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Appstore Blogs Appstore DeveloperBlog /blogs/appstore/feed/entries/atom 2019-03-19T16:22:03+00:00 Apache Roller /blogs/appstore/post/10f04981-225f-4e71-a324-3143a6e0e5ee/gameon-a-year-in-review GameOn: A Year in Review Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-03-15T23:06:48+00:00 2019-03-19T16:22:03+00:00

<p><img alt="GDC_blog_post_graphics_r1t1_sk_year_one_03.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/GDC_blog_post_graphics_r1t1_sk_year_one_03.png._CB469248657_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:311px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" />In March 2018, we launched <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon" target="_blank">Amazon GameOn</a>, a service to help developers connect players through competition and keep them engaged. We developed GameOn because game developers told us they needed an easier way to build cross-platform competition into existing games to keep players engaged and excited, and according to Newzoo, mobile gamers that participate in tournaments are more than two times as likely to spend money in mobile games than those who do not participate.</p> <p>Over the last year, developers have embraced our cross-platform APIs to engage their communities in brand new ways. We’ve learned a great deal from them and launched several new features to open up greater opportunities to increase player lifetime value. This blog post highlights a few developer success stories, key features we released, and new features we’re proud to announce.</p> <h2>Success stories</h2> <p>When Vector Unit began development of Beach Buggy Racing 2, a sequel to the hit mobile kart racing game, they set out to build a community at the heart of the game. With a GameOn integration that took only two weeks, Vector Unit connects players by allowing them to compete with each other no matter what type of phone they use. The weekly tournaments with in-game prizes are fun for beginners and expert players alike, as Vector Unit uses GameOn’s ability to automatically split their large user base into smaller, fun sized group. Within these groups, players have a much higher chance of winning prizes which drives increased engagement. Premium prizes are awarded to the top 200 players, motivating players to participate, while smaller prizes are given to everyone who joins in, making the competition fun for all.<br /> <br /> "GameOn made it really easy for us to incorporate tournament play into Beach Buggy Racing 2 at launch. Weekly tournaments have become a critical piece of our retention and engagement mechanic. We've even noticed an uptick in IAP conversions, up to 2x higher between players who participate in GameOn tournaments vs those who don’t," said Matt Small, CEO, creative director, and co-founder, Vector Unit Inc.<br /> <br /> GameOn is being used around the world where mobile gaming is growing rapidly. India represents one-tenth of the world’s gamers and has the second-largest smartphone user base in the world. In the fall of 2018, three of the largest game developers in India -- Nazara Technologies, Nextwave Multimedia, and Mech Mocha -- partnered with GameOn to create GameOn Masters India. Using GameOn, the developers drove engagement and retention by hosting multiple rounds of qualifiers where players won real-world prizes fulfilled by Amazon in each round. The impact on players and developers was felt strongly:<br /> <br /> “I love playing games with my friends and competing to show who is best. So when we saw the GameOn Masters qualifiers, we all jumped at the opportunity to prove our skill," said a finalist of the GameOn Masters India World Cricket Championship. <br /> <br /> “When GameOn tournaments were live with real world prizes, we saw 107% more players play in tournaments and a 5% increase in D1 retention, 5% increase in sessions per day, and 4% increase in session length. Nothing else could get me numbers this good," said Sachin Acharya of Mech Mocha.<br /> <br /> In addition to hosting competitions inside of games, GameOn helped gamify the official fan app of the Sacramento Kings NBA team. The AR/VR company Xperiel integrated GameOn competitions into their Call the Shot game to engage basketball fans inside and outside of the arena. In Call the Shot, fans compete to make the most accurate predictions about an NBA game as it happens, and the most skilled fans are rewarded with real-world prizes fulfilled by Amazon. For the Kings and Xperiel, the gamification and rewards that GameOn enables has helped them build and engage a community in ways that are not only novel but also drive material impact.<br /> <br /> “Since adding GameOn competitions, our percentage of returning users is much higher than expected. The same is true for the average session length, and the number of sessions per user, which is great because it means that the average user is coming back multiple times per game," said Alexander Hertel, fo-founder and CEO, Xperiel.</p> <h2>New features</h2> <p>The success that developers have with our core offering is rewarding to see and motivates us to bring more value. Over the last year, we released several new features to help developers find new ways to bring players together through competition.<br /> <br /> At TwitchCon this fall, we released the <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon/goto" target="_blank">GameOn Tournament Organizer Twitch Extension</a>. The extension allows creators to create competitions to play with their fans and helps game developers reach new audiences on Twitch. The extension launched with PC and console titles like Darwin Project from Scavengers Studio. It also features Camex Games' Tactical Monsters, which brings players together to compete across PC and mobile devices. For each developer, allowing streamers to host competitions has been a great vehicle to grow their user base organically by turning viewers into players.<br /> <br /> In the fall, we also released updates that allow developers to host team-based competitions. Team competitions can be used in team-based games and single player games with clan/alliances mechanisms to reward players with in-game and real-world prizes for engaging with the community. Finally, based on feedback from developers seeking to reach new customers, we released public leaderboards. Previously, developers could only show results inside of their games, but with this update, developers can host live leaderboards anywhere they choose, promoting visibility of their event to the masses.<br /> <br /> Today, we’re happy to announce <strong>two new features</strong>: stats-based leaderboards and developer resources. With stats-based leaderboards, we made it easy for tournament organizers to create a variety of competitions based on what stats are available in the game. Changing how to win, whether by highest points, lowest time, cumulative wins, etc., keeps the competition fresh and exciting for existing players.<br /> <br /> We are also thrilled to release a new set of handy developer resources. We are releasing a <strong>Unity Starter Kit</strong> that shows how to easily call the GameOn REST APIs from Unity and a <strong>sample game</strong> that demonstrates how to integrate the various features of GameOn into a real-life game. The best part? All of the code that we are sharing today is open source, so you are free to change these to your liking and contribute back to the repository. With these resources, you will be able to further reduce the time it takes to integrate GameOn. You can download these samples, give them a test drive, participate in our <a href="https://forums.developer.amazon.com/spaces/351/index.html" target="_blank">support forum</a>, or contact us to provide <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/support/contact-us?subjectCategory=GAMEON&sc_channel=website&sc_publisher=devportal&sc_campaign=Conversion_Contact-Us&sc_assettype=conversion&sc_team=us&sc_traffictype=organic&sc_country=united-states&sc_segment=all&sc_itrackingcode=100020_us_website&sc_detail=dp-support-page" target="_blank">feedback</a>.</p> <h2>Pricing update</h2> <p>Finally, we are excited to share our updated pricing. As we scale, we are able to pass on our increased efficiencies to you. We continue to be committed to only charge you when you see the impact; that means we only charge you when a player submits a score. Today, we announce our new price of $0.002 per score, with volume discounts available on request. Our free tier will continue to include 35,000 free scores per month for the first six months, allowing you to experiment and engage players to increase customer lifetime value.</p> <h2>What’s next?</h2> <p>Looking forward, GameOn will continue to constantly invest in helping developers bring players together and engage their communities through fun competitions. To learn more, visit <a href="http://developer.amazon.com/gameon" target="_blank">developer.amazon.com/gameon</a> to read more about our service, check out case studies, review tech documentation, and register your game today.</p> <h2>GameOn developer resources</h2> <ul> <li>GameOn Unity Starter Kit: <a href="https://github.com/amzn/gameon-starter-kit-unity" target="_blank">https://github.com/amzn/gameon-starter-kit-unity</a></li> <li>GameOn Unity sample game: <a href="https://github.com/amzn/gameon-sample-game-unity" target="_blank">https://github.com/amzn/gameon-sample-game-unity</a></li> <li>GameOn GameMaker Extension: <a href="https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/7808/amazon-gameon" target="_blank">https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/7808/amazon-gameon</a></li> <li>GameOn technical documentation: <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/gameon/overview.html" target="_blank">https://developer.amazon.com/docs/gameon/overview.html</a></li> </ul> /blogs/appstore/post/716f058f-e3f5-4f63-8911-08dde9f29370/dev-chat-with-dailyme-tv-anytime-anywhere Dev Chat with dailyme TV: Watch TV Anytime, Anywhere Sacid Celik 2019-03-08T17:58:05+00:00 2019-03-08T17:58:05+00:00

