Indie
Early Stage Community Development For Competitive Mobile/Indie Games
ESPORTS AND ESL ABOUT ESL •
World’s largest esports company
•
Global footprint with offices in nine countries
•
$15 MM in prize money awarded
THE MARKET •
eSports advertising will grow to $300 MM by 2018
•
16 - 34 year olds (Millennial) | 95% male
•
Internet is their #1 source of fun & entertainment
OUR PARTNERS
100,000+ visitors per trade show
60 MM monthly viewers ESL is the largest premium content creator
32M eSports viewers in North America alone, 71.5M Globally 89M eSports enthusiasts worldwide, by 2017 that will be 145M
OUR EVENTS
OUR REACH
10+ global stadium events 100,000s+ paying attendance
125+ million social media impressions per year 12,000 hours of live ESL broadcasts
THE WORLD’S LARGEST ESPORTS COMPANY TRUSTED
PROFESSIONAL
KEY NUMBERS
as a source of information and solutions
as a team of respected industry experts
AUTHENTIC
PROVEN
we understand the esports ecosystem
with a history of over 1,000 global activations
5,000,000 registered users 350+ global events hosted since 2000 15,000,000 USD awarded in cash prizes 12,000 hours broadcasted 40,000,000 viewers reached via Twitch
Global Broadcast Partnership Co-Branded Productions
PARTNERSHIPS
VIDEO NETWORK
Company-Owned Studios Multi-Channel Network Original Content Development
BRANDED COOPERATIONS
PLAY IS COMPETITIVE •
ESL provides structure to emerging sports (= games)
•
Competition scales with audience growth
•
Regular broadcasts add engaging entertainment layer
•
Star players emerge, creating aspirational incentives
•
Retention and engagement mechanism for games
COMPETITIVE GAMES •
Gameplay focus is synchronous PVP
•
Online
•
Gameplay mechanics with clear skill curve (easy to learn, hard to master)
•
Very often free-to-play
•
Attractive to watch
•
Player motivation driven by aspiration (achievement, winning, skill improvement)
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS • Game Modes • XonX • Win Conditions & Draws • Symmetry
CORE FEATURES MATCHMAKING • Matching players from a queue • Skill-based at some point • Some form of incentive system
CUSTOM LOBBIES • Make it possible for people to select all match participants • Allow settings to be made, and have result screens with player names ANTI-CHEAT • Especially PC games need to be tamper-proof • Store as much telemetric data as possible on the server side
MATCHMAKING PITFALLS • Player Liquidity • Party system • Time slots
• Skill gaps • Waiting times
STAGE 1 – EARLY ALPHA RETAIN EARLY ADOPTERS Family & Friends or very limited Alpha
•
Scheduled Events •
Play with Devs
•
Tournaments
•
Matchmaking time slots
HOW TO ORGANIZE • One main channel for communication (reddit?)
• Social channels for support • Constant communication / feedback loop with players
• Address concerns • Immediately handle disputes • Doodles / Strawpoll for scheduling • DIY tournament systems
BEST PRACTICES • Start with one day per week, expand on demand • Combat toxicity early on • Weekly feedback threads (solicit actively) • Implement organizational feedback • Stream if possible (spec mode, or at least dev matches) • Only small prizes (toxicity / legal issues)
STAGE 2 – CLOSED BETA BUILD TO 24/7 ACTIVITY Alpha to Closed Beta
•
Core focus: Player liquidity in Matchmaking •
Simple point or rank system helps a lot
•
Add skill matching component
•
In-game rewards (random drops if possible)
•
Tournaments as additional retention system for best players and content provision
•
Influencer tournaments / play dates
BEST PRACTICES • Closely monitor matchmaking KPIs • Match quality • Waiting times • Actively promote emerging streamers, teams & players, the backbone of your future competitive community
• Tournament rules & dispute handling
STAGE 3 – OPEN BETA GROW A SPORT Open Beta to Release
•
Activate Party functionality for matchmaking
•
Building up a competitive scene for the top 10%-20% of hardcore players
•
Weekly cash tournaments
•
Official Broadcasts
•
If budget allows, take competition finals offline
•
If matchmaking stable, possible to add additional XonX / game modes
SUMMARY RETAIN EARLY ADOPTERS
BUILD TO 24/7 ACTIVITY
GROW A SPORT
Family & Friends, Alpha
Alpha to Closed Beta
Open Beta to Release
• Smart choices in game design, feature selection and competitive mode
• Focus on player liquidity in matchmaking
• Lay groundwork for competitive structure
• Incentivize competitive play
• Increase content frequency
• Love your influencers
• Add more gameplay options as player base grows
• Scale activity offering over time • Constant, active communication with players
Benefits: -Powerful engagement & retention tool -Provides content for activation -Foundation for long lifecycle of game
THANK YOU!
