And So the Journey Began

We waited for two weeks and a reply from Wooga popped into our inboxes: we were chosen for the Wooga Game Jam! Awesome! We were so thrilled! The weeks rolled by and March came, so it was time to pack our bags and fly (Wooga was kind enough to pay for our flights, a huge bonus for students) over to Berlin. Our journey took us from Kajaani to Helsinki and then from Helsinki to Berlin. We arrived a day before the game jam, so we had a good night’s rest and were ready and extremely excited for the event the next day.

Player 5 Has Joined the Game

As I mentioned before, I would be taking the role of team leader, but on top of this I would also be working as the designer. My classmates Petri Liuska and Olli-Matti Saarenpää were the programmers and Elsa Saastamoinen was one of the graphic artists. That’s right, one of them. A funny opportunity arose before the event: Minna Eloranta, my friend from Tampere University of Applied Sciences, contacted me and let me know that she too would be taking part in the game jam. I immediately thought of the team and how she would fit into it. I knew that she was a crazy, wacky and passionate person like the rest of us so I made a judgement call: She would fit in. I told her rather bluntly that she would join our team, and she didn’t resist. This turned out to be a very good decision later on. The game jam was about to start and we were extremely eager.

Team photo of us as monsters!

Arrival

A Wooga notebook, pen and t-shirt that we got!

We arrived at Wooga’s office, and I was very anxious to get to work and find out what the theme of the game jam was. I could feel the team was thinking the same as we discussed how we would start working and wondered on what the theme would be. The office was absolutely awesome: A small kitchen with coffee, tea, fresh fruit, cereal and a tad bit of beer for those Friday evenings. The office was also very spacious and a pleasure to the senses with bright colors. A lot of time and effort had clearly been put into the office as a working environment. Oh, there was also an arcade machine! At some point, we made our way to the auditorium, where the CEO and co-founder Jens Begemann welcomed us. After that, a few talks on prototyping and recruitment at Wooga came the thing we were all waiting for: the theme.

Physics Based Ancient Anti-Gravity Ants

As the title of this chapter suggests, the theme of the game jam was physics. In addition to this, there were three optional themes: ancient, ants and anti-gravity. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with the theme; it felt quite dull and uninspiring. I would’ve preferred a theme similar to the last two Global Game Jams, based on a picture or sound. These, I feel, give more room for interpretation, give the jammers more creative freedom and produce more interesting games.

As the theme had been announced, it was time for all the jammers to form teams. While we had our team already set up, the other 20 or so jammers started teaming up. We practically ran out of the auditorium to secure the best possible spot for us to work in. We chose a little area in the office known as the Fish Bowl. This was where the magic would happen during the weekend.

Round 1: Fight!

I was super excited and bursting with energy, and so was the rest of the team. We were ready to create something fantastic! But before we went brainstorming, I suggested we create a timetable for ourselves so that we would pace ourselves well and the team agreed. One of the most important points of the timetable was that we would sleep seven hours each night. This proved to be an extremely smart decision and was key to our success later on.

The team brain storming in the Fish Bowl

We had already predetermined our platform to be Windows Phone 7, since me and my classmates had the most experience with it and we could work fast with it. This was new to Minna, but she quickly got the hang of it. Next, we moved on to brainstorming. We stared off by thinking of a theme for our game: helplessness. Our initial concept for the game was a big room with different types of gravitational fields and you would have to guide the protagonist through these different areas. We played with this idea for a while but moved on because it just wasn’t an interesting concept for us. We moved on to our next concept, which was a game where you had to guide a character that was walking automatically by creating gravity points to push or pull him/her. The idea was that you would be guiding this robot to the end of the level whilst avoiding dangers. We saw potential in this and decided to take it further.

The First Prototype

The game started off with an isometric perspective but we quickly changed it to a 2D perspective and, instead of the character walking, he or she would be falling instead. We decided to keep the creation of gravity points as the way to manipulate the protagonist’s movement. We playtested the prototype ourselves and made changes to it accordingly, then at midnight, we went around to the other teams and mentors and asked them to give it a try. We did some final tweaks and then started heading to bed. By the way, sleeping at the office was more comfortable than you’d think! They had these really nice green sofas, which were great for a good night’s rest. Then, as I was drifting to sleep, I had this feeling that something was wrong, that something just wasn’t right. The next morning we woke up to discover something horrible.

