Gamefam Studios is in the middle of an intense growth phase that it attributes to recent game releases and acquisitions. The downtown Los Angeles-based developer of video games recently reached nearly 27 billion game plays across its portfolio since its 2019 founding and reported a 275% increase in revenue from 2021 through last year.

Gamefam’s content is spread across Minecraft, Roblox and Fortnite, but its biggest focus is Roblox, a gaming platform on which users can program their own games as well as play a collection of more than 50 million user-created games. 

According to Gamefam’s chief executive, Joe Ferencz, Gamefam is a pioneer in its field as the first professionalized gaming company to build on Roblox. Its focus is on developing metaverse games for a collection of major intellectual property partners and brands including Hasbro Inc., the National Football League, Paramount Pictures Corp., Netflix and El Segundo-based Mattel Inc, as well as original titles.

“What Gamefam does that’s really special is we work with independent developers to invest in, acquire and grow their IP,” Ferencz said. “We build world-class games for world-class brands, and we sell advertising to global brands looking to engage with this consumer segment. There is no other company in the world that has that wealth of expertise and capabilities under its roof.”

The company said it operates the largest network of games on Roblox, including franchise-based titles such as “Sonic Speed Simulator,” “Barbie Dreamhouse Tycoon,” “Cirque du Soleil Tycoon” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tycoon.” Two of its most highly played titles, “Twilight Daycare” and “Easy Obby,” were gained through acquisitions. 

Gamefam has also increased its titles and content through its Creators Program. That program offers a financial incentive to employees who develop new games and then connects those developers with teams to help bring their games to market. Some of Gamefam’s most popular titles have come out of the program, including “Gym Tycoon” and “Slashing Simulator.”

Mobile first 

Gamefam monetizes its games, which are free to players, through in-app purchases for assets and items on Roblox. Fortnite games are monetized based on the number of players using a game and the length of time they spend playing that game. 

Ferencz said that Roblox is a mobile-first platform, with about 80% of gameplay taking place on mobile devices. To ensure games are optimal on all platforms, Gamefam asks its developers to test games for desktop and for mobile play.

Ferencz said that the company sees Culver City-based Scopely Inc. as a model for how it wants to build its mobile offerings. Scopely’s games are free-to-play and are also based on IP, including titles from “The Walking Dead” franchise and Hasbro’s “Yahtzee” games.

“I don’t think the platform where players are is the important thing for us,” Ferencz said. “What’s important in terms of looking up to (Scopely) and aspiring to follow in its footsteps is the focus on best-in-class production values, the focus on using data to guide our business decision-making and the focus on building proprietary technology that underlies our game portfolio and allows us to better manage our player experiences.”

Gamefam now has 210 employees, more than double from 100 employees in the early part of last year. Its team manages all aspects of its content creation and management and includes game designers and producers, copywriters, animators, programmers, marketing experts and an IP management team. 

“We work with creators to help them run and grow their games, we develop world-class games for (our) IP partners, and we work with global brand advertisers to help them reach and engage audiences on these platforms,” Ferencz said. “We help implement analytics and analyze how players are playing games and we help increase the revenue per player in games through both in-game transactions and advertising.”

Intellectual property

Creating new media based on intellectual property gives a developer access to a preexisting audience base, according to Michael Borys, a professor at the ArtCenter College of Design and the senior vice president of interaction and game design at Pasadena-based Animal Repair Shop LLC. Borys recently helped release an augmented reality-supported gaming project called “Panic in Gotham City” and said using IP, like that featured in the popular Batman franchise, means the product is guaranteed to have “sales and eyeballs.” 

“If you create your own properties … I think it’s harder to get the penetration to begin with; someone is less likely to dig super deep before they know the thing,” Borys said. “So, of course, IPs are really important. But the flip side is that you must deal with the companies who own the IP in the first place. It is both difficult and probably the thing to do if you can, but not everybody can do it.”

Across platforms

The gaming metaverse is perhaps the most prominent arena that Gamefam wants to grow in. To Ferencz, the industry definition of being a “metaverse game developer” has become convoluted. Gamefam defines the gaming metaverse as a place where the gamer has an identity that can be moved across multiple experiences. 

Interconnectedness is key and, for Gamefam, means creating paths between platforms so that users can take their gaming identities, assets, items and achievements wherever they play. With new programs like Fortnite’s “Unreal Editor,” game creators can develop, design and publish their games across multiple platforms and make content available to a wider audience.

“What Gamefam is thinking is, ‘How do we take our IPs that we’ve developed on these platforms, and help them live in other platforms and other media?’” Ferencz said. 

This would help it adapt games to be playable across multiple platforms, rather than being on Roblox or Fortnite alone. Gamefam could then expand its player audience and further incentivize in-app purchases by allowing a player to take, for example, an in-game graphic or item bought in Gamefam’s “Sonic Speed Simulator” and bring it into its new “Barbie Dreamhouse Tycoon” title. 

“We’re working with our IP partners, we’re working with Epic Games and we’re trying to understand how assets we already know and expertise we already have can come across from Roblox to Fortnite … to help us reach players with the type of delightful content that we make,” Ferencz said.

Borys said that this platform interoperability could have tremendous value, as it may give more meaning to in-game objects and let players get credit in one game for accomplishments achieved in another game. However, he said that this interoperability or transferable gaming identity isn’t the only definition of the gaming metaverse, and that the possibilities to make gaming more immersive are huge and continuously expanding.

“The metaverse really means different things to different companies, and that’s not a bad thing at all,” Borys said. “We’re supposed to be pushing the envelope with everything, and why can’t the definition also be pushed and changed?”