LEON NICHOLLS: Welcome to the next episode
all Assistant on Air.
In this season, we focus on several games
created for small display games and featured
designers and developers who created them.
Today we're looking at the opportunities
available for developers for small displays and also
some next steps that developers can
take to improve their Google Assistant games.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING]
I'm Leon, and I'm your host for today.
I'm a developer relations engineer
for the Google Assistant.
Today, I'm joined by our product manager
for games who is leading the Assistant games effort.
Hi, John.
JOHN HSU: Hey, Leon.
Thanks for having me.
LEON NICHOLLS: So, John, tell us a little bit about yourself
and why are you in the gaming space.
JOHN HSU: Games have been a passion of mine since as long
as I can remember.
When the NES first came out, I was
entranced by the entire space.
And I actually spent over 10 years of my career in games
prior to joining Google.
Most of my time was focused on emerging platforms.
When social first came out, when web games first came out,
when VR first came out, they were always sort of my passion
to-- it was always sort of my passion
to focus on innovative technologies
and create delightful experiences
for those platforms.
Actually, that's why I think the Assistant platform is such
an exciting space to be in, and I
can't wait to see what type of content
we can actually create with our unique technology.
LEON NICHOLLS: Great.
So why is this a great time for developers
to create games for small displays?
JOHN HSU: Yeah, it's a great question.
Smart display's adoption rate has
continued to grow over the course of the past two years,
and we see no reason why this will decline.
In fact, I think this really at the heart of it
is providing a brand-new way for users
to engage with content holistically.
While we're still in the early stages of figuring out
how exactly users can engage here,
we have identified three unique aspects of the platform
that we think that game developers should really
take advantage of.
The first is is that the smart displays actually
provide a visual experience to what otherwise traditionally
on Assistant has been a voice forward
or a voice only experience.
We still would like this combination
of having a voice input be the primary input in which
a user engages with a platform.
However, having a visual output really unlocks a brand-new way
for us to create content that the users can interact with.
Second, the smart displays are common area devices.
With a mobile phone, you often have a much more personal
experience, and you carry it with you
throughout the course of the day.
However, these smart displays are often in common areas.
They're in kitchens, they're in living rooms,
and users traverse through these areas
multiple times over the course of the day.
So we look at these as more common area devices
and allow for more communal type of experiences.
Finally, the smart display is ambient.
It's always on.
It's always something that's in your background.
And we don't expect users to really
be parked in front of a screen consuming
two-hours-long content, although it does happen occasionally.
We are seeing that they traverse and engage
with these devices throughout the course of a day.
And so creating some type of experience where users are--
we're creating persistent content
where users are able to engage throughout the course
of the day with the content.
Seems like there might be a unique facet on these devices
for developers to build.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, those are really
unique features that I think most developers aren't
aware of.
Now, as a platform, we've been launching new games, tooling,
and features.
And can you talk through some of them
and how they've been used by some of our top games
for smart displays?
JOHN HSU: Yeah, definitely.
The foundational technology here for smart displays
is Interactive Canvas.
It's been out for about a year, but it enables developers
to create visual experiences using
web technologies that most developers already know--
HTML, CSS, JavaScript.
And that's really the foundation of creating
these visual experiences.
The past year, we've really been focused
on creating tools that allow developers to build
bespoke visual experiences.
If you take a step back and look at how we built experiences
on speakers, everything was conversational.
You always had the turn by turn type of relationship
with the device.
When the user spoke, then the speaker
had to speak back before the user could be prompted.
When you look at smart displays and look at screen devices,
that changes dramatically.
We can actually have rolling content on the display
that allows the user to actually have free-form access.
Our technology called Continuous Match really
unlocks the potential of utilizing your voice when
interacting with a visual surface.
In one of our recent games that we launched
called Guess the Drawing, they designed
the mode in which they show the act of drawing
in image on the screen and then users have to guess it.
Rather than having to prompt the user
to suggest what the answer might be over and over again
or having the user chime in by having
to say OKG to open the microphone,
we actually have the microphone open
for the duration of the drawing, and they can just
shout out answers and see if they can get the answer right.
This mode is something that we feel
like has a lot of potential and is very well attuned
to creating visual games.
Mime Jam actually takes advantage of this as well.
You'll notice that you didn't actually
have to say OKG in order to say the answer.
You could just simply say "got it" and shout it out
at any given time.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yeah, continuous match mode
is unique to our platform, and it really
opens up opportunities for word games
to become much more engaging.
