Going Coastal

Vertical Slice

Vertical Slice is a user research studio which focuses on making games better by understanding players' behaviour and emotions. They use cutting-edge methods such as biometrics to get deeper insights into how players perceive the game experience, and then use this player data to help studios refine their game design. The four guys come from the backgrounds of Human-Computer Interaction, journalism and game development.

Vertical Slice have worked on titles such as Crysis 2, Brink, Split/Second and AvP.

Graham McAllister: "Brighton is a highly creative place, and the game dev community is especially proactive in making ideas happen. A great example of this is the recent Brighton Games People monthly meet-ups which have been a great success."

How can the UK best apply it's pool of talent to a successful games industry?

We've seen gaming platforms, business models and interaction methods change hugely in recent years. Speaking from our studio viewpoint, we think that if we all had a better understanding of players and their gaming desires, then we could feed this back into game design. Player context is everything.

What's currently the biggest barrier/threat to that success?

I think the biggest danger is that we carry on making games in exactly the same way in which we've done in the past. Too much has changed and I think we need to have a very sound understanding of these changes as we go forwards.

Gamania

Gamania Digital Entertainment was established in Taiwan in 1995 by CEO Albert Liu, and enjoys great success in both licensing popular Eastern online games, and developing their own free to play MMO titles. Gamania is now truly a global publisher with offices in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, China, USA, UK, France, Germany & The Netherlands and development studios in the R&D Centre, such as Playcoo, Seedo, RedGate, Gamania Beijing and Firedog, employing around 1600 people.

Gamania has developed its own platform 'beanfun!' where players create and manage their accounts and access all the available titles. These include the soon to be released Lucent Heart and Bright Shadow and there are a wealth of games in development such as Core Blaze, Divina, Langrisser Schwartz, Art of War, Tiara Concerto and many others. Gamania's speciality is the free-to-play business model which makes it perfectly positioned to take advantage of the current trends of online & casual gaming.

The UK office based in Brighton has been in operation since August 2010 and is gearing up to release the award-winning game "Lucent Heart" with the open beta coming very soon. The UK office compromises of a wealth of MMO talent, highly experienced in bringing Eastern MMOs to the West and everything that entails.

Niall Callaghan"As the leading Taiwanese games publisher, Gamania believes in their range of family-friendly and social online gaming titles that has made them so successful in the East. With the opening of the EU offices, Gamania intends on working with the best local talent in each territory to prioritise and market their games effectively.

Gamania chose Brighton to open the UK office based upon the creative juices that run through the place and people who work here, as well as the wealth of knowledge, experience & support available. What better place to have an office than the central gaming hub of the South!?"

How can the UK best apply its pool of talent to a successful games industry?

"I think one of the many things that the UK does well is work with and offer diversification, adapting to change and providing games that are a little different from the norm. Games coming from the UK have been hugely successful over the years and it's with this uniqueness, especially in the current climate of social, mobile and indie gaming, that will allow the UK games industry to continue to grow and foster new talent.

There is a great land grab going on at the moment, with a lot of companies trying to achieve the same goals and market share. It's a learning process for many companies dipping their toes into uncharted waters. What we can do together as an industry is knowledge share best practices and learn from each other to ensure that we are successful, and the greater good of the UK industry and economy is supported too."

What's currently the biggest barrier/threat to that success?

"Typically many companies are becoming more and more risk averse, looking for the easy option to ensure the big returns. Whilst of course we are all here to make money, ultimately we are here to have fun at the same time and ensure that our players do too whilst playing our games, by offering unique social features and gameplay elements.

In addition to that, the industry has often been highly secretive and companies keep their cards close to their chests. Whilst this is understandable in terms of confidentiality and being first to market etc, there is an element of theory, development & publishing experience that we can all learn from, to save everyone having to re-invent the wheel. This is why conferences such as Develop in Brighton are a boon to the UK industry as it allows fellow industrialists to get together, share experiences and knowledge and work together to benefit the UK games industry as a whole."