Brought to you by the organisers of the Develop and Evolve conferences, the GamesDev MasterClasses are a series of highly focussed professional workshops dedicated to specific areas of game development such as Business, Design and Production.

The next MasterClass is:

Business -  How to Make Money from Social Games

Special Offer – bring a colleague for half-price!
Book before 23 January 2012 and places cost just £325 (£395 after 23 Jan) and you can bring a colleague for £162.50 – Register Now

New Frontiers: How to Make Money from Social Games
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Class Leader: Nicholas Lovell, Games Industry Consultant

Games are rapidly evolving from products to services with a business model that’s very different to traditional games. For the first time in a decade, independent developers, brands and media owners can create their own social game cost-effectively and quickly.

Social games appeal to people of all ages and both sexes so the market potential is limitless. But to thrive and profit on this new frontier, it’s vital to understand what these new customers want, how to reach them, and how to forge a lasting relationship with them.

This masterclass offers a comprehensive look at the key ingredients for a successful social game and how to build a profitable, sustainable audience.

Delegate Take Away
By the end of the day, delegates will have a powerful framework for designing social games and increasing their profitability in quick, easy steps. Covering customer acquisition, retention and monetisation strategies to build successful games, delegates will discover new ways to engage with their audience, the psychological levers used to drive return visitors, virality and revenue and new methods of generating revenues by segmenting your audience.

Audience
Independent developers
Traditional publishers
Brand marketers 
Media owners interested in making money from games on Facebook, iPhone, Android and wider web

Class Programme

9.30 Understanding social gamers

• What is a social game?
• Understanding killers, achievers, explorers and socialisers
• Why whales are so critical, and how to harness them

11.00 Coffee break

11.30 ARM yourself (Acquisition, Retention, Monetisation)

• How to Acquire customers cost-effectively
• The importance of Retaining customers, and how to do it
• Monetisation strategies, and how to make them work
• Practical: applying frameworks to classic franchises

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Using social techniques in social games

• Learn six proven techniques for retention and monetisation
• Understand how to incorporate these techniques into social game design
• Identify best practice from the world of social and smartphone gaming

15.30 Coffee

16.00 Putting it all together

• Practical: Let’s make a social game
• Group work, presentation and discussion

17.30 Drinks

 Your Class Leader is Nicholas Lovell:

  Nicholas Lovell is a former investment banker and web entrepreneur who helps games developers become publishers. He also provides strategic and online marketing advice and is a non-executive director at developer nDreams. Clients have included Atari, Channel4, Channelflip, Dynamo Games, Firefly Studios (who recently self-published MMO Stronghold Kingdoms), IPC Media, Rebellion and Square Enix. He is the author of How to Publish a Game and blogs about the business of games at www.gamesbrief.com.