UNIVERSITAT DE LES ILLES BALEARS
Nigul Apps Ltd.
Business Plan
Josep Palou March /05/2013
Business Plan of the mobile Apps and games developer firm NIGUL LTD.
INDEX
1. Executive Summary page 3-4 2. Business description page 5 2.1 Business description
2.2 Mission
2.3 Short-term goals
3. The Product page 6-7 4. Market Analysis page 8-21 4.1 Mobile phone market as a whole page 8-10 4.2 Analysis mobile phone Games market page 10 4.3 Description of mobile phone's OS page 11-14 4.4 Mobile phone OS forecast growth page 14-15 4.5 Analysis of global clients page 16-17 4.6 Analysis of competitors page 18-19 4.7 SWOT analysis page 21 5. Market strategy page 21-22 6. Marketing plan page 23-24 6.1 The product
6.2 The price
6.3 The distribution 6.4 The promotion
7. Operative plan page 25 8. Human resource management page 26 9. Financial Plan page 26-27 10. Developer group page 28
11. Final conclusions and main risks page 29 12. Appendixes pages 30-38 12.1 Appendix 1.1: Sales 2013 page 30 12. 2 Appendix 1.2: Sales 2014 page 31 12.3 Appendix 2: Investment & Financing plan page 32 12.4 Appendix 3.1: Cash flow 2013 page 33 12.5 Appendix 3.2: Cash Flow 2014 page 34 12.6 Appendix 4.1: Profit & Loss 2013 page 35 12.6 Appendix 4.2 Profit & Loss 2014 page 36 12.7 Appendix 5.1 Balance Sheet 2013 page 37 12.8 Appendix 5.2 Balance Sheet 2014 page 38
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We are five partners aged between 22 and 24 years old. We are one graphic designer, one media and sound developer, two programmers and one business manager. So we will form a multi-personal limited company with 5 partners, all of us with equal percentage of shares.
We develop apps and games for mobile phones operating systems. We will mostly focus on creating simple but beautiful and addictive games suitable for all kind of persons and age. Our idea is to create charismatic characters to star in our games in order to make customers feel identified with them and like them.
These characters will share between each other various concrete characteristics and features and will transmit similar values and feelings to the players. In this way, we want our characters and our games to be much more famous than the firm itself.
Our product is targeted to everyone with a Smartphone (with Windows Phone OS during our first years or with any mobile operating system in the future), who likes to play games and/or use apps. Also we will not do any country differentiation, our apps and games will be distributed all around the world.
The mobile phone industry is growing very rapidly as days pass by and nowadays they are already used more as a computer than as a traditional mobile phone, also people bring their smartphone everywhere they go and use it anytime and anywhere. Our goal is to eliminate the boredom, when people is bored for any reason they use to play with their mobile phones so we want to provide them with good games and apps to make them entertain and avoid the boredom.
There already exist thousands of different games for mobile phones, so, how are we going to differentiate from competitors? Our idea is to follow in some way the strategy of a very successful company in the videogame industry, Nintendo Ltd. We will focus on creating a very charismatic character or characters and make most of the games about this character making it famous and make it become the symbol or the standard bearer of the company. So the games about these characters will highlight among all the other games because of the lot of different games this characters will have and the intense promotion we plan to do about them. There are just a few much known characters in the mobile industry, the most known are the Angry Birds, so, we think it is a good strategy to penetrate into the market and differentiate from the great amount of competitors that exist.
At the time of the redaction of this business plan that firm has not been created officially, but we as a group are already in operation. The group was formed in
December of 2011, but it broke and was remade and renewed of partners in March of 2013.
The headquarters of the firm will be located in Palma de Mallorca, Spain as all the partners are from the Balearic Islands, Spain. But as the mobile phone is totally linked with Internet our games and apps will be distributed all around the world.
The games will be posted in the different distribution channels of the different operating systems. We have begun to develop our games for the Windows Phone operating systems but in the future we will translate all of our work to the other two main operating system; Android and Apple iOS. From this distribution channels our customers will be able to very easily download our apps to their smartphone and use them.
At the beginning we will not need any high initial investment for three main reasons.
1. The mobile phone operating systems are still not as technologically powerful to have graphically powerful games that need a high budget to be developed.
2. The kind of games we plan to develop are simple games that are not considered good due to their high quality graphics but because of the addictive and attractive that they are.
3. In our team we have all the necessary knowledge to develop the kind of games we plan to create.
So, at the beginning, in the only thing we will need finance is in the promotion, as we will need to promote very intensively our characters to make them famous. Although in Internet for mobile games and apps there exist a lot of free and effective ways to promote your apps and games as for example social networks, forums, web pages dedicated to mobile apps, and the share of adverts available with the adverts platform AdDuplex.
