Topic: Gauging Interest - Canadian Game Development Studio - By An Ex Playtika Exec (Read 5626 times)

I think here in BC we can only have 50 shareholders before we have to become a "reporting" company, meaning regular audits and all the same overhead a public company has.  Doing some math, if we wanted to raise $1,000,000 and only take up 40 slots (leaving a little room) that'd be a minimum $25,000.  If we wanted to raise $500,000 and only take up 30 slots, that'd be a $16,667 minimum.

On the Bunco game, summer vacations have taken their toll, but since my last post we've rolled out friend game invites, updated chat, private chat, friending, gifting, and a bunch of bug fixes.  We currently have the new avatar system and HUD in QA.  Power ups and leaderboard are done server side, just waiting for the client team to catch up.

Our next game or two will be a bit easier.  Chat, friending, gifting, facebook integration, leaderboards, database structure, inventory, store, etc are all reusable and we have a good team in place. 

If seriously interested PM me your email and we can discuss privately. I'll forward our deck, business plan, etc.  Our overall goal is 1M daily players across 3-4 games within a 5 year span, which would make the company worth around $100M - $120M.

Cheers.

Any minimum investment?

Quick update - the game is in open beta now - feel free to give it a spin!

https://apps.facebook.com/BuncoBonko

We still have a few more core features to add; a nice intro, powerups, and integrated private chat and friend management are in the works.  Then we tackle the tournament standings.  Probably 2-3 weeks of work.

We already have some mobile builds, but after that we start customizing the UI for mobile to prep for a mobile release.  Probably 6-8 weeks away.

And once we have mobile builds we put the pedal down in the marketing department.

We're considering investment offers on an individual basis.  With BTC as high as it is, you definitely get more bang for your buck now.  PM if interested.  Anyone coming on board in the next few months will have some say in what our next social casino game is. 

Cheers

Just posted a quick youtube clip of the game, it's corny, but fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOGHRjiMGkU

Also, lots of updates on the Facebook page about recently completed content, quotes from the closed beta, etc: https://facebook.com/BuncoBonko

All of the bugs that came up in the closed beta have been fixed.  The current plan is to roll out an open beta later this month which adds the; inventory, store, collection items, facebook game invites, daily credits, and a few other goodies.  Fun stuff.   

Thank you for your concerns.  It'll be pretty clear if and when I post a JOBS Act compliant public offering to my website and start accepting actual money.  I don't think that will happen though.  More likely a deal will be worked out... in private.  In the meantime, I'll continue to discuss various options amongst friends here.


2010: I join Buffalo Studios to do Bingo Blitz
2012: I create Litecoin Global as a hobby.  GLBSE tanks and I think I can help people out so I make a bitcoin version and call it BTC-TC.
2013: Playtika buys Buffalo Studios
2015: I leave Playtika

Cheers.

Add:
2015: A week after my last day Playtika lets go 2/3 of the remaining senior executives.
2016: Playtika lays off 90% of the studio, moves operations to Israel / Ukraine.

(I think my departure was at a pretty good time.)

Due diligence: You mentioned that Playtika didn't exactly like your bitcoin activities. However, btct.co happened in 2013 and you started working for Playtika and moving to Canada in 2016. Can you explain that?

Thanks!

It looks like it's spot on for your target audience. This bitcointalk audience would probably be more into a MMORPG with a crypto-token enforced economy but that remains to be proven as enjoyable as the same games with centrally manipulated economies.

Good luck burnside and thanks for keeping us in the loop regardless.

Been a while since I've posted an update.

We've launched the facebook page: https://facebook.com/buncobonko

And made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd8OdueoUOQ

And will be in closed beta in a day or two.  Probably not the kind of game this crowd would like, but if Bunco is your thing you can sign up here:  https://yappingmoose.com/

Cheers.

https://www.macstories.net/stories/a-discussion-about-apples-unsatisfactory-in-app-purchase-policies/



I may be wrong, but if they garner significant market share as a payment processor I think they'll end up in the dog house.  Apple isn't going to catch everything right away, but when you are large enough to get their attention you're also large enough you can't live without them.

I actually want to disagree with burnside's claim that you have to only use the provider's platform for payments. Google and Apple have both been very pro-crypto lately, just anti-gambling. Considering they allow crypto wallets (which don't need their payment platform, therefore aren't paying anything, but are still taking fees on transfers), I see no reason why games wouldn't be looped into the same deal.

GameCredits looks interesting but I'm not sure how much traction they'll get in the mobile space.

With a mobile game you have to try not to piss off the platforms.  It's easy for them to kick you and you have no recourse.  One of the things that really pisses them off is using alternate payment gateways.  They all require you to use their payment systems if you're selling virtual goods via their platform for use on their platform.  You just have to look at the 30% as part of your marketing spend and make sure you take full advantage of the network the platforms provide.

