PerBlue - Blog

Gamer Psychology 101: Flow vs. Fiero

2012-02-15T11:10:00.016-06:00

Posted by Ellie Humphrey. Ellie is the Public Relations and Social Media Specialist at PerBlue. When she's not at work, she's busy finding 'flow' on the treadmill, training for an upcoming marathon.

Have you ever wondered what psychological considerations are taken when a video game is designed? How can game mechanics be adjusted to create greater engagement and harness the power of addiction for players? I’m reading a fascinating book titled Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal, the Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future. This book has opened my eyes to the psychology behind gameplay and how game design plays a big role in satisfying players emotionally and teaching them new skills.

Today I’ll touch on two of the most powerful positive emotions fostered by playing video games.

Flow: that ‘in the zone’ feeling. Flow is the feeling of intense concentration and efficiency. Practiced athletes, tenured musicians and (dare we say) software engineers are familiar with the feeling of flow. It is said to take ten years or 50,000 hours to achieve the skills, muscle memory, and understanding needed to find flow within an activity. Key aspects of flow include a challenge with clear goals, well established rules for action, and increased difficulty over time. All these things lend themselves nicely to gaming. The very nature of video games allow players to achieve the feeling of flow much faster. When a gamer is experiencing this emotional high, quitting or winning would be equally dissatisfying outcomes. They want to keep playing and stay ‘in the zone’ for as long as possible.

Fiero: the Italian word for “Pride” and a term often used by game designers to describe that feeling of emotional elation after a huge discovery or victory within a game. What’s coolest about this emotion is that we all express it the exact same way, which is why fiero is considered to be one of our most primal emotions. Maybe you know the feeling or have seen it before- it’s usually expressed when a player throws their arms over their head and yells! Scientists will tell you fiero is one of the most powerful neurochemical highs that we can experience.

Game designers aim to hit the sweet spot between flow and fiero moments within a game. They create game mechanics and features to take their players to these emotional highs and keep them coming back for more.

We're Pumped For GDC

2012-02-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

We are proud to announce that PerBlue co-founder and CEO, Justin Beck, has been selected as a presenter for the 2012 Game Developer’s Conference.

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the largest and longest standing gaming conference and is held each year in San Francisco. The event attracts game industry professionals from all over the world to attend summits, panel sessions and speaker presentations for an entire week. The conference is an exciting place for game developers to debut new titles and technology, peruse the Expo and Play events, or network with other experts in their field.

Titled “Bootstrapping 101: How College Kids Built a Thriving Game Company in Under Three Years,” the session is one of fifty presentations in the Business and Marketing track. This hour-long session will reflect on the ups and downs of bootstrapping a startup. Justin will cover key ‘fork-in-the-road’ moments PerBlue faced, the decisions that were made, and how they helped build PerBlue into the high growth company it is today.

We are honored to have been chosen as a session leader for the 2012 conference, and look forward to joining the ranks of other game developers presenting and in attendance, including Zynga, PopCap, ngmoco, EA and many more.

For more information about PerBlue at GDC, or if you would like to schedule a meeting with Justin or Forrest during the conference, please contact us soon.

2011 Year In Review

2012-01-19T10:30:00.005-06:00

The year of 2011 was a fast paced and exciting one at PerBlue. Our company and products both saw huge growth, and we transitioned from a small startup to a growing company. We started the year with 12 full time employees in a brand new office space that had so much room we didn’t know what to do with it all.

We’ve ramped up quickly and now employ 36 full time people, including developers, artists, analysts, support, and more. N00b lunches were frequent and for much of the year we were adding a new employee each week. During the Summer we had some awesome weekly grillouts and played a lot of volleyball and Frisbee. We had a ton of fun (especially Halloween), and for Christmas everyone got a Wii.

In the world of Parallel Kingdom, we completed a number of milestones. We cleared 500,000 players in June, and we celebrated 1,000 days of gameplay in July. Much of the year was spent focusing on making Parallel Kingdom the best location based RPG in the world. We saw a lot of success and are now closing in on 1 million players. We were a finalist for Best Mobile Game in the Mashable Awards, rated as one of the top 10 Best Mobile MMOs, and also rated as a top 10 Best Cross-platform Multiplayer Mobile Game.

