Technology and Business Model

In this blog entry we would like to tell you about the technology we’re using. And in the end explain the business model we’re going to offer. It’s a common knowledge that it’s hard to make both the buyer and the seller happy at the same time. So why will Tabletopia be attempting to keep players, game creators and publishers happy at the same time? Please keep reading.

Choose your platform

In the first blog entry we were talking about supporting several platforms: PC, Mac, Android and iOS. And to do that and have a truly cross-platform experience we’ve chosen to use the Unity engine. Initially Tabletopia will be available in browser, but soon after we will release a stand alone client for PC and Mac. That client will be available both on our website and on services like Steam. Finally, we will release versions for Android and iOS. Unity will not only allow us to release Tabletopia on different platforms, but also keep all versions up to date so you could play on any device you want at the moment. In addition you can play with all your friends – it does not matter which hardware each of them has.

One game on many different devices

Above we spoke about our game client, but besides it we are building a web-portal. There players and publishers can find

• a full game list and player matching service
• communities for players and game authors
• extensive catalog of free game objects
• tools to create your game
• etc.

Sounds cool? We do hope it is! And now to another important part: how much does it cost?

Board games for everyone

In short, nothing. Games in the basic catalogue will be completely free to all users. Thus you can familiarize yourself with Tabletopia and a fine selection of games in an easy and accessible way. You don’t have to pay or download anything since Tabletopia is available in browser. Moreover, you can create a game and invite your friends by sending them a unique link: they will be able to join even without registration!

Of course, we have to make money to improve Tabletopia, develop new features and bring more games. And we don’t have to forget about publishers and make usage of our platform for them not only exciting but also profitable. So we will have a premium catalogue containing full or extended versions of games from the basic catalogue or the games not available in the basic catalogue at all. We don’t think it’s a good idea to sell games separately, so we’ll be charging from $4.99 to $9.99 monthly for the access to the premium catalogue. For instance, Spotify uses the same business model and allows to access all their music for a fix monthly fee. The number of Spotify subscribers makes it obvious that this idea is pretty good. The service is perhaps even more popular than iTunes where you still have to pay for each track or music album.

Share the profit

Hopefully we’ve convinced you it’s a good business model for players. But what about game creators and publishers? We offer a rigorous infrastructure to create and promote the games. There’s a few obvious opportunities to get more players and spread the word about your game. You could have virtual presentations and tournaments on Tabletopia. Or you could create video game reviews. Or let users try your game before selling it’s print version. And this is just a tip of the iceberg!

Just drag and drop graphic files from your computer into our web-site. And it is ready for play

Actually, here’s more on what we have in mind:

• A lot of basic “building blocks” and easy options to add your own custom objects
• Endless possibilities for game creation: you can do stuff not possible in real life (talking game pieces, burning cards, complicated calculations, thousands of object in one game and so on)
• Virtual private rooms to test prototypes with chosen community members or collaborators
• Demonstrate your game to publishers and partners without meeting them in person
• And, from the publisher side, find talents and new interesting games to publish
• Finally, put your game in the premium catalogue and get a share of the revenue (you can see it like the AppStore for board games and we also propose a 70/30 split of revenue)

 Our catalog of free game objects already has more than 700 items and we continue to build it up rapidly

Create, test, sell

Those are not the only good news for game creators. You will be able to create games for free! But we are thinking of offering a premium account for game creators too. It will allow you to create more games, and these games will be able to utilize all what TableTopia will be able to offer.
Last but not least: You don’t have to be a guru-programmer to create a game on Tabletopia. Frankly, you don’t have to know anything at all about programming since the system makes it possible to build a game in

a few easy steps:

• Upload your unique game objects (or choose objects from Tabletopia’s base library of objects): for instance, tiles, cards and game board
• Add from our free catalog some common stuff like dice, miples, counters etc.
• Place objects on the game board
• Create a game description and upload the rules
• Publish, Test, Play, Promote and Monetize!

You can find more information in our “Presentation for Publishers”

That’s it for today, but there’ll be more next week.  Stay tuned and good luck!