- Went to art college to study product design (mostly making products by hand)
Kerb
- Brighton based agency
- Been around for about 15 years (one of the first companies of the industry)
- Kerb started as a web company as the dot com bubble burst.
- Due to the industry moving fast Kerb moved from just web design to designing and making Internet games. They used programs like Future Splash, which is the beginning of Flash
- They are big on Manga artwork and they have an in house style, which then influenced the style of the games, as they were Japanese viral style.
- Pepsi was one of their big clients at the beginning.
- Kerb had to evolve to the times as big companies such as Playstation wanted their own image, and not use Kerb's style anymore.
- Companies such as Playstation wanted a game for promotional reasons, to promote a drink or university etc.
How?
- To make videos go viral Kerb uses coding as a SWF and then 'seeds' it to other people to then distribute the video, which then means they will send it to people they know and a domino effect the happens.
Stats
- About 1 million people played their games with the first 5 days of release.
- About 750 million people have been playing their games in total from the start.
Why?
- Kerb makes sure that throughout their games, or throughout a series of games, there is a running mean that then makes the games constant and ends up makes them better.
Other Information
- Because of companies becoming greedy with money, they mostly want now to have 'pay to play' games.
- Kerb now focuses on mobile games/applications as well as facebook games and big budget client such as Disney, BBC and E4.
- Applications for Disney America and Japan are one of the biggest clients Kerb has. Disney Japan has got one of the biggest selling games in the world.
Technology
- Flash 11 and HTML 5 are the 2 most important pieces of software that Kerb uses.
- Flash 11 is an online gaming platform. Also Flash 11 uses a PC graphics card to run the game (console quality gaming).
- Adobe joined with Unity to then allow for more people to use different programs together.
- To use Flash 11 people have to have an up-to-date architecture for a PC, so one that is no more than 5 years old.
- An example of HTML coding making games - http://www.cuttherope.ie/ and Angry birds for Google Chrome.
- For mobile games/apps they use Sprite sheets which are huge files with all of the artwork within them.
Interesting
- How we are moneytising games - buying selling add ons to free/cheap games - to enhance gaming experience.
- Terms from Carl - Whales: People who spend a lot of money on games. Freeplayers: People who do not spend a lot of money, if any at all.
Image of how people moneytise games
Opinions- Android are now not very popular for this type of work because games are easy to piratise and there are way to many different platforms to test and make for.
Other Companies
- Rovio
- AMG Pop
Funding
- People get funding for apps and games via getting people intersted in it before they make or release it, which will hopefully mean they will invest in that games for a cheaper verison.
Employees
- There is a Creative Team, Development Team and Management Team.
- The creative team designs the game, and possibly produces a mini version, the creative team have a basic knowledge of front end coding for full version the developement team then codes the game to standard and then the management team, looks over everything and reports back to the client, managing the project.
What they looking for
- People need a spark and passion for the industry, must be self suficiant.
- Keep up to date with all of the latest news - RSS Reader/Google Reader.
- Post relevant information on Twitter or repost imteresting posts you have seen.
- It's not what you know it's who you know!!
- Get involves with meeting groups - Build Brighton/Brighton Group/Dot Brighton/Raspberry Pie
Carl was a very interesting speaker, he made what he does sound interesting and exciting, which makes me think about my productively about what I would like to do when I finish university. All of the companies that Carl suggested as well as the meetings are different and I didn't realise just how many events there were in Brighton alone.
The tips he gave use as well I will more than likely use for when I apply to a job or internship, and the background is similar to ours, demonstrating where we can be in only 15 years time, which is a great motivator.
