Transcript Unit 1 Designer Brands

English for Cultural and Creative Industries
Do you remember Snake? Installed on Nokia
phones from 1997, it was the first ever game
application, or app. The idea – to move a “snake”
around the screen, collecting food – was simple but
popular, and several versions of the game are still
available in app stores today.
It is hard to believe how quickly we have progressed from
Snake to the current global app market. Recent estimates
suggest that 50,000 apps are downloaded to handheld
devices every minute, while Angry Birds, the most successful
mobile game of all time, has been downloaded by over two
billion people and is one of the most recognizable brands in
the world.
The majority of games are downloaded from either the Apple
App Store or Google Play, both of which were launched in
2008. The former makes an astonishing five million dollars a
day, although technically, the latter sells more apps. The two
stores have strict quality tests for new game apps, and take
30% of any revenue the developers make. So how do
developers make money, when the average price tag for a
paid game in the Apple store is just $0.99?
These days, many of the biggest games do not charge a onetime download fee. Both Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga
(with 500 million downloads) are examples of “freemium”
games, which are free in their basic forms but can be
upgraded with in-app purchases. Other developers might
feature advertisements in their games, or ask users to pay a
subscription on a monthly basis.
The freemium concept is just one innovation in the app
market; another is the introduction of interactive games.
Some of these multiplayer, online games happen in real time
and are competitive, like Streetfighter IV, whilst others are
co-operative, like the award-winning Minecraft. This building
simulation, which is available on a range of platforms, has
been widely praised for its original gameplay – there are no
instructions, levels or goals, just the freedom to create your
own virtual environment.
Game apps can be educational, as well as entertaining. They
can help users to learn new skills, improve their general
knowledge, or study for an exam. In the early days of cell
phones, students would be punished for using them in class;
in the modern classroom, teachers are more likely to
encourage the use of smartphones to support learning. South
Korea is leading the way with handhelds in schools, aiming
to trade all its textbooks for tablets by 2015.
iBooks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6HeyTldraw
What next for game apps? The future of technology is
famously difficult to predict, but experts believe that we will
start to combine some of our present addictions – games,
movies and TV shows, and social media. Can you imagine
downloading an app that allows you to virtually walk into
your favourite show, interact with the characters to create a
new story, broadcast it to your friends online and invite them
to join in? To the first players of Snake it would seem like an
impossible dream, but it looks set to become a reality
within a few years.
BBC`s panorama - videogame addiction ? - part 1 / 2
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R83287N6kFg
BBC`s panorama - videogame addiction ? - part 2/ 2
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE-5sm_Iqts
Exercise
 What apps are on your phone? What type of apps are
they?
 Describe two of your favorite apps and how you make
use of the apps every day.
Dialogue 1
 Two students are talking about a new popular game app, but the app is not free for
download. It is a paid app from an online store.
 Ken:
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Is everything OK? You look exhausted.
Wendy:
I’m pretty tired. I didn’t go to sleep until 3 a.m.
Ken:
Were you at a party?
Wendy:
No … I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I was
playing Star Island.
Ken:
Oh, my sister has that game. She can’t stop playing it.
Wendy:
I have the same problem. Last night I got stuck on this one level, and I
just had to stay awake to complete it.
Ken: That’s crazy. We have a test today.
Wendy:
I guess you don’t have the game, then! If you did, you’d know how
addictive it is.
Ken: Well, I was going to download it, but then I saw the price. I never pay for apps.
Wendy:
Come on! Star Island is only $0.99. It’s the same price as a candy bar.
You should try it, seriously.
Ken: I lose enough sleep already, worrying about school. I don’t need another reason.
Dialogue 2
 Two game developers are brainstorming about the concepts of next-gen game apps.
 Ellie: OK. Our last app had poor sales, so we need to think of a really special game for
our next release. Any ideas?
 Duncan:
Maybe we shouldn’t make any more puzzles. There are so many already,
and they all feel similar.
 Ellie: But we’re famous for making puzzle games. The problem is not the type of game.
We just need to create something that’s fresh and different.
 Duncan:
How about a multiplayer word game?
 Ellie: It’s been done before. What would make our app different from our competitors’?
 Duncan:
I don’t know … maybe people could play in pairs … all right, it’s a bad
idea.
 Ellie: What if we combined elements of an action game with elements of a puzzle
game?
 Duncan:
Go on …
 Ellie: I think we need to design a recognizable character that’s associated with our
brand. A cute animal or monster or something.
 Duncan:
That could work – but the most important thing is still the gameplay.
What would the character actually do?
 The Apple App Store offers more than a quarter of a million games – so
why did two, Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga, become so much
more popular than the others?
 First, they are very simple. They can be learned in seconds and even
played with one hand, so it is possible to do something else at the same
time. Second, psychologists believe that they relieve stress, because
they have childishly satisfying rewards – knocking something to the
ground, or getting candy. And third, they both offer an almost endless
supply of new levels and in-app purchases; you can never really
complete them.
 Angry Birds and Candy Crush Saga have made a fortune for their
creators, but what about the developers of less well-known games?
According to a 2013 survey, the average app takes 18 weeks to design but
is only likely to make around $4,000 in revenue. As in many industries,
there is a huge gap between those at the top of the tree and those at the
bottom.