Oh No…

Our game sucked. It absolutely sucked. I woke up with this feeling, came back to the Fish Bowl to start work with the team and everyone felt the same. There was nothing enjoyable about our game: the controls were sluggish and uncomfortable, dodging hazards was hard and gave no sense of achievement and we didn’t really have an interesting theme. We were all quite down; I had the sinking feeling that we weren’t going to be able to do this. That our game would just suck. But we didn’t let ourselves get stuck here, we started making changes to see how we could make it enjoyable.

We changed the game so that you went up instead of falling down and changed the controls somewhat. The controls got better, but they were still bad. Then lunch came around and we took a small break from work. We were eating and talking about the game and then it happened, like lightning, out of the blue.

Viva La Revolucion!

Our protagonist luchador with the other luchador

Minna suggested Vikings for our theme, which got me really excited. I came up with an idea where the Viking would first go up whilst avoiding hazards and then come back down destroying a small village with his battleaxe. We talked about this for a while and then Petri said that which would define our game: “What if it was wrestling?” I immediately jumped on this and suggested we go with a Luchador theme. The team was onboard in a heartbeat. We finished lunch and rushed back to the Fish Bowl with revitalized enthusiasm and spirits. It was like a lightning bolt of pure inspiration had just hit us and we were now back on track. The luchador would first go up and then come down and bodyslam the other luchador with great force. Yes. No doubt about it.
We then also started to discuss the controls once again and I suggested that we make it so that when you tap the screen it causes an explosion, which propels the protagonist upwards and you have to keep doing it to not lose momentum. This was a fantastic change to our game! The controls suited the game, although we noticed after testing that the momentum thing did not; so we ditched it. It was at this time I contacted our music/sound guys again. I had asked them the previous day if they could do something and they said yes, but now I could give them something solid to work with. Now the train was heading full steam ahead.

Ore Wa Jakku Bauwwa

The team toiled away; making the new vision a reality, and boy, did it become greater as each hour passed. Although we were working hard, we were also having a tremendous amount of fun. Our mentor said that all the other teams were really serious and quiet in their work areas but we were just constantly communicating and having a blast! It seemed weird that the others were so serious.

We were making great progress and were constantly playtesting the game with ourselves and with the other teams. This great progress could also be seen in our moods; we were ecstatic and I had never had that much fun at a game jam. It was simply amazing.

By the end of the day, the game was in a great state, we even thought we’d have time to polish it the next day! Can you believe it, polishing a game jam game? With this triumphant feeling, we went to bed.

Polish That!

On Sunday when we continued working, we had about four hours before the deadline at noon. We saw that there was no need to add anything to the game, so we spent this time polishing what we had and preparing for the presentation of our game. We also didn’t have a name for our game yet, so we started brainstorming. We wanted the name to capture the luchador essence of our game and so after some time, we came to a conclusion: it would have to be Late Night Luchador. The last hours flew by quickly and before we knew it, it was time to present our game.

Minna working on the main menu while Petri seems to be in pain

The Stage is Yours

We followed the rest of the jammers to the auditorium where we would present our game. The order of the team presentations was random, and wouldn’t you know it, we were last. I was sitting on the edge, excited to present our stuff, and it kept building up as our turn drew closer. Finally, it was our turn and we rushed to the stage to show our stuff. I talked about our game and the struggles that we had with it, and after that, we showed off our game. I could see the audience’s interest rise immediately as our menu screen popped up and our brilliant theme song started playing. The luchador went up and the audience was on edge as he was plummeting down to body slam the other luchador, and once he crashed into the other luchador, the audience erupted in laughter and applause. This was an absolutely awesome feeling, to see people really enjoy our game from just watching it being played.