Parallel Kingdom held a number of innovative in-game events throughout the year. We introduced virtual Trick or Treating where players could go house to house and collect candy - or potentially spawn a dangerous Monster. We covered the world in virtual snow that could be used to throw snowballs or build snow forts. We even provided over 3,000 real world meals to children and families in need through in-game Thanksgiving and African famine relief charity drives.

Our CEO Justin Beck spoke at TEDxMadtown where he gave a talk on social games and virtual currencies. Justin also gave a presentation at this year’s Forward Technology Conference, and presented his College 101 advice to freshman engineers at the UW. Brand Director Forrest Woolworth was on a panel about entrepreneurship at the Wisconsin Science Festival, and Justin and Forrest anchored another entrepreneurship panel at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium.

We participated in Accelerate Madison, helped organize and sponsor Build Madison, were part of numerous UW campus events, and even organized a holiday board games drive to benefit area hospitals. We attended conferences all over the world, including the main GDC in San Francisco, GDC Europe, and GDC China. Justin was even selected to present the PerBlue story at the 2012 GDC in San Francisco.

We definitely had an exciting 2011, and we have a lot more exciting things in store for 2012. Follow along on the PerBlue Blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

Chance of Snow: 100%

2012-01-12T10:25:00.011-06:00

What a strange turn of events. Just when we thought we might make it a whole season without snow, enjoying sunny 50+ degree weather every day, we're hit with a storm that will last multiple days.

Today we’re forecasted for 100% chance of snow, and looking out the window there’s no denying that it’s going to be a long, snowy, and brake-lit drive home. We missed a white Christmas, and now mid-January we are finally seeing snow in Madison. Lake Mendota has yet to freeze over, meaning we’re just two weeks away from breaking the previous record in 1932.

However, virtual snow has been falling in Parallel Kingdom since December when we announced our ‘Winter Wonderland’ series. We delighted players with a snow covered game world and new winter-themed items each week. As the holidays approached we introduced gift boxes, allowing players to send wrapped presents, like resources and avatar items, in-game.

In Wisconsin though, we’ve never let a little snow stop us for too long. Yesterday we announced Parallel Kingdom’s launch on Facebook, Chrome Web Store and Kongregate. Now players can see when their friends are in-game, bookmark the app, and new sound effects accompany several player actions. Read the full release or browse some of our recent coverage on AllFacebook.

Keep an eye out next week for our '2011 Year in Review' post where we’ll cover some of our major milestones reached during the last year.

New Years Resolutions For Entrepreneurs

2012-01-05T11:05:00.005-06:00

Posted by Forrest Woolworth. Forrest is an original team member and current Brand Director at PerBlue. He is also the co-founder of Capital Entrepreneurs, a group dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in the Madison area.

New Years is an ideal time to look back on your accomplishments from the previous year and begin setting goals for the next. As we enter the first week of 2012, I wanted to share some of my thoughts for entrepreneurs in the upcoming year.

I’ve gained a lot of experience since the last time the New Year’s Eve ball fell, and by far the biggest lesson learned is that the road to success is not always an easy one. I've put together a full post to share a few things I've learned along the way that is featured on Tech.li, a business and technology publication that focuses on innovation wherever it happens.

The top items include peer groups, sharing your ideas, and focus. Check out the full New Year's Resolutions for Entrepreneurs article for all the details.

Happy Holidays From PerBlue!

2011-12-22T13:20:00.003-06:00

As the work week winds down, and before we hit the road to visit family and friends, we wanted to wish you happy holidays from all of us here at PerBlue! Thank you for your continued support.

Update: Holiday Board Games Drive

2011-12-13T12:59:00.015-06:00

With just one week left in our Holiday Board Games Drive, we wanted to give you a quick update on the campaign. Thanks to everyone who has already donated, we have collected over 40 board games! We’ve received a variety of games that the children and parents at the American Family Children’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital are sure to enjoy.

Here’s a shot of a few of the games that have already been donated.

As the campaign winds down, we are still welcoming donations of new board games, card games and monetary gifts. There are still a few requests that have not yet been fulfilled: Cranium, Hungry Hippos, Clue Jr, and Sorry! Email us to arrange a time to drop off your new and unwrapped game or cash donation at our office. PayPal donations will be accepted until Sunday, Dec 18th.

