How can gamers customize products from the games they played?
What will be the first thing in your mind? T-shirts and Mugs again?
In fact, there is more to this. Currently in the market, there are many items which allows the users to wrap around with. Besides the usual T-shirt and Mugs, there are also profile cards, notebooks, and mouse pad for your studies and work, physical and virtual greeting cards, bags and even caps for your personal style. Best of all, car bumper stickers and any stickers to stick your fave design onto.
With so many things to customized and own, wouldn't it be good to create your own identity? With the capabilities of the current technology, fast and cheap customization are made possible. We hope with sufficient demands, we can enlarge this area of customization for our customers in the future.
Do share with us your ideas on this. We might try to explore your idea and make it happened!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Startup Journey - Directions
There had been a discussion with my team recently to decide if we should focus on a main stream for our startup or stretch our resources to focus on two areas.
Finally, we decided we would like to direct our focus of our startup on both the independent game developers and users who explore and play online games. This will mean that we will have to come up with two separate business plans on how to attract and draw in the attention of both the individuals and independent game developers. This is a Big Challenge and it is time to sit down with the rest of my team to route out our roadmap in phases so that we do not end up missing out any major parts.
Now you know what I mean by stretching ourselves because the two focuses though great opportunities for us to tap on but alot of thoughts need to be mapped out separately to prevent any conflicts or loss of focus.
We are at a juncture where we have to assign responsibilities to the different team members to think through the main frame, draft the plans independently before we come together and have a major thorough meeting to iron out issues and feedback to come up with an ideal business plan where both focuses of our startup will be well covered.
Some inspirational quotes to share!
Finally, we decided we would like to direct our focus of our startup on both the independent game developers and users who explore and play online games. This will mean that we will have to come up with two separate business plans on how to attract and draw in the attention of both the individuals and independent game developers. This is a Big Challenge and it is time to sit down with the rest of my team to route out our roadmap in phases so that we do not end up missing out any major parts.
Now you know what I mean by stretching ourselves because the two focuses though great opportunities for us to tap on but alot of thoughts need to be mapped out separately to prevent any conflicts or loss of focus.
We are at a juncture where we have to assign responsibilities to the different team members to think through the main frame, draft the plans independently before we come together and have a major thorough meeting to iron out issues and feedback to come up with an ideal business plan where both focuses of our startup will be well covered.
Some inspirational quotes to share!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Gamerenkei - Identity
After one week of super busy work, finally its break time and guess where am i? I am in Korea, the place where high technology is! But yet to visit their famous IT shopping mall. (I think it should be similar to Sim Lim in Singapore and definitely better!)
Over in Korea, i can feel a strong sense of identity. The clothes they wear, the style which they created. Korea is a very modernised place, yet able to preserve their culture and create their own style. Am i going to talk about Korea today? Nope, my visit here in fact showed me the importance of identity.
Having to say so much about Korea, i felt that Gamerenkei has the ability for each individual to search for their own style. Ability to own their own unique design which could be as rare as precious watches limited to 50 pieces worldwide. Gamerenkei provides the users the capabilities to design your own clothes and products. In additional, the most important is the ability to realise and OWN the physical form with one click of the button.
For example, if you are a FAN of Dota and user of Lightning Relevant and Night Stalker, you might want to put the together 2 heros images on your shirt. Using Gamerenkei (if Dota has placed the images inside), you can pick and place the 2 images onto the shirt. After a few quick adjustments, next click and you can preview and order you UNQIUE shirt. On the other hand, you can also mass order your favourite design for many people or even for sale.
Gamerenkei hope to create a new way of owning your own unique items rather than going around the shops to look for items which might not be your preference or common else where. Hope you guys are looking forward for the launching of our Gamerenkei for a new way of having your own IDENTITY!!
Over in Korea, i can feel a strong sense of identity. The clothes they wear, the style which they created. Korea is a very modernised place, yet able to preserve their culture and create their own style. Am i going to talk about Korea today? Nope, my visit here in fact showed me the importance of identity.
Having to say so much about Korea, i felt that Gamerenkei has the ability for each individual to search for their own style. Ability to own their own unique design which could be as rare as precious watches limited to 50 pieces worldwide. Gamerenkei provides the users the capabilities to design your own clothes and products. In additional, the most important is the ability to realise and OWN the physical form with one click of the button.
For example, if you are a FAN of Dota and user of Lightning Relevant and Night Stalker, you might want to put the together 2 heros images on your shirt. Using Gamerenkei (if Dota has placed the images inside), you can pick and place the 2 images onto the shirt. After a few quick adjustments, next click and you can preview and order you UNQIUE shirt. On the other hand, you can also mass order your favourite design for many people or even for sale.
Gamerenkei hope to create a new way of owning your own unique items rather than going around the shops to look for items which might not be your preference or common else where. Hope you guys are looking forward for the launching of our Gamerenkei for a new way of having your own IDENTITY!!
