jrmaxfield-blog

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Final Project

Howdy, Howdy! My name is Robert Maxfield and when I’m not coding something awesome on the web I’m halfway up a mountain, rock climbing. 12 month ago I set out on a journey to complete a master’s degree with a focus in the business and entertainment industry. I chose this path for two reasons: firstly, I wanted to learn more about starting and operating a business; secondly, acquiring a master’s degree speaks to who I am as a person and who I want to become, a master. Reflecting back on this ambitious 12-month adventure, I feel more confident now than I’ve ever been in my life

Building a business plan from the ground up has given me a toolset that is uniquely marketable and I plan to exploit my education to further my career. Giving 12 months to a single project has made me acutely aware of the fine details required to start and launch a business. That said, the project was daunting at first but the Full Sail structure broke down each section into manageable components and that really helped me structure my business, Tato Online, more efficiently.

Final Project really allowed me to flesh out the technologies behind Tato Online. This advanced web application will have to be structured in a way that pipes video data to individuals across the globe. Beyond delivery, there was a huge problem when solving the storage problem that YouTube encountered when millions of users start uploading content. Having to prepare answers and outlines for how to solve these problems came to a head when giving the actual presentation itself. The panelist asked a lot of really important questions about what drives the platform to make money, how I would engage my target audience, and what my competitive advantage was.  I know now, from experience, what key point of interest I’ll have to include in any future presentation. It’s been a roller-coaster of a year but looking back it's been a great deal of fun. Can’t wait to stand on that stage.

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Haunted: A Hollow Knight Review

Over the last two weeks I’ve found myself infatuated with Team Cherry’s first video game publication, Hollow Knight (TeamCherry, 2017). Released to the Steam distribution platform on Feb 24, 2017, this eerie 2D platformer has been reviewed over 2,500 times by Steam gamers and has been critically acclaimed by several gaming news channels such as Metacritic and Kotuku gaming (Steam, 2017). This review will not only analyze what made Hollow Knight an exhilarating and unique experience, but will also explore the marketing techniques used by Team Cherry that ultimately captivated their gaming audience.    

Team Cherry is a South Australian indie development studio consisting of just three members (TeamCherry, 2017). From a marketing standpoint, this is a huge plus because many gamers love indie studios for several reasons. Firstly, when an indie game is a success, they are almost always unique experiences and are viewed as “hidden gems” because gamers feel like they’ve discovered them. Look no further than IGN’s 2012 game of the year, Journey (IGN, 2012). Indie games also have an indie price tag, usually $20.00 or less and developers that ignore this “rule of thumb” often get burned or even ostracized by the community. Hello Games production of No Man’s Sky is a prime example of an indie studio sticking a AAA price tag on a game to disastrous results (Caldwell, 2016).  Hollow Knight falls well within the expected price point, costing just $15.00 and with approximately 50 hours of content. Hollow Knight is extremely affordable for most gamers and is an easy game to impulse buy (Steam, 2017).

The art style of Hollow Knight is a unique experience in and of itself. Team Cherry’s animator, Ari Gibson, created a muted, eerie atmosphere the plays heavily into the games story and social motifs as players explore the underground kingdom of Hallownest (Team Cherry, 2017). The game’s animations immerse the player in a “show don’t tell” universe as the player is invited to explore the ancient mysteries hidden throughout ruined city.  

The game, and partnered story is a form of art that tells the tale of what happens to society when the past is forgotten. The game starts off with a cinematic of you, the Hollow Knight, approaching the surface ruins of Hallownest. From the moment a player starts the game, they experience this concept of “show don’t tell” as mentioned earlier. The player was showed their destination through the cinematic, they were never explicitly told “hey, go here to get the next quest”. This design philosophy creates genuine intrigue and mystifies the player. It was this mystification that drew me in from the moment I took control. It drove me to deeper and deeper into the kingdom, never directly telling me where or what to do. As players progress through Hollow Knight, they experience the lore fragmented, leaving the players to piece together the tragedy that befell the once great city of Hallownest.

But games are not just a passive experiences, they are meant to be engaging. It doesn’t matter how unique or creative the story many be, or how impeccable your marketing efforts are. If the game mechanics fail to engage the player, the game will not succeed, especially if you’re an indie title. Platformers are notorious for taking advantage of our brains reward center to physically hook us to the game (TED, 2010). If you fall down, you will likely get frustrated, but when you succeed you are rewarded with cool new places to explore. As such platformers needs to be balanced. Not ridiculously easy, making the game a breeze to complete, but not so challenging that players give up altogether. Striking this balance can be difficult because players need to feel like they have accomplished something. No game is perfect, and one of the biggest complaints about Hollow Knight stemmed from many players thinking the game felt too challenging and many of the players find it hard to complete (Steam, 2017). This can affect the Audience reaction to the work, which is my opinion is why the game fell short of a perfect rating. Nevertheless every time I overcame an obstacle I got excited and felt like I had accomplished something of meaning.

