Ask A Care Bear Anything…
Who: Benjamin Vu, animator, writer, director, co-founder of SkyVu Pictures
What: On developing Battle Bears, a mobile game franchise
Benjamin Vu, 34, talks about the cast of his hit mobile game, Battle Bears, like they’re good friends from years ago. A product of Vu’s storytelling ability, the Battle Bears game was initially a proof-of-concept for a feature film and, unexpectedly, became a sensation last September, rising to #3 on Apple’s top download charts. Unlike other “lightning in a bottle” stories like his, Vu has capitalized on his success and has expanded his production company’s reach.
A Creighton Prep graduate, Vu earned his Master’s degree in Experimental Animation from CalArts, after studying film and TV at Ball State University. His Hollywood credits include work on 2009’s Coraline as well as a number of independent shorts. SkyVu, based in Omaha, currently has sister studios in Singapore and Vietnam (under the direction of brother, Hoa Vu).
Battle Bears as an application has not only been critically received; it recently celebrated its two-millionth download from the Apple Apps Store. Development on an Android version is underway, as well as a partnership with Devil’s Due Publishing on a web comic, portions of which will be debuted next week at ComicCon 2010 in San Diego, Calif.
Vu sat with Shout! at his Omaha studio to discuss the success of the game, the future of animation and mobile gaming, and what truly makes storytelling an immersive experience.
Shout!: What is SkyVu’s focus and what has led to your current success?
Bejamin Vu: We have to keep things simple in order for us to get our games out in our two- to three-month time table. As you know, we focus on making mobile games; we see it as a great space that kind of stumbled upon us by accident. Battle Bears initially started as a movie concept, and SkyVu initially started off as an animation studio for commercials and film, with film being the end goal. A lot of studios start this way.
How did SkyVu and, subsequently, Battle Bears get launched?
We were lucky enough to bring on Nebraska Angels investment group early on. I didn’t think that I’d be able to find investors in Nebraska; I was on my way to the west coast to look for funding. [I was] introduced to two key people, Jim and Karen Linder. Karen is an artist herself, so I think that’s where she understood what our goals were. She also agreed with me that there is a lot of creative talent here in Omaha that needs an avenue to reach the world. In our case, I find mobile technologies – mobile games and apps – as a great opportunity because it has a low barrier of entry. Granted, there’s over hundreds of thousands of competitors, but the driving force here is that we try to keep things simple, fun, and catchy. If we hit all those points, we think we have a good wining formula. It’s working out so far, but, as with anything in the entertainment business, it’s a bit risky.
Who do you draw inspiration from?
When I have the time, I do some reading on other people who have been successful in the tech industry, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc. When you look at how young they were, how long it took them to get their companies to this point. Or even going back further: I have a picture of Oswald [one of Disney’s first characters] on our wall to remind me that, one, Walt Disney started in the Midwest, and two, it took years, almost up to his death, to get his company to the point where it is today. He was swimming in mountains of debt, while still trying to get things like the Disney Network and Disneyland going. Sometimes, I feel like we’re in a similar situation, always trying to get our brands out into as many areas as possible, so that there might be a spark: something that launches it. I think we’re heading in the right direction when it comes to mobile games.
As an artist, what inspired your decision to take on the global market, rather than the traditional “local-to-larger market” approach?
My parents always told me to aim big and shoot for the stars. I’m sure it sounds cliché, but really, why not? You can start at the top, and if you don’t do well there, aim for a smaller market, and smaller, and smaller. Now, you can do the opposite, too, and start locally and use that as a testing bed to see if something is going to be successful. Apple, with the timing of the iPod Touch, the iPhone, and the App Store, allowed us to be able to make games at a price point that we could pay for. That allowed us an avenue, an express track, in order to reach people. It could have failed, it could have been dead on arrival, and that would have told us to go back to the drawing board and maybe start smaller. Luckily, we launched last year over Labor Day weekend, and it skyrocketed up to number three in the App Store. Why, I’m not really sure. The stars might have been aligned, or maybe the concept – a teddy bear, stuck on a planet, trying not to get hugged to death – was catchy enough.
And a move to Android is in the works?
We’re in the process of developing for Android, and we’re excited about moving into that market. We feel like Android devices are at a lower price point so that more people can adopt that technology – that being smart phones as well as tablet computing.
Software companies have debated the merits of a “free model” – giving away a trial version – over a traditional “pay to play” system. What are your thoughts?
I believe that the free model – giving content away for free – isn’t just the future; it’s now. If you don’t give something to potential fans that they can have easy access to and experience your characters right away, then you’re at a disadvantage. You’re working with a much smaller pool of people. In America, how many kids do we know that have credit cards? None. They might have iTunes cards, but they still have to get permission most of the time. By releasing something for free, we’ve opened the gates to a whole new population of people that are going to, one day, have funds and credit cards. The trick is how to convert that number of free downloads into paid customers.
But as a smaller company, as far as developers go, how do you watch your bottom line?
Our strategy isn’t too different from some other companies: you offer something for free, and within that free package is a chance to upgrade. You want to hit a large number of people and hope that a significant portion buys in. The key, though, is to make that initial experience compelling, something that sticks with them, something that will be shared with their friends or family. That’s the hardest part: the first 10 seconds. From the icon to the download to the first splash screen to the first button you touch: if it doesn’t excite you, in my opinion, I feel like we’ve failed.
What was your first memorable experience with animation?
I think it was before kindergarten. I had one of those Disney viewfinders: a plastic camera that you’d cycle through. It had something like “Goofy’s Haunted House” in it, and I remember winding it forwards and backwards for hours on end. I actually took the toy apart so that I could cut out each cell frame and analyze how it worked. Little did I know, you needed a lot of light coming through in order to see it work. All that came out was this thin, black strip of film.