With Bingo Blitz we did eventually setup a web portal where you could play outside any platform, but the DAU and purchases on the portal were minimal because there were no benefits to using it for the players.  The contracts with the platforms usually require you to have consistent pricing across all versions of your game, so you can't discount your own platform over theirs.  (And can't favor Android over iOS either, etc.) Of course the bigger you get the less you can afford to piss them off, so you learn pretty quick it's not worth taking such risks.  The only real variation I see working would be something like this pre-sale we've discussed where the purchase is made before the game is available and they just get a coupon code they can plug in once the game is launched.

Then consider GAME. Its looking to challenge that, with a 10% fee, with their game store in Q2.... 
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13083341
http://gamecredits.com/

You know...  I'd completely discounted a credit pre-sale because I didn't want to give away game details before the launch.  Now that we have a patent filed I may need to re-think that.  Thank you!

It's mostly ladies 25-65 we'll have playing, so I'm not sure Bitcoin is a good fit for that, but we could do a presale of credits, power-ups, cups, avatars, one year subscriptions, etc on our site using stripe/paypal for sure.  We'd come out ahead even if we offer a 25% discount because the platforms all take 30% anyway.

Reading the last few sentences of your first post again, certainly sounds similar to what BitFinex ended up doing. Registered in BVI, i believe.

Phil (PGP), is here most days.....   Teamspeak: ts.whalepool.io 
A few ole timers there know who you are.

Seen this?......  http://www.augmentorsgame.com/token-sale-ico/       https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.17553087

You dont want to go this route?

 

I haven't met Phil before, but I will see if I can touch base.  The issue is likely to boil down to where the corporate headquarters are and when you're outside the US, how badly you want to play their regulatory games.  We're in BC, Canada, but here the securities law can be even more complicated than the US because each province has their own equivalent of the SEC.  heh.  We also have to play by US rules because I am a US citizen with family in the US, and because we are on US based platforms for the game - Facebook, Apple Store, and Google Play.  It's like a double whammy.

Thus far I've discovered that for the most part, unless you are friends and family in a private company, you can invest, but not trade until the company becomes a reporting entity.  Becoming a reporting entity means you have to file your prospectus and annual audited financial reports.  Those two items can get expensive to put together unfortunately.

I got all excited to see at one point that BC has Equity Crowdfunding now, (yay!) but then read that when you do that you can only accept investment from Canadian residents.  (boo)

I see Trump is ripping out a lot of regulation now.  Might have to setup a US subsidiary and Crowdfund there!

If you know Phil Potter (Bitfinex), speak to him about this. He has talked about this ability (sorry, no link) for shareholders to trade amongst themselves, after redemption of his BFX tokens into equity in iFinex Inc.

Quick update:

It still has a few things outstanding (graphic improvements mostly) but our new website is rolled out: http://yappingmoose.com/

And we have a new listing setup on angel.co at: https://angel.co/yapping-moose

Feel free to connect with me on angel if you have an account!

I'm also investigating the legality of creating a private investment portal for the company using the old BTC-TC code.  It would be pretty cool I think if investors could buy and sell their shares privately on a portal like that and Bitcoin was the currency of choice!

Cheers.

Been a while, sorry about the lack of updates!  I got scared into going stealth for a while by our patent lawyers.  Patent is filed now, so I can once again talk about it.

Progress has been steady.  Art / Illustrations for the first three locations is done.  Core game loop is done with the exception of minor bugs.  Devs are working now on additional locations, in-app purchases, inventory management, and some cool animations for when you level up or win, etc.

I did hire the guy from Sony to be our CMO, which was a big win.  He did all the Playstation (3 & 4) marketing in Canada for years.  He has lots of great connections and we're going to put him to work big time.

A few more animations and bugs worked out and we'll be inviting the public to register for a closed beta.  Haven't needed any funding to date, but I've been exploring options so that we can get a second game in the pipeline sooner rather than later.

As you can imagine, after my experience with the SEC I'm being extra careful with this.  When we do accept investment I'm pretty sure it'll have to be within the confines of a private raise via accredited investors.  The cool thing about bitcoin if we do it that way is a private investor could prove net worth to meet the accredited investor status by signing an address with bitcoins in it.

For anyone interested the investors deck is available here: http://yappingmoose.com/bunco_bonko_deck_201701.pdf  As I mentioned before, $300k secures us through the launch of Bunco Bonko, but I really would like to get a second game going ASAP.  Thus we're going to target a raise of around $1M for 20%-$25% equity in the company.  We'll have to cap the number of investors at 20 and have a minimum $50k investment. 

Things so far are pretty much on par with what we did with Bingo Blitz in 2010.  Bunco is not as big as Bingo worldwide, but we also would be the first and only game of this depth available for Bunco lovers, whereas there are about a hundred Bingo's out there.  Exciting times.

Cheers.