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
Nigul Apps Ltd is a Spanish technological firm, with headquarters in Palma de Mallorca, Spain that plans to begin its operation officially as a firm in 2013;
however it began to operate unofficially in January of 2012. Five partners form it; Josep Palou, Jaume Solivellas, Fran Llull, Joan Josep Escandell and Pau Bibiloni all with equal percentage of shares (20% each)
We offer simple and beautiful games and apps for the mobile phone’s operating systems. Our work will be available to everyone in the world who has a smartphone; also the games will be available for any age according to the
“international video game content rating system”.
Our games are characterized for being attractive by being kind of addictive, comic illustrated, with catchy music and sounds, and with charismatic and nice characters starring the games. One example of the kind of games we develop and we want to develop is our game “Fly Johnny Fly” available at the time of writing this document on Windows Phone Market Place
Our mission is to create beautiful games that make people enjoy them. When people play to one of our games we want them to think: " Oh, that game is cool, I'm sure the creators have worked hard to develop it".
In a period of approximately three years our goal is to be well known in the Windows phone as game developers and in the next years to be known in the whole mobile phone market as well as some of our characters, for example, Johnny the Penguin.
SHORT-TERM GOALS
In 2013 we plan to launch two new games (Jump Johnny Jump; and Shoot Johnny Shoot) for Windows Phone OS and upgrade considerably the two games that we have already posted (Fly Johnny Fly and Sax).
We plan also in 2013 to have launched, at least, the pay version of Fly Johnny Fly with which we hope to sell around three thousands units, this will be our income source plus all what we will get and what we have already get from the Adverts in the free versions of all the games.
In 2014 we plan to release the pay version of the other games we will have created and continue creating more games related with Johnny Penguin.
In 2014 also we plan being working for Android OS and in the next year, 2015, for Apple iOS. We expect for 2015 to have, at least, the enough monthly benefits to live the five partners (at least five thousand euros of benefit).
THE PRODUCT
We design games and apps for mobile phones. But we will not do it randomly.
Our games will have some own characteristics that will make them distinguish from the great part of the games of the market.
The first and the most important characteristic is that our games will not be random; they will turn around specific game characters. These characters will be very charismatic and will be the symbol of the firm. The characters must share between each other various specific characteristics and features and must transmit similar specific values and feelings to the players, they must be very charismatic and beautifully seen, also must represent the good values of a good person or of a hero, as they are kindness, confidence, perseverance, good hearth, the will of always wanting to help people... and a little bit of innocence.
It is a very similar strategy as the one of Nintendo with Super Mario and all the world and characters that they created around him. We have already designed a character that suits all the characteristics mentioned.
This character will be Johnny Penguin. Johnny is a penguin that used to live in the Antarctica but someday he was captured and took to a Zoo in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. However, Johnny is not a regular penguin, he is very smart, and bored of being lonely in her Zoo jail he decided to escape from the Zoo and come back home, to the Antarctica. How is he going to come back? In our first game “Fly Johnny Fly” Johnny gives an answer to all the scientists who say that penguins can’t fly. He finds a Jetpack in offer in a shop and he buys it. And decides to come back home flying with his Jetpack, but it will not be easy; the air is polluted, even more for a penguin, the Zoo guards are still looking for her and polar bears are always a threat.
You can take a look at it in our webpage: http://www.nigul.es/2012/09/03/fly- johnny-fly/
Main characteristics of Johnny:
1. He is a penguin. An animal that in general, people see with good eyes.
Penguins are considered funny and lovely.
2. He is not a regular penguin. He is different from the others because he is smarter, like a human.
3. He is cute, lovely and sensitive. That’s how we have drawn her up.
4. But he is also brave and rebel. Because he is capable of coming back home alone without being scared of his enemies.
5. He has a very common name but that for being the name of a penguin is funny and, what is most important, it is very easy to remember.
You can take a look at Johnny on his Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Johnny-Penguin/134819903358245/
and in the photos added in the Annex 1.
Of course the success of Johnny is quite uncertain although it has all the characteristics to succeed, if Johnny fails we will analyze the reasons and we will create another core character that suits the characteristics that our firm wants to inspire and that solves the problems that would have made Johnny Penguin fail.
The second characteristic is that our games will try to be as much addictive as possible. We don’t want to develop game that are considered good because of the high quality graphics but because they are addictive and funny such like Tetris or Pac-man (but in a more modern style).