We will be delivering the gifts next week Wednesday, Dec 21st. Be sure to like PerBlue’s Facebook page to see pictures from the event!

Donate Now!

Holiday Board Games Drive

2011-12-01T08:30:00.035-06:00

We absolutely love playing games. It is a passion of ours that carries over into our work. The team at PerBlue makes games for mobile devices (iOS / Android) and the Web. We play games at home during our free time and sometimes in the office over lunch. Board games, card games, video games- we love them all. What it really comes down to for us is sitting down to stretch our minds while spending quality time together.

That’s why we are so excited to announce our holiday board games drive benefiting the American Family Children’s Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison. We will be collecting new board games and donating them to the children’s and waiting room areas in each. Because these hospitals serve children of all ages, we want to make sure to provide them with a variety of games that are fun for everyone!

Here are a few requests we’ve received already:

Ages 4+
Hungry Hippos, Guess Who!, Memory, or Matching Games

Ages 8+
Connect 4, Uno, Skipbo, Phase10, Jenga, Catch Phrase, Operation

Ages 12+
Bananagrams, Sequence, Yahtzee, Clue, Life, Monopoly, Cranium

We are welcoming donations of new board games, card games or even monetary gifts. Angela, PerBlue’s deal-shopping maven, will be purchasing games at the conclusion of the campaign. You can donate directly today through PayPal, our suggested donation is $10. Monetary donations can be made until Sunday, Dec 18th.

Donate Now!

Email us to arrange a time to drop off your new and unwrapped game or cash donation at our office. The campaign begins today, and we will be delivering the gifts on Wednesday, Dec 21st. Questions? Shoot us a line at contact@perblue.com

GDC China

2011-11-21T15:21:00.017-06:00

Posted by Forrest Woolworth. Forrest just returned from attending GDC China in Shanghai with Justin. He's still a bit jet-lagged, but he learned a ton and met some great people at the conference, uncovered a lot about the Chinese smartphone market, and got to see some awesome sights.

It started out with a flight over the North Pole to the other side of the world. After 15 hours in the air Justin and I arrived in a foreign, yet surprisingly familiar land where KFC is the dominate fast food chain, Pizza Hut is a classy "date" restaurant, and you can still get your favorite no-whip Carmel Machiatto on most street corners. We were in Shanghai. The reason? GDC China - everyone's favorite game developers conference - to learn, meet, and uncover the magic of the East.

The first session was an eye opener. It was given in Japanese, translated to Chinese, then finally translated to English. Imagine playing telephone, but in 3 different languages (and I'll assume the translators weren't just making stuff up). Many sessions were given in Chinese, and others in English. We got to wear cool earpieces to listen to the real-time translations (like at the UN!). Presenters and attendees came from big and small gaming companies from around the Globe including EA, Ubisoft, DeNA, Kabaam, Booyah, Playdom, and many more.

The 3 days of sessions were interesting and informative, and Star Wars references seemed to be a reoccurring reference throughout many of them. There were many common industry themes and tactics across both Eastern and Western gaming companies, but also many surprising differences in game design philosophies and thoughts on how in-game economies should function. Session topics included globalization of games, RPG design, in-game economic systems, and more. Parallel Kingdom even got a shout-out during one of the sessions.

If you thought the US smartphone market was young and still emerging (it's only been around for about 3 years), the Chinese market makes the US market look old school and well established. This "Wild Wild East" Chinese market is brand new and is seeing explosive smartphone growth. Unfortunately, it's extremely fragmented as far as App distribution goes. Think AOL style "walled gardens" of content - there is no central App distribution channel, making for an interesting yet complicated market to say the least.

Not only is the mobile market seeing rapid growth world wide, but according to an industry vet at GDC China, the RPG space has seen more change in the past 3 years than in the last 30 years. Globalization is also a huge issue. Many challenges exist in taking a product global beyond just translations. Globalization is tied directly to localization, and ultimately culturalization. These are just some of the challenges that keep us on our toes every day.

We also have some exciting news on the GDC front. Justin was selected to give a session at the main GDC in San Francisco this Spring. The session will focus on the lessons learned in our experience bootstrapping PerBlue. We're pumped for this opportunity, and we will have more details for you soon.

