Skystone Games: "We rely not on voluminous UA campaigns, but on branding and word of mouth"

We continue the mini-series of interviews within the framework of the WN Dev Contest. In them, the jury of the competition shares tips on working in the game market. This time we talked with William Wang, CEO of Skystone Games.

WN Dev Contest is a competition of games created on Unreal Engine 4. Held by WN Media Group in conjunction with Unreal Engine and Reboot Develop.

William Wang

App2Top.ru: There is another common opinion: the publisher is not looking for a game, but a team. What characterizes a great team for you and your company?

William: At Skystone, we constantly worry about the quality of the content. Accordingly, we are looking for those teams that are willing to share our attitude to work. Also, experience, skills, and willingness to treat others with respect are very important to us.

App2Top.ru : Publishers often don't just sign a game for publication, they appoint a producer. Can you tell me what your producer does on external projects?

William: The focal point for working with all our developments is David Brevik, creator of Diablo and former president of Blizzard North. He has extensive development experience: he ran a huge studio with several hundred employees, and personally worked on a cross-platform game.

As for your question, our guys usually play the builds they send and give feedback to the developers.

App2Top.ru: But even at this level, there may be misunderstandings between developers and producers. The former may consider that this aspect is an important feature, and the latter that it is definitely not worth doing this. How do you resolve such conflicts?

William: Everything works differently for us. We offer creative assistance and help you solve specific tasks while working on the game. We share all feedback with the studios on a regular basis. This shows that we respect our development partners and let the studios decide for themselves what to do.

App2Top.ru Questioner: And the last question: what projects are you looking for in the competition?

William: I'll answer your question a little differently.

We are open to working with any studios around the world. We have no restrictions on genres, but at the same time we are looking for multiplatform games with unique features. Since we are a startup and cannot compete with large publishers in terms of advertising budgets, we do not rely on voluminous UA campaigns. Instead, we focus on brand formation and on word of mouth as a marketing tool. And we are not looking for MOBA or battle royale. We want to launch unique projects.