<p><img alt="" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/dailymetv_amazon_blogpost_v2.png._CB454932690_.png" style="display:block; height:720px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:1280px" /></p> <p>Berlin-based developer dailyme TV offers a unique product that enables their customers to watch TV at any time and any place. Check out this episode of Dev Chat to learn more about them, their development process, and why they chose to release on Amazon Fire tablets and Fire TV.</p>

<p><img alt="dailyme TV header" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/dailymetv_amazon_blogpost_v2.png._CB454932690_.png" style="display:block; height:720px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:1280px" /></p> <p><em><strong>In </strong></em><em><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/AmazonAppDistro/playlists?sort=dd&view=50&shelf_id=13">Dev Chat – Short Answers to Big Questions</a></strong></em><em><strong><u>,</u> our video series where developers answer your questions in less than 90 seconds.</strong></em></p> <h1>About dailyme TV</h1> <p>dailyme TV offers a broad selection of TV series, movies, shows, comedy, and video clips. One of its unique features is offline synchronization: the app automatically downloads the latest episodes of selected shows to the device once it is connected to a WiFi network, enabling the user to watch on the go without requiring an Internet connection. dailyme TV is available for Amazon Fire tablets and for Amazon Fire TV.</p> <p style="text-align:center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4qB_3jRc1nzwEfv1LWP3-GJ&cc_load_policy=1" width="560"></iframe></p> <h1>Amazon Appstore: The best of both worlds</h1> <p>In this edition of Dev Chat, Jonathan Daehne (CEO) and Martin Baldowski (Digital Product Designer) tell us more about their roles and their reasons for bringing their app to Amazon Appstore. According to Martin, the major reason is that Amazon provides the “best of both worlds with their devices and their platform. On the one hand you have an open development platform. On the other hand, you have a manageable and well-engineered product line. By knowing exactly which devices you are going to work with, you can optimize apps and design them pixel-precisely. You just know what kind of user experience the customer will have."</p> <p>Martin also touches on the topics of consumer trust and how Amazon's brand recognition affected their decision: "As Amazon's brand recognition grows year over year, it's a simple matter of increasing our reach [...] You have to acknowledge that Amazon provides a sense of security, particularly on a consumer level. So, when we offer our app in the Amazon Appstore, it's a sign of quality."</p> <p>Originally, dailyme TV was designed with portable devices such as smartphones and tablets in mind, and has been available for Fire tablets for a long time. In 2018, the team decided to bring their app to the big screen, as well. Martin explains that it was a fairly quick decision for Fire TV: "Fire TV has established itself as the smart TV solution in Germany [...] Fire TV is based on Android, so we could simply use the longstanding experience and expertise of our developers and designers. Furthermore, we enjoy the same support opportunities we usually do with Amazon Appstore; a lot of reach, a growing segment, and a great product."</p> <h1>Developing for Amazon Appstore</h1> <p>Having had an Android app available already, "it was fairly easy to release it in the Amazon Appstore, as well." When asked about their development experience, Martin explains: "Much to the joy of our developers as well as our designers, the adaptations required were within reasonable limits as Amazon makes use of standards and thus limits the work for developers as adaptations are only required in the background."</p> <p>The team also points out that the development process is never really finished and highlights the importance of being able to make quick updates and keep all versions across all stores on par. Martin elaborates: "Everything is so easy to handle that we are always on par with the Android app running in other stores. Therefore, we are able to realize an Amazon release within minutes as the development environment is very similar to Android and we have no problems whatsoever to port features."</p> <h1>Check out the Dev Chat with dailyme TV</h1> <p>The team provided <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwIOlYwN3Bo" target="_blank">insights about dailyme TV and their product</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZHi5G56mZI" target="_blank">why they chose to release on Amazon Fire Tablet</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEbS6QO_jk" target="_blank">their experience developing for Amazon Appstore</a> and their reasons for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSz0zzFT4w" target="_blank">bringing and adapting their app to the Amazon Fire TV</a>.</p> <p><strong><em>Don’t miss the next edition of </em></strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/AmazonAppDistro/playlists" target="_blank">Dev Chat</a></strong></em><strong><em>. Subscribe to the </em></strong><strong><em><a href="http://m.amazonappservices.com/blog-subscription" target="_blank">Amazon Appstore blog</a></em></strong><strong><em> to stay up to date.</em></strong></p> /blogs/appstore/post/38c732f8-69e0-4bb7-beb8-c7332203155f/announcing-amazon-moments-reward-customers-globally-with-digital-and-physical-products-delivered-by-amazon Announcing Amazon Moments: Reward Customers Globally with Digital and Physical Products Delivered by Amazon Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-02-14T16:59:33+00:00 2019-02-14T17:48:53+00:00

<p><img alt="hero_launchMoments_hero_1800x800.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/hero_launchMoments_hero_1800x800.jpg._CB454545312_.jpg?t=true" /></p> <p>We are excited to announce <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/moments" target="_blank">Amazon Moments</a>, a cross-platform marketing tool that lets you easily reward customers in more than 100 countries when they perform high-value actions in your apps and websites. Until now, many companies were limited to giving in-app items as rewards or were spending a lot of time figuring out how to source and fulfill physical rewards. With Moments, you can track actions in real time, create targeted campaigns, and reward customers with digital and physical products that are delivered to their doorsteps. For example, a video streaming service can encourage customers to watch the first five episodes of a new show by rewarding them with an action figure of their favorite character or a pair of headphones. Notable customers using Moments include: Washington Post, TikTok, Sony Crackle, Sesame Workshop, Bravo, USA TODAY, Sago Mini, and Bell Canada.<br /> <br /> “With Moments, Amazon is reinventing the way companies approach marketing by letting them turn engagement campaigns into rewarding moments that drive long-term value,” said Amir Kabbara, Head of Amazon Moments. “Moments removes complexity for developers by packaging reward programs into a simple, self-service console that lets marketers set up campaigns quickly without worrying about reward sourcing, management, or fulfillment.”<br /> <br /> Moments uses a cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model so you only pay when users complete actions that matter to your business. A Moments marketing campaign has three core steps: 1) you set the action or “Moment” you want to drive, choose a product or a reward package, and integrate the Moment API, 2) users engage and complete the action in your apps and websites, and 3) Amazon distributes a reward URL and fulfills the rewards. Because Amazon handles the fulfillment, your customers can take advantage of Amazon features like two-day shipping for Prime members, tracking information, and more. The Moments rewards catalog provides access to millions of products including some of Amazon's most popular items as well as reward packages, like plush toys, giving your customers the option to pick the plushy they like most. Click <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/moments" target="_blank"><u>here</u> </a>to learn more about Moments.<br /> <br /> "We are increasingly seeing marketers dedicate advertising spend to keeping their existing customers engaged,” said Aaron Rubenson, Vice President at Amazon. "With Moments, we've made it easier for marketers to reward customers for taking meaningful actions, boosting engagement in a cost-effective way.”</p> <h2>Drive actions that matter</h2> <p>Moments gives marketers the flexibility to choose actions that help them achieve their goals. For example, a fitness app may choose a high-value action like completing 30 workouts if they know that most customers who complete 30 workouts continue using the app for six months and spend more than $25 within that period. A streaming video service may choose a high-value action like watching seven episodes of a popular show if most customers who watch seven episodes go on to complete the entire show.<br /> <br /> After companies choose their action or “Moment” they want to drive, they can use the self-serve console to set their campaign dates, add a product or a reward package, then customize promotional messages and the reward landing page. Companies can introduce Moments into their app and websites by challenging customers to finish certain goals via in-app messages, notifications, social media posts, and more. The flexibility of the tool enables campaign set-up across all your user segments, from new customers to active players to churned payers. For example, a local newspaper that wants to drive subscriptions can notify customers with a “Buy a six-month subscription and get your favorite book (valued up to $15) on Amazon” message.<br /> <br /> "With Moments, we were able to connect our digital eBook offerings with our IAP offers to drive deeper engagement across the Sesame Street branded experience. It was seamless across iOS, Android, and Fire OS, and increased net revenue by 16%," said Lili Lampasona, Senior Director, Business Development at Sesame Workshop. “The combination of one of Amazon’s core competencies, fulfillment, with Sesame Workshop’s core mission of helping kids become smarter, stronger, and kinder means that, in addition to a deeper engagement with our audience, we may also have a better chance of making a difference in the lives of children.”