The last conferences we attended including Inside Social Apps, f8 and the Web Game Conference do confirm how right OUAT Entertainment is to bet on social and mobile games.

Here are some notes and tweets shared by Joëlle, our new Head of Marketing and Communications, and Fabrice, VP Online – CTO during and after the Web Game Conference. Were you there?

Congratulations to Owlient for this successful first edition, for the quality of the panelists and the agenda, and for this very nice networking opportunity.

Graphism roundtable : Graphism vs. Game Design : how to balance both to create a successful browser game.

Jan van der Crabben (Travian Games, Munich) and Nicolas Cannasse (Motion-Twin, Bordeaux)

• ‘design is at the service of the gameplay.’

• ‘more games, less websites’. The interface is key, do not confuse the users with graphics. Simplicity helps the users to focus on the important parts of the gameplay.

• developers have to think about their international audience! Heavy graphics mean lags or impossible connexions for some countries.

Platform roundtable : a lot of browser games run on the open web, how can they leverage other platforms like Facebook or the iPhone?

Charles Christory (Adictiz) Vincent Dondaine (Bulkypix) Vincent Vergonjeanne (Kobojo)

• ‘free apps lead users to paid apps’. For  Vincent Vergonjeanne (Kobojo), free app + inapp purchase = visibility

• ‘the community is the heart of the game’: developers and community managers have to take care of their players to the game to make them feeling integrated to a large community.

• Facebook is THE platform to be. Considering the wide audience it’s difficult to know precisely what will work. Piece of advice frome Vincent Dondaine (Bulkypix): create the minimum valuable product as quick as possible, get it out on Facebook, iterate quickly and take decisions on measures.

Hiring Issues Roundtable: where are the recruitment bottlenecks for a web game company? Which resources companies lack? What do students expect?

Carole Faure (IIM – Video Game MBA) Pierre Carde (Paris Master Class)

• team up with universities, think creatively to get young talents: solution recruitment for small companies.

• the marketing manager makes the community get bigger, the community manager drives the community.

Payment gateways : which payment gateways and solutions work best to monetize your audience?

Gilles Tannugi (Allopass, Adults and gambling as well) Wim Jagtenberg (Wallie, games only) Jürgen Weichert (Deal United, games-softwares-services)

• the right payment method is the one that adds value and targets according to the audience segments

• limit the amount of payment options, especially for young audience to avoid cannibalisation.

Financing Panel: finding the right financing and funds for your web game

Nicolas Gaume (Mimesis Republic – SNJV) Vincent Deltrieu (Innovacom) Alexis Bonte (eRepublik) Benoît de Maulmin (Interactive Finance)

Roundtable moderated by Paul Heydon (Avista Partners)

• Be simple is the key: your economic model will be more efficient if there aren’t to many investors.

Monetization and Childhood : how to conciliate both?

Olivier Mauco (Blogger, Game In Society) Fahed Toumi (webmaster at e-Enfance) Moshé Weizman (Ekoloko)

best practices by e-Enfance

• Non aggressive methods : 1) offer gifts 2) propose contests 3) multiple offers  ie. 4 for 3 4) use virtual characters/celebs

• Give parents control methods  : admin account, notification after subscription, clear information about the game and money issues

• Restrict access to payment methods: activation of payment services by an adult, possibility to receive a receipt for each payment, total of amount should not exceed a reasonable amount

best practices by Ekoloko

• CM:  Kids can volunteer to help Ekoloko’s moderators, as ‘rangers’, they have the power to report to the moderator and ban users.

Pic :  Copyright WebGameConf