Inside Social Games

Social gaming is growing and mainstream game developers are taking notice. With 250 million active users on Facebook, Ubisoft is the latest international publisher to join the fray.  Traditionally a developer of console titles such as Splinter Cell, the French launched its first game on Facebook just a couple of weeks ago called TickTock.

In order to learn more about the approach Ubisoft is taking to Facebook and social gaming in general, we spoke with the game’s producer, Omar Abdelwahed.

[Inside Social Games] Thanks for joining us Omar. So before we dive right in, you were the producer for TickTock – what are some of the other titles you and your team have worked on in the past for Ubisoft?

[Omar Abdelwahed] The team on this project is only a year old and this is the first title that we’ve worked on together in our San Francisco office. Most of our core titles are developed through third party studios. We felt we needed an internal team to specifically work on social games. Most of us on the team come from an online background. Previously, I was at the retailer, Best Buy, where I led the development of several online web properties.

[ISG] So what was it specifically that drew you towards the social side of things?

[OA] Personally, I just love using Facebook. I’ve never blogged much or written long form updates about my life, but Facebook makes it very easy to share bits of my everyday life with those closest to me. From a platform perspective, 250 million people are hard to ignore. When you realize that as much as half of those people log-in each day and around 30 million people update their statuses daily, there’s an obvious community that’s very active. Moreover, the community itself started creating games before any company produced one. Facebook is clearly a platform for fun, engaging games.

[ISG] Now, obviously, TickTock is a very different creature than what we’re used to seeing out of Ubisoft. Was this a one-off, or is Ubisoft planning on building more social games for Facebook in the future?

[OA] TickTock is just the beginning of many games we have in development. We created UbiFriends to be the destination for TickTock and all the social games we develop. You can expect more titles and more content soon including the brands that gamers have come to love from Ubisoft.

[ISG] What plans are there to monetize TickTock (if any)? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t see anything that players could buy, upgrade, etc. How is Ubisoft thinking about the business model behind TickTock, and social games in general?

[OA] Our first and most important goal is to create fun, high quality games. We want to create a large community around our games by delivering engaging content. After we achieve this, then we will look at monetization.

[ISG] Since Ubisoft is an international company, are any other divisions planning on doing anything similar as well?

[OA] Yes. As a company, we are strategically looking at Facebook and other social networks as platforms in the same way we look at Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, DS/DSi and others. We have a large portfolio of brands and we release branded games across all platforms. As an international company, we also localize content to various regions for specific platforms. Depending on the country, we’ll produce games for varying social platforms.

[ISG] Will these titles, TickTock included, be exclusive to Facebook or will they branch out to other social platforms, such as MySpace or hi5, too?

[OA] UbiFriends and featured games like TickTock will definitely branch out to other social platforms. We’ve just started and for now Facebook is our primary target for social games. We’ll bring UbiFriends to other social platforms in the future.

[ISG] Moving to the development side of things, how did development process need to change from making a mainstream console game to an online social game?

[OA] Developing social games is typically a shorter development cycle than for console games. We’re following the pattern of other social game developers and plan for approximately 8-week cycles and overlapping releases. The combination of developing internally and rapid development cycles allows us to release new games quickly.

[ISG] How much has your production lifecycle changed to accommodate this new type of game, and do you have plans to continually update TickTock?

[OA] Production has historically been one of “build and ship” then move to the next product. In general, online games have to be continually updated with new content to keep the experience fresh for current players and to attract new players. We plan to continually update TickTock with content releases. You can expect new types of bombs to challenge your friends and other content to customize your gaming experience in future games.

[ISG] Could you, perhaps, elaborate more on these upcoming changes?

[OA] Bombs, bombs and more bombs! Is it your friend’s birthday? Send a birthday bomb. Halloween? Got a bomb for that too. Your “warehouse” will also see some interesting changes and have greater meaning for the player. We’ve also noted the need for more rewards relative to defusing bombs. We’ve received a lot of feedback from players and we are making enhancements accordingly. In the end, we’ll continue to enhance TickTock if players are asking for more.

[ISG] Gifting bombs…. There’s something I thought I’d never do, but it is fun. As fun as I find it though, we’re curious to know what the rest of the world thinks. How is TickTock doing so far. I realize it is still very new, but how have your initial numbers been?

[OA] We’ve been very satisfied at the initial feedback we’ve received from players. To date, we’ve done no advertising outside Ubisoft channels and we still have thousands of active players in only a few days. Of course, we want to see the number of players rise dramatically, but we feel this will happen as we release new content and new games within UbiFriends.

[ISG] Let’s talk about some recent gaming news. At E3, Nintendo and Microsoft made some major announcements regarding greater social features for their consoles. How does this affect Ubisoft’s console plans?

[OA] If anything, these announcements confirm the importance of producing social games at Ubisoft. We began production prior to any knowledge that Nintendo or Microsoft would enable certain Facebook features inside their consoles. Now we’re positioned to be the first publisher to bring social games to consoles. That is exciting!

[ISG] Considering everything you’ve learned so far, is there anything you would do different a second time around?

[OA] That’s a great question. Arguably, we could have launched earlier in the year. But we took our time specifically to research and play-test different games before releasing on Facebook. We also realized it was important to be prepared to release a number of games quickly in order to gauge the community and in order to sustain and grow the number of players. I feel we made the right decision by not rushing to release a single title.

[ISG] One last  question before we finish up. If you had to pick any one Ubisoft title, which would be your favorite and why?

[OA] One? Just one?? Okay, I’m a father with 3 young kids. I love our Petz and Imagine games for the smiles they put on my kids’ faces. But for me, I’m really excited for Ubisoft’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up game that will be coming out this year. I grew up reading Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s TMNT comic books and getting a new Turtles game is great nostalgia for me!

[ISG] Thanks again. Are there any final thoughts you would care to share?

[OA] We really listen to the Facebook community and develop our games with their feedback in mind. If you have comments about our games, you can easily reach us on our forums. Please let us know what you think!