Understanding Conflict—By Gaming

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Research funding, private financing and capital investment accounted roughly for a third of the budget each, with Serious Games appreciative of support from both the Danish government and the European Union.

While deadlines were never really considered an issue during the year and a half of development time so far racked up, a lack of remaining funds means that the pressure is now on to source distribution deals, with the game set for release on April 19.

“The biggest barrier has probably been trying to find the right channels to get the game to market because people are a little uncertain about how the game will fit into their portfolio, and who exactly the target group is. Should they sell the title in a traditional game shop, a book store, a catalogue, via direct mail? They haven’t really got anything to compare it with so that’s a bit tricky.

“We have a deadline right now meaning we need to get some income and yet we don’t want to sell the distribution rights too cheaply. It’s quite a conservative market and we are reluctant to accept offers that might reduce our options. We are still talking to a number of publishers and distributors and initially plan to distribute it ourselves via a digital download and through direct mail from our website, and then hopefully convince people that there is definitely a market. We do, however, have deals lined up with some online portals, although I can’t really go into that now.”

Fostering Community

Post release, the developer plans to focus its efforts on fostering community aspects for the game, says Nielsen.

“We are working with a community idea where we want to make content available to players which can be discussed with other likeminded people. We would like to see gamers and classes of students discussing the subject with one another on an international level in order to bring the different agendas and perspectives into a virtual dialogue between communities. We will also attempt to channel players to websites where they can learn more.”

Despite a strong focus on education, the success of Serious Games Interactive’s first title will be measured on a commercial basis according to Nielsen. “A lot of people who throw up serious games and educational games tend to say, ‘Oh it educates the world,’ which is great and very important in itself, but really, the market is currently immature and in a Capitalist society, if we want to push this area we have to make it economically attractive. If we want to get the big players and funding it can’t just be a philanthropic endeavor so that’s why it’s commercial, commercial.”

Looking to the future, Nielsen says the idea will be to drop the lead character into other war zones in Global Conflict sequels. The next game is going to take place in Latin America, specifically in Bolivia, Guatemala and Columbia.

“You learn a lot from your first title and stopping at your first game should always be avoided because by the second game you have your stuff together and you can reuse a lot of assets and technologies,” he said.

Provided by Next Generation—Interactive Entertainment Today