Online Tutoring on Game for the Developing World

Introduction

The global gaming industry has shown a magnificent growth in the last two decades. Statistics suggest that this growth behavior is expected to continue in the coming years. The industry is anticipated to show a growth rate of 9% in the next year and the total market capitalization of more than $8.1 billion (Newzoo, 2015). Furthermore, it is also claimed that the gaming market in the developed countries has been saturated by giant companies; however the developing countries in Asia are still in the midst of the developmental stage with a bunch of lurking opportunities and space in the market.

Foreseeing the market prospects, this project is based on the launch of a new mobile racing game named ‘Racing Fever’. It is a multiplayer game which connects players through a network of online gaming community across developing Asian countries. The mechanic of the game comprises of a nonlinear racing series leading to a story-based racing world cup. It also includes other featured races like individual game play, dual race and group race among selectable racers (up to ten participants) from the online community.

Scope

This project is based on the launch of a new mobile racing game specifically for the prospective markets in Asia growing by leaps and bounds. The scope of the project includes an extensive market research to understand the target market of the game; update it according to the increasingly available hardware in the region; management of a vigorous marketing campaign for the game across the region; and launch of the game. The aim is to position the game among the top ten most played games in the local ratings and to hit the charts within the 30 days of release.

Objectives

The ultimate goal of the project has been divided into solid deliverables, completion of which would mark the accomplishment of the project as a whole. The objectives of the project include:

  • Concept Development
  • Market Research
  • Development of the game
  • Soft Launch
  • Update
  • Marketing Campaign
  • The Launch

Budget

The cost of developing and launching an app depends upon the complexity of the idea, its functionality layout and its operations. Yarmosh (2015) claims that for developing a high-tech hybrid game the budget ranges from $100,000 to $270,000. A large number of app development budget calculators available on the internet. The most trusted one, Kinvey has been used to estimate the budget of the project.

Racing Fever is a complex hybrid app which requires substantial infrastructure, frontend cost, backend cost and a marketing budget; therefore the total budget for the project is estimated to be $250,000. The table below shows the details of the total development and launch cost for the game.

 

Quality

This project observes the principles of Total Quality Management across the project lifecycle. Our team believes that quality is not only the philosophy of work rather it is interwoven into the work ethics. Subramanian, Jiang & Klein (2008) proved through an empirical study that factors like executive commitment and prototyping have a substantially positive impact on the final outcomes for software development projects in terms of exceptional software quality and outstanding project performance. Game development is somewhat similar to software development therefore similar strategies have been applied to improve the software quality and project performance in this project. All the team members are committed towards delivering quality work. Clear cut benchmarks have been set for each stage and all the work standards have been communicated to the developers. Further, prototyping has been involved after the initial game development and also after the game is updated. This shall help in the assessment of customers needs, identification of potential issues and estimation of the ROI for the project.