David Hiltscher
Come see us @ gamescom
VP Gaming Communities
Hall 8 – Intel Extreme Masters
E: [email protected]
Hall 9 – ESL Arena
T: twitter.com/affentod
ESPORTS AND ESL ABOUT ESL •
World’s largest esports company
•
Global footprint with offices in nine countries
•
$15 MM in prize money awarded
THE MARKET •
eSports advertising will grow to $300 MM by 2018
•
16 - 34 year olds (Millennial) | 95% male
•
Internet is their #1 source of fun & entertainment
OUR PARTNERS
100,000+ visitors per trade show
60 MM monthly viewers ESL is the largest premium content creator
32M eSports viewers in North America alone, 71.5M Globally 89M eSports enthusiasts worldwide, by 2017 that will be 145M
OUR EVENTS
OUR REACH
10+ global stadium events 100,000s+ paying attendance
125+ million social media impressions per year 12,000 hours of live ESL broadcasts
THE WORLD’S LARGEST ESPORTS COMPANY TRUSTED
PROFESSIONAL
KEY NUMBERS
as a source of information and solutions
as a team of respected industry experts
AUTHENTIC
PROVEN
we understand the esports ecosystem
with a history of over 1,000 global activations
5,000,000 registered users 350+ global events hosted since 2000 15,000,000 USD awarded in cash prizes 12,000 hours broadcasted 40,000,000 viewers reached via Twitch
Global Broadcast Partnership Co-Branded Productions
PARTNERSHIPS
VIDEO NETWORK
Company-Owned Studios Multi-Channel Network Original Content Development
BRANDED COOPERATIONS
PLAY IS COMPETITIVE •
ESL provides structure to emerging sports (= games)
•
Competition scales with audience growth
•
Regular broadcasts add engaging entertainment layer
•
Star players emerge, creating aspirational incentives
•
Retention and engagement mechanism for games
COMPETITIVE GAMES •
Gameplay focus is synchronous PVP
•
Online
•
Gameplay mechanics with clear skill curve (easy to learn, hard to master)
•
Very often free-to-play
•
Attractive to watch
•
Player motivation driven by aspiration (achievement, winning, skill improvement)
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS • Game Modes • XonX • Win Conditions & Draws • Symmetry
CORE FEATURES MATCHMAKING • Matching players from a queue • Skill-based at some point • Some form of incentive system
CUSTOM LOBBIES • Make it possible for people to select all match participants • Allow settings to be made, and have result screens with player names ANTI-CHEAT • Especially PC games need to be tamper-proof • Store as much telemetric data as possible on the server side
MATCHMAKING PITFALLS • Player Liquidity • Party system • Time slots
• Skill gaps • Waiting times
STAGE 1 – EARLY ALPHA RETAIN EARLY ADOPTERS Family & Friends or very limited Alpha
•
Scheduled Events •
Play with Devs
•
Tournaments
•
Matchmaking time slots
HOW TO ORGANIZE • One main channel for communication (reddit?)
• Social channels for support • Constant communication / feedback loop with players
• Address concerns • Immediately handle disputes • Doodles / Strawpoll for scheduling • DIY tournament systems
BEST PRACTICES • Start with one day per week, expand on demand • Combat toxicity early on • Weekly feedback threads (solicit actively) • Implement organizational feedback • Stream if possible (spec mode, or at least dev matches) • Only small prizes (toxicity / legal issues)
STAGE 2 – CLOSED BETA BUILD TO 24/7 ACTIVITY Alpha to Closed Beta
•
Core focus: Player liquidity in Matchmaking •
Simple point or rank system helps a lot
•
Add skill matching component
•
In-game rewards (random drops if possible)
•
Tournaments as additional retention system for best players and content provision
•
Influencer tournaments / play dates
BEST PRACTICES • Closely monitor matchmaking KPIs • Match quality • Waiting times • Actively promote emerging streamers, teams & players, the backbone of your future competitive community
• Tournament rules & dispute handling
STAGE 3 – OPEN BETA GROW A SPORT Open Beta to Release
•
Activate Party functionality for matchmaking
•
Building up a competitive scene for the top 10%-20% of hardcore players
•
Weekly cash tournaments
•
Official Broadcasts
•
If budget allows, take competition finals offline
•
If matchmaking stable, possible to add additional XonX / game modes
SUMMARY RETAIN EARLY ADOPTERS
BUILD TO 24/7 ACTIVITY
GROW A SPORT
Family & Friends, Alpha
Alpha to Closed Beta
Open Beta to Release
• Smart choices in game design, feature selection and competitive mode
• Focus on player liquidity in matchmaking
• Lay groundwork for competitive structure
• Incentivize competitive play
• Increase content frequency
• Love your influencers
• Add more gameplay options as player base grows
• Scale activity offering over time • Constant, active communication with players
Benefits: -Powerful engagement & retention tool -Provides content for activation -Foundation for long lifecycle of game
THANK YOU!
David Hiltscher
Come see us @ gamescom
VP Gaming Communities
Hall 8 – Intel Extreme Masters
E: [email protected]
Hall 9 – ESL Arena
T: twitter.com/affentod
