Game for the Developing World
Executive Summary
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 game is named ‘Racing Fever’ and it is a hybrid multiplayer game which connects players through a network of online gaming community across developing Asian countries.
Objectives
The objectives of the project include: concept development, market research, prototyping, soft launch, marketing campaign & the final launch of the game.
Project Lifecycle
Agile project development lifecycle has been adopted as the requirements for the project are expected to change after each iteration; time is valuable; and skilled labor is available.
Resourcing
This is a DIY project initiated by a group of 5 people. The team includes a web developer, an android developer, a graphic designer, a backend engineer and a project manager. All the personnel are dedicated and ready to put in 100% focus; and possess all the necessary skills required for the development and launch of the new game.
Budgeting
Racing Fever is a complex hybrid game 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. This start-up capital shall be acquired through a bank loan.
Scheduling
The expected time duration for our project is more than 8 months; with game development and marketing campaign as the most time taking activities.
Risk Management
The high risk factors identified to the project include budget, scheduling, user fun factor, new technology development and asset protection provisions. As a part of our risk management strategy, we have extend the risk and production over an extended period of time; and only a sufficiently functional game can be released in the introductory stage.
Quality Assurance
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. The quality measurement methods have been applied since the inception of the game development life cycle. 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. ISO standards and play test methods are used to ensure games quality by producing quality simulation. Also, diverse range of hardware and software allows us to test games on a wider variety of possible end-user environments for quality assurance.
Stakeholders’ Management
The stakeholders identified for the project include sponsors, project manager, development team, beta testers, press relations, facebook players, gaming community, mobile game players and the competitors. The relative stakeholders shall be kept informed about all the activities and significant decisions at each phase of the game development. The agile model of game development allows us to sustain face to face communication between the development team and the customer and continuous inputs from the client.
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.
| Breakdown of the Budget | Amount |
| Infrastructure cost | $18000 |
| Frontend Costs | |
| Splash Screen | $742 |
| App Usage and Performance Management | $7420 |
| Data Storage | $12985 |
| App Security & Distribution | $6307 |
| User Experience | $18550 |
| User Management | $11872 |
| Social | $4452 |
| Location | $2968 |
| Access to Internal Data | $24857 |
| Access to Cloud Data | $11872 |
| Number of Pages | $15582 |
| Backend Costs | |
| User Management | $18550 |
| Data Storage | $3710 |
| Custom Business Logic | $5936 |
| Backend Environment | $50827 |
| Lifecycle Management | $9275 |
| Access to Internal Data | $18550 |
| Access to Cloud Data | $3710 |
| Marketing Budget | $3835 |
| $250000 |
Schedule
Building and launching a game app is not an easy task. It involves constant efforts from a dedicated team of developers for as long as six to eight months (Mehra, 2014). The expected time duration for our project is more than 8 months. The most time taking tasks include the development of the game which may last for about three months. Next, the marketing campaign for the game shall be continued for almost a month. Further details of the tasks and the time required for them are shown in the table below:
| Milestones | Time required for Completion |
| Market research | 20 days |
| Development of the game | 150 days |
| Develop a Monetizing Strategy | 5 days |
| Soft Launch the Game on Facebook | 20 days |
| Update the Game as per the New Data | 10 days |
| Social Media Marketing Campaign | 30 days |
| Update the App | 10 days |
| Launch the Full Version of the Game on Multiple Platforms | 2 days |
| Approx. 8 months |
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.
