The Art of LiveOps

Austin Walker is the IP Director at Possibility Space. He was previously host of "Waypoint Radio" and he co-founded "Friends at the Table" (an actual play podcast). His work as a freelance writer in the video game journalism space has been featured on GameSpot and Paste. He's also written several short fiction pieces and comics. Austin and Crystin discuss LiveOps from a content creation viewpoint. They touch on a variety of topics including: Community tending; establishing ethical guidelines for monetization; the evolution in the way we interact with content creators; the impact Discord has on development; and reasons why some developers are fearful of their player communities.This episode is brought to you by Azure PlayFab.Visit https://www.playfab.com for all your LiveOps needs.Support the show

Terry Redfield is the Creative Director of London for Niantic Games. She's was a founder in the mobile games space and a designer across many different LiveOps projects including Psychonauts, Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering.  In her 27 year career, she's worked on many platform, mobile, PC and Facebook games.Terry and Crystin discuss different types of monetization models including cosmetics and fashion (skins); pain relief (cheats); goals (power-ups); time is money (skipping levels) and sponsorships (tournaments).Terry discusses biases in the games industry that create false assumptions about what your players will be attracted to in a game. She also talks about constraints and how they can be beneficial overall and how diverse teams make for better games.Support the show

Oscar Clark is Chief Strategy Officer at Fundamentally Games where he helps game teams understand what LiveOps is and how to make LiveOps work for them. He has a long history in LiveOps dating back to the late 90s. He's worked for the online games service, Wireplay; the UK mobile operator, Three; and for PlayStation Home, an early virtual world project. He also authored the book "Games As A Service: How Free to Play Design Can Make Better Games."Oscar will discuss production pipelines and how to keep your game dev teams healthy by focusing more on iteration and less on content and by discerning the best data to collect. Crystin and Oscar also chat about the art of monitoring data; the days of dial up modems; sittable chairs and flushable toilets in games; and the TV series "Columbo" as a metaphor for predictability with your players.This episode is brought to you by Azure PlayFab. Visit https://www.playfab.com for all your LiveOps needs.Support the show

Bob Holtzman is a consultant in the video game industry. He's worked with a variety of teams, including Riot Games, Kerbal Space Program, and Nexon doing communications, PR and community management. Bob joins Crystin to chat about the importance of media coverage for live service games; why game developers need to involve influencers and streamers in their development process; and how to manage difficult conversations with your players. He also provides 5 important guidelines for effective community management.This episode is brought to you by Azure PlayFab. Visit https://www.playfab.com for all your LiveOps needs.Support the show