Zynga chief designer Brian Reynolds talked about his company's success during the D.I.C.E. Summit. The stats he laid out are impressive – six of the top 10 games on Facebook come from Zynga, with 239 million active users overall, 79 million of which play FarmVille. What's interesting is that only about three to five percent of Zynga players actually pay money for virtual items in the games, and that's enough to have the company valued at $3 billion and raise $180 million in funding.
“This is why this industry is being taken seriously these days,” said Reynolds [thanks Venture Beat].
He contrasted the development cycle of Facebook titles compared to traditional console games. While Zynga spends roughly $100,000 to $300,000 over four to 12 weeks with a team of 10 people (FarmVille was constructed in five weeks), AAA console titles often take $10 million - $40 million investment over two-plus years with teams over 100. Reynolds likened Facebook games to services updated regularly based upon user feedback, compared to the “fire and forget” model of most retail games.
“Welcome to the web,” Reynolds said. “The whole game is sitting on servers in a room. You have control of the entire game at all times. The metrics are available in real time.”
Reynolds detailed the keys of success as being play (having something fun to do), expression (a way to share your success with others), and investment (to do things in the game that will pay off in the future). He noted that new features can be successfully tested just using five percent of the user base.
When it comes to traditional design elements Reynolds warned that they only work if they inspire social behavior or motivate virtual good sales. He concluded by saying that designers should be open minded when it comes to Facebook games and they should be willing to change things if feedback says that it should be altered.