We’re Jump Starting the Holiday Season With In-Game Giving

2011-11-16T12:00:00.013-06:00

As the holiday season approaches, we’ve been busy getting into the holiday spirit with a little help from our players. Last week we announced another ‘Food for Good’ initiative for Parallel Kingdom players, titled ‘Give Thanks’. Donations made during this campaign will provide Thanksgiving meals to hungry children and families through HELP USA. 'Give Thanks' is a product of the success and positive feedback from our last campaign (see those results here).

To support the cause, PK players purchase their choice of a red or gold Food Basket Hat, a special limited in-game item, available for 750 or 6000 Food. The Food Basket Hat is available to PK players now until Thanksgiving, and a portion of the contributions will be donated to HELP USA.

Tomorrow marks the halfway point of the ‘Give Thanks’ campaign, and we are thrilled to announce that PK players have already donated enough Food to feed 352 meals this Thanksgiving.

PerBlue CEO, Justin Beck, mentions the ongoing partnership with PlayMob in his recent interview with UK based gaming publication, PocketGamer.biz (read the full interview here). Or take a peak at the official press release from the 'Give Thanks’ campaign.

More about HELP USA:
HELP USA is a non-profit organization that provides housing and supportive services for the homeless and people in need across America. Since 2009, HELP USA has been breaking the cycle of dependency by addressing the underlying causes of homelessness with respect and dignity.

Entrepreneurs on Campus: Advice From Those Who Have Gone Before

2011-11-07T15:27:00.020-06:00

Last week Forrest and Justin were featured on the “Campus Entrepreneurism: Fad or Fixture” panel at the Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium. Here are a few words of wisdom from the event. You can read a full recap of the panel on Justin’s blog, or watch video from the event at the end of this post.

What is scary about venturing out as an entrepreneur?

Justin: Entrepreneurship is like walking a tightrope. If you are not constantly providing correction to your balance, it feels like you’re always on the verge of falling off. Some days it seems like you have 15,000 things pulling you off this rope, and it takes a lot of work just to stay balanced. Keeping a team together, that’s hard. Keeping a product laser focused, that’s hard. Cranking out revenue, that’s hard. Everything is hard. That’s what’s scary! When you live your life on this tightrope, you get really used to having your adrenaline pumped all the time. I think being a little of an adrenaline junky is also helpful.

What is your advice for student entrepreneurs?

Forrest: The execution aspect of ideas is key. If you have an idea, don’t say ‘Oh, it’d be cool if we did this.’ Just go and do it. Don’t ask questions or leave any room for fear. Make your ideas a reality. That’s how PerBlue and Capital Entrepreneurs came about. We saw a need and we filled it. We wanted to get all of our entrepreneur friends together, so we just did it. We created an organization and now it’s grown to 150 members. I can’t stress it enough, execution is the most important part of being an entrepreneur.

Should entrepreneurs worry about sharing their ideas?

Forrest: Ideas are pretty much worthless, they are a dime a dozen. What it really comes down to is execution. There are very few people in the world that could actually execute your ideas. So my advice is, don’t be afraid to share your ideas. Bounce them off your peers to get feedback. They can help you focus and refine your ideas. Talking about your ideas is actually a really good idea and something I would encourage.

So, Campus Entrepreneurism: a Fad or Fixture?

Justin: I’d say fixture, it’s extremely important to encourage entrepreneurship with young people. I hear so many complaints about a poor job market, and I have relatively no sympathy. ‘Hey, start a company.’ We need to create more role models of great companies and great entrepreneurs to get students thinking about entrepreneurship earlier. So many are still stuck in the “I need a job” mentality.

Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium

2011-11-01T08:31:00.009-05:00

Tomorrow marks the kick off of the 2011 Wisconsin Early Stage Symposium. The conference is hosted by the Wisconsin Technology Council at the Monona Terrace in Madison, November 2-3. This year’s theme is “Pulling Together For Success.”

PerBlue entrepreneurs Justin and Forrest will be featured Wednesday on the “Campus Entrepreneurism: Fad or Fixture” track. We’ll be talking about entrepreneurism on campus and why so many students are turning their passions into their professions. It’s not just a trend we’re seeing just at the UW, but across the nation. The question is, will it last? The PerBlue team, along with Matt Howard of U Connect and Evan Sengbusch of DFJ Mercury will be speaking on this panel.