As far as publishing and distribution is concerned Hollow Knight was made available for PC, Mac, Linux and the Nintendo Switch (Team Cherry, 2017). For PC, Mac, and Linux, Team Cherry chose to publish their game through Steam as a digital download. While there are several drawbacks associated with publishing a game on steam, such as split revenue, there are also many marketing bonuses (Steam, 2017). Firstly, Steam stores the game, distributed the game, and handles payment collection of the title (Steam, 2017). Steam also put the game in front of the largest online community for gamers, making Hollow Knight easy to find and very accessible. (Steam, 2017). Finally, Steams algorithm goes a long way to suggest games to potential buyers based on games they already own that share the same genre (Steam, 2017). For example, if my Steam game collection consists of dozens of platformer games, the Stream algorithm will market more platform type games to me, the consumer.

I discovered Hollow Knight through probably their best marketing campaign; sponsored game played. Gamers usually watch a handful of internet personalities who specialize in playing and providing game commentary, usually live through services like TwitchTv and then archived on YouTube. Game companies usually send these online personalities a several Steam codes for their game so that the gamer can then play the game and give out the Steam code through their streams to engage their viewers.  It’s usually a win win win. The developer has their game exposed to millions of gamers, streamers get to showcase new content and attracted more followers because of the giveaway, and gamers can see the game played to determine if they like it or not and even potentially win a copy. I myself was introduced to Hollow Knight through Day9’s let’s play series on TwitchTv. (Day9, 2017).

Team Cherry illustrated how a small, passionate team, can achieve success by taking advantage of modern techniques. There are dozens of great ideas that fall sit in the darkest corners of the internet because people don’t know how to promote their artwork successfully. To me Hollow Knight was a worthwhile experience and I would recommend it to any gaming enthusiast, and I can’t wait to see what Team Cherry creates next.

References

Caldwell B. (2016, August 17). The Broken Promise Of No Man's Sky And Why It Matters. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/17/broken-promises-of-no-mans-sky/

Day9tv. (2017, May 05). Day[9]'s Day Off - Hollow Knight - P1. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLKdR8FjXgE

IGN. (2012). Best Overall Game - Best of 2012. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from http://www.ign.com/wikis/best-of-2012/Best_Overall_Game

Metacritic. (2017, February 24). Hollow Knight. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/hollow-knight

Steam. (2017, February 24). Hollow Knight. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from http://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/

TeamCherry. (2017, February 19). Press Kit. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from http://teamcherry.com.au/press-kit/

TED. (2010, November 01). Tom Chatfield: 7 ways video games engage the brain. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyamsZXXF2w

Walker, A., & Lussier, G. (2017, April 06). Hollow Knight, As Told By Steam Reviews. Retrieved May 21, 2017, from https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/04/hollow-knight-as-told-by-steam-reviews/

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Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution

May of 2017 started off analyzing the evolution publishing and distribution throughout history. Topics like Bible creation set the tone for written works throughout human history. The painstaking work that went into transposing literature required skilled and literate labor. This is why books, for the longest time, where a symbol of wealth. With the introduction of the printing press, things had changed a lot and speed of production drastically changed the distribution cycle. What really hooked me in was a short video we watched that showcased the entire printing press process from start to finish, including tile setting, inking, gluing and stitching the pages, and wrapping to book. Around the 1900’s the printing press had become the universal term for large print factories. We watched another video that depicted the work life for the average American worker whose entire job would be to just replace paper in the machine. It is incredible perspective to recognize the hurdles of the past in order to appreciate the printer that sits beside me at my desk.  

My personal takeaway from the MPD course was the explanation of distribution. Almost everyone in class, including myself, has considered some form of self-publication. The distribution lecture visually illustrated the steps and hurdles associated with getting the product to the consumer. There were five different customer marking channels with 4 strategies for delivery. There is the manufacturer, wholesalers, jobber, retailer, and customer. We analyzed large companies and how success can be traced to how many of the channels they own. For example, Apple computers are manufactured by apples and the retail stores and also owned by Apple. This means they don’t sell ever sell their computers at a wholesale price. As future entrepreneur, understanding these marketing channels will help us get our products in stores and not have dozens of boxes sitting in the garage.

