7 Do’s And Don’ts When Developing an Online Game

Turbine’s Vice President of product development, Craig Alexander, offered the following suggestions for those considering setting up an online game. The comments were made at the last day of the Game Developer’s Conference Austin 2009, which the Gamasutra site has been covering in depth.
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7 Do’s And Don’ts When Developing an Online Game

1. Don’t assume that you’ll succeed just by creating a great game. Ensure that digital distribution and patching are effortless.

2. Get discs for your game into the hands of players.

3. Help the manufacturers to spread the word about the game, via demos or free discs at retail outlets.

4. Realize that marketing to a console audience is completely different than marketing to PC gamers.

5. Plan accordingly as budgets for console releases can dwarf most PC launches.

6. Don’t plan to ramp up “later”, assume success and plan accordingly.

7. Automate testing. You have to provide that service even if console gamer expectations are far lower than the average MMO player.

Virtual Currency Nightmares

Turbine believes trying to share a virtual currency cross platforms is a nightmare. Moreover, they see cross-platform play as a waste of time from a design standpoint. Every console game Turbine releases will offer distinct SKUs for each platform.

Turbine expected a loss in subscriptions when their games went free-to-play, but have seen a 20% increase in subscribers.

Alexander added that hybrid models can work in the US and that the assumption that models with too much choice for consumers is false.