See the full agenda for the Early Stage Symposium here.

For over 20 years, the Early Stage Symposium has been connecting, companies and entrepreneurs to help fuel Wisconsin’s high-growth economy. For more information about the Wisconsin Technology Council, visit them online.

Happy (Early) Halloween!

2011-10-26T09:55:00.019-05:00

To say we’re a little excited about Halloween would definitely be an understatement. We’ve already started planning for an over-the-top spooky celebration in the office and online. Why? This year marks the 3rd anniversary since the launch of our game, Parallel Kingdom. We’ve come a long way since then, and we want to celebrate in true PerBlue style.

In the office, we've been snacking on festive cupcakes (courtesy of Tyler) and the real pumpkins arrived yesterday. Thursday we’ll be holding a carving contest during our weekly social. Competition between the PerBlue team will be fierce, and may the most creative carving win. Will the pumpkins be PK themed or just plain scary? Stay tuned on Facebook, they’ll be plenty of pictures of the carving action and the final results.

Then next week Monday, to officially celebrate Halloween we’re hosting a potluck with spooky dishes. Check out a few of the freaky food ideas we’re considering.

Halloween on Parallel Kingdom is gearing up too. Yesterday we introduced PK Trick-Or-Treating and players are quickly approaching dangerous levels of sugar intake. ‘Trick-Or-Treaters’ visit in-game Houses to receive Candy or risk fighting a frightening new Monster. Candy can be unwrapped for Food, Gold, or other in-game items. Players who gather 200 pieces of Candy receive the "Candy Covered Hat."

Speaking of Halloween themed items, since the beginning of October, we’ve been introducing a ton of new avatar items and decorations for our players. New costumes are available to purchase, players are dressing up their in-game avatars as skeletons, demons, or even a cute Morning Sprite.

Too many costumes to choose from? Players can also pay tribute to the holiday by decorating their House with these new eery ornaments. The Inflatable Ghost decoration is one of my favorites. Happy Halloween!

Entrepreneurial Outreach @ Platteville

2011-10-18T10:03:00.017-05:00

The UW-Platteville Entrepreneurship Program is hosting PerBlue’s Justin Beck and Forrest Woolworth this week for "Meet ‘n Eat with an Entrepreneur." The event brings together young entrepreneurs to speak about their journeys as business owners and what it takes to put ideas in motion.

We’ll be participating one-on-one with students to discuss the success and challenges we face every day as entrepreneurs. After dinner, students team up to brainstorm new business ideas, and then give 2 minute pitches to Justin and Chris Meyer (founder of Sector 67).

The event is Wednesday, October 19th from 5 until 8PM. Dinner is free for UW-Platteville students, and will be held at Ullsvik Hall in the Nohr Gallery. Registration is open for students, but space is limited.

For more information about Platteville’s Entrepreneurship program, or to register for the event, visit them online. Looking to stay local? There are tons of entrepreneurial resources right here in Madison, check out Capital Entrepreneurs and Wiscontrepreneur.

Fall Is Here

2011-10-10T12:25:00.016-05:00

Fall is here and we’re making the most of this beautiful weather while it lasts. We grilled out last week for most likely the final time and it made us a little nostalgic about summer.

Smaller Grill, Smaller Crew

The new grill!

Looking back, it’s been pretty cool to see PerBlue grow so much in just a few months. Our team is approaching 40 full time employees, with plans to add more. All of this new talent lets us stay on the cutting edge as we strive to make our games the best in the world. We’re also focused on building and serving our player communities.

With so many new people, we also had to make a few considerations from a logistical standpoint. The office is getting a bit more cramped, and we had to buy a larger grill so we could cook over 50 brats and burgers (regular and boca!) each week. N00b lunches for new employees were frequent and our volleyball team had no trouble filling the court with players on game days.

Now that the leaves have changed colors, the grill is packed up and we are already thinking winter-time socials. Sledding, laser tagging, or bowling? Stay tuned. I’m sure there will be a ton of pictures.

Are you interested in joining our team? We’re looking for passionate game developers and we’d love to hear from you. More info about this can be found here.