<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image1-momentslaunch-ec-moments-promo.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image1-momentslaunch-ec-moments-promo.png._CB454545315_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <h2>Flexible pricing + customer targeting = positive return on investment (ROI)</h2> <p>Moments has the unique ability to drive consistent ROI. The flexible CPA pricing model enables you to set costs that won't exceed your customer lifetime value (LTV). For example, if keeping an active payer engaged is worth $50, you can set a high-value action and offer $40 headphone sets with a comfortable margin of error. In addition, customer targeting allows you to tailor rewards to the LTV of each user segment. You could offer a $5 reward to new users, a $25 reward to active payers, and a $200 reward to top spenders.<br /> <br /> Companies across all industries have seen improvements in their engagement and monetization metrics. A streaming video service ran a Moments campaign offering $10 worth of physical rewards and doubled the likelihood of winning back a subscriber. An entertainment app and website increased their average daily users by 291% and their daily chat messages by 79%. Another developer saw a 97% lift in D30 retention and a 43% lift in average daily revenue 30 days post-campaign in their new user cohorts.</p> <h2>Simple cross-platform integration and self-service tools with global reach</h2> <p>The user-friendly self-serve console allows your team to choose when, where, and how your users see Moments and receive rewards. You can easily set up multiple campaigns to A/B test the most effective mixture of CPA, actions, and rewards. You can set rewards across multiple countries and ship products to 100+ countries to reach customers exactly where they are.<br /> <br /> Our lightweight integration empowers you to engage your customers across iOS, Android, FireOS, web, and more. You can get started with a quick server-side API call that doesn't require you to share any of your customer's personal information. Moments was created to be a simple add-on to your existing retention mechanisms for a truly customizable experience. On average, developers who have integrated the Moments API say it took them less than one week to complete the integration and test it. Click <u><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/moments/about-apis.html" target="_blank">here</a></u> to read the technical and user documentation.<br /> <br /> "Moments allowed us to award prizes without the burden of storing or shipping the items, using just a quick and easy integration," said TikTok. "We were able to quickly test and optimize campaigns to resonate with our global platform."<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image2-momentslaunch-tiktok.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image2-momentslaunch-tiktok.jpg._CB454545341_.jpg?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <h2>How to get started</h2> <p>Explore the Moments <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/moments" target="_blank"><u>site</u> </a>to read best practices and learn how to run a successful test campaign. Then, follow these three steps to get started today:</p> <ol> <li>Sign in to the <u><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/moments/console" target="_blank">Moments Console</a> </u>with your Amazon credentials. If you don't have an account, registration is easy and free.</li> <li>Register your app and get an API key. It takes less than a minute.</li> <li>Create your campaign and begin testing out Moments.<br />  </li> </ol> <p><img alt="image3-momentslaunch-infographic.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image3-momentslaunch-infographic.png._CB454545343_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p> </p> /blogs/appstore/post/3ffa0154-00f5-48a1-9e7a-a5b8458b731d/new-year-new-updates-for-gameon-tournament-organizer New Year, New Updates for GameOn Tournament Organizer Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-01-29T17:48:31+00:00 2019-01-29T21:51:03+00:00

<p><img alt="GOTO_update_blogpost_r1t2_sk.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/GOTO_update_blogpost_r1t2_sk.jpg._CB455263345_.jpg?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /><br /> It's a new year and what better way to celebrate than to showcase the new features we added to GameOn Tournament Organizer (GOTO). If you are unfamiliar, GameOn Tournament Organizer is a Twitch extension that allows you to turn Twitch viewers into players, allows your community to create tournaments directly from their Twitch dashboard, and connects you with the Twitch creator audience. To learn more about GOTO, see our full overview <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/155c6cde-e0db-4940-90f3-29c22c99d858/break-through-on-twitch-with-the-new-gameon-tournament-organizer" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /> <br /> In the three months since<a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon/goto" target="_blank"> our launch at TwitchCon, </a>we have been listening to your feedback and today we are launching a new set of features to make the experience even better. Let's dive into what we've added to GameOn Tournament Organizer in January:<br /> <br /> <strong>Admin console and tournament controls: </strong>This feature allows game developers to view active GOTO tournaments from the GameOn console, ban players and/or streamers from a leaderboard, and manage tournament limits -- specifically, whitelist streamers, set limits for tournament durations, and limit the number of players and the number of attempts per player. This also allows you get to create and control tournament parameters, adding more flexibility and customization to determine how GOTO fits within your game.<br /> <br /> <strong>Deep linking: </strong>Introducing deep linking into GOTO means our extension acts as a launcher for your game. From the extension, viewers can click on a link added to the extension to open up your game on Steam. This will prompt a new player to purchase your game or a returning player to launch the title screen. There is no additional integration required for you to reap these benefits<em>.</em><br />  </p> <p><img alt="Image1-GOTO_-_Deep_Linking.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/Image1-GOTO_-_Deep_Linking.png._CB455263344_.png?t=true" /></p> <p>                                    <br /> <img alt="imag2-0129-Steam_Combo.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/imag2-0129-Steam_Combo.png._CB455262267_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p><br /> <strong>Streamers' Twitch username provided in API: </strong>Game Developers can now pull the streamers' Twitch usernames, their Twitch display image, and their tournament information into your game. This improves tournament discoverability and creates a deeper connection between the Twitch community and your title by showcasing Twitch integration in your game.<br /> <br /> <strong>Extension testing: </strong>Before going live with GOTO, you can test the extension using any Twitch account that you whitelist in the admin console. Only that account can access the game from the extension, letting you launch GOTO in your game at your own pace with confidence.<br /> <br /> We also made significant improvements to the Twitch Creator and player experience:<br /> <br /> <strong>Improved tournament pinning CX: </strong>This feature introduces a first-time user experience to educate streamers on clicking our 'pinning' feature when creating their tournament from their dashboard. This update ensures the viewers looking to participate don't have to search for the tournament on their favorite streamers' page, but rather they will see live tournaments below the fold that the content creator “pinned” to their channel.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="Newimage-0129-GOTO_-_Pining-FTUE_(002).png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/Newimage-0129-GOTO_-_Pining-FTUE_(002).png._CB455253105_.png?t=true" /></p> <p><br /> <strong>Updated time picker: </strong>This will allow Twitch content creators to easily select tournament start and end dates and times, creating a user-friendly experience for anyone using GOTO.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image5-timepicker-GOTO.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/image5-timepicker-GOTO.png._CB455263299_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p><br /> <strong>Cursor effects, tool tips, and auto-refresh: </strong>The cursor will change when a field on the extension is actionable and tool tips will provide additional detail for various fields. The auto-refresh allows you and your players to see how many players are entered into a tournament in real time.<br /> <br /> We are happy to say that this is just the beginning of what's to come. If you're ready to dive deeper, please find our tech documentation<a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/gameon/tournament-organizer.html" target="_blank"> here</a><em>. </em>We can't wait to see more Twitch creators unleash some friendly competition within their communities while playing your games.</p> /blogs/appstore/post/11f030bf-d200-4999-81bb-71a0b29ec746/how-to-improve-the-ui-of-your-game How to Improve the UI of Your Game Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-01-28T18:15:39+00:00 2019-01-28T18:18:28+00:00

<p><img alt="Header-UItips-Jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Header-UItips-Jan.png._CB456472373_.png?t=true" /></p> <p>I’ll be listing helpful tips to help optimize the look and feel of your user interface and most importantly, improve the user experience.</p>