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Advanced Entertainment Law

Since studying personal development and executive leadership at the start of the entertainment business master’s program, a lot has changed. For starters, I had planned to use the EMBS program to kick start my development company, JPlusProductions. After taking brand development with Ken in month four, it became clear to me that I really just wanted to make my personal brand synonymous with high quality development. I spent the next two months working on separating my personal brand from the application I want to build. My vision: to create a streaming service that rivals the likes of YouTube.

To summarize, I wanted to create a development company to make all sorts of applications when I started my journey. After month four, I realized that I am a developer and each application can be a business in and of itself. This shift in focus is why many of my month one goals no longer align with my new vision.  For example, I planned on registering JPlusProducions as an LLC doing during advanced entertainment law. This goal no longer coincides with my final project. That said, advanced entertainment law has taught me how to register companies locally and federally, which is just as valuable.

Enter Tato Online, the YouTube Competitor platform I’m currently developing. I had a plethora of questions at the start of the month regarding how I could protect companies like YouTube and Vimeo from just appropriating my technology. I learned that my code is protected under copyright law. On top of that, when I do register the code, I only have to submit a portion of the code protecting the actually source code from being copied. I also learned that patent any unique processes that my application employs, preventing other companies from seeing my take on what a 21st century steaming service should be, and effectively stealing my innovation.

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Product and Artist Management

I’m not shy about my passion for online media streaming services like YouTube and TwitchTv. To me, the content creators for these platforms are modern artist. Never before has it been so easy to reach and influence such a large and engaged audience. However, reaching that audience and creating a following is exactly what the Product and Artist Management course breaks down and analyzes.

Unlike months prior, March was divided into two, two week blocks. The first block focused solely on the artists as a brand and how to manage them. Week 1’s discussion was the most flexible assignment in the course and served to ease the class into understanding the thought process behind artist management. We were allowed to select any artist we wanted so long as they had a large internet presence (100,000 followers). We had to talk about who they were, their brand, and what we could bring to the table if we were there manager. This involved scheduling events for them to attend and helping the artist overcome challenges they may face along the way. I selected Thomas Sanders, a YouTube celebrity (shocking I know), with a following of 1.5 million people. I discussed the advantaged and disadvantaged of being a purely online personality and what offline engagement might look like for Thomas later down the road. Week 2 we were tasked with managing one of seven artist in a fictitious scenario. We had to identify how we, as their mangers, could use different leadership techniques to compliment and help grow our selected artist. This assignment was something you’d expect in a psychology course, and was really cool because it involved applying what we had just learned in a more practical way.

As we transitioned into the second half of the class, the material shifted and focused heavily on product development. In the end it all culminated into a presentation where groups presented the board of directors (the class) 2 new product lines. Sticking to the YouTube theme, my partner and I pitched custom phone cases and a yearbook product line to Tyler Oakley, an LGBTQ activist and YouTube star. While any company or individual with a strong brand would work for the assignment, the purpose and the biggest take away from the assignment, and possible the class, was how to calculate your audience potential. Audience potential refers to the number of people in your going ultimately engage with your product or service. We did this for two product lines we pitched and it was really enlightening to see how an audience of 8 million may only result in 2000 to 3000 sales.

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Negotiation and Deal-Making

February of 2017 started off with Negotiation and Deal-Making and not debate. As I would soon learn there is a vast difference between a negotiation and an actual debate. In negotiation is isn’t a “winner” and sides are never right or wrong. Everything done during the negotiation process revolves around the idea of underlying interests. Negotiations range from benign conversation about where to have lunch to intense venture capitalist presentations. It’s always important to remember that both parties are there because they have something to gain i.e., they have underlying interests.  And sometimes those interests are as simple as “I’m just hungry I don’t care where we eat. I simply don’t want to cook” and that’s okay.

Preparation for larger, more important negotiations is key in order to make decisions with our best interests in mind. Having a backup plan or BANTA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is key because sometimes we have to walk away. Putting the outcomes into perceptive can go alone way in helping both parties reach an agreement.

To demonstrated what we had learned, during week three we all got together and played Monopoly. We were instructed to pay close attention to everything we did as a group because every decision made was a mini negotiation. From rules to trading – over the next four hours, the gloves came off. A truly invigorating exercise that lead to partnerships being formed to outright gang ups against the winning player. After the games finished up the class convened to discuss what went well during the game and what went bad.  We reflected we talked about emotions and the roll they played during the game. As in both the game and in real life, putting yourself in the shoes of your others was the final takeaway from the month. “Understanding how people feel is critical to understand negotiation” our instructor highlighted. With only five months left I look forward to negotiating in my everyday life.  Understanding that benign conversation can have intricate underlying interest’s super cool and I’ll be watching out for these details from now on.