The third characteristic and linked to our target market is that our games will be available to all kind of ages according to the international videogame content rating system. They will have no violence, no blood and no sexual content.
Taking into account all this; our target market will be everyone in the world of any age that has a smartphone and wants to be entertained.
MARKET ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS MOBILE PHONE MARKET AS A WHOLE
According to some market researches globally there exist 5 billion mobile phones in the world. That means 80% of the world population. Taking into account that some people have more than one mobile phone we can say that at least around 60% of the world population has a mobile phone. Among these 5 billion mobile phones, 1, 08 billion are smartphones.
Of course, this is different depending on the country you analyze. These graphs show the penetration and the influence of the smartphones in some different countries of around the world.
Countries Smartphones per capita (%) Number of smartphones (Millions)
Singapore 90 4,4
Honk Kong 61 4,9
Sweden 52 4,8
Spain 46 20,8
UK 40 25,0
Italy 38 22,8
USA 35 111,8
France 30 18,8
Germany 28 23,0
Japan 14 18,1
Brazil 14 28,0
China 6 77,1
India 3 33,2
Singapore Honk Kong
Sweden
Spain UK Italy USA
South Korea France
Germany Russia
Japan Brazil
Mexico China
India 0
20 40 60 80 100 120
Smartphones per capita (%) Number of smartphones (Millions)
*Source: http://bgr.com/2011/12/13/global-smartphone-penetration-approaches-10/
It is interesting the high penetration that the smartphones have had in Spain and the little penetration in Japan.
For the smartphone manufacturer market this is the distribution of the market share worlwide:
Brand Market share Units (millions)
Samsung 32,8% 56,2
Apple 15,7% 26,9
Huawei 9,3% 16
Sony 5,1% 8,8
ZTE 4,7% 8
HTC 4,6% 7,8
RIM 4,3% 7,4
LG 4,2% 7,2
Lenovo 4,1% 7
Nokia 3,7% 6,3
Others 11,6% 19,8
TOTAL 100,0% 171,4
Samsung Apple Huawei Sony ZTE HTC RIM LG Lenovo Nokia Others 0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
Smartphones Market share
Market share
Source: http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/11/smartphones-q3-final-numbers-top-10- biggest-manufacturers-operating-systems-installed-base-etc.html
ANALYSIS MOBILE PHONES GAMES MARKET
According to a survey made by Pop Cap, in the US and the UK the 83% of the owners of smartphones play to at least one game in a weekly basis. Also they concluded that there is not any significant difference in gender; men just play slightly more than women by a slim margin of 2-10%.
Also, and very important; the survey has revealed that half of the smartphone gamers has paid for at least one mobile game in the past year. The average smartphone-using mobile gamer bought 5.4 games in 2010. Also, the smartphone crowd said they spent around $25 per user for the year.
The survey, prepared for Pop Cap, says that there are over 125 million people playing mobile games in the UK and US, and the time spent playing on these devices outweighs that of traditional consoles by some margin.
46% of all time spent playing videogames is on a mobile device. The biggest share is for phones (at 33%) and consoles were down at just 18%
showing that the market has moved significantly over the last few years.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SMARTPHONE’S OPERATING SYSTEMS
Android
Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance: a consortium of hardware, software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices. The first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008.
Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache License. This open source code and permissive licensing allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Additionally, Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in a customized version of the Java programming language. In October 2012, there were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.
These factors have allowed Android to become the world's most widely used smartphone platform, overtaking Symbian in the fourth quarter of 2010, and the software of choice for technology companies who require a low-cost, customizable, lightweight operating system for high tech devices without developing one from scratch. As a result, despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it has seen additional applications on televisions, games consoles and other electronics. Android's open nature has further encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users or bring Android to devices, which were officially, released running other operating systems.
Android had a worldwide smartphone market share around 70% during the third quarter of 2012, with 500 million devices activated in total and 1.3 million activations per day. The operating system's success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone wars" between technology companies.
Apple iOS
iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone and iPod Touch, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft's Windows Phone (C++) and Google's Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of September 12, 2012, Apple's App Store contained more than 700,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 30 billion times. It had a 21% share of the smartphone mobile operating system units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2012, behind only Google's Android. In June 2012, it accounted for 65% of mobile web data consumption (including use on both the iPod Touch and the iPad). At the half of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated. According to the special media event held by Apple on September 12, 2012, 400 million devices have been sold through June 2012.
The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching from portrait to landscape mode).
iOS is derived from OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation. iOS is Apple's mobile version of the OS X operating system used on Apple computers.