Bughouse Chess at the latest grill out

Fall colors from a balcony at the office

Our Players Make Us Proud - Food For Good Campaign Results

2011-10-05T13:53:00.011-05:00

We are so proud of Parallel Kingdom players. We asked, and they totally brought 'Food' to the table.

Last month PerBlue partnered with PlayMob, a social company for doing good through games, to create 'Food for Good'. The campaign allowed PK players to use in-game currency, Food, to purchase real food for children suffering from ongoing droughts in Kenya.

To support the cause, PK players purchased the Soup Can Hat, a special limited in-game item, for 550 Food. The Soup Can Hat was available to PK players for two weeks in September, and a portion of the contributions were donated to SOS Children.

We were happily surprised by the results, here are a few interesting facts from the campaign:

- A total of 836 Soup Can Hats were purchased, providing 2508 meal vouchers to children

- The Soup Can Hat was purchased in over 27 different countries, and the US represented 75% of all givers

- Over 60 of our players were moved by the campaign to purchase multiple hats, and two generous players bought over 20 hats each

This partnership between PerBlue and PlayMob marks the first step in a series of campaigns that will support real causes through game play. Check out the official press release here.

Startup Cinema - A Recap

2011-09-29T10:40:00.001-05:00

Last weekend the first ever Wisconsin Science Festival hosted an event for those interested in entrepreneurship. The ‘Startup Cinema’ featured an hour long panel with a few of Madison’s standout startups (including the entrepreneurs behind them), followed by a screening of The Social Network. The panel was moderated by John Roach, an award-winning television and film producer and screenwriter.

Panel discussion focused on characters from the movie and how they relate to situations entrepreneurs face when founding and funding their startups. We talked about the ups and downs of partnerships, being a visionary and putting ideas in motion.

Here’s a little bit about the Startup Cinema panelists (from left to right):

Chris Meyer is the founder of Sector76, Madison’s first hackerspace, and recent host of Capital Entrepreneur’s BuildMadison event.

Troy Vossler is the founder of Sconnie Nation,an apparel company dedicated to celebrating the Wisconsin lifestyle.

Forrest Woolworth is the co-founder of Capital Entrepreneurs, a group dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship in Madison and is an original team member of PerBlue.

Heather Hilleren is the founder of LocalDirt, an interactive website that helps farmers and other producers sell their food locally to restaurants, stores and consumers.

Thanks to all who attended the panel, we hope the event was educational and we look forward to helping other local entrepreneurs.

For more information about UW-Madison’s Entrepreneurship program and the Wiscontrepreneur initiative, visit them online. Also be sure to check out Capital Entrepreneurs, a community group fostering entrepreneurship in Madison.

Accelerate Madison - Games & Learning

2011-09-28T12:05:00.005-05:00

Last week Accelerate Madison, a local tech networking group, hosted "Games & Learning: Celebrating our Growing Interactive Media Cluster" at the Fluno Center on the UW-Madison campus.

The event was packed with technology professionals, including several from PerBlue and other local game studios, and featured an interactive presentation from Filament Games. Their session included a 3D video demo of their upcoming educational games, “You Make Me Sick!” and “Crazy Plant Shop” as well as a Design Jam session.

Thank you to all those who stopped by the PerBlue booth at the event!

You can watch the full Games & Learning presentation here. PerBlue's Forrest Woolworth was also featured on a Wisconsin Public Radio segment about the event and Wisconsin's video games industry which you can listen to here.

Social Games for Social Good

2011-09-22T08:34:00.004-05:00

It seems this week's tech buzzword is 'social good' (check out Mashable’s Social Good Summit), and PerBlue is participating with a social good initiative all our own.

For the past week, Parallel Kingdom has been selling virtual 'Food' to provide real food for children. We've paired with PlayMob and SOS Children, the world’s largest orphan and abandoned children’s charity, for an in-game fundraising initiative.

Players use Parallel Kingdom's virtual 'Food' resource to purchase the Soup Can Hat, which can be worn by the purchaser's in-game avatar. Money raised in this campaign benefits children living in Marsabit, a district in North Kenya. This area has been affected by a severe drought, where millions of children and their families are currently facing desperate shortages of food and water.