While we were presenting our game, we had given the judges our game to play on some extra Windows Phones, which we had borrowed from our school for the trip. The judges then proceeded to announce the top three games. I was extremely excited and nervous whilst waiting to hear our team name. After the third and second place had been announced, I thought we would be the winners, or that our game had diverted too much from the theme and the judges just didn’t like it.

Victory!

“The winners: Late Night Luchador by Team Fuerte!”

We won!

The team with our fantastic trophies in the Fish Bowl!

Incredible! We came through. We made it through the game jam and produced a good solid game. For our victory, we got these small statues of characters from Wooga’s games. It was a really good feeling to make something so good in such a short time. We were extremely proud of ourselves, still are, for our achievement that weekend.

Conclusion

It really amazes me that we pulled of what we did in such a short time. I’m astounded how well the team worked together considering that this line up had never been tried out before and that Minna hadn’t met anyone else from the team before except me. I was especially surprised how well Minna and Elsa worked together and how congruent and unified their art style was. Petri and Olli-Matti worked tremendously well together as well. I also think that one of our greatest achievements was not letting our ideas get bogged down by the theme. By breaking away from that mold, we reached new heights.

I have also never had such fun during a game jam before. It was quite an emotional experience for me and there were very many laughs and smiles during the game jam. All of this positive energy is clearly visible in Late Night Luchador. Speaking of the game, I’m so proud that the game ended up being so great. Everything worked out so well: the gameplay, the art, the music and the controls. The game is whole, and it could easily be expanded upon which I’m extremely glad about. I wish I could relive the game jam and I want to thank the amazing team for an even more amazing time. It just goes to show that with a great team and the right attitude, one can achieve great things even within a short time span.

Julius and his team released the game hot from the game jam and you can get it here for free!

When we hear the word TaTaO, we go back to where it all started about half a year ago. Dodick Sudirman called me after a lecture to inform me of a hackathon (24-hours application development competition) by TechInAsia in Bandung and suggest that I, as the representative from UMN GDC, join the competition.

I managed to form a four-man team consisting of me (programmer), Michael Setiawan (Programmer), Ericko Yaputro (designer) and Thomas Simpson (artist). Ericko and Michael already had jobs alongside classes they took, and it added to this team’s craziness. Luckily, they are great and experienced team members.

Finding the Ideas

The next challenge was figuring out what we were going to make in the hackathon. We had many aspects to consider because of the limited time and certain constraints given in developing. Each of us thought of an idea that could possibly win, such as a social RPG-based Indonesian game and a military social game. Suddenly, Dodick came up with ‘Tarik Tambang,’ or ‘Tug of War’ in English.

We were not aware of any Tug of War video games, which presented an entirely new challenge for us.

That idea was really unique, yet not reassuring for us to build. Thomas said that he hadn’t seen any Tug of War video games out there, which meant it was quite a new challenge for us. However, Ericko took a brave step and designed the core of the game, adding more reasons for us to develop this unique idea. A week before the competition, we came to the decision to develop this idea and name it TaTaO, an acronym for Tarik Tambang Online (Tug of War Online).

When we came up with this acronym, Michael wanted to add an RPG feel to this game and so many ideas sparked in our heads. The result of the idea discussion was two pieces of doodled, inhuman, and unreadable documentation of which we regretted a bit at the competition.

The Nightmare Begins

We arrived in Bandung on October 13, 2012 at 10:00 A.M., just two hours before the competition began. We set up the development environment and other things, and this is where the nightmare starts.

Michael and I divided our work into two parts: I started from the front part and Michael dealt with the back ends. Thomas held responsibility for the asset because he’s the only artist we had and Ericko was in charge of layout. We started well, and we were confident that we could finish it on time.

The hardest part came when we were implementing the battle system. Ericko designed a nice, but messy battle calculation algorithm which was used in the game, and our programmer Michael was really tired (since it was 1 A.M.). He tried to push on, but Michael couldn’t continue. He crashed, giving me the extra burden of implementing the rest. Thomas himself was no exception to the exhaustion overcoming the team. However, thanks to Thomas’ skills, he managed to complete our asset.

The battle did not end in the morning. At 8 A.M. the next day, we were only 25 percent away from completion. I had not slept, and the rest of the team was tired to the point that we couldn’t move our hands. This is where Michael saved the day. He managed to wake up and implement the last 25 percent of the prototype. We even had time to polish and refactor our game.