Hi Burnside,
If it's bitcoin or blockchain -related project. 8btc has a crowdfunding site that might be useful: www.bizhongchou.com

Nothing too exciting.  Devs are chugging away at it.  I have a commitment from a Sony Playstation marketing exec to come on board around the end of July.  Lawyers are working on drafting employment and options documents.  Hosting company is working on deploying hardware for the production environment.

I think that's about it. 

Cheers.

Any new info to share regarding this yet, burnside?

Interested

Thanks, I'll check it out!



I apologize, I've been intentionally vague in some regards.

It will be a free-to-play game, deployed to Facebook Game Center, iOS, & Android, in the social casino category, with a target audience of females 25-55.  I can tell you it is not Bingo, Poker, or Slots, which have all been done to death.

Cheers.

Reading your post, I still do not understand what kind of game do you want to do?

Another equity crowdfunding site that might be of interest: https://www.seedrs.com/

As am I.  Although I'm probably not going to be a big help regarding the investment part, let me know if there are any other opportunities.

Cheers

Sounds good, I'll make sure I let you know when the alpha is out.

This is an interesting prospect. Please keep me informed (I'll follow the thread, but PM may be best just to see that I read it) when you're closer to making your official offer and I'll take it from there. I'm definitely interested.

Thanks for the link!  I'm seeing only Bitcoin specific companies on there, but still good to know about.

I'm not a lawyer (nor a Canadian) so best to do some homework here. Take a look at https://bnktothefuture.com/ if you haven't already.

Hey there!  Been a while.  

I'm not necessarily set on it coming all from one source.  Part of me wants to divide it into 30,000 $10 units and put it up on Havelock.  I'd need to get it cleared with my lawyer though first.  I'm not sure what the rules are and what would be considered a security under Canadian law.  I'm pretty sure I can crowd fund and/or take out loans, but shares are a different matter.  Maybe convertible debt falls on the loan side?

FWIW, if I had $300K in disposable funds kicking around I'd seriously consider this. GL, Burnside - sounds like an promising proposal. I'm sure someone'll bite, especially for a convertible debt financing option.

Hi all, been a while since I've hung out here.

For those that weren't around here in 2012 - 2013, I'm the guy that founded/developed/maintained/etc BTC Trading Corp as an after-hours hobby.  Outside Bitcoin, over the last 20 years I have been the Network Engineer at National Cristina Foundation, CEO at Kattare Internet Services (a $10M hosting company), and VP at Playtika (aka Caesars Interactive Entertainment, recently valued at $4B) where I helped develop and launch Bingo Blitz, Bingo Blitz Lotteria, Bingo Blitz Slots, Faro Blitz, Penguinauts, Bingo Rush, Bingo Rush 2, & Caesars Total Rewards Social.  Bingo Blitz alone currently makes over six digits in revenue A DAY.

My foray into Bitcoins as a hobby was not taken well by the legal department at Playtika, and family matters in Canada at around the same time made it necessary for me to move from Los Angeles, California to Kelowna, British Columbia.

Here in Kelowna I have been developing the game design documentation, hiring developers, and overseeing ongoing development of my next project.  It's a free to play, social casino game.  We are developing simultaneously for Desktop (Facebook Canvas) and Mobile (iOS & Android).  My wife was a psychology major and I've been using her input, several studies on gaming, and my experience from Bingo Blitz to design the game to be compelling and fun.  I have potential distribution partners lined up, a high end marketing exec from Sony's Playstation arm on board, and a potential rewards program lined up, among many other things that are very positive.

So why am I here?

My plan with the game is to get it to a beta stage, then seek a loan or investment to fund the subsequent six months of development, launch, and marketing.

With my recent move to Kelowna, I am new to town, an unknown from the US, and I have no access to affordable credit.  My mortgage here has a horrible rate and has to be renewed annually. (ugh) I applied for permanent residence immediately after moving here, and it is currently being processed but until I have residence and a social insurance number I can't even start to build credit here.  For the lower corporate tax and potential technology grant reasons I founded the company in Canada, so my contacts in the US are not able to grant me a loan either. Several of the guys that I consider friends and that I might normally go to for investment are already competitors in the space, ruling that out.  I don't want to kickstart or do anything public simply because I don't want the game idea itself to leak. Right now there's nothing out there that does what we're doing and we need to establish a beach head before we attract clones.

My thoughts are that a USD denominated loan or investment using Bitcoin to get the cash into the company's Canadian bank account might be the right way to go.  I'm not asking for millions or anything crazy - I project we will need $300,000 to get through the end of the year.  It may be possible to write it up as a loan option to swap debt to equity in the new company.  Alternately maybe use convertible debt with a 20% conversion preference, where the debt converts to equity in the next round of funding, which is why I am posting here.

Does this sound like something anyone here would be interested in?  





** THIS IS NOT AN INVESTMENT OFFERING, I AM NOT ASKING FOR MONEY RIGHT NOW.  I AM TRYING TO ASSESS INTEREST & DEVELOP ANY POTENTIAL OFFER **