We hosted another great Vancouver Unity Games meetup last week where we discussed the development of our upcoming title, FRS Ski Cross, and our experience working with Unity Games. As FRS Ski Cross is one of the debut titles for Unity Games we’re hard at work with them to create a stellar product.

This meetup was not a typical tech talk as it dove into the design and philosophy behind developing the project as a free-to-play game.  FRS Game Director, Jay Balmer, and Roadhouse CCO, Ian Verchere, shared some of their key learnings about launching FRS Ski Cross and their experience working with Unity as a publisher.

Launching a game is a complex process, essentially the launch is like opening a restaurant. Most restaurants have a soft launch where family and friends are invited. During this time you work out kinks, fix problems with the menu, and get your staff ready for the big launch.  You don’t want to have a busy restaurant while you’re installing the stove!

After that restaurant is up and running you then provide a welcoming atmosphere that seamlessly deals with the ebb and flow of customers, all who have different tastes.  You create daily/weekly specials to get them interested and change with the season to keep them coming back.

FRS Ski Cross soft launched in Australia and New Zealand a few months ago and we have been carefully monitoring player behaviour and making changes. Unity Games has been deliberate and forward thinking, not rushing to monetize and working with us on player retention. By prioritizing great game play and retention, we create an engaging game experience that provides great value and nurtures follow-on monetization efforts.

The Unity platform is well known for making game development easier and more widely available to just about anyone who wants to take a crack at making a game. By adding Unity Games, the publishing side of the business, they are currently helping their community of great developers launch and manage their own products. Unity has truly democratized the development, and now, the publishing of games.

Working with Unity has been an awesome experience. They are a benevolent publisher and have been there to support us every step of the way. They have shared their expertise, tools and skills to make our games better. We’re excited to see that Unity is expanding it’s tool set and publishing group, and supporting more developers to get their games published!

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