<p style="text-align:justify"><img alt="Header-UItips-Jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Header-UItips-Jan.png._CB456472373_.png?t=true" /></p> <p style="text-align:justify">Before users can play your game they often have to go through a range of different screens -- maybe a splash screen, loading screen(s), a title screen and maybe even instructions or a tutorial. I’ll be listing helpful tips that may improve the look and feel of these scenes to better fit your game, and most importantly, improve the user experience.</p> <h2 style="text-align:justify">Splash screens</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">A splash screen offers a great place to showcase your studio logo, the publisher of the game, and what engine or tools were used during developments. Trying to keep the splash sequence short is important. Make sure that slides can be skipped, and whenever possible, combine multiple logos and text on a single slide.<br />  </p> <div> <img alt="image1-uitips-jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/image1-uitips-jan.png._CB456472375_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <div>   </div> <div> Being able to skip the splash screen(s) is especially important when developing games that will be played in short sessions, like hyper-casual mobile games. Players want to get to the gameplay as fast as possible and a splash screen only hinders that. </div> <div> <p style="text-align:justify">It might be worth looking into combining the splash screen with a loading screen if you’re creating a lightweight game that doesn’t require long loading screens. When you decide to pre-load data during the splash screens, it’s best to add a loading indicator so the player is aware why they can’t be skipped or why it takes slightly longer than usual.</p> <div> <img alt="image2-uitips-jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/image2-uitips-jan.png._CB456472374_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <h2>Loading screen</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">If you are creating a game that requires pre-loading data, you will have to create dedicated loading screens. And, these screens don’t have to be dull, black screens. They can actually be a great place to display lore or give helpful hints to the player. Depending on the type of game, there are a wide variety of things you can display, like previews of unlockable characters or teasers for levels later in the game.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">When loading data it’s important to communicate to the player that the game is working on data, show an indicator on the screen to display what is happening. If possible, a loading bar or percentage display is even better.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">If there are really long loading screens in your game, it might be worth considering interactive elements or a mini-game. Granted, this is only required when loading takes longer than a minute.</p> <h2>Title screen</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">The title screen is the perfect place to set the mood of your game. You can enhance the atmosphere by styling the logo of your game and adding audio and background scenery. There are also things that you can’t go without, like a menu.</p> <p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Menu buttons</strong></p> <p style="text-align:justify">It’s important to make sure the player knows which menu item is currently selected and changing the color of the text often isn’t enough. Imagine there are just two menu items that users can choose from. Can you tell which is selected in the example (below) on the left?<br />  </p> <div> <img alt="image3-uitips-jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/image3-uitips-jan.png._CB456472368_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <div>   </div> <div> To make it clearer to the user, you can add an underline, border, or even arrows that fit the style of your game. You can also ask someone else to navigate through your menu if you’re still not sure if it’s clear enough. </div> <div>   </div> <div> <strong>Background</strong> </div> <div> <p style="text-align:justify">Adding life to your title screen is done by adding background elements. Scenes from the game world, the protagonist or action scenes are great elements which can really set the mood.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">It’s important to keep a clear distinction between the background and foreground, however. Menu items, messages, and other text should stay easy to read (also consider accessibilty, like people color blindness). Adding a depth blur or overlay to the screen can help make the background look less busy.</p> <p style="text-align:justify"><strong>Game logo</strong></p> <p style="text-align:justify">Going into detail on what makes a good game logo is a little out of scope for this guide, but there are a few basic principles to make sure your logo is good.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">It’s important to make sure your logo is easy to read. Your logo will not only be displayed on your title screen, but might also appear outside of the game, for example in an icon or thumbnail in a digital store. Choose an easy-to-read font or lettering, and make sure there’s enough space between letters.<br />  </p> <div> <img alt="image4-uitips-jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/image4-uitips-jan.png._CB456472370_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <div> <br /> Keep a simple color palette (and optionally texture) that fits the style of your game. You can also consider adding an icon or element from your game. </div> <div> <h2 style="text-align:justify">Settings</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">Depending on the amount of settings your game will offer to players, you can either place them all on a single screen, or create tabs with multiple screens.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">While this isn’t entirely UI related, you might want to consider accessibilty when creating the settings for your game. Subtitles, customizable controls, and using shapes instead of colors and volume controls are a great start for making your game more accessible.</p> <h2 style="text-align:justify">Instructions</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">It’s important to remember that a lot of players will not be native English speakers, so it’s important to make sure even they can understand the instructions and menu of your game. If you’re not going to have language selection, it might be a good idea to use easy-to-understand words, and icons/animations when possible.</p> <div> <img alt="image5-uitips-jan.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/image5-uitips-jan.png._CB456472320_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <div>   </div> <div> Some things are easier to explain using words, so don’t go over the top with the icons and animations. The best way to explain your game is an in-game tutorial, however this might cost more development time. </div> <div> <h2 style="text-align:justify">Pause menu</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">People pause games to take a phone call, go have dinner, or take short breaks. That’s why it’s important to not just pause the game, but to silence all the audio that’s currently playing.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">During pausing, it might be a good idea to either blur the screen, or make the background darker to display that the game is paused. Even better would be to display a menu with quick access to the settings, or to save the game.</p> <h2 style="text-align:justify">Final words</h2> <p style="text-align:justify">You don’t have to be an expert designer to make sure your interface looks nice, and is easy to use. A few tricks here and there, and you’ll quickly improve your overall interface. Study how popular titles create their menus and don’t be afraid to simplify things.</p> <div>   </div> </div> </div> </div> <p><img alt="Kenney-author-bio.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Kenney-author-bio._CB500493296_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /><br />  </p> <div style="text-align:center"> <em>Kenney Vleugels is an artist from the Netherlands who shares game assets (sprites, models, audio, fonts and more) with game developers. Recently, he founded <a href="https://pixeland.io/" target="_blank">Pixeland </a>which is a physical community hub where every game developer in the world is welcome to learn, teach, meet, work, and play.</em> </div> </div> /blogs/appstore/post/226f8a6f-ab31-437b-af91-4416e88f019a/yoyo-games-introduces-the-amazon-gameon-plugin-for-gamemaker-studio-2 YoYo Games Introduces the Amazon GameOn Plugin for GameMaker Studio 2 Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-01-22T17:17:06+00:00 2019-01-22T21:30:34+00:00

<p><img alt="hero-bannerGameOn_Game_Maker_blog_post_v2.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/hero-bannerGameOn_Game_Maker_blog_post_v2.jpg._CB456464491_.jpg?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon" target="_blank">Amazon GameOn</a> is a powerful set of flexible APIs that allows game developers to drive engagement and increase monetization through cross-platform competitions and tournaments. Amazon GameOn allows game developers to grant digital in-game and real-world prizes, and players and streamers can create their own user-generated competitions.</p> <p>Starting today, it’s even easier to <strong>add GameOn to any game created with GameMaker Studio 2 </strong>thanks to the <strong>Amazon GameOn plugin</strong> created by YoYo Games, the maker of GameMaker Studio 2.</p> <h2>Introducing the Amazon GameOn plugin for GameMaker Studio 2</h2> <p>Today YoYo Games <a href="https://www.yoyogames.com/blog/500/yoyo-games-launches-amazon-gameon-for-gamemaker-stu" target="_blank">announced</a> the release of their Amazon GameOn plugin for GameMaker Studio 2, their leading 2D game development engine.</p> <p>Using the Amazon GameOn plugin, developers can <strong>add and manage competitive elements provided by Amazon GameOn,</strong> like:</p> <ul> <li>Tournaments</li> <li>Matches</li> <li>Teams</li> <li>Leaderboards</li> <li>Leagues</li> <li>In-game and real-world prizes</li> </ul> <p>This is all achieved in just a few clicks by using <strong>custom pre-made GameMaker objects and scripts</strong>.</p> <p>The Amazon GameOn Plugin for GMS2 also includes a <strong>d</strong><strong>emo project</strong> that demonstrates how to leverage all the main features and APIs of Amazon GameOn.</p> <p>Now let’s see how you can start playing with the Amazon GameOn plugin in GameMaker Studio 2.