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Blogs
Indie Mobile Game Shoutout: How Cytus is Breaking the Music Game Mold
Nate Baker tells us this week about a new music game called ‘Cytus’. This game looks to take music games to a higher level than tapping along to the beat. Cytus has a backstory full of emotion and character development. The game makes use of a unique monetization strategy too.
“During each song, a player must flow with the rhythm to tap bubbles. So, says Graham, the 30-second break between levels (or songs) is a welcome reprieve. The game uses this time to monetize, presenting ads or IAP options.”
How to get a job at one of Remote Control Productions’ 14 studios
Ever wanted to work for Chimera Entertainment, producers of Angry Birds Epic? Matt Suckley spoke with Knut Gollert, creative producer at Remote Control Productions. Remote Control Productions have been working with Chimera Entertainment since the company was founded.
“We’re looking for open-minded people who are dedicated in their work and the things they produce. Everyone joining us should have the ability to take us a step further and make us and our games and services a bit better,” said Knut of prospective employees.
The spookiest postmortem: WayForward’s Til Morning’s Light
It seems like everyone this week is talking about Adam Tierney’s post-mortem. He took us behind the scenes of WayForward’s Till Morning Light. He details what was successful, such as great voice-over casting and having team-playthroughs.
He also cites what could have been better. First on his list was ‘Slow Discovery of Our Combat’. The article contains some fantastic insights and it’s no wonder everybody has been pouring over this postmortem.
Developers’ most important tool: self-care
Self-care is important. To game designer, Whitney Hills, it’s her key asset. She also recommends other developers try it too. She talked to James Brightman and gave her insight into her career as a game designer and had this to say about working for a large studio, “I recently worked a contract at a large studio that was an intense, prolonged crunch. And it wasn’t crunch for the sake of making the product better – which is crunch I can get behind — it was crunch borne of severe mismanagement, crunch to complete a minimum viable product. There was explicit expectation for everyone on the team to work long hours ‘for the sake of morale’.”
Discussion of social aspects of social game
This post by Fred Tang dissects everything we know about social games. Social games are still evolving and Fred thinks the way people interact in them is very important. He analyses how we add friends on games, how we message each other and even offers up some of his own idea’s of how social games should evolve.
The Two User Acquisition Tactics That Got Us Half a Million Players
If you need to acquire new users, then you should definitely check out this article. Gabriel Stürmer of Cupcake Sweet Entertainment offers up the two tactics that were successful for him. Gabriel breaks down the importance of targeting the cheapest users you can get and also the most expensive ones. He also gives his insight into the use of organic growth to acquire new users.
News
‘Hearthstone’ Rakes in $20 Million a Month, More Players on Mobile Than PC
Blizzard is on to a real winner with ‘Hearthstone’! A research firm claims that ‘Hearthstone’ is earning $20 million a month. There is a large part of that coming from mobile players. On iOS and Android, there are 9 million players, just edging PC gamers which number at 8 million. ‘Hearthstone’ is now making more per month than any other mobile card game and is even pulling in more money than Dota 2.
Google launches Android Experiments, a gallery for developers to showcase their unique open-source projects
If you’ve made creative use of Android devices, Google wants to show it off! They’re looking to showcase open source projects to help more people learn about Android. At the moment, they’re including 20 projects in the gallery. This ranges from wearable device and camera experiments to Open-GL demos.
A google spokesperson said, “We are looking for experiments that push the boundaries of what’s possible on Android — and we’re looking forward to seeing what developers come up with.”
Vainglory creator Super Evil Megacorp raises $26M for hardcore mobile gaming
Super Evil Megacorp has raised $26 million in funding. The funding drive is in support of Super Evil Megacorp’s plan to bring esports to mobile device. The creator of hit touchscreen multiplayer online battle arena game, Vainglory, Super Evil has also formed two new major partnerships with China’s Giant Interactive and Korea’s OnGamesNet (OGN).
This Week in Mobile Development!
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