Games Related Merchandise
It has been a hectic week and I managed to find time now in Korea to surf the net and do some research. Surfing the net looking for games related merchandise, I found quite of sites that have games related merchandise available. Most of them sell action figures and there are also some that have T-shirts available. There is this game website Miniclip that allows gamers to purchase T-shirts and is quite interesting. You have designs that you can choose from (related to gaming of course) or you can choose to upload a design. You can also select the type of item (round neck, long sleeve T-shirts etc) and size. There is also a site that allows you to do customization to a certain extent. Not only choosing your own design, you can write your own text as well and have all these printed on the T-shirt.
This actually prompts me to think hard about customization. Customizing your own product is in fact a very personalized experience where one gets a different form of satisfaction. Likewise for game developers, every design or game that they produced is unique. Therefore, to bring a level of personalization and customization to our start up will be something that we will want to think hard and focus on as I believe in this 21st century, it is no longer telling people “this is what you can buy or available on our site” the focus should be more towards how can I personalized one’s experience so that they will either come back or look forward for more because of the good experience. In fact, how to satisfy both viewers and developers experience on our GameRenkei website will be a very good push and pull factor for our start up and key direction for us to work towards as well.
This actually prompts me to think hard about customization. Customizing your own product is in fact a very personalized experience where one gets a different form of satisfaction. Likewise for game developers, every design or game that they produced is unique. Therefore, to bring a level of personalization and customization to our start up will be something that we will want to think hard and focus on as I believe in this 21st century, it is no longer telling people “this is what you can buy or available on our site” the focus should be more towards how can I personalized one’s experience so that they will either come back or look forward for more because of the good experience. In fact, how to satisfy both viewers and developers experience on our GameRenkei website will be a very good push and pull factor for our start up and key direction for us to work towards as well.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Why do we have a company blog?
We get questions from friends asking why are we spending time on our blog when our products are not even finished. Well, there are many reasons why we decided to do it including telling potential users what the product is about, getting early feedback, keeps our morale up but most of all, it enable us to feel closer to our potential community.
That is why!
That is why!
Friday, May 9, 2008
DotA Allstars
How to play DotA Allstars? You need to buy the WarcraftIII with expansion media of Frozen Throne. (The game has received many awards and is find the same developers of World of Warcraft).
However there are not DotA Allstars maps in it?! Well, you need to visit this Getdota site for the download. On the other hand, DotA can be download while in the battenet as you join the game (if they allow you to do so as downloading takes time and they might just kick you out!) Of course, to join this battlenet for an awesome games with other gamers, you need to create a battlenet account. Impressive there are also AI maps (from getdota)where you can set the numbers of Allies and Foes heros for own playing purposes. This is interesting if you do not wish to be playing noobs in real game plays.
Lastly, you can find out more form the official website http://www.dota-allstars.com/ for more DotA information. In this website, you get to know more about the heros, items and even see the replays posts by gamers.
However there are not DotA Allstars maps in it?! Well, you need to visit this Getdota site for the download. On the other hand, DotA can be download while in the battenet as you join the game (if they allow you to do so as downloading takes time and they might just kick you out!) Of course, to join this battlenet for an awesome games with other gamers, you need to create a battlenet account. Impressive there are also AI maps (from getdota)where you can set the numbers of Allies and Foes heros for own playing purposes. This is interesting if you do not wish to be playing noobs in real game plays.
Lastly, you can find out more form the official website http://www.dota-allstars.com/ for more DotA information. In this website, you get to know more about the heros, items and even see the replays posts by gamers.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Where and How to get Started to register our Start-Up?
I have been task to do the most important yet “dry” or I should say the administrative part of our Start-up. I have to set us on the right footing and make sure we go about getting our Start-up registered, accounts properly recorded, and map out our business plans and of course one of the most important thing is to plan, discuss with the team and put together our marketing and sales process.
As a Start-up, we do not have the luxury of engaging consultants or accountants to advise us with what we need to do. I have spent time searching for information online and there are a number of Business or Start-up checklists and even templates available online that is useful and helps as a guide to get us started.
Some useful sites for Start-ups:
- This website has useful toolkits and there are also examples of accounting templates, checklists even articles that are very helpful and important for Start-ups like us to learn and refer as a guide to keep us on the right track.
http://singapore.smetoolkit.org/singapore/en/
- A Good Summary of a list of eGuides
There is an Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Planning, Starting and Running a Business in Singapore on this website and I find it really comprehensive and useful but the only issue is that it was done in Sept 2005 and there is no updated pack so this will mean more readings to make sure I cover areas that may have been updated since then.
http://www.business.gov.sg/EN/ResourceLibrary/BusinesseGuides/
As a Start-up, we do not have the luxury of engaging consultants or accountants to advise us with what we need to do. I have spent time searching for information online and there are a number of Business or Start-up checklists and even templates available online that is useful and helps as a guide to get us started.
Some useful sites for Start-ups:
- This website has useful toolkits and there are also examples of accounting templates, checklists even articles that are very helpful and important for Start-ups like us to learn and refer as a guide to keep us on the right track.
http://singapore.smetoolkit.org/singapore/en/
- A Good Summary of a list of eGuides
There is an Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Planning, Starting and Running a Business in Singapore on this website and I find it really comprehensive and useful but the only issue is that it was done in Sept 2005 and there is no updated pack so this will mean more readings to make sure I cover areas that may have been updated since then.
http://www.business.gov.sg/EN/ResourceLibrary/BusinesseGuides/
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
We got funded!