</p> <h2>Amazon GameOn requirements</h2> <p>Here’s what you need to start playing with the Amazon GameOn plugin:</p> <ul> <li>Amazon developer account</li> <li>AWS account (for billing purposes)</li> <li>The Amazon GameOn API key</li> <li>A tournament created via the Amazon GameOn console</li> </ul> <p>Follow <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/gameon/game-api.html" target="_blank">these simple steps to get started</a> creating your first Amazon GameOn competition.</p> <h2>Importing the Amazon GameOn extension in GameMaker Studio 2</h2> <p>The first thing you need to do in GameMaker Studio 2 is <strong>download the Amazon GameOn plugin extension</strong> from the GameMaker marketplace.</p> <p>You can find the extension from the link below:</p> <p><a href="https://marketplace.yoyogames.com/assets/7808/amazon-gameon" target="_blank">Amazon GameOn Extension for GMS2</a></p> <p>Once you have added it to your account, you can import it in your project by clicking on the top menu under <strong><em>Marketplace -> My Library.</em></strong></p> <p><img alt="updated-Image1-YoYo-GO-0122.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/updated-Image1-YoYo-GO-0122.png._CB456465293_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p><br /> Then follow the steps to <strong>import the extension in your project</strong>.</p> <h2>Test and submit your first score to Amazon GameOn</h2> <p>The extension includes a demo project and demo objects that help you get up to speed with the Amazon GameOn extension for GMS2.</p> <p>Here’s a few steps that will allow you to submit your first score to Amazon GameOn:</p> <ol> <li>First, copy your Amazon Game API key. In the Amazon GameOn console, this is referenced as the<strong> p</strong><strong>ublic API key. </strong>This is what we are going to add to GMS2 and that will enable the connection between your game and the GameOn API.</li> <li>Once you copied your public API key, go to GameMaker Studio and under <strong>Objects</strong>, select <strong>Amazon GameOn Demo -> oAGDemoController </strong>and open it (see image below).<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image2-YoYo-GO-0122.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/GameOn/Image2-YoYo-GO-0122.png._CB456464487_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:451px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /></li> <li>In the <strong>Create Event</strong>, there’s a script that contains the most important variables of your game. For the sake of this exercise, we will just need to paste our<strong> public API key</strong> as the variable <strong>default_app_key.</strong></li> <li>At this point, our game is ready to connect to our GameOn tournament! Let’s <strong>r</strong><strong>un</strong> the demo.</li> <li>The demo project will prompt you with a screen full of buttons. Those are demo buttons you can use to test your GameOn integration. Click on <strong>Player REGISTER.</strong></li> <li>This will prompt a window asking for a public API key. However, as we already added our API key, it should just display it here. Click OK.<br /> <br /> <img alt="updated-Image3-YoYo-GO-0122.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/updated-Image3-YoYo-GO-0122.png._CB456465292_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></li> <li>All the remaining buttons will <strong>turn green</strong>. We are now connected to Amazon GameOn, and our player is correctly registered! If we want, we can update the name of our player, by <strong>clicking on Player UPDATE</strong>. Let’s call our player <strong>“Test 1."</strong></li> <li>Now, we need to join a tournament. Let’s click on <strong>Tournament GET, </strong>which will allow us to enter the tournament we previously created in the GameOn console. Then we need to enter the tournament. Let’s click on <strong>Tournament ENTER</strong>. We are now in the tournament and we need to start a new match.</li> <li>Let’s click on <strong>Match GET</strong>, then <strong>Match ENTER</strong>. We can now submit our first score: click on <strong>Match SCORE</strong> and add a score of 1000 points. Click OK.</li> <li>Congratulations, your first Amazon GameOn score has been submitted!</li> </ol> <p>If you go back to your GameOn console and navigate to your tournament, you will find the first score submitted (see image below for reference).<br />  </p> <p><img alt="Updated-Image4-YoYo-GO-0122.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/Updated-Image4-YoYo-GO-0122.png._CB456465294_.png?t=true" /></p> <h2>Next steps</h2> <p>Submitting a score is just the first step.</p> <p>You can use the extension to add full Amazon GameOn functionalities to you GMS2 game by using and customizing the pre-defined demo objects or by leveraging the underlying custom APIs and scripts provided by the plugin.<br /> <br /> You can find full documentation for the GameOn plugin on the YoYo Games website here:</p> <p><a href="https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/360014552892" target="_blank">Amazon GameOn Plugin for GMS2 - Official documentation</a></p> <p>Thanks and stay tuned for more GameOn news!</p> <p>-Mario Viviani (<a href="https://twitter.com/Mariuxtheone" target="_blank">@mariuxtheone</a>)</p> /blogs/appstore/post/946094d4-5dc5-4a6a-a24f-2c423e076979/how-to-draw-pbr-materials-by-hand How to Draw PBR Materials By Hand Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2019-01-16T19:31:41+00:00 2019-01-16T19:31:41+00:00

<p><img alt="PBR-Kenney-header.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/PBR-Kenney-header.png._CB458085507_.png?t=true" /></p> <p>Most modern game engines support PBR (physically-based rendering) materials. These maps can be created using expensive and hard to learn software, or created from photographs. The good news is that there's an alternative! You can draw these textures by hand using free software and basic drawing skills.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="Image1-PBR-kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image1-PBR-kenney.png._CB458085506_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><br /> To follow along with this guide, you'll need either bitmap or vector drawing software. If you want to stick to free software, I can recommend GIMP for bitmap drawing and Inkscape if you rather draw using vectors.</p> <p>It’s always best to draw using vectors because they’re easier to edit and you can export your texture at any size. The disadvantage is that it’s harder to create organic materials like grass or high-detail textures. Try both and see which you like best.</p> <p>Let's get started with the albedo map, which defines the color of your PBR map.</p> <h2>Albedo map</h2> <p>The albedo map defines the colors and pattern of a material and serves as the color input. If you were creating textures for a tank, this map would contain the camouflage pattern. Usually albedo maps have to be completely flat and can't contain any shadows or highlights (they get added by the game engine), but in some cases like stylized textures, they can be added for extra definition.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="Image2-PBR-kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image2-PBR-kenney.png._CB458085532_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><br /> As an example, I've created the albedo map of a wall with a window, a control panel, and a metal vent. These aren't very exciting by themselves, but when we'll combine these with other maps, they'll gain artificial depth and reflective properties which make them look realistic in-engine.</p> <p>Creating an albedo map is simple if you know how basic drawing tools work. Remember: Don't use any techniques to add shadows or highlights, that’s up to the game engine to add.</p> <h2>Displacement map</h2> <p>Depending on your engine, you can choose a displacement (or <em>height</em>) map, a normal map, or both. The difference between a displacement map and normal map is that displacement maps physically move the polygons of the model you apply the material to.</p> <p>Not all game engines support displacement maps however. They can also be performance heavy and models often need to be tessellated (add more polygons) for better results.</p> <p>When drawing a displacement map, everything that's black will have the most depth and white the least (or even extrude from the map). You can use any color in between and gradients allow you to create a wide range of effects.<br />  </p> <div> <img alt="Image3-PBR-kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image3-PBR-kenney.png._CB458085534_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <div>   </div> <div> <br /> See the image above for displacement maps based on our albedo maps. The glass part of the window has the most depth, while the frame around it is extruded from the texture (because it's light in color). There are also some bricks in the wall that protrude and fall back. </div> <p>The control panel has a circle gradient on the TV screen which makes it extrude into a round shape. The lower left panel also has a gradient which means it'll look like it's extruded at an angle. The metal vent has the same effect as the control panel, which will add depth.</p> <h2>Normal map</h2> <p>Normal maps are used for fine details on textures, like screws and scratches. The depth it adds is an illusion, which means the polygons of your models aren't modified and there's no actual depth. To achieve the best depth effects, you'll have to combine a normal map and displacement map, and change the polygons of your model.</p> <p>Drawing a normal map by hand is extremely difficult and not really worth the time. There are <a href="http://cpetry.github.io/NormalMap-Online/" target="_blank">online generators</a> which create a normal map based on a displacement map.</p> <h2>Specular map</h2> <p>Specular maps let the game engine know how shiny a surface is. The colors range between white (shiny) and black (matte). You can use a specular map to add details like borders and edges to materials.<br />  </p> <div> <img alt="Image4-PBR-Kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image4-PBR-Kenney.png._CB458085529_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /> </div> <p><br /> In this case, the glass of the window is made shiny. For the control panel, each of the panel dividers has a white stroke around the edge to add detail. The vent has shiny screws and white lines to create sharp edges.