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Digital Marketing

Instagram is by far my favorite social media platform. It’s quick, easy, and addictive mobile based format has me browsing the application late into the night. In Anson Alexander’s ‘Instagram for Business’ he leads off with an introduction of the basic and primary features inside the app. Next Anson tell us to look at the success of other major channels to get a general idea of what makes an instagram campaign great. Even looking at competitors can give us an idea on how to effectively market to instagram users. Anson showcases The Chobani instagram account, a yogurt company, and how they don’t just upload images on the yogurt itself. They include recipes, smoothies and full meals with their products include to promote different uses for a simple yogurt solution. Finding new ways to market your material keeps the instagram profile fresh and engaging for people who follow. People get tired of just seeing a product, follows want to see your creativity.

Brainstorming to showoff brand creativity and alternative uses for one’s product can start from a simple list of all the benefits and services you provide. Focusing in on each list item can lead to individual marketing campaigns on your instagram. Anson talks about a plumber and how they don’t need to show pipe work to engage their audience. They can upload photos of clean filtered water to create an image of quality around their brand.

Being unique and proactive can get people to follow even if there not interested in your services. In my case, I post graphic design content in order to get people to follow my work. You don’t need to be a graphic designer to find an image of Yosemite stunning.  However, the goal of an instagram campaign is that when someone finally needs graphic work done they think of my instagram and ultimately consider me to design their project.

The biggest take away for me was the idea of a posting schedule. It something I definitely struggle with when it come to my personal brand. Sometimes I’m super proactive on Instagram, and sometimes times I don’t make a post all month long. It can be really tempting to immediately publish all my content and soon as its made. Anson stressed the importance of spacing out these publications to a more regular schedule.  

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Entertainment Business Finance

During the month of December, the entertainment business finance class has covered a variety of financial concepts from investment types to calculating working capital. From this topic range the most useful subject was study real world companies and their annual/quarterly reports. It gave me the opportunity to really study the industries that interest me the most and how these large tech giants continue to grow year to year. I mainly focused on Netflix, the video streaming services that toppled Blockbuster not too long ago. Netflix sparked the TV to internet migration back in 2012 and has continued to see success over the years. Studying their annual reports I saw a continued growth in the amount of assets, such as show rights and equipment that Netflix owned. The key to this growth, in my opinion, was the company’s decision to take their profits and reinvest them into these areas in an effort to expand their service capabilities. We’re talking millions of dollars in resources.

Since my own ambitions align with providing a streaming service of my own one day it has been enlightening to review what I hope will someday be my own annual report. As a result I feel far more prepared moving forward in this program as a result of this class.

Alongside annual report analysis, there is another major takeaway from the entertainment business finance class, venture capital pitches. I can have the ability to do analytics for days, but if I can’t convince people to lend me money, my business is not going anywhere. Studying pitch strategy throughout business pro forma is a powerful foundation for gather the important information I’ll need in order to produce a persuasive pitch to potential investors. It allows me justify and explain the money I’ve requested and where I intend to spend it. Without this tool getting funding isn’t likely to happen.

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Business Storytelling and Brand Development

During the month of November, the BSBD class focused heavily on “the brand called you” or in our case “the brand called us”. The called drove home that idea that we are the brand and when it comes to getting hire, or getting a job we’re also pitch our personal brand and our personal values. This personal brand incorporates social media heavily because that’s where people can really research us and our personal identity. We went on to not only learn how social media can create a personal brand but also the difference between using social media and using them with a strategy.

This deep dive into our personal brand lead to a variety of different topics over four-week course. Everything from color theory to web development was discussed. During the half way mark, former Full Sail Graduate Phil Pallen came in to give perspective on this emerging industry. We joined him for both a presentation and a workshop session where he taught us how important it is to summarize our personal brand in 1 sentence at the most or 3 words ideally. I left that lecture with my three-key word sentence:

“I am a – Designer, Developer, Climber”

After his workshop, I took those three words and rebranded all by social media accounts to reflect this new identity. I went as far as to turn my new phrase into a graphical piece, which I then connected to my Instagram profile.