In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The current version of the operating system (iOS 6.1.2) dedicates 1-1.5 GB of the device's flash memory for the system partition, using roughly 800 MB of that partition (varying by model) for iOS itself.
iOS currently runs on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple TV.
Windows Phone
Windows Phone is a series of proprietary mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. It was first launched in October 2010, with a release in Asia following in early 2011.
The latest release of Windows Phone is Windows Phone 8, which has been available to consumers since October 29, 2012. Microsoft also has a new version, Windows Phone Apollo Plus, in the works. With Windows Phone, Microsoft created a new user interface, featuring its design language called the Modern design language. Additionally, the software is integrated with third party services and Microsoft services, and sets minimum requirements for the hardware on which it runs.
Windows Phone 7 was the first and previous release of the Windows Phone mobile client operating system, released worldwide on October 21, 2010, and in the United States on November 8, 2010. An update to the OS codenamed Mango (also referred to as Windows Phone 7.5) was released in May 2011. In January 2013, Windows Phone 7.8 was released. It added a few features back ported from Windows Phone 8, such as a more customizable start screen. It was succeeded by Windows Phone 8, which was released on October 29, 2012.
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and like its predecessor, it features the interface known as Metro (or Modern UI).
Windows Phone 8 replaces its CE-based architecture used on Windows Phone 7 devices with the Windows NT kernel found on many Windows 8 components.
Current Windows Phone 7.x devices cannot run or update to Windows Phone 8 and new applications compiled specifically for Windows Phone 8 are not made available for Windows Phone 7.x devices.
Windows Phone 8 devices are manufactured by Nokia, HTC, Samsung and Huawei.
Blackberry OS
BlackBerry OS is a proprietary mobile operating system developed by BlackBerry Ltd. for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized input devices that have been adopted by BlackBerry Ltd. for use in its handhelds, particularly the track wheel, trackball, and most recently, the track pad and touchscreen.
The BlackBerry platform is perhaps best known for its native support for corporate email, through MIDP 1.0 and, more recently, a subset of MIDP 2.0, which allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise email, calendar, tasks, notes, and contacts, when used with BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The operating system also supports WAP 1.2.
Updates to the operating system may be automatically available from wireless carriers that support the BlackBerry over the air software loading (OTASL) service.
Third-party developers can write software using the available BlackBerry API classes, although applications that make use of certain functionality must be digitally signed.
MOBILE PHONE OPERATING SYSTEMS MARKET FORECAST GROWTH
The worldwide mobile phone market is forecast to grow 1.4% year over year in 2012, the lowest annual growth rate in three years despite a projected record number of smartphone shipments in the high-volume holiday season. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors will ship more than 1.7 billion mobile phones this year. In 2016, IDC forecasts 2.2 billion mobile phones will be shipped to the channel.
Global smartphone volume in the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12) is expected to reach 224.5 million units, representing 39.5% year-over-year growth due primarily to strong consumer demand. For the year, smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 45.1% year over year to 717.5 million units. Strong smartphone growth is a result of a variety of factors, including steep device subsidies from carriers, especially in mature economic markets where carriers resell the majority of smartphones, as well as a growing array of sub-US$250 smartphones in emerging markets.
Smartphone Operating Systems
Underpinning the worldwide smartphone market is a constantly shifting mobile operating system landscape; Android is expected to stay in front, but we also expect it to be the biggest target for competing operating systems to grab market share. At the same time, Windows Phone stands to gain the most market share as its smartphone and carrier partners have gained valuable experience in selling the differentiated experience Windows Phone has to offer.
What bears close observation is how BlackBerry's new platform, BlackBerry 10,
and multiple versions of Linux will affect the market once the devices running these systems are available."
IDC forecasts Android to be the clear leader in the smartphone mobile operating system race, thanks in large part to a broad selection of devices from a wide range of partners. Samsung is the leading Android smartphone seller though resurgent smartphone vendors LG Electronics and Sony, both of which cracked the top five-smartphone vendors during 3Q12, are not to be overlooked. IDC believes the net result of this will be continued double-digit growth throughout the forecast period.
IOS will maintain its position as the clear number two platform behind Android at the end of 2012 and throughout the forecast. The popularity of the iPhone across multiple markets will drive steady replacements and additional carrier partners will help Apple grow iOS volume. However, the high price point of the iPhone relative to other smartphones will make it cost prohibitive for some users within many emerging markets. In order to maintain current growth rates, Apple will need to examine the possibility of offering less expensive models, similar to its iPod line. Until that happens, IDC forecasts iOS to ship lower volumes than Android.