Today marks the campaign's halfway point, and over 700 Soup Can Hats have been sold. Each Soup Can Hat sold will feed three children through our partnership with PlayMob and SOS Children. With a week left in the campaign and having fed 2100 children already, all of us here at PerBlue are super excited for the final results.

Since the launch of this initiative, we’ve discovered there's nothing more satisfying than doing good through the things we are most passionate about- social games. This specialty hat is only available for a limited time, purchase it now through September 29.

Build Madison Is This Weekend

2011-09-20T10:12:00.009-05:00

Hey all of you smart people out there! The 2nd ever Build Madison is taking place this weekend. This 24 hour community create-a-thon kicks off at 11 am on Saturday, September 24 at Sector67 in Madison. PerBlue is again one of the presenting sponsors and we’re pumped.

Now what exactly is a create-a-thon? Think of it like a hackathon, but it’s not limited to just programming based projects. You can "create" just about anything. Last time teams worked on everything from iPhone and web apps to microcontrollers to stop-motion videos. There is nearly $1000 is cash prizes + a bunch of other prizes too. Registration is free, and there will be food and drinks throughout the event. It's being organized by Capital Entrepreneurs and is sponsored by Google, Sony, PerBlue, SupraNet, 94labs, Schematical, Flatt Cola and more.

If you have an idea for a cool project to work on (whether it be a website, widget, or pretty much anything really) this is your event. Bring your idea and meet others at the event to help make your idea a reality. Don’t have an idea, but want to work on a fun project? Attend as a free agent and bring your skill set (whatever it may be – programming, glass blowing, marketing, etc) and find an interesting project there to work on and bring to life.

Be sure to register for this on the Build Madison website, and check out the live blog from the last Build Madison. We hope to see you there!

PerBlue @ Upcoming Events

2011-09-15T09:53:00.015-05:00

Look for the PerBlue team at a several of Madison’s upcoming career and learning events. We are always on the look out for talented individuals and would love to have a chat with you. Stop by to learn more about PerBlue and try out Parallel Kingdom. See you soon!

UW Computer Science Job Fair -- Thursday Sept 15th, 1:00 - 4:30 at Union South

UW Engineering Career Services Fall Career Fair -- Thursday, Sept 22nd, 11:00 - 5:00 at the Engineering Centers Building

Wisconsin Science Festival -- Sunday, September 25th at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery

More about the Science Festival: PerBlue will be exhibiting at the Street Fair (from 10am - 1pm) and participating on the Startup Cinema Panel at 2:00 on Sunday. Attend the Startup Cinema Panel to meet UW entrepreneurs from all fields to hear about their successes and failures. PerBlue veteran and Capital Entrepreneurs co-founder Forrest Woolworth will be speaking on the panel. Following the panel discussion, stay for a screening of The Social Network.

Also, be sure to mark your calendars for Build Madison. This 24 hour community create-a-thon will be held September 24. We’re really excited to be a sponsor and participant at this year’s event, and we'll need a full post to go into all of the details!

What is Work Culture?

2011-09-13T12:51:00.005-05:00

Work culture is a product of the values, beliefs and expectations that guide employee behavior. A strong and carefully developed culture can help a company operate smoothly and efficiently while poorly designed cultures can create toxic work environments and potentially be very costly. Employees working for companies with like minded values and beliefs enjoy more work satisfaction, productivity, and have a higher retention.

Companies like Google make huge investments in creating a quirky and unique culture, attracting and retaining some of the most talented engineers in the world. Read about their culture, or check out some of their funky themed office spaces.

At PerBlue, we take great pride in the culture we have created. We work hard to continually foster a fun and enjoyable work experience for our talented team. Weekly cookouts, Starcraft tournaments, Ultimate Frisbee games, and much more have shaped us into a tight-knit team who enjoy collaborating in and outside of the office. We work hard, but smart, and have a ton of fun in the process.

Check out this video to find out more about life at PerBlue.

The Game of the Future

2011-09-07T09:56:00.010-05:00

Kyle's rendition of the PK of the future

What does Parallel Kingdom have in common with Dippin' Dots and Tomorrowland? Last week Parallel Kingdom was highlighted by BizReport as a game of the future. A recent study from Latitude Research found that "95% of gamers would like to see games that combine digital content with the physical world around them and their day to day lives."