</p> <h2>Emission map</h2> <p>Emission maps allow you to specify which areas of your textures will be brighter than others. Using such a map, you can create effects like windows that light up, or bright light bulbs on a control panel. Especially when combined with a bloom effect, this can really enhance the atmosphere of a game.</p> <p>To create an emission map you'll start by creating a new textures with a black background. Black means that there's no emission and white means there's maximum emission. You can draw any shape or color on the texture to specify what emits light.<br />  </p> <p style="text-align:justify"><img alt="Image5-PBR-Kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image5-PBR-Kenney.png._CB458086255_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p><br /> In our case, it's only sensible for the control panel to have an emission map, as the others don't emit light by themselves. Simply copy shapes from the albedo or displacement map and color them using bright colors to make them emit light in your scene.</p> <p>As a fun challenge, you can make an emission map for the wall with window texture so it lights up at night!</p> <h2>Results <br />  </h2> <p><img alt="Image6-PBR-Kenney.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Image6-PBR-Kenney.png._CB458086254_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /></p> <p><br /> Here's the result of the PBR maps when combined. If your game engine supports it, you can add a bloom effect to make the emission map glow.</p> <p>Getting the right results is a process of trial and error, so go ahead and experiment with the different maps and effects until you get the desired result. Every game engine is different and might handle PBR maps differently, so make sure to tweak settings and try different shaders for the best results.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="Kenney-author-bio.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/KennyInfluencerPosts/Kenney-author-bio._CB500493296_.png?t=true" style="display:block; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto" /><br />  </p> <div style="text-align:center"> <em>Kenney Vleugels is an artist from the Netherlands who shares game assets (sprites, models, audio, fonts and more) with game developers. Recently, he founded <a href="https://pixeland.io/" target="_blank">Pixeland </a>which is a physical community hub where every game developer in the world is welcome to learn, teach, meet, work, and play.</em> </div> /blogs/appstore/post/d5a3783c-4726-4523-9506-5412dc9870e5/dev-chat-with-whow-games-the-las-vegas-experience Dev Chat with Whow Games: A Las Vegas Experience Sacid Celik 2019-01-09T18:16:07+00:00 2019-01-10T21:09:19+00:00

<p style="text-align:center"><img alt="" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/Screenshot_Lobby.jpg._CB457672681_.jpg" style="height:338px; width:800px" /></p> <p>German developer Whow Games is passionate about social casino games. Check out this edition of Dev Chat to find out why they decided to bring their games to Amazon Appstore and why they think Amazon customers are valuable to them.</p>

<h1 style="text-align:center"><img alt="Whow Games Lobby" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/Screenshot_Lobby.jpg._CB457672681_.jpg" style="height:563px; width:800px" /></h1> <p><em><strong>In </strong></em><em><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/AmazonAppDistro/playlists?sort=dd&view=50&shelf_id=13" target="_blank">Dev Chat – Short Answers to Big Questions</a></strong></em><em><strong><u>,</u></strong></em><em><strong> our video series of short videos created by Amazon Appstore, developers of successful apps and games answer your questions in less than 90 seconds.</strong></em></p> <h1>Whow Games in their own words</h1> <p>Whow Games brings the casino lifestyle directly from Las Vegas to the web browser and app stores. From slot machines to table games, the entire entertainment offering of the largest casinos in the world can be experienced together with friends. The approach is as simple as it is successful: Whow Games puts the social experience of casino games in the foreground. All casino games are playable for free (free-to-play concept). The games deliver the same fun and entertainment of an exciting casino visit.</p> <p style="text-align:center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4pkjYryCmuPjxak5CasJ1-a&cc_load_policy=1" width="560"></iframe></p> <h1>High-value customers</h1> <p>In this episode of Dev Chat, we sat down with the team behind Whow Games to learn who they are and why they chose to release their games in the <a href="http://lrd.to/197aiNqIHj" target="_blank">Amazon Appstore</a>. Their focus on providing the “Las Vegas experience” for all users makes Amazon Fire HD Tablets the perfect fit for their games. As Tobias Edl, head of new business relations, puts it, “due to the large screen, the user has a great experience and customer journey. We offer more than different 100 slots and thus the product is presented very, very nicely. Our user can navigate the app easily, gets the full gaming experience and is able to immerse themselves completely in our product.”</p> <p>The ability to reach valuable Amazon customers was their major reason to release at Amazon Appstore. Not only does this add an entirely new group of users to their customer base, but it opens up Whow Games to very valuable customers. Tobias Edl adds: “We see that the conversion rate with Amazon is higher than with other comparable platforms and the user value, meaning what each customer spends on the platform, is significantly higher at Amazon compared to the market.”</p> <p>It makes sense then that Whow Games decided to implement the Amazon <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/in-app-purchasing/iap-overview.html" target="_blank">In-App Purchasing API</a>. Asked for their reasons to implement the API, Sandra Brau, CMO, half-jokingly said: “We are using the Amazon In-App Purchasing API, obviously as we want to make money.” On a more serious note, she added that while they have only released their games in the Appstore in summer 2018, they can already see a high customer lifetime value.</p> <h1>Developing for Amazon Appstore</h1> <p>Markus Baldschus, senior mobile developer, offered some insights into the development process for Amazon Appstore.</p> <p>As they used product flavors by Gradle in combination with Android, making the necessary adjustments for Amazon Appstore was easy and they were able to realize the release within a few weeks. Markus Baldschus also highlights how the <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/docs/app-testing/testing-your-app.html" target="_blank">Amazon App Testing Service </a>helped them test their app during the development process. Implementing and testing the In-App Purchasing API was very easy, as all items were easily imported and exported. </p> <h1>Check out the Dev Chat with Whow Games</h1> <p>The team offers exiting answers about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jv8z0Ln_Y8&list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4pkjYryCmuPjxak5CasJ1-a" target="_blank">Whow Games and their games</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_PLnhhrhUQ&index=2&list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4pkjYryCmuPjxak5CasJ1-a" target="_blank">why they chose to release on Amazon Fire tablet</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQsEhl9Fmy8&index=3&list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4pkjYryCmuPjxak5CasJ1-a">their experience developing for Fire tablets</a>, and their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YH79CKEQQg&index=4&list=PL93Q4ZD_4z4pkjYryCmuPjxak5CasJ1-a">reasons for integrating the In-App Purchasing API</a>.</p> <p><strong><em>Don’t miss the next edition of </em></strong><em><strong><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/AmazonAppDistro/playlists" target="_blank">Dev Chat</a></strong></em><strong><em>. Subscribe to the </em></strong><strong><em><a href="http://m.amazonappservices.com/blog-subscription" target="_blank">Amazon Appstore blog</a></em></strong><strong><em> to stay up to date.</em></strong></p> /blogs/appstore/post/f64c83ef-a15e-4263-b732-e26427e1cca3/how-to-find-and-manage-a-remote-team How to Find and Manage a Remote Team Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2018-12-31T08:00:00+00:00 2019-01-02T21:19:28+00:00

<p><img alt="image3-remoteteam-1231.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/AlejandroHitti/image3-remoteteam-1231.png._CB459243342_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:557px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:800px" /><br /> Finding a team as an indie developer can be challenging. And, once you have found one, keeping it together and working efficiently is even harder. Over the years, I’ve had good and bad experiences with teams and projects, but that’s part of the process. The bright side is that I've learned a few tips and tricks that can help you easily find and manage a team.</p> <p>For reference, the most complicated team to manage that I’ve been on had people living in Brazil, Japan, Seattle, and Michigan. That’s four time zones!</p> <h2>Finding the right team</h2> <p>This section is the one that can have the most variation, so your experience may differ vastly from mine. However, I will list the ways I use to find people and the qualities I look for when considering people for my teams.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Meet other developers</strong>: I think it’s important to have some sort of a relationship with the people you want to work with, before the project starts. This doesn’t have to be a long or deep relationship, but at the very least, try working with people you’ve talked to in a non-professional setting more than once. You could follow other devs on social media and engage with them. Teaming up with people you know personally can also be a good idea, but these cases can be rare depending on where you live.