The BlackBerry OS will grow slowly but largely maintain share over the coming years following the BlackBerry 10 launch next year. The new operating system and devices will be valued by some longtime BlackBerry fans, particularly those who have waited for the new OS as Research In Motion delayed its release. This will allow the company to maintain pockets of strength in higher-growth emerging markets such as Indonesia and various Latin American countries. But, as with many other new platforms, the success of BB 10 will be partly dependent upon channel advocacy, like sales associates who can effectively tell the BlackBerry story.
Windows Phone will battle with BlackBerry for the number three spot in 2013, but will gain further clarity in the years that follow. Windows Phone will build on the progress it made in 2012, with Nokia establishing its presence and HTC solidly jumping back into the race. Moreover, contributions by Samsung, ZTE, and Huawei will help grow its footprint. With more vendors releasing more devices aimed at multiple segments, sales associates will be better positioned to tell a compelling Windows Phone story and to explain the value of Windows Phone's differentiated experience compared to market leaders Android and iOS.
Linux will trail the market leaders throughout our forecast though it is expected to be the dark horse of the forecast. K-Touch has quietly built its Linux volumes this year while Haier recently released its first Linux smartphones. In addition, multiple platforms are expected to announce and launch their Linux- based smartphones in 2013, including Samsung's Tizen and Jolla's SailFish.
Benefiting these platforms are their ties to previous platforms from the LiMo Foundation and Nokia's MeeGo, which could lead to greater developer interest.
*Source: www.idc.com
CAGR = Compound Annual Growth Rate
ANALYSIS GLOBAL CLIENTS
As we have said there exist in the world 1.08 billion smartphones, considering that some people has more than one smartphone we can say that approximately that there exist between 600 million and 800 million of potential players of smartphone’s games around the world.
SEGMENTATION
Main segmentation ways:
Geographically:
US market
European market Asian market
We will focus on all the markets at the same time (we will translate the game in the main languages used) but we will keep especial attention to the Asian market because is the largest one in terms of population (although not in smartphone users) but that is growing very fast.
Demographically (Age) Young (3-12)
Young-middle (12-21) Middle (21-30)
Middle-Old (30-40) Old (+40)
We will focus on the segments Young to Middle because are the most suitable segments to play mobile games. Focusing more in the segment young-middle.
We want Johnny the Penguin to be a character available for all kind of ages but we don’t want it as a child character as Sponge Bob, to give an example. We want a character suitable for both child and adult people. The character Mario Bros of Nintendo is our reference.
USERS OF WINDOWS PHONE GAMES
According to a research we made these are the countries with more players of windows phone games and the ones we must focus more.
We made the research with one of our games, the free version of Fly Johnny Fly. It has been made above 500,000 game loads of the game.
Country %
China 22.68%
Italy 16.51%
India 15.17%
USA 14.79%
France 6.26%
UK 5.40%
Mexico 3.51%
Spain 2.81%
Germany 2.77%
So the must important countries are China, Italy, India and the USA. So all of our games will be translated standardly into English, Italian, Chinese and Spanish (because of being our mother tongue)
ANALYSIS OF COMPETITORS
The mobile games industry has a feature that is good and bad at the same time.
There are a lot of competitors; there exist a lot of firms creating games for smartphones. This is bad in the sense that, logically, as many competitors there exist, harder is the competition. But it is also good because anyone of these firms has a significant market share, so 90% of the firms in the market have less than 1% of market share.
GENERAL AND GLOBAL COMPETITORS
In 2011 (maybe now it has changed a little bit) the top 10 mobile games developers where this ones:
1.Rovio
Rovio is most known for its franchise Angry Birds, first released in 2009. The addicting, yet simple-to-play catapult game has accumulated over 500 million downloads in two years. Angry Birds is available on most mobile devices, and has recently released their series for Facebook.
2.Popcap
PopCap Games are one of the leading developers of casual games, releasing an impressive list of games over the years. Their strengths lie in easy yet captivating games that appeal to a broad demographic. Bejewelled, Zuma, and Plants vs. Zombies are some of the most popular games in their catalogue, but mobile compatibility is currently limited to iPhones.
3.Gameloft
Gameloft is one of the largest mobile game developers, with 4,000 staff
members located in multiple offices around the world. This France-based developing studio has experienced successful revenue growth over the years, with an expensive game library focused on mobile platforms. They offer dozens of games compatible with mobile devices, including Asphalt 6 Adrenaline and Shadow Guardian.
4.GluMobile
Based in San Francisco, Glu Mobile is a large mobile games publisher that offers games across a variety of platforms, such as iOS, Android, and Palm.