By integrating real life, both the people and world around players, PK is already ahead of this game-design learning curve. Our players all over the world have been claiming territory and fighting monsters right in their backyards since 2008.

What do these findings mean for PerBlue? PK is already one of the deepest mobile RPG games out there, and our amazingly talented engineers, designers, and artists will continue to make the game even more awesome.

As a pioneer in this space, we continue to learn, grow, and adapt as the future of mobile games and genre of players quickly becomes reality. There are an unlimited amount of opportunities in the space, and we see the potential for major traction and growth on the horizon.

Read the full article, "Tomorrow Gamers Want Life To Be a Game" by Helen Leggatt. Or check out the full study results from Latitude Research.

Measuring Success (and the Analytics Revolution) Part 2

2011-09-01T10:41:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, we recapped the importance of business metrics that Justin spoke about during his presentation at the Forward Technology Conference. Here's some expanded coverage on why we are so obsessed by this stuff and why you should care about it.

What are Metrics?
Business metrics are measurements you make on your business that can explain something, whether its an increase in profit or a decrease in your customer base, there are many forms of business metrics. When you measure these aspects of your business, you can better track and manage them.

This measurement and management will then allow you to easily make decisions to improve them and will in turn propel your overall business performance. This improvement is a result of examining all facets of your business and all of the factors that affect them.

How PerBlue Uses Metrics
The continued development of Parallel Kingdom is guided by a system of key metrics put into place early on in development. Traditional metrics for determining the success of a game generally include: (1) the number of players you have, and (2) how much money you make.

While these are great high level metrics, focusing on these alone will not allow you to make measurable product improvements. For example, you could have millions of players, but if they only stick around for 30 seconds, chances are they’re probably not having much fun and won’t be paying any money for anything. In this case, increasing the number of players alone won’t necessarily improve the bottom line of your business.

A measurement of how many of your players convert and how long they are retained, as well as the percentage of paying players (for freemium games) are much more important and telling metrics.

Other Key Product Metrics
- Of players that actually pay for something, what is the average amount they spend when they make a purchase?
- Over the course of time a person plays the game, how much do they spend and what’s the overall lifetime value of each player?

Making changes that measurably improved these aspects allowed us to make decisions that ultimately led to success. In addition to these product specific metrics, you can apply similar metrics to your business as a whole.

Key Business Metrics
- How much revenue do you take in per day, per month, and per year?
- How many employees do you have and how much do they cost you?
- What is your cash burn rate per day and per month?

Knowing these basic metrics will allow you to figure out your business’ runway. What if your revenue dried up tomorrow? How long would you be able to operate your business as usual before you run out of money? This time period is called your runway.

Keeping your runway as long as possible is good. Having a long runway allows you to place larger bets on projects (riskier, but a higher upside) and more overall flexibility. This all may seem obvious, but there’s one thing all failed startups have in common: they ran out of money.

Start Measuring!
Business metrics are the guiding force behind analytics, and they are something PerBlue has found extremely valuable. Analytics have had a huge impact on our business and something we greatly attribute to much of the success we have seen.

Developing good business metrics starts by asking questions, and the answers to these questions need to be measurable. Entrepreneurs need to dig deep, and through trial and error, uncover the key metrics that will guide development. Think of it as the Scientific Method, but for product and business development.

Measuring Success (and the Analytics Revolution)

2011-08-30T10:01:00.019-05:00

Max, Forrest, Justin, and Ellie at FTC

Nearly 2000 people took part last week in the 2nd Annual Forward Technology Festival over its 10 days of events. On Friday, the Forward Technology Conference brought together over 150 of the top technology and entrepreneurial minds from Madison and beyond. The event proved to be a very valuable and insightful day for all.

The importance of measuring key business metrics seemed to be a reoccurring theme in presentations throughout the day. Max touched on it while on a panel talking about lessons learned from his previous startup, and Justin spoke in great detail about metrics during his "Be Inspired" conference session. His 'Analytics Revolution' presentation focused on the importance of identifying key metrics and the tools for measuring them.

Check out the video and follow along with the slides from Justin's presentation below. Be sure to come back Thursday for a deeper insight into some of PerBlue's key metrics.

Forward Tech Conference: The Analytics Revolution

View more presentations from PerBlue