</li> <li><strong>Look through their portfolio:</strong> It’s always a good idea to see their previous work and if it fits with what you are trying to do. Another thing you should consider is their ability level and how it compares to yours as I believe it’s good to have teams with similar experience levels. Notice that this goes both ways, so make sure you’ve done some work yourself and have something in your portfolio to show it to people.</li> <li><strong>Avoid “ideas people”:</strong> Too often I see people trying to assemble a team by saying something like: “I have this never-before-done idea for a game that will make us millionaires! But I need a programmer, designer, artist, sound designer, everything, and I’ll be the idea guy." No. Just… no. Everyone needs to pull their weight in a team. Everyone has a million game ideas in their heads that are potentially a hit. Ideas are worth nothing. Implementing an idea is what’s valuable, so if you find one of these idea people, make sure they at least will code, script, do the art -- something.</li> <li><strong>Pay contractors</strong>: This one is complicated, but one that also comes up a lot. The issue is that artists and sound designers are often brought into a team, they make some assets, and then the game or team falls apart, wasting their time. In my experience, it’s best to pay for the art and sound for your game outright, or work out a deal where they charge less for their assets in exchange for some revenue share when (or if) the game ever comes out. It’s the best solution to this problem I’ve seen and experienced. Also, you should never ask someone to work “for exposure." Either they have revenue share, a flat fee for their work, or a mix of both, but never work or ask someone to work for free.</li> </ul> <h2>First steps once you have a team</h2> <p>While most of these are not 100% necessary at the early stages of development, doing them will prevent future headaches and conflicts. Believe me.</p> <ul> <li><strong>Write and sign contracts</strong>: This will make sure everyone knows what is expected of them to do, what their compensation is, who owns what (can sound designers sell the OST themselves? What about art prints?), and what happens in the event that someone wants to leave the team.</li> <li><strong>Create an LLC:</strong> To sell the game, you will need to have a company. The easiest one to make and manage is an LLC, but you can look up S-Corps and C-Corps and pick the one that’s right for your project. Having the company early isn’t too vital, but the sooner, the better, especially since you can specify in the contracts that the company owns the assets, instead of individuals.</li> <li><strong>Set up a company bank account</strong>: When you have the company set up, having a bank account is also important. Sure, you can have the money go to someone’s personal account, but it is MUCH safer for everyone involved if the money from your game is being funneled into a company account.</li> </ul> <h2>Best practices for managing the team</h2> <p>In most cases, when you hear about a game that did not launch or got canceled, the issue can be tracked down to bad management. Whether you are working on a team of two, or two hundred, managing teams and getting people to work together to achieve the same goal is very complicated. Luckily, some smart people have created, tested, and improved a bunch of techniques that can be used to more consistently avoid these situations from happening.</p> <p>I will list a few of the tools I use in my teams, a lot of them I took from from agile, a production methodology that encourages fluidity and adaptability. Agile is a huge topic that is out of the scope of this article, but I encourage you to delve deeper into it if you find the next few practices and tools useful.</p> <p><strong>1. Pick someone to act as producer</strong></p> <p>Several of the points I will cover later in this article will mention the producer. This person is NOT the team leader (though it can be), and in an indie team, is usually not only the producer, but has another role, such as a programmer or artist. The person who will take on the producer role needs to be organized and understand that this will add a ton of work and responsibilities on their plate, but will benefit the team in the long run.</p> <p><strong>2. Communicate as much as possible</strong></p> <p>The most important aspect of working in any team environment is communication. Having an easy way for everyone to discuss game ideas, ask questions, and show their work is essential. This is especially true when working with people in different time zones, where they may miss a conversation that happened while they were away. Don’t use a program that only has a single conversation thread, as it’s hard to recap what’s going on, especially when there are multiple conversations going on at once.</p> <p>Instead, use a service that allows you to set up channels for each topic (art, programming, design, etc). This helps members find information that is relevant to them, as it is contained in one or two places. Also, I recommend you have a channel for general banter. It’s always good when teams just hang out and talk for fun, as it strengthens their bonds!</p> <p><img alt="Image1-Remoteteam-1231.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/AlejandroHitti/Image1-Remoteteam-1231.png._CB459243341_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:394px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /></p> <p><br /> <strong>3. Schedule meetings</strong></p> <p>Part of the job of the producer is to keep the team informed and the project on track. The best way to achieve this is to have consistent team meetings. These are different from your day-to-day chats, and they are most effective when done through a call or video call, not text. I’d say if you are all working full time on the game, having weekly meetings is reasonable, but if it’s more of a hobby project, having meetings every two weeks, or once a month, is fine too. During these meetings, you can check the status of your project, how your milestone is going, do a milestone review, and update your task board (which I’ll talk about in a bit). The producer should always have a plan for the meeting so it stays on topic, covers all the information that is relevant, and makes the meeting short and concise. No one likes long meetings where not much is said.</p> <p><strong>4. Have a task board</strong></p> <p>When working on a game with hundreds, if not thousands, of moving parts, it is essential that the team has a way of tracking tasks that need to be done, are finished, or are in the backburner. There’s a few online resources that facilitate these sort of task boards for your team. Choose one that fits your team and use it! It can be a pain in the beginning to get used to the workflow, but after a while, you’ll wonder how you ever worked without one.</p> <p>The producer is usually responsible for assigning tasks, adding new tasks to the board, and prioritizing them. A big check and update of your board can be done once a week, but small updates will happen throughout the week. This way, everyone in the team can wake up every morning, check the board, pick a task to complete, and do it. After they are done, they can mark it as finished, pick another task, and work away. Good tasks are preferably split into small pieces that can be completed in a single seating. It is still okay to have larger tasks in the board, but it’s a good idea to break them down into smaller pieces once it reaches the point in the queue where people will work on it</p> <div> <img alt="Image2-remoteteam-1231.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/AlejandroHitti/Image2-remoteteam-1231.png._CB459243340_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:394px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /> </div> <p><br /> <strong>5. Daily check-ins</strong></p> <p>In agile, there’s a useful tool called “stand-up meetings,” which are basically small five to 10-minute chat that happen at the beginning of the day between teams. It consists of people standing around in a circle and saying three things:</p> <div> <ol> <li> <p>What they worked on the day before</p> </li> <li> <p>What they’ll be working on today</p> </li> <li> <p>If there’s anything blocking them from completing their tasks</p> </li> </ol> <p>These simple questions are great because it informs the entire team of everyone else is doing and helps them solve any issues before they happen (such as two people working on the same task or on a feature that is already implemented). I adapted this idea and called it “check-ins." The idea is that your communication server has a channel dedicated to check-ins, where everyone will answer these three questions as soon as they sit down to work every day. The answers should be short, but concrete.</p> <p>Try to avoid being too broad (working on gameplay today) and be specific about what you are doing, referencing specific tasks you will tackle from your task board. Going into this channel to write your answers also encourages each member to read everyone else’s answers and know what’s going on in the project. It’s also a great way to make sure everyone is working and pulling their weight within the team. Last, make sure to be honest. If possible, the days you are not going to be working, hop into the channel and post: “Not working on anything today, I’m taking a break for the day." The team will understand and it relieves the pressure off your shoulders knowing the team is aware of what’s going on.</p> <p><strong>6. Set milestones</strong></p> <p>Planning too far ahead into the future is almost impossible, especially in games where the design is constantly changing. Having a goal to “finish the game” can feel like a goalpost that is ever-moving and unobtainable, which negatively affects the motivation of the entire team.</p> <p>Instead, have short-term achievable goals and try your best to meet them on time. This will help with team morale and will take you from a small prototype to a released game more consistently. Remember those meetings we talked about earlier? Those are a great place to plan and talk about milestones. I’d suggest having a milestone every month, or maybe every two months. These should be stuff like: all movement mechanics implemented, art for world one is complete, 50% of character sound effects done.