

• 1 Nicoll Hunt on why you should quit your job

  

  "Jobs are for jerks."

  In a rousing, wonderful final talk of Pocket Gamer Connects London 2016, Nicoll Hunt, founder of I Fight Bears, attempted to convince people to quit their jobs.

  "You shouldn't take advice from me," he began, reeling off a number of reasons why he was not the right person to listen to, but advised that you should listen to him because of his impressive beard.

  His final takeaway was to read Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography, who decided to believe in himself and take a huge risk, and it all paid off. Just like Hunt did.

  
  

• 2 Lumo Development's Steve Stopps on defining success in the games industry

  

  "If you're working in the games industry, you're in the top 0.0001% of the country."

  A slightly vague statistic, but Steve Stopps, Director of Lumo Developments, made an interesting point - while "we're taught success is money", as he said, those who can say they work in the industry are in a unique position to many people in the country.

  Of course, money is important.

  "If we don't get money through the front door, it all stops," he said, but Lumo Developments has been lucky enough to work with investors "who leave us alone" and make games that bring in enough revenue to keep the lights on.

  Ultimately, Stopps said "define your own success based on what you want."

  
  

• 3 How to pitch an Asian mobile game publisher

  

  When East Meets West in a mobile gaming context, it's almost always via a publisher.

  How should you go about approaching these gatekeepers?

  That was the question for our Asian publisher panel.

  Expertly moderated by Digital Development Management's Jeffrey Hilbert, it consisted of the following big hitters.

  • Grace Meng, TalkingData
  • Kyu Lee, Gamevil USA
  • Shum Singh, Agnitio Capital
  • Jeff Liang Huang, Tencent
  • Kieran Kyunghoon Park, Nexon
  • Louis René Auclair, Hibernum

  You can read a precise of the discussion here and check out the video below.

  
  

• 4 Priori Data's Anders Lykke on the five traits for a successful indie game

  

  Anders Lykke, Head of Sales at Priori Data, took to the stage at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2016 to talk about the five traits of a successful indie game, as found by the company's data.

  The first trait was having a "data wizard" who can look at the analytics and know what they're looking at, which has reportedly helped to increase growth thirty times over.

  Secondly, successful games are soft-launched so that data can be collected in the first place, which, thirdly, can then be used to identify which markets are interesting and will make you the most money.

  This leads to the fourth trait, that the game has a realistic benchmark, rather than trying to reach the top of the charts but instead can land somewhere in the top 200 in a specific category.

  This finally leads to being able to answer the questions that will help you grow more, such as who is playing the game, how much they're spending, and what you can do to get them to spend more.

  
  

• 5 Square Enix Montreal's Patrick Naud on transitioning from triple-A console to mobile dev

  

  Head of Studio at Square Enix Montreal, Patrick Naud, began his career in the mobile industry with an "idealist approach to making mobile games."

  Having come from a console game background, Naud suggests that he and many of his colleagues rather underestimated the task they were undertaking when establishing the mobile-focused Montreal studio.

  "Mobile should be a breeze," he quipped."We just need to not be evil and we'll be fine, right?"

  Apparently not.

  Check the article here or the video below.

  
  

• 6 Europe creates 4 times more mobile gaming value than the US, says Supercell investor Paul Heydon

  

  Paul Heydon of London Venture Partners - the VC firm that famously backed Supercell - is no stranger to successful investments.

  "We originally invested in a company that was going to make high quality browser games, but pivoted to mobile," he said.

  Futhermore, as a London-based firm largely remembered for its investment in a Helsinki studio, Heydon is quick to emphasise the power of Europe.

  "Europe has more people than the US, and more smartphones than the US," he noted.

  He went on to quote statistics showing that "value creation [in Europe] is 4 times that of the the US."

  Adding: "Europe is exporting way more mobile game revenue than it is importing mobile game revenue," with exports outnumbering imports by 3.4 times."

  
  

• 7 Nicholas Lovell on how to extend your player sessions

  

  "You need to accept that people are going to stop playing your game."

  So started GamesBrief's founder Nicholas Lovell's talk on player sessions, which may be short, but if the game is interesting enough to bring users back, users may end up spending more time than they first imagined.

  "You've always got time to check Facebook, and Facebook's just a game," he said, pointing to the idea that people hold that they can't spend too long on a game but will happily spend hours on something else.

  "Your on-ramp has to be better than Facebook's."

  
  

• 8 Roadhouse Interactive developing an Iron Maiden-licensed mobile RPG

  

  Vancouver-based developer Roadhouse Interactive announced at Pocket Gamer Connects that it is developing a mobile RPG using the Iron Maiden IP, to be released in Summer 2016.

  Subtitled Legacy of the Beast, the game delves into the extended Iron Maiden lore - as inspired by the band's classic album art - with mascot Eddie taking the staring role as lead character: something explained in detail by Roadhouse CEO James Hursthouse and the band's interactive director Llexi Leon.

  
  

• 9 Space Ape COO Simon Hade on why passion must lead development

  

  As Simon Hade took to the stage at Pocket Gamer Connects London, compere Oscar Clark suggested Space Ape Games is an underrated company in the UK industry.

  And indeed, with the young London studio having already launched two successful mobile strategy games in Samurai Siege and Rival Kingdoms, it does feel as though it is yet to receive its due recognition.

  Yet with three new games also in development, that's a situation that's likely to change very soon. 

  As for Hade, he was keen to stress the company only become successful when it started "making games we ourselves want to play".

  That's the reason he argues passion - although not sufficient for commercial success - must always lead the development process. 

  
  

• 10 How big will mobile eSports be in 2016, and what will be Clash Royale's impact?

  

  Will mobile games ever be an eSports?

  Will the game to ignite the market be Vainglory, Clash Royale or something else entirely?

  We don't know and neither does Newzoo's Peter Warman, but he does have plenty of data about the size of the overall eSports market and the sort of people it attracts. 

  For example, Newzoo's stats show that up to 40% of the eSports audience does not play the games they are watching - suggesting that developers will need to take a different sort of approach both when building games for eSports and thinking about the best genres. 

  
  

• 11 And who can forget Oscar Clark's Pecha Kucha?

  Or Jon Jordan's hand drawn slides

  20 words no one in the mobile games industry should ever use from Jon Jordan