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Different platforms, same story
Creating successful narrative games across online, land-based and mobile can be a potential horror story rather than a fairy tale if mishandled, as FremantleMedia Enterprises’ Richard Beach explains
As part of one of the world’s largest and most successful creators, producers and distributors of entertainment brands, FremantleMedia Enterprises’s Gambling Division is in a position to make gambling products that tell great stories and draw the player into a rewarding gameplay experience. Working with brands such as The X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent, The Price Is Right and Baywatch, we work to develop and distribute branded games across the online, land-based and mobile gambling sectors.
FME Gambling draws inspiration from the TV environment around us, and we’re very aware of what makes a great TV programme: the combination of a great script and great production values. If either of these elements is missing, the result will simply not hit the spot. That combination also holds true for the gambling sector, but in this instance the ‘script’ is mathematical rather than literary. The maths of a game determines the journey the player takes, dictating the highs and lows of the playing experience. However, even a great maths model might not always be enough; the game also needs to be well-executed with the right user interface to truly bring out the entertainment potential in the numbers.
When using a brand, or even a well-known theme, it’s therefore important to pick the right maths that fits with the story being told or the format we’re looking to replicate in game form. It is often said that there are only seven basic plots in the whole of literature, and this appears to hold true for games too. In fact, it could be argued that in gaming there are only four plots that should be considered, since three of the literary plot types (tragedy, comedy and rebirth) do not really apply to gambling. This leaves us with:
Overcoming the Monster: games where the object is to ‘beat the house’, whether it’s a dealer, a banker or a monster that guards the treasure.
Rags to Riches: the most obvious story to make into a game – done right, the player will see the sudden positive turnaround in fortunes as possible and aspirational.
The Quest: a search for the prize, whatever form that might take – also a great game theme when it is a story or format that the player already knows.
Voyage and Return: a journey to a world where things are different – a fairytale or alien world which, if done right, can make a player want to stay in the fantasy for longer.
A Familiar Story
Part of the value of using known brands from the world of entertainment is that the players already know the story so the emotional triggers should be the same as those that have already had an effect on television or in the cinema. This makes the player much more receptive to the experience, and significantly reduces the learning curve being asked of the player. As well as getting players to start playing, a good story will keep players playing by providing them with an entertainment experience combining the best of the TV show and the gambling product.
Nevertheless, turning a hit TV show or film into a successful slot game has its own specific challenges. Many games, whether branded or not, feature in-game characters essential to the player experience: the lucky leprechaun, the Pharaoh, the pirate and so on. Most often these characters are the players’ champions, congratulating them on wins and encouraging them to aim for further success. With an established TV or movie narrative, the characters can often be real performers, with real agents too. The challenge can often be to use elements that come at extra cost – images, clips, voiceover or music – only where they definitely add value to the game, either because they are integral to the plot or because they are so evocative of the TV or movie that they would be sorely missed if not there. Perhaps the mistake one can be tempted to make here would be to use an imitation or replacement for the TV/movie character that does little more than highlight the lack of the real thing.
All of the above apply to all the verticals in these sectors – land-based, online and mobile. The differences in the requirements between these verticals largely fall into two categories: control over the client interface, and the environment in which the player is playing the game.
Control over the interface is where the land-based games are blessed (and cursed) with almost complete control. A land-based game developer knows the exact technology on which his game will run and what the machine is capable of. File size is not an issue, and game performance should be known. This means high expectations and intense competition in terms of high-end graphic and audio production values.
Lean mean gaming machine
In remote gambling, the game client needs to be as lean as possible to prevent long load times (even more so for mobile). While this is becoming less important, it is a key point of difference between the formats. Online game developers need to be very accomplished at minimising file size without compromising the player experience – a key concern for the team at Ash Gaming who have developed the latest FME Gambling title, The X Factor Jackpot slot game. The game draws on this hugely successful format and takes the player on a ‘Rags to Riches’ story echoing that of the contestants looking for that life-changing leap into stardom. It uses a maths model that fits the narrative as well as the rich, high-end look and feel that channels the series itself. Using video, past contestants and iconic voiceover, it’s designed to immerse the player in the environment of the TV show and accompanies the 2011 series broadcast in the UK.
The environment in which a player will play a game is the other key difference between land-based, online and mobile. Online, not only is every game always available – like every machine being free in a physical casino – but every casino is available; players have multiple accounts and a different online operator is only a couple of clicks away. While there’s more choice, once a player is in an online game they are much less likely to be distracted by other gambling opportunities. Games on smartphones are currently moving from individual downloadable game applications to a browser-based scenario much more like the online experience.
With faster broadband, HTML5 on mobile, faster PCs and tablet devices that blur the distinction between online and mobile, the differences between the verticals of the gambling sector are perhaps getting smaller - in fact the land-based landscape is taking on aspects of online with server-based gaming and casino CRM initiatives. Nevertheless, this could mean that the commonalities in what makes a good product across all these verticals are even more critical. When looking to make good entertainment, this is about having a great story, and telling it well.
