Business refactoring: Moving 10 years of Habbo onto Facebook
1,530 views · Published 6 February 2011 · 54:08 · Indexed 4 October 2026
Channel: markeedragon · 2011 · Education
http://www.loginconference.com - LOGIN Conference lecture by Osma Ahvenlampi, Sulake Back in 2008, I described how Sulake shifted to agile development mode with Habbo and turbo-charged productivity. Today, I'd like to explain the background behind rewriting our entire platform during 2009, changing core technology, adding and removing features all across the board, and reinventing Habbo Hotel (again), starting off another growth phase for the business. In this session, you will hear technical mumbo-jumbo about how Habbo Hotel, a web-based game and virtual world was transformed from Shockwave/Lingo to Flash/ActionScript while retaining compatibility to both directions, and how that was managed as an engineering practice. Not more than what everyone needs to know about big transitions, though - so you don't have to be a CTO to follow along. You will also learn about measuring player behavior and customer satisfaction, and will be introduced to three simple metrics by which to tell whether a game is doing well or not, and how to forecast the viability of a free-to-play, micro-transaction based product from the pioneers of the industry (ten years and counting). Most importantly, you'll be given a viewpoint into why it sometimes makes much more sense to take what's already working and change it radically, rather than leave it alone and do something new on the side. As you'll probably know, this is not a popular point of view in our industry, but one well deserving consideration, anyway. And for the rest of the session, I'll cram it chock full of interesting findings on player-to-player market economics and how they're more important to social games' business in the long run than how much can you sell the latest pink palm trees and green flamingos themed Spring Break virtual items extravaganza. Intended Audience: producers and development directors Prerequisites: having tried to build a game and sell it direct-to-consumer will help you follow key arguments Format: Lecture Track: Monetization