</p> <p>Time estimation is an area we all have trouble with, but it can be trained and your estimates will get better and better the more you work on it. However, try to meet milestones, so if you need to get creative or cut content to meet it, then do it. Games small and large cut content constantly in order to meet milestones, and they are all the better for it. Just make sure you are in constant communication with your team and keeping them informed on your progress so you can all make the decision on cutting content.</p> <p><strong>7. Use source control</strong></p> <p>The use of source control in any project is extremely important, and it is essential when your team has more than one programmer. It’s a great way to backup your game, use it to pinpoint when a certain bug was created, and keep resources up to date. This is why I encourage teams to teach their artists and sound designers to use source control. This way, they can always have the latest build working on their computers for testing (test your game constantly please!) and they can add or tweak their assets without the help of a programmer or designer, which improves the team’s workflow. If you don’t know much about source control, I wrote a couple of articles about it. It is focused on GameMaker, but some of the basic concepts are the same, and there are lots of resources out there to learn how to use it in your project. Here are the articles:</p> <ul> <li> <p><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/d7cfe367-188e-4c89-98b2-1cdeef0c34ab/git-started-with-source-control-and-gamemaker-studio-2-part-1?cmp=US_2017-00_Inf_InfBlogs&ch=Inf&chlast=Inf&pub=AlH&publast=AlH&type=org&typelast=org" target="_blank">Git Started with Source Control and GameMaker Studio 2 (Part 1)</a></p> </li> <li> <p><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/3e78a547-3ea4-459f-9131-43ae6e235892/git-started-with-source-control-and-gamemaker-studio-2-part-2?cmp=US_2017-00_Inf_InfBlogs&ch=Inf&chlast=Inf&pub=AlH&publast=AlH&type=org&typelast=org" target="_blank">Git Started with Source Control and GameMaker Studio 2 (Part 2)</a><br />  </p> </li> </ul> <p><img alt="image3-remoteteam-1231.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/AlejandroHitti/image3-remoteteam-1231.png._CB459243342_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:487px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /></p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>I hope these tips help you find a team and improve your communication, teamwork, and workflow. Remember that this list isn’t exhaustive and that you should only use what works for your team, but I definitely encourage you to try some of these tools for a few weeks. You may be surprised at how effective some are even if they sound silly at first. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through Twitter at<a href="http://twitter.com/AleHitti" target="_blank"> @AleHitti</a>. </p> <div>   </div> </div> <p><img alt="AlejandroBio.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/AlejandroBio._CB512098171_.jpg?t=true" style="display:block; height:145px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:583px" /></p> <div> <em>Alejandro Hitti is a videogame Programmer and Designer from Venezuela. Although his background is in C++ and working using custom-made game engines, his two commercial games, INK and HackyZack, were made using GameMaker Studio 1.4. With the release of GameMaker Studio 2, that became his engine of choice. The novelty of GMS2, paired with his knowledge of the previous version, ignited his interest to create tutorials that focus on this new engine.</em> </div> /blogs/appstore/post/00ae2ce6-9bab-4c4f-8644-0b35d0759cb4/3-lessons-learned-how-power-rangers-legacy-wars-by-nway-uses-gameon 3 Lessons Learned: How Power Rangers: Legacy Wars, by nWay, Uses GameOn Emily Esposito Fulkerson 2018-12-19T21:07:56+00:00 2018-12-19T22:16:22+00:00

<p><img alt="image3-1219-nway.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image3-1219-nway.png._CB459859800_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:394px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:800px" /></p> <p>Competition provides the opportunity to bring players together and create vibrant communities around the game itself, as well as the characters and IP. It offers a quality and native way to engage fans, extending the brand story.<br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/NWAY-INC-Power-Rangers-Legacy/dp/B072JBBRKM" target="_blank">Power Rangers: Legacy Wars</a>, by nWay, took their competitions one step further with <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon" target="_blank">GameOn</a>, which enables cross-platform competitions and offers real-world prizes to the top players. These physical prizes bring the Power Rangers story to life and motivate players to continue playing for a chance to win.<br /> <br /> We had a chance to talk to Jesse Cherry, the senior product manager at nWay, about nWay's experience running competitions and engaging their players with GameOn.<br /> <br /> Here are three things we can learn from nWay:</p> <h2>1. Leverage different tournament styles</h2> <p>Power Rangers: Legacy Wars participated in the weekend-long esports tournament, <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/appstore/post/3b4da986-260e-464b-b7ad-0dbd4671ef95/amazon-s-mobile-masters-tournament-powered-by-gameon" target="_blank">Mobile Masters</a>, in June 2018. They used two different tournament types, leaderboards and brackets, to crown the ultimate winner. nWay first ran qualifiers, using leaderboards, to identify the best players from around the world to ultimately compete in Mobile Masters. There were four qualifying rounds in three different regions, where players competed for the top spots on the leaderboard. At the end of the qualifiers, the top 28 people moved on to the group stage.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image1-1219_nWay.PNG" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image1-1219_nWay.PNG._CB459859804_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:341px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /><br /> <br /> The group stage featured brackets, where the 28 finalists competed against each other and at the end of each round, the top players advanced to the next round. The final eight players from the group stage won their way to Seattle to compete in the Mobile Masters tournament, which also used a bracket-style tournament to identify the champion.<br /> <br /> This combination of leaderboards and brackets is an efficient way to run qualifiers and finals for an esports event. Leaderboards for the qualifiers allow everyone to participate and have a chance to advance, whereas brackets make the finals a more exciting, energetic way to watch players compete for the top spot.</p> <h2>2. Offer real-world prizes to bring the IP to life</h2> <p>Once you pick the best tournament style for your game, it's time to think about how to reward the top finishers. Thanks to GameOn, nWay was able to rally their fans around the Power Rangers IP, awarding real-world prizes delivered right to a player's doorstep.<br /> <br /> “Being an IP-driven game, we were really interested in real-world prizes because it gives us another avenue to live and breathe the IP,” said Jesse. “We have the ability to send stuff directly to players' homes that relate to Power Rangers and continued that story.<br /> <br /> “When offering real-world prizes, there is more of a furor in the game. The moment a player has been eliminated, they want to jump back in and play for another chance to win.”<br /> <br /> In addition to Power Rangers merchandise, nWay also offers physical prizing from sponsors. For example, their players were sponsored by Razer during Mobile Masters. nWay gave away Razer phones to the winners, allowing them to show off the sponsorship in a way that was engaging and appealing to players.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image2-1219-nway.jpg" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image2-1219-nway.jpg._CB459859806_.jpg?t=true" style="display:block; height:184px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /></p> <h2>3. Promote tournaments and clearly communicate guidelines</h2> <p>The best prizes in the world won't be effective unless your players know about them. It's important to clearly communicate the rules and tournament details (including prizing!) to players. Make sure to set clear expectations of what players will be doing, what they will win, and how they can win.<br /> <br /> In the example below, nWay capitalized on the most-viewed real estate in their app to promote their tournaments, thanks to a specific “Challenges” section of the navigation. Once you click on “Challenges,” you see each tournament listed with instructions on how to play. Most importantly, these guidelines clearly outline everything a player would need to know to begin: when the tournament starts, what they need to accomplish, and details about the prize.<br />  </p> <p><img alt="image3-1219-nway.png" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/DeveloperBlogs/AppstoreBlogs/default/image3-1219-nway.png._CB459859800_.png?t=true" style="display:block; height:394px; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; width:700px" /></p> <h2>Get started with GameOn</h2> <p><a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon" target="_blank">GameOn</a> makes it easy to run cross-platform tournaments and award players with real-world prizes fulfilled by Amazon. It provides a ready-made solution for enabling competitions in your games, rather than having to build them from scratch.<br /> <br /> “GameOn works really well, especially if you want to tie in those real-world prizes. You can get all that stuff set up really quickly with GameOn,” said Jesse.<br /> <br /> You can <a href="https://developer.amazon.com/gameon/getting-started" target="_blank">get started with GameOn</a> in three easy steps:</p> <ol> <li>Sign in with your Amazon Developer credentials. If you don't already have an account, registration is easy and free.</li> <li>Register your game in the Game Settings tab and follow the on-screen prompts.</li> <li>Get your API key.</li> </ol>