Their games include original titles such as Stardom: The A-List and Magic Life, and partner’s titles with major entertainment companies.
5.ngmoco
Founded in 2008, ngmoco is a leading mobile game publisher, mainly producing games for the iOS and Android platforms. One key characteristic of ngmoco is their Mobage platform for the Android, a social gaming platform that boasts over 25 million users. Their most popular games include the Rolando series and We series.
6.NimbleBit
Nimblebit is most known for its simulation tower-building game, Tiny Tower, available on both the iOS and Android. In 2011, Tiny Tower was distinguished as iPhone’s “Game of the Year”, solidifying its position as one of the most popular games available. Another popular game isPocket Frogs, a free game which has reached over 4 million downloads.
7.BackflipStudios
Making games for both iOS and Android audiences, this US based game studio has a large following for its wide variety of games. Backflip Studios is most known for their game Paper Toss, which has accumulated over 24 million downloads. This game is characteristic for its success with the freemium model, setting an example for small developers worldwide.
8.HalfbrickStudios
This indie development studio is located in Australia, but have stood out among the worldwide leaders in mobile gaming. Previously developing games for video game consoles, Halfbrick Studios made the shift to mobile devices in 2010, with great success. Though relatively small, this studio is most known for producing Fruit Ninja, Monster Rush and Age of Zombies.
9.Kairosoft
This Japanese developer targets the iOS and Android market, creating unique titles for both mobile platforms. They are well known for their quirky simulation games, such as Pocket League Story and Dungeon Village. Its most well known title, Game Dev Story, is highly rated and praised for its addictive, original gameplay.
10.Zeptolab
Zeptolab is a Russian-based video game developer who found success with their main title, Cut the Rope. This game has maintained its position in the Android Market as one of the top paid games, as has been touted as the next Angry Birds.
SPECECIFIC ANALYSIS OF DIRECT COMPETITORS (WINDOWS PHONE GAMES DEVELOPERS)
As we have explained there are a lot of little competitors in this industry and at the beginning stage these are the most direct competitors. These firms are little firms like us at the beginning that have just beginning, most of them with the plan of having a short life or indie developers which are single or little groups of developers that develop games more as a hobby than as a work.
So, it is very difficult to make an exhaustive analysis of all of them. But we will try to do it of the nowadays most relevant competitors.
1. Microsoft Games
They are the official games developer of Windows, so very little things you can do against them. Fortunately, they can't be considered one of our direct competitors nowadays as they create very graphically powerful games and most of them are sold at a high price (from 2 to 6 euros). Also these games are adaptations of very known games of game consoles to mobile phones.
2. Gameloft
Gameloft is the same kind of competitor as Microsoft games. It is also a big firm with a lot of experience in the market and that also creates games with high powerful graphics and with a much higher budget than us, and they sell them also at a high price, similar to Microsoft games.
3. AEMobile
This firm can be considered one of our direct competitors. They mostly release games for free and are versions of games that have been already created in other platforms but they have been the first ones on creating them in Windows phone or have been the ones that have done it better. This firm tell us a very useful source of ideas to create games, the benchmarking. For example some of the games that they have released are Fruit Slash, Jewells or Bubble, which are classic games.
4. Lucky Games
This firm is one of our most direct competitors. It has released a lot of games, all of them with a similar characteristic: the simplicity. They just release very basic games. Any simple idea they have, they translate it into a game. An example of that are the games AE coin mania, AE basketball or Archer. All of them are very simple for example AE basketball is a game where you just have to throw a ball and try to score or the Archer is a game where you have to throw an arrow and try to hit the centre of the bulls eye. So this firms give us the example that from any simple and silly idea you have you can create a game if you know how.
5. Random Salad Games
They have created a very popular game, which is what's the word? And they have been able to take profit of that game by creating other versions similar to that game like "What's the pic?" which has had also some success
6. Dawnbreak Studios
They have created a popular game named Ragdoll Run, which has a free version with ads and some limitations and then a premium version with more features, which is the strategy we want to follow when we release our games.
They have given to us a good example of how to do it.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strenghts Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
Young group Lack of experience Not mature market Lots of competitors Good feeling within the
groups Lack of contacts and
market presence Fastly growing High threat of new entries Creatives Lack of funding Short life of successful
games Short life of the games
We have born in the age of the games. We
are interested and informed about all related to the games
world
Almost inexistent barriers to entry
Very big market
MARKET STRATEGY
All in all, the strategy we have decided to follow can be described in the following points:
1. Charismatic character.
We will focus on developing a charismatic character and create a whole world around him a very similar strategy as what Nintendo followed creating Mario Bros. If we achieve to get a seat in the market with our character Johnny almost all of our games will be based on Johnny, and little by little we will create a world around him. With this is how we expect to be differentiated from the others something very necessary taking into account the large number of firms competing in the market.