Now, there are lots of existing games that might or might not
make sense for small displays.
So for these existing games, how should
developers think about the opportunities
on small displays.
JOHN HSU: Yeah, that's a really good point.
Voice is a brand-new interface, and it may not always
make sense for a particular genre or a type of game
to be ported.
For example, action games or any game
that require a very precise touch
may not be a particularly good fit.
However, if you take a step back and you
look across the broad spectrum of casual games
that are out there, there's a significant portion
of games that actually might make sense where voice could
actually be a better interface.
If you look at word games, for example, and where
the input of what you're trying to create is to--
trying to input is actually words,
that actually might be a better interface for you
to actually play it on a smart display
where your voice is what's inputting it.
There could also be puzzle games where what
you're trying to create--
while there's a visual puzzle that may not necessarily
be word-centric, the answers that you're trying to uncover
are actually words.
And so these are potentially really seamless ports
that might work really well on smart display.
Beyond that, there are some games
that might take advantage of the ambient nature
of these devices.
For example, I know RPGs and virtual pets
aren't really high-touch experiences,
but on other platforms they really take
advantage of how you would want strategically to issue commands
to a party or how you might want to talk or engage
with their virtual pet.
A voice adaptation would not be necessarily a direct port,
but it might be pretty--
it might not be a huge leap to figure out
what type of voice commands you might
want to make when you're strategizing what your party is
supposed to be doing or how you're
engaging with a virtual pet.
However, at the end of the day, we also
think that with this unique combination
of where the device lives and the voice
and visual technologies, that there is an opportunity
to create bespoke experiences that really couldn't even
exist on other platforms.
This is where I think I'm excited to see
what the ecosystem will bring.
LEON NICHOLLS: Yes, that's really good advice.
Now, one thing we've learned is that launching and marketing
games isn't enough.
Games really need to keep the players engaged
and keep making them come back for more.
So what kind of re-engagement ideas
can you share with developers?
JOHN HSU: Yeah, it's a really good question.
On mobile, there have been techniques
that have been used by developers
and honed over the course of the past decade
to really figure out what the right type of engagement
is correct for that platform.
But we're pretty early in on the smart display days,
and so I don't know if we have the right answers today.
But I can certainly share some best practices
for how users are actually currently
engaging with experiences on smart displays.
First, as I mentioned before, we're
not seeing users engage with these devices
for extended periods of time.
Usually they're transient through the common areas
where they're engaging with us content.
And so building re-engagement techniques
that respect that play pattern is something
that we see to be more successful.
By creating bite-sized experiences that
are five to 10 minutes, whether it's a word puzzle
or whether it's a visual puzzle like in Guess the Drawing,
these challenges where the user engages multiple times
throughout the day and multiple days throughout the month
are what we've seen to be pretty successful.
LEON NICHOLLS: So we know that monetization for developers
is really important for the business goals.
Now, as a platform, we have been improving the tooling
and features around that to help developers grow their brand
on the Google Assistant.
So, John, can you talk about how some of these tools
have been used by some of our popular games
on small displays?
JOHN HSU: Yeah, actually one thing
that people don't necessarily realize
is that we actually have a full suite of monetization tools
already on the platform, and we enable
digital transactions as well as subscriptions on the platform.
And so developers do have a set of tools
that are ready to make sure that they can get positive ROI
from building on the platform.
However, I think with any type of new platform
and when transactions are being done by voice,
there is someone uncomfortability
for users to try to engage with that technology.
And so we're continuing to make platform improvements
to increase the decrease the friction for the user in going
through that journey.
That said, I think from a best practices perspective, at least
currently in the ecosystem, subscription
seemed to be working a little bit better,
because users are somewhat more unfamiliar with transacting
with their voice.
Setting up something where the users can subscribe
to a service and that service continues to provide value
over the lifetime of their engagement with the game
seems to be a better way to create sustainable value both
for the user as well as for the developer.
Now, this will continue to change
as the platform continues to evolve
and as users get used to this type of transaction.
We'll keep you posted as to how best to continue
to drive that ROI and build sustainable
content on the platform.
LEON NICHOLLS: Thank you so much for sharing
your insights today, John.
JOHN HSU: Thanks for having me, Leon.
LEON NICHOLLS: So if you want to try the games
we've been highlighting this season check out the links
below.
Thank you for watching.
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