We tried to present our game at its best when we were called to the stage (I as the presenter and Ericko as the operator). After our long night, TaTaO finally became one of the winners in the KotaGames challenge.

The Aftermath

A few weeks after the competition, Michael received a message from KotaGames telling us that they were interested in publishing our game, so we were once again gathered as a team. We didn’t know that this time, it would be harder than the competition.

College duties, jobs, and other assignments was cutting most of our development time. Since we had not supported the API from KotaGames, we had to build and redesign the game. The toughest time came near the scheduled release, which Michael and I stayed from 12 A.M. until noon to complete all the features, neglecting most of our other duties. It was also mid-term testing at that time. At this point, we realized that time and project management is very important for building games. Luckily, we found a way of coding which hastened our development time using the tools’ feature. It really saves us from tight deadlines and we could automatically share the result with our team members. Knowledge of tools, including its features, is also important for developers to have.

A week after publishing, Thomas checked the feedback from users, especially Indonesian users. The results varied from good to bad. Some said it was cool and unique, and others said that some features were lacking. This was true as even after the published date, we still had not implemented events, which is essential for most social games. Once again, jobs and assignments kicked in and we were racing against time. It was a week before Valentine’s and we had only one-fourth of the event built. Finally, we managed to implement the event on the right date.

Some Tips for Developers

TaTaO taught us many things and sharing it is our purpose. Here are some lessons we learned:

1. A properly planned schedule and time management may save you from delayed launches and overnight works. In rare occurrences, even a 24-hour hackathon can be considered effective for development.
2. Pre-production is important. Do not follow our two pieces of doodled documentation paper, but instead a well-documented paper which can be read and understood by the team, and any calculations made must be clear and true. These papers act as your base requirement and can save you from conflicts.
3. Good communication with your teammates is essential. In a week, every team member must gather at least three times to discuss what has been developed and what is going to be developed.
4. Listen to face-paced songs you like when developing. It really helped me code faster.

TaTaO is available at http://m.kotagames.com which accessed best from mobile phone browsers. UMN GDC is currently developing two more titles for KotaGames and is still experimenting with more desktop and mobile games.

One of the critical factors in successful games is that users spend a big chunk of their time inside the store. In this post, we will present a few strategies for getting users to the store and keeping them there.

The key elements of having users spend time in the store are:
-The store needs to be in the regular user flow
-Having day to day items
-The shopping experience needs to be interesting
-Having limits on continuous game play

By combining a few of these elements, you can improve the amount of time a user spends in the store and increase the revenue. Let’s drill down into each one of them:

Shopifying The User Flow

There are a few ways to make the users flow into the store more naturally as part of the game regular sequence. In any game that has levels, it’s possible to design a flow that brings the user to the store at the beginning or the end of every level. Another type of game that allows adding a store to the user flow easily enough is the ‘survival mode’ games, also known as the ‘endless runners’. In those games, you can introduce a store every time the user ends a running session. These types cover a large portion of the games out there, but even if your game doesn’t fit into these categories, you can tie the store appearance to any event that happens regularly enough, such as achievements.

Another tool that helps get users to the store more frequently is using the store to select an active virtual good among a few purchased goods. This is also known as equipping, where a user can equip her character with only one virtual good. Making the store the interface for equipping adds another scenario where the user enters the store.

Daily ‘No Brainer’ Goods

The trick here is to design a simple consumption loop that repeats itself in short intervals of 1-3 levels or sessions. Ok, but what does this mean? Here is an example of such a loop: the user enters a level. In the level, she collects just enough coins to buy a single use virtual good that is a ‘no brainer.’ She enters the level again with the good and now she collects enough coins to buy the same good again but also save a few coins. You can clearly see how this loop will get the user to spend her coins in the store on a daily basis and get used to shopping in your game.

