Stupid Stupid Games presents Agents of Armageddon

Our story

We enrolled into Haaga-Helia with the single-minded purpose of founding a game company. As IT-students specializing in designing products and services along with extracurricular studies on gamedesign and business we had a solid start. We founded Stupid Stupid Games two years into ourstudies and the core group is still together with more seasoned veterans added into the mix.

The challenge was to find a way to do something that others werent already doing. While doingresearch on game business we discovered that while intellectual property (IP) was often consideredto be the most valuable aspect of games, nobody designed intellectual property. For us that was arevelation. We had stumbled across an aspect in game business which was very valuable, veryprofitable and extremely desirable. It was also an area that nobody had written a single book about.No articles on designing IP for games existed. We were looking at a huge gaping hole in the middleof the game business. Here we had an opportunity to do something special.

Intellectual property and games

Having a scalable IP often ensures the commercial viability of a game company. Intellectualproperty rights ensure the rights for the creation of the mind such as copyrights, trademarks andpatents. For a game companys commercial purposes IP rights include characters, stories, names,places and the brand.

IP in games most often refer to the brand, the storyworld, collection of games, etc. Theentertainment franchise is often casually referred to as an IP. Angry Birds is considered to be an IPowned by Rovio. Pokmon is another IP that is owned by Nintendo. Owning the rights for anattractive IP gives the company a tremendous leverage in licensing and marketing. Having an IPthat can cross over to other media is even more attractive since it gives you the chance to reachmore customers.

While game IPs like Tomb Raider or Max Payne have crossed over to Hollywood films, franchisesbuilt outside of games translate into games better than the other way around. Games aretraditionally designed as games first. The scalability of the IP into different mediums often seems tohappen more by luck than design.

The benefits of IP first approach

IP first approach is achieved by narrative design. It is a way to design story and characters with themajor game mechanics already in place in the game world. Every decision in the worldbuilding hasto be weighed against different types of games. It slows down the development considerably and itrequires a tremendous amount of research and testing before you can launch your first project.

At the core of IP first approach is streamlining and cumulative effect. With Agents of Armageddoninstead of looking for one hit on one platform the acquisition of customers can happen throughmany channels over a period of time. Since the customers are not looking specifically for a certaintype of game, but a specific fantasy world experience, the games are not platform dependent. Marketing can still be streamlined. Fans are fans of Agents of Armageddon instead of one particulargame or book.

Another benefit of IP first approach is the cumulative effect of building necessary depth for theworld of Agents of Armageddon and reusing assets. Also beneficial is the possibility of having co-creation built in to the business model. The world no longer rests on the shoulders of one creator,but it has become a network of developers and every single game or a story benefits the creation offuture games and stories in other genres. Our core audience of hobby gamers and sci-fi & fantasyfans love games with depth.

The importance of a good game is still an absolute necessity. Not only do we have to create goodgames and stories, we also need to make sure the game world behind them is consistent withmultiple other formats to ensure the scalability and thus longevity. This takes a lot of time. Weneeded to create a unique business model for a game company. Some unorthodox creativity wascalled for without forgetting the age old rules of productivity.

The task has been enormous and not without many perils, but we have endured.

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Source: icnw