After all of this was said and done, I still had a little over a week left before the call ended and boy did I take that time and run with it. As a former web design student, I began taking all this knowledge of my personal brand and gave it life so to speak. My own custom website has now been published that fuses my love for Rock climbing with my love for design. Littered throughout the website signs of my personal quirkiness as well as vivid rock like shapes to convey to views my love of the outdoors. To me the publication of my own personal website was the highlight of this class and I can’t wait to expand on its design in the months to come.

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Project and Team Management

During the month of October, the PTM class forced heavily on team building exercises, conflict resolution, and personality types. The highlight of the month, for me, was our individual team building assignments. The class was divided into groups of two. Each group was tasked with creating a team building exercises. Our professor gave us an example on the first day with his version of human mine sweeper. Many a great game followed, as the weeks progressed but our game was special.

My partner and I discussed our schedules and potential game ideas during that class. Of the 10 class groups, two groups would proctor their activity each day. We elected to go the following class, leaving only 2 days to prepare, and prepare we did. The next 48 hours would be some of the most fun and challenging moments of the course. What started off as a simple game idea evolved into a 48-hour game jam that produced a full working title.

Our classmates were impressed by the deliver and presentation our game “Networking 101”.While the final product was polished, the events that lead to its completion where far from smooth.  From script writing sessions, level and character design, animation, and coding, the project threw our group into the deep end of the pool to see if we could swim. 

Being apart of a team pushed the product to evolve. When one of us would break off to handle a different section, the other one would try to impress the other with new features and ideas. That being said, certain parts of dialog or jokes were cut due to different narrative decisions among the creators. Over I think the project was better off being produced by the team rather than just soloing the project. My only goal was to put a smile on the players face, and I think we succeeded.

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Executive Leadership

Executive leadership is all about taking control and developing the tools necessary to become a leader. After reading two different books, Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and John C. Maxwell’s Developing the Leader Within You, it has become apparent that these two authors have radically different approaches to becoming a leader. Greene teaches to always look out for number one, ourselves. Maxwell on the other hand, speaks to the leader within ourselves and how we can use our own skills to foster evolution within others and create growth for the company.  I personally relate to Maxwell’s school of through over that of Robert Greene’s.

 Greene is very forceful in his approach to leadership and of the 48 Laws of Power many can often backfire to disastrous results.  Maxwell’s teachings often deal with self-discipline and is the key reason I find his teachings more appealing. Perhaps one of the most valuable things I’ve learned from Maxwell comes from page 116, the Three levels of people/work skills. They are as follows:

The person who works better with people is a follower.

The person who helps people work better is a manager.

The person who develops better people to work is a leader.

This insight made me recognize where I stood and how I should change to become a leader. Right now, I fluctuate positions based upon who I’m working with. In school, I work well with my peers. Group projects present no difficulties and we are very productive, follower. In the work place, I help my boss work more effectively. I’m often tasked with learning new skill set as they become necessary for the growth of the corporation, a form of helping the company work more efficiently, managing. Professionally, I’m not quite helping other people develop and learn new skills the way my boss pushes and educates me. However, for a few of my collegiate peers, I have personally helped them develop a coding work flow to great success.  I feel like in these private code sessions I really help my friends evolve as developers. I teach them techniques I picked up along the way that weren’t thought in the classroom. These moments are truly rewarding and serve as a form of validation from Maxwell’s teachings that I have the potential to be a leader within me.  

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Codepen.io, inspiration in open source form. Today I found a canvas element color changer with a BANG! Using CSS and JavaScript event handlers the author created a dynamic and engaging way for users to change the color of the page. This technique can be used to create power web transitions or just to make clicking a button engaging. A new Pen to add to my bookmarks. 

Zaworski, A. (2016). Color Changin'. Retrieved August 27, 2016, from http://codepen.io/alexzaworski/pen/mEkvAG

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My personal journey to mastery is one I’ll take in blocks. I can sometimes loose sight of a long term goal. As a result I’ve depicted my journey short sections. 

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Codepen.io, my one stop shop for web design inspiration. Today I came across a two sided web interface created by a developer from Houston Texas. Shaw’s usage of fade’s and transitions based on cursor position is elegant and simple. It gives the user instant feedback on which panel they’re currently engaging with. He even added a mobile feature that changes the user interface based on device type. Definitely a Pen to follow! 

Shaw. (2016). CSS-only Sliding Panels using transforms . Retrieved August 16, 2016, from http://codepen.io/shshaw/pen/akXzzE

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LinkedIn

Follow me on LinkedIn!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-maxfield-80541064

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JRMaxfield Logo Design

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