Let’s dig in a bit further about what makes a virtual good a ‘no brainer’ item:
-It completes the game story (horse for a cowboy, surfboard for subway surfer, etc.)
-The user can collect enough coins to reach the item’s cost in a few minutes of game play
-The item enhances the gameplay experience
-It’s easier to collect coins with the item

Making Interesting Stores

Another key in getting the user to spend time in your In-App Purchase store is making them interesting. There are three parts to that: variety, mystery and freshness. The best example for variety is probably CSR Racing, which has a catalog of over 2 million items to buy. Mystery can be achieved by using silhouettes until an item is available for purchase. This way, the user knows that there are more interesting items down the line, but she has to check back to discover what they are. Another way to have a mysterious element in your store is by adding a surprise box. Finally, keeping your store fresh is a combination of unlocking items, adding new items and featuring seasonal or limited items.

Limiting Continuous Gameplay

This last trick is a bit more dangerous, as it can be perceived as unfair by users, so you have to apply it with caution and measure users’ reaction to different variations of it. The idea is to have resources in the game that are consumed quickly in regular gameplay and can only be replenished as time goes by or with a real money purchase. This can be fuel, energy points or actual time in resource management or strategy games. The user then has a choice to quit the game and do something else while her resource are replenished or she can stay in the game and glare at the screen. If you have implemented the rest of the advice, the store should be a fun and interesting experience, and the user is likely to go on a shopping spree to kill some time.

As mentioned before, implementing the last tip can be conceived negatively by the user, so make sure that this is balanced correctly. I will discuss a few ways to do that in future blog posts.

Our series about the most common smartphones and their OS versions in each country generated numerous requests for specific data (yes, we’ll get to Europe soon!). One of the most frequent requests was to issue something on the tablet market. In this post, we’ll break down the most popular tablets worldwide. You can check out our other posts describing individual Android smartphone markets: Hong Kong & India | Singapore | USA | Japan.

One in four Americans now owns a tablet device, according to Pew Research, and analyst firm IDC reports that the worldwide tablet market grew more than 78% year-on-year in 2012. IDC predicts that 190 million tablets will be shipped in 2013, with a forecast 48.7% growth over last year.

All data obtained from individual users of Animoca games worldwide who used Google Play and who played an Animoca game on a tablet device between February 18 and March 20, 2013.

So with tablet sales not slowing down any time soon, let’s see which Android tablets are currently the most popular on the Animoca network of Android users.

All data obtained from individual users of Animoca games worldwide who used Google Play and who played an Animoca game on a tablet device between February 18 and March 20, 2013.

Top Android tablets worldwide (Animoca network, Feb 18 – Mar 20, 2013)

Error margin: +- 0.1%

Sample size: 978,000

Assumption: there are 75 million Android tablets in circulation worldwide

Immediately you’ll note that 4 of the top 5 tablets, and 6 out of the top 10, are of the smaller variety, featuring 7-inch screens. This should come as no surprise, given that one in every two tablets shipped last quarter had a screen size of less than 8 inches.

Once again, we note the prominence of Samsung devices; apparently, the Korea-based company dominates tablets as well as smartphones. Next up, the Amazon Kindle and Kindle HD account for more than 12% of the tablets on our network – quite remarkable for devices that are still not globally available. The popular and zippy Google Nexus 7 came in 6ᵗʰ place, suggesting that Google will be a significant player in the hardware wars.

Once we account for Samsung, Amazon, and Google, the rest of the field is wide open. After the top 7 tablets, the devices claiming under 1% of the Animoca Android network became too numerous to list here. In fact, given an error margin of 0.1% and the slight differences between tablets in 8th place and onwards, we cannot be entirely sure of the correct ordering.

What we can be confident of is that tablet sales won’t slow down any time soon, and that developers should be creating mobile apps built to suit their users. Knowing which tablet or tablets you are developing for is useful knowledge – not only screen size, but also other hardware specifications.

When we looked at Japan, we saw what seemed to be a preference for one-handed gaming on smartphones being used in portrait mode; perhaps the popularity of 7-inch tablets has something to do with a similar global trend. Of course, it could just be that the 7-inch tablets strike an ideal balance of price, portability, and form factor.

Join us next time for more Animoca data, and be sure to follow us on Twitter for additional insights!

