Week 14: CAC...Again

This week we mainly worked on preparing for the final presentation of the game. We essentially want to present a vertical slice. Since I'm on the financial team, I worked on calculating the customer acquisition cost, along with the CFO, a member of marketing and the CEO of the company.  The main problem we kept having was figuring out how much we as a company should spend on marketing as well as figuring out our goal number of customers.  I learned that even though there can be some great social media sites to try to advertise, it may not always be worth doing so because the cost is just too much.

Spread sheet on the current expenses

The other big issue that took a while to determine was the goal number of customers. This has been a problem figuring out because at first we needed to have a number to determine the amount of marketing we could do. It's like we needed research on customers of our game when our game isn't even out. In the end we set a goal of 500 customers and used that in conjunction with our marketing plans.

Week 13: Poker

This week we took the user stories from the previous week and then used planning poker in order to vote and decide whether these user stories are possible and/or worth trying to implement.  I still am not completed understanding the voting system. For instance, stories that are essential but easy to implement are voted low. However, user stories that are not as important but harder to implement can have the same vote number.

Planning Poker Site

I do like this way of voting because it allows us to determine value at a very quick pace rather than going through each user story and getting into whole debates that could take a lot of time.

Week 12: Sprinting

This week we did some sprints, or at least worked on backlogs. We all created user stories specifically for the environment for our game.  I found this to be rather difficult because there are a vast variety of things we want in our game, but we are trying to pinpoint the truly necessary elements.

We also did a user story for the User Interface. I learned there will be ideas and elements that we as a whole or individually want in our game but may not be possible at the current time. I think that over time I will be able to become better at these user stories so that I can help get the most important elements into our game.

Week 11: Agile

This week we watched a video about agile game development. I think it was very interesting to see how this differs from what we are doing right now. The main thing that I noticed that was different was that this sort of process is much quicker and is able to point out the flaws in the game quicker as well.

As of right now, I think our team would do rather poorly because we are still figuring out the game still. We've been focusing on the infrastructure for the last several weeks that we put aside working on the game itself.  

I also have been trying to continue my work on the financial portions, but I'm finding it difficult because there are some financial figures that are based off of having a product already out in the market. Perhaps this agile development will help us. I think it will help us narrow our figures even more so that we can get the budget finalized.

Week 10: Getting the Costumer

This week I have been trying to figure out a way to calculate the customer acquisition cost (CAC). I am finding this to be rather difficult because there are a lot of factors that are needed to calculate this but at the same time we don't have a lot of numbers to work with. What I mean is, for instance, one big variable that is needed is marketing numbers. As a new company, we are trying to spend as little money as possible. Furthermore, we are most likely going to use free marketing tactics whenever possible. So far, the only real marketing ideas that would cost us money is buying Facebook and Twitter likes and followers.

I looked up several websites to see if there are any formulas to calculate the CAC. Some formulas require more variables; However, the majority of the sites had two main variables that remained the same: marketing cost and number of costumers. The main concern is the number of customers. While optimism is may help us give us the needed drive to push forward with our product, it can also be a hindrance. I hope to be able to calculate this soon.

Week 9: Exactly

This week we continued to gather facts about finances and marketing information. I requested that people from marking make a draft of all the little thing that they can think of that they may need to get our company name out. I asked that they could get it posted by Friday. I figured four days would be a good amount of time to do some research.
I looked over the documents that several of the team members posted.

I learned a lot from looking over these documents, and I post my personal   One of the biggest things I learned was trying to weigh cost and efficiency. For instance, in the software options document, there are free software options. I made a point that questioned if the free cost is worth it if team members would have to learn how to use them. In the back of my mind, I was think of the old saying: time is money. While not paying for a program is nice, would it be better to just eat the cost if it meant that people could work immediately and be more comfortable. Another point was related to the marketing options. There was merchandise items that I was wondering if we as a team would plan to sell in the immediate future or once our name is out there.  I realized that for now in terms of finding a budget, we should only look at immediate expenses; all of the merchandise items were for future plans. Another big point I learned was the necessity for precise numbers. Some of the merchandise had a price, but I felt as if there could be more pieces of information. For instance, there was a possible idea of selling balloons. The helium tank was listed between $45-$60. Also there was a package of 15 balloons for $44. This looked fine at first, but then I realized there are possible problems that could occur.  An example I gave was for the helium tank. Was the price range for a certain size tank but different distributor costs, or was the price range for different size tanks? Also, how many balloons can a single tank fill? If we want to sell 30 balloons and a single tank fills 10 balloons then we would need to purchase two more tanks. These may seem really specific, but as a member who is working with money I need exact numbers or near exact. These are just some of the things that came to mind while reviewing possible purchases for the company.

Week 8b

The team had part of a review, and let's just say that we didn't do so well. I think the biggest thing that I learned from the review is our game lacks any real "wow" factor.  I know what the team wants for the game, but we can't be making a game for ourselves. Another thing I learned is that we need facts and data. We also need public opinions, which we didn't have.

Another big thing that stuck with me from the review is the aspect of participation. Our team doesn't progress that well. Like I stated in the previous post, I try to contribute what's on my mind or a counter argument to ideas; however, most of the time I feel like most of team, myself included, tend to recycle our ideas. This leads to our stagnant progression.

I've tried to search for more concrete data for the finance portion of the team. Specifically, I'm to research revenue facts on Steam Greenlight, and how much revenue is shared. Also, I'm looking at other methods to load our game that may be free for us. I'm probably searching the wrong way, and that's most likely the reason why I'm not getting very far on this. Hopefully, I can find something during this week,  I don't want to be kicked, just like everyone else, but I understand only the best will continue.