The most difficult thing, in our minds, is to get pre-seed funding when all we got is only our idea and passion. Fortunately, we got to know of a funding scheme by MDA (IDM Programme Office) call microfunding. This scheme is especially created for startups like ours and so we applied.
The process was fairly simple. We got in touch with one of the appointed business mentor (FrontEdge Capital) that is helping MDA manage the grant. After a few months of discussions, business plan fine tuning and of course paper writing, we manage to pull the whole thing together and put in a proper proposal. Thankfully, we got funded! The team was really relieved after knowing this....
The funding is going to be really useful for us to develop a working prototype of our idea. With the money problem temporary solved, we can focus on building the best product we can. More about that in future updates.
The process was fairly simple. We got in touch with one of the appointed business mentor (FrontEdge Capital) that is helping MDA manage the grant. After a few months of discussions, business plan fine tuning and of course paper writing, we manage to pull the whole thing together and put in a proper proposal. Thankfully, we got funded! The team was really relieved after knowing this....
The funding is going to be really useful for us to develop a working prototype of our idea. With the money problem temporary solved, we can focus on building the best product we can. More about that in future updates.
1000 true fans
This article talks about artists needing only 1,000 true fans to make a decent living. It is a powerful story and one that we also believes in.
As the long tail stretches its length with the availability of development tools, online distribution and different means of monetization, there is a greater need for somebody to make it easy for independent developers to connect to their 1,000 true fans. Our aim is to do this.
We strongly believe that our application makes it dead simple for connections to be made between a developer and his followers. With our business tools that takes the heavy lifting off the shoulders of developers, they can concrete on making great games as well as staying in touch with their fans. This is what the next generation of game making should and is something we are working towards every single day.
As the long tail stretches its length with the availability of development tools, online distribution and different means of monetization, there is a greater need for somebody to make it easy for independent developers to connect to their 1,000 true fans. Our aim is to do this.
We strongly believe that our application makes it dead simple for connections to be made between a developer and his followers. With our business tools that takes the heavy lifting off the shoulders of developers, they can concrete on making great games as well as staying in touch with their fans. This is what the next generation of game making should and is something we are working towards every single day.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Game Renkei's Site
We are so excited with our new business website. Now we shall share a preview slide of this website.
The cool thing about this website is that it provide a good overview of the business growth for the games developers. For gamers, beside buying games, they can also easily create and purchase their own mechanise online.
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There is a total solution for all games developers to do their business and gamers to get their dream merchandise!
The cool thing about this website is that it provide a good overview of the business growth for the games developers. For gamers, beside buying games, they can also easily create and purchase their own mechanise online.
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There is a total solution for all games developers to do their business and gamers to get their dream merchandise!
Wii Games: Rayman Raving Rabbids
I am never enticed on games for long and always needed interesting games to keep my interest going. Bought my Wii recently and was recommended the Rayman Raving Rabbids game!! Ever since, I was hooked!!! It was really entertaining, every game is fun and definitely helps one to distress and a good workout.
Searched around the web to see what I can find about the Rabbids and found out that there are not many sites on them. However, I was really impressed and immersed in the short videos of the rabbids at the various sites.
Enjoy one of the videos below!
In fact, I was looking for nice screen savers and definitely do not mind T-shirts with the Rabbids printed on them. Though I never like cartoons printed on t-shirts but the 3D graphics are really well done. The creativity behind every short clip in the game to portray the character is something I am extremely impressed. Found a site that sell some t-shirts but are too few to choose from and unfortunately the pictures are mainly in 2D form. If only the actual character can be printed on the t-shirts!
I asked myself what makes me want to get merchandise related to the game and I guess what draws me most is every creativity effort that was put in which is successfully portrayed to me who is the end user that has the main appeal factor. Now I know why this is such a highly recommended Wii game and I definitely encourage all developers out there to come up with more ideas and you never know how far you can actually reach!
Searched around the web to see what I can find about the Rabbids and found out that there are not many sites on them. However, I was really impressed and immersed in the short videos of the rabbids at the various sites.
Enjoy one of the videos below!
In fact, I was looking for nice screen savers and definitely do not mind T-shirts with the Rabbids printed on them. Though I never like cartoons printed on t-shirts but the 3D graphics are really well done. The creativity behind every short clip in the game to portray the character is something I am extremely impressed. Found a site that sell some t-shirts but are too few to choose from and unfortunately the pictures are mainly in 2D form. If only the actual character can be printed on the t-shirts!
I asked myself what makes me want to get merchandise related to the game and I guess what draws me most is every creativity effort that was put in which is successfully portrayed to me who is the end user that has the main appeal factor. Now I know why this is such a highly recommended Wii game and I definitely encourage all developers out there to come up with more ideas and you never know how far you can actually reach!
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