Since Apple launched its In App Purchase functionality, it has been supporting two types of virtual goods: Consumables and Non-Consumables. With consumable items, the developer expects the user to consume the goods over time and possibly replenish the supply. Tokens, Coins and points are usually consumable goods. On the other hand, Non-Consumables are expected to last forever and can be used to implement extra levels, remove ads feature or upgrade to a premium version of the game.

One might note that this definition only applies to virtual goods that are sold as a cash transaction through the Apple In App Purchasing functionality. The Consumable items allow more flexibility to developers who can use them to design many types of virtual goods with different consumption models, including ones that last forever. The Google Play terminology of Managed Items (equivalent to Apple’s Non-Consumables) and Unmanaged Items (equivalent to Consumables)  is more respective of the fact that developers can manage the consumption of their virtual goods based on different models.

Using In-App Purchase in mobile games requires more types of virtual goods then what is provided by the App Store, and many game designers find that there are at least four additional types: Single Use, Lifetime Use, Equippable Items and Item Upgrades.

Here is a short description of the different types:

Virtual items that the player can only use once before he has to purchase more are often called Single Use goods. These goods can normally be accumulated so the user has a balance of them. This type of goods is very similar to the original meaning of Consumable items but since Consumable now has a wider definition, we need to redefine these goods as Single Use. Another difference is that a developer can limit the accumulation of Single Use items. For example, you can only carry eight bullets in a cartridge. Good examples of Single Use items are shots, fuel and fish food.

These are virtual goods that are available for the player for as long as he plays the game. They are somewhat similar to Non-Consumable products with one big difference – they are not purchased directly as an In-App Purchase but with virtual coins. From this reason, the developer can’t rely on Apple’s Non-Consumable type and has to design it’s own way of preserving the goods for the user. Race tracks, Game Upgrades, and Buildings are good examples of Lifetime Use Goods.

Equippable items are a sub category of Lifetime Use items. The main difference here is that the user has to choose a virtual good before he enters the game play mode. Cars and Characters are usually implemented as equippable items.

Unlike upgrades to the game itself that are normally defined as Non-Consumables (Remove ads) or Lifetime Use (Double Coins), these items upgrade some attribute of another virtual good. There is usually a strong bind between the original virtual good and its upgrades so that an upgrade is only applicable to a specific virtual good. In some games, a Tire can be an upgrade for a Car while in others, Coin Magnet Level 2 will be an upgrade for the basic Coin Magnet. Item Upgrades are normally implemented as Lifetime products.

Dragon Game Studio’s new game Balified is in the Indie Prize Showcase at Casual Connect Asia.

Jonas is a self-made businessman and Joan has a background in Marketing Communication. Working together as a couple was a completely new challenge for both of them. They are married, a team, partners and they work together. Not a lot of couples can do this, but here they are, at the beginning of their careers in the game development industry.

Before this big adventure, neither of them has been involved in the game development industry. Jonas has always been a typical hardcore gamer, but that’s where his experience stops. Joan started her interest in playing games when Jonas made her play Tetris against him on the Nintendo DS. Before that, she occasionally played games on the PC, but nothing much besides that. This made the adventure all the more exciting.

Setting Up a Game Studio in Indonesia

The first challenge was to find an office. It was necessary that they would get all the help that they could. They found a company with specialized services helping expats starting up their business in Indonesia. What was supposed to take only three months ended up taking one year! The hunt for the office was a tough one, but in the end, they managed to find one that seemed just perfect for the small studio they had in mind.

While looking for a studio, they were also busy finding the right people to build their Dragon Dream Team. Funny enough, the first employee they hired was someone they bought a dog from! He was a freshly graduated student and was looking for a job. By that time, there was not much to do, but they offered him the opportunity to study Corona SDK (in which BaliFied is built) while helping them set up the company.

Then there was the sudden application from their Art Director Gilbert. They were intrigued by his resume, so they went to Surabaya to interview him. Immediately, they realized that Gilbert was the right guy to have on board. After adding him to the team, they also met up with him during Casual Connect Singapore 2012. They felt they learned a lot from CC, and attending made them realize that they had a VERY long way to go before they could reach their goals…

Everyone is talented and has the great team spirit and attitude that they strive for.

