It was in September that I took the leap from the console game space into the social game space. Now, 5 months later I can say – or in this case write – that I do not regret this decision, at all. The very first things that made me excited about working on games are present every day without fault at my studio, Toy Studio. Passion, energy, enthusiasm, prototyping, creative freedom, innovative ideas, optimization, perfection, to name a few are elements which are ever present in our studio’s environment every day without fault. Something which I missed greatly when I was in the console space for quite some time. Now you can go ahead and ask yourself, “So you rather work on a game like Farmville, Restaurant City, or Killer Toon rather than Call of Duty: World At War, Guitar Hero, or Transformers?” Yes. Absolutely. No question about it, and I’m going to tell you why.

I don’t care who you are, how many people’s first names you know, or what you do to get to know everyone on your team but I will tell you no matter whom you are that you simply cannot get to know 150+ people who are on the same development team you are on. Call me crazy, old-fashioned, whatever you would like but the work you do with 8-10 people who work within arms reach of you day in and day out is going to matter more to you than the work you do with 149 other people. Why? Because the sense of personal investment you have in a small team is absolutely amazing. Every one on my team relies on each other to do an amazing job. This creates a personal sense of accountability that can’t be matched with any other team size. And what does that lead to? It leads to the entire team caring about the game, and not just that the game makes a profit but that it is a good and fun game that everyone will enjoy. While we might not get it right the first time – and please don’t blame us, we’re learning – we think about how we can continuously improve on what we release and how we can get it to the point that everyone who plays it is happy because that is our ultimate goal, to make you happy. Without a small team, and a  strong sense of accountability which drives that passion I just wrote about we would be complacent, ineffective, and not care to expand on the player experience and most likely leave our audience with a broken game. Instead, we love our audience, care for our audience, and hold each and every one of us accountable for every one of our actions. In other words, we all know each other very well and know what we’re all working on. Like I always tell my team, “We’re our own dysfunctional family.”

While in the console space you have to “get it right” the first time, within the social gaming space we can optimize until the day we die. Every mechanic, every formula, every single user-interface element, can be implemented, tested, and reviewed for effectiveness of engagement. You can continuously strive to achieve perfection. We get real-time results if what we changed is better for our players and if they like it better. What more can you ask for? Which leads me to my next point about why I love working on social games, innovation.

The amount of times I have pitched a new idea when I was within the console space only to hear back from a publisher, producer, or anyone for that matter that it was too “innovative”, the risk couldn’t be taken due to the franchise, or other similar reasons were numerous. I’m not saying that everyone in the console game space is not innovative, not at all. I am saying that it is much harder to pitch innovative concepts in the console space due to the lack of ability to test these concepts prior to being committed to them. In social games, the opportunity to innovate and fine tune a new concept is astounding. Conceptualize it, prototype it, implement it, and then test it. There’s the cycle you go through and if you achieve your desired results there you go, you now have a new feature. You don’t see the desired results? No love is lost and the feature is nixed. Simple as that.

Finally, the last thing which has me loving the social game space is the challenge. Millions of players come and play our game. None of them alike what so ever. Some are 43 year-old mothers, others are 23 year-old recent college graduates, and others might be 12 year-olds escaping the clutches of their homework. Each and every one of them expecting and wanting a different experience. I can’t even begin to describe the challenge that we attempt to overcome everyday and what a pure thrill it is, especially for a person like myself. I love to please my audience and the fact that anyone, and I do mean anyone can play our game and I / we have to account for that is pure joy. You could argue that the same holds true for console games but lets be honest and accept that a ton more people play social games. But the challenge of adapting to a huge demographic / audience isn’t the only one to overcome. The more exciting challenge which I see myself and Toy Studio overcoming is how we can educate our audience to become more experienced players and delve into social games that provide a richer and compelling experience while still not overwhelming. In other words, what role does Toy Studio and I play in advancing the social game space? My answer, a definitive and revolutionary role.

While I might eventually go back to the console space if the occasion arises I must say that the transition into a smaller but still competitive space has renewed the thrill of working on games for me and has increased my passion for the game industry more than ever. Some might think that social games are for those who can’t accomplish anything within the console space but believe me when I say social games are definitely not for the faint of heart or lack of passion.