2. Games for people more suitable to play (young-middle aged)
We will develop the games for the people who use to play more to mobile games that is the young and middle aged people, although the game will be available for any age, including kids.
3. First windows phone
We have decided to begin working with Windows Phone OS. It is a risky decision, but we think can be very profitable if all goes as expected.
Windows phone doesn’t have a very big market share (only around 2%) but is because it has just born. We think it is a good idea to begin working with windows phone because there are much less firms creating games for Windows Phone that for Android or iOS, so there is much less competition, This will make it easier to get a piece of market and to get known earlier in the Windows Phone world although our potential earnings are not as high as the ones in the other operating systems.
When we achieve to be a bit known in the Windows Phone world we will translate our games to the other operating systems and we will be in a
better position to compete in this larger markets as we will already have some Internet presence.
More over, as we have said in the Market analysis; Windows Phone has a little market share nowadays but is expected to grow in the next years at a very fast rate, it is expected that Windows Phone will almost multiply its market share per four in the next 4 years, so if Windows Phone grows and we are doing a good work inside it, we will grow with it.
4. Games with free version and pay version.
Our standard way of publishing our games will be to enable a free version of the game with advertisement and with a few limitations to let the people try the game and see if they like it and then have a pay version without advertisement, with zero limitations and extras to encourage people to buy it.
MARKETING PLAN
PRODUCT
The products are simple and beautiful games for mobile phones. The games will be attractive because they will be graphically beautiful and with a colored and animated scenario. The characters of the game will be nice and charismatic
and will make people enjoy the games. The games will be available for any kind age; they will not have any kind of violent or sexual content so that everyone in the world can enjoy them.
PRICE
The price of our games will vary depending on the cost it has. One premise that will remain all the time is that we will offer always two versions of our games;
one for free with some limitations and with adverts and another one premium without adverts and with zero limitations that will have a price.
For the setting up of the price we will look to the average price of the market for games of the same category and similar cost. For example, for our first game
“Fly Johnny Fly” the price that is used in the market is 0.99$ for the download but if we create another game with more high quality graphics or more options to the playing the price may rise.
Maybe if the situation requires it we will apply some discounts to boost downloads or let it totally free if the original game price is low.
We will set the price of 0.99$ because of our games will be very basic in the sense that does not have a high cost to be created, just a good idea and hard work. Also we are not a very known developer firm yet so we can't expect the customers to think that our game will be good so we must motivate them to buy it and try it at a low price. If the cost of our games increase and/or our popularity increases we will consider increasing the price of our premium games.
PROMOTION
1. Free and low cost Advertising a. Facebook and Twitter:
i. Promote both the firm (Nigul Ltd) and the characters. All of them will have an own page.
b. Specialized Blogs
i. Promote the games in blogs specialized in mobile phone and/or videogames things asking them to write articles about the game.
1. Such like wmpoweruser.com c. Review Blogs
i. Similar to the specialized blogs but this blogs are dedicated to make reviews of games.
1. Like wpcentral.com
d. Merchandising, business cards, flyers…
2. Non-Free Advertising
a. Invest in search engines
i. Such like Google in order to appear the first in the list of webpages the search engines provide when the user type some concrete words.
b. Adverts in other games and apps
i. Participating in the advertising networks such like Mobfox or AdMob
c. Adverts in webpages
i. Webpages related to videogames or mobile things.
d. Adverts in Facebook e.
DISTRIBUTION
The distribution in this industry is very simple. We just upload our games to the different Application stores that exists and people enter there to download them.
There exists three main Application Stores related to the three main Mobile operating systems above explained in the market analysis section; Android, Apple iOS and Windows Phone.
As we explained above we have decided to being distributing our games through the application store of Windows Phone, which is called Windows Marketplace.
In the future we will also distribute our games through the other main application stores when we adapt our games to that operating systems.
OPERATIVE PLAN
These are the steps for creating a game:
1. Idea generation
This is the generation of the idea. This can be done at any moment of time, whether by an idea someone of us generates by “divine inspiration” or by a brainstorming organized by us if at the moment we decide to start a new project we already don’t have any idea that we consider valid.
2. Game design
In this stage we must design and decide how the game will be constructed; how it will be played and what features it will have. In summary, how the game will be.
