Dave Worle of Encore chats with us about the process of publishing games and discusses a short history of casual games. Read on!

CR: Hi Dave, and thanks for talking to us today. Why don’t we start with you? Tell us a bit about your background and about what you do at Encore.

Dave: I’m the Director of Digital Sales here at Encore. I spent 8+ years in retail software sales as both an Account Manager and Director of Sales. Before that I spent 4 years working at Egghead Software in the field as well as a buyer in the corporate office. There are a lot of us old Egghead people still around. We’re hard to kill! As far as what I do at Encore now, I’ve been tasked with the goal of growing Encore’s Casual Game Publishing Division. One any given day that might mean negotiating a new contract with a portal, selling them on the merits of a new game, signing a new title on, talking to developers about working with Encore, writing a story or two and fetching the coffee for the real talent at Encore our Senior Producer, Robert Coshland.

CR: Now, I understand that your division is a bit of a start-up within Encore. Why did you guys decide to get involved with casual game development and publishing?

Dave: Very simply we want to be a part of a growing online and newly invigorated retail casual game market. Encore has a long history of successes at retail selling casual games well before there was even an online download segment. When I joined the company in 1998 we had massive hits that we internally called ‘casual games’ like Chess Advantage, Brainfood Games, Pinball Madness etc. Back then a casual game could be sold for $39.99 at retail in somewhat staggering quantities, when compared to today’s retail sales numbers. Who knew we had it so good back then?!

Over the years the fundamentals started to erode on casual games at retail and it became almost impossible to support them with development budgets. That’s when a lot of churning took place and the same games were bundled and repackaged. The price points dropped to $19.99 or lower in jewel case and the unit sales also dropped. Some would argue that the innovative development wasn’t happening and retail had become a commodity business instead of an entertainment one driving price points down. But either way this segment of our business shrank and we were left to find ways to fill the hole, which we did in other segments like productivity, utilities etc. Encore continued to sell casual games but with fewer releases every year. But when a new market emerged where new development made economic sense and was growing at double digits we became extremely interested. We’re not really a new player in casual games, simply casual games online.

CR: So, Encore recently worked with Boomzap to release Jewels of Cleopatra. Talk to us about the process of working with a developer on a game like this, and what Encore can offer to the process.

Dave: This was a very gratifying experience for us. We teamed up with Boomzap shortly after E3 last year and it’s true that we were very interested in the Jewels of Cleopatra, but we were just as interested in Boomzap as a partner. We believe that in order to create great games you have to have successful collaborations, with each party bringing something unique to the table. It takes time to build that collaboration into a smooth working relationship so we wanted to find a partner to do multiple games with. Unlike some publishers we don’t want our partners to do something they don’t believe is right for the game or their company.

We offered suggestions and resources to Boomzap and we discussed why we thought the game would be better if our suggestions were implemented. But it becomes a dialogue, never an order. I really think that this is the key. When we had a disagreement about an issue we talked about it until we agreed. Some of the features in the game that people are really responding to came straight out of these discussions. One other thing we did was believe in Boomzap’s vision for the game and push them to achieve it. It’s hard to keep a fresh perspective on a game and your enthusiasm when you’ve been working on it for 20 hours straight for days in a row. We were big fans of the game and we tried to keep bringing that enthusiasm to our discussions.

CR: You have several very interesting sounding titles coming through the pipeline: Frogs in Love? Alien Disco Safari? Can you tell us anything about these wacky-sounding titles?

Dave: That’s a funny question. Honestly I wish I had an impressive answer for you that included demographic information, focus group testing and a chart that shows how well certain words in a title help it become a hit. Unfortunately, I believe there’s more art to naming a game than science. But we loved these names from the first time they were uttered out loud in our offices. I don’t think a name can make or break a title, but it sure can help the way you feel about working on it. Hopefully having an unusual name will make it easy to remember and tell your friends about!

CR: How has the landscape for casual development changed in the recent past, and what do you see happening with the casual games industry in the next few years?

Dave: When we started talking to portals and developers last year there was a lot of curiosity about brands and whether or not those could help propel a game up the charts. I think that question has largely remained unanswered. Though without a doubt a brand that was built in the casual game space certainly matters. Think of any sequel out now and how well they come out of the gate. Another hot topic has been burgeoning development costs. Which I think is pretty funny to talk about since how one developer spends money vs. another is apples and oranges. I know of several developers who outsource a large portion, if not all their work overseas and get dramatically more for their development dollar. That’s just the reality of today’s marketplace. We’ve saved thousand upon thousands of dollars having diverse talents on our teams. We don’t pigeonhole people into one job. In my career I’ve found that smart people can do almost anything, so we always hire people who scored higher on their SAT’s than we did. Anyone who ventures an opinion on where Casual Games will be in the next few years has a lot of courage because of the dramatic changes that have happened so far. But I’ll tell you this; if the pace of growth continues it’s where I want to work.

CR: So, what are Encore’s Casual Game plans for the coming year?

Dave: We want to find more creative and driven people to work with. We’re on the look out for developers that we can help realize their goals. This past year we found some really talented developers who needed a hand producing, marketing and selling their games. Simply signing a contract with a portal really doesn’t get a new developer as far as they might think. All you have to do is look at the many games that get released one day only to disappear the following day, and you see the tremendous potential that is being wasted. That’s a real shame and something we want to help fix.

CR: Well, we wish you the best and look forward to seeing what you come out with! Thanks again for talking to us today, Dave.

You can see more of Encore at http://www.encore.com/. Be sure to check back soon for more reviews, interviews, and features!