3. Graphics and media design
In this stage the graphic and media designers will draw all the game graphics and create the sounds and music for the game.
4. Coding
After all the graphics and media things have been created, the coders will code all the game including all the game elements.
5. Testing
Once all is put and coded all together we test the game and we analyze what is wrong, what needs to be upgraded or modified and what other things we should add.
6. Revising and polishing
When we have the analysis we do again the steps 2, 3 and 4 to polish the game 7. Re-testing
We re-test the game again to make sure that there are no mistakes anymore.
8. Distribution
And when it is all done we upload the game to the Application Store and we make it available for our customers to download it.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGENT PLAN
We do not plan to contract any employee in the near future. We, the five partners can do all the work nowadays, but this section is subject to modifications in the future depending how the things evolve.
FINANCIAL PLAN
PAY AND COLLECT PERIODS Pay:
We do not need any supplier at the moment so this section will remain empty until we need the services of suppliers we may arrange an agreement with some of them.
Collect:
The distribution platforms of all the Mobile operating systems pay to the developers of apps and games monthly, the first day of every month. However, they pay you only if you reach a minimum that is 150$ but can vary slightly within the different platforms, if you don’t reach the minimum the amount you should have earned will be added to the earnings of the next month until you reach the minimum of 150$ and that is when they will pay you.
With the advertising networks it happens similarly. They pay you monthly but only if you reach a minimum that in most of the cases, for example, in Mobfox it is 50$. If you do not reach the minimum level that amount will be added to the earnings of the next month until you reach the minimum.
SALES FORECAST See Appendix 1 Explanations:
The products are the games we have created, the ones we are creating and the ones we are planning to create.
The launch date of the games we plan to create is just a forecast, it may vary depending on how all works out.
There exists games that have two versions, one FREE and another one PREMIUM (with a price).
The numbers that appear in the table “Units Sold” have a different meaning depending on if the game is free or not. If the game is PREMIUM it means the number of games sold in itself. However, if the game is FREE the numbers mean the impressions of the adverts, so that every unit is equal to one thousand impressions. So, the price that is shown is the quantity we forecast to earn for every one thousand impressions.
The only variable cost that we have is the percentage of the earnings that we have to pay to the owners of the distribution platforms for its usage, that it’s equal to a 30% of the price of our PREMIUM games.
FIRST INVESTMENT AND FINANCING PLAN See Appendix 2
Explanations:
The investment we will do the set up the firm will be the minimum legally that is three thousand euros.
We are five partners and we will invest the same amount of money that will be six hundred euros each of us.
At the very beginning we do not need any more investment we just need money to pay the start-up expenses and the legal fees and a few cash for if we decide to invest in advertising. We do not need to invest money neither in vehicles, buildings or machinery.
The rest of the money, around two thousand euros, will remain as cash for any payment we need to do that we have not planned.
CASH FLOW ANALYSIS See Appendix 3
PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT See Appendix 4
BALANCE SHEET See Appendix 5
DEVELOPER GROUP
At the start of the company we are five members. Two coders, one graphic designer, one media designer and one business administrator.
Partners profile:
Pau Bibiloni: He is the graphics designer. Born in 1989 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He has a degree of Communication and Media Studies in the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain
Joan Josep Escandell: He is the senior coder. Born in 1990 in Ibiza, Spain. He is student of Computer Engineering in the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain. He has also other qualifications that validate his knowledge of many software programs.
Francesc Llull: He is the media and web designer. Born in 1990 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He has a degree of Communication and Media Studies in the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain. He also has work experience as a graphic, web and media designer as a freelance and also in the firm B2deal.
Josep Palou: He is the business administrator. Born in 1991 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He is graduated in Business Management for the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain and for the University of Ulster, UK. He also has work experience in the firm Dulygenomic SL.
Jaume Solivellas: He is the junior coder and task organizing. Born in 1990 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. He has completed a superior grade degree of Informatics and now is studying the degree of Computer Engineering in the Universitat de les Illes Balears, Spain. He also has work experience as a coder in the firms “Brujula tecnologías de la información S.A and Bizzit.
All of us will have the same amount shares (20% each) as we consider we have a similar amount of work and responsibility and we will invest the same amount of capital.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS and MAIN RISKS
EXTERNAL RISKS
1. Lower increase of Windows Phone, which will mean a lower increase of our firm.
2. No success of our character Johnny what would make us remake our strategy.
3. Change of trend in the kind of games people play.
INTERNAL RISKS
1. Refuse of some partners. We are young and many options for our professional lives are available, so the risk that some of the partners find a better way to follow in his professional life is quite high.