After Gilbert, the other Dragons came in one after another. Everyone is just as talented, and has the great team spirit and attitude that they strive for. Dragon Game Studio nowadays consists of three programmers: Rocky, Jim and Christopher, one Art Director: Gilbert, one Studio Manager / Game Designer: Yon and an intern: Chris.

The first two games

The Harlem Shake vs Gangnam Style Dance Game was released on the App Store on 26^th of March 2013 and was made in seven working days. It was a side project to give the team a breather from working intensively on BaliFied. Jonas wanted to do something with the two dance crazes that ruled YouTube. It has a simple gameplay: you choose the role that you want to play, either Harlem Shake or Gangnam and you tap on the right icon as soon as they appear in the white circles at the bottom of the screen.

The second game Don’t Steal My Banana was released on 27th of March 2013 after being rejected by Apple twice. But the third time’s the charm! This game was made in five weeks and was another side project for the team. None of them had released a game on the App Store before, so all this, from the creative journey to the launch of these titles, was perfect to learn about the whole release process by trial and error.

Both games were received pretty well. Harlem vs Gangnam got to the #1 position in many European countries and the Indonesian store, and reached the top 10 in the US store free music games category. Don’t Steal My Banana reached the top 50 in the free games category in the Indonesian store and got them a lot of new fans.

The Masterpiece

A lot of adaptation processes was needed — communication, work standard and learning a new engine were just a few of the hurdles they had to get through.

The masterpiece and the dream that Dragon Game Studio was built upon is called BaliFied – Word Game of the Gods. It’s a project that they hope will blow casual word game lovers away. They are both huge fans of word games such as WWF and Ruzzle, so when Jonas stumbled upon an old board game from 1950s called Bali on the internet, they knew that this was it! They realized that this was something they had to turn into a new and improved word game, with all the multiplayer functions today’s market offers.

The beginning wasn’t easy. A lot of adaptation processes was needed– communication, work standard and learning a new engine were just a few of the hurdles they had to get through. They were a group of people that never had worked together before. Luckily, most of the team members have a background in the game industry, but there still was a lot of stuff that they didn’t have a clue about. The GUI was changed many times before the team was completely happy, and a lot of time was spent on trial and error. After more than three months of developing, they began to wonder: can this game even be finished? But they got through it by dropping the project for a while, and then came back stronger than ever! This is something they recommend every developer to do if they get stuck: take a break from the project for a while, maybe make a few simple projects, and then go back to the main project.

When the focus was back on BaliFied, the team was feeling great about it. Fortunately for them, Corona had just released the new Corona Cloud feature at exactly when they needed it the most. Once again, the Balinese gods were on their side! After that, they did some super intensive beta-testing, and finally, Balified was finished and ready to be published. And here they are, ready to launch BaliFied in the summer of 2013.

Developing a game from scratch with little experience from the decision makers, but with all the knowledge from the team was a very hard process. They lived and learned and were not afraid to start over again when an idea was not completely supported by the whole team. It’s a give and take process and at the end, they are very proud of all that they have achieved so far. They are ready to take this new word game to another level! The level of the Gods.

Look forward to the release of BaliFied this summer.

Nicholas Yanes: According to IMDB, you started working in the entertainment industry in 1999.  What inspired you to want to pursue this career?

Penka Kouneva

Penka Kouneva: I arrived in LA in 1999. I love collaborating with other creative artists, and have loved film since childhood.  Scoring for media felt like the most natural vocation for me, since my music is evocative and dramatic. I was very passionate about becoming a film composer. I still am, but my heart these days is in games. I find game scoring to be more energizing and inspiring.

Lots of people want to have careers in entertainment, what do you think you did right to make it in your field?  Did formal education help you?

Formal education is essential, in my opinion. I came to LA recommended very highly by my Duke mentors, and my first mentor in LA was the Emmy-winning TV composer Patrick Williams, who is also a Duke alum. I connected with busy professionals right away. In 2000, I met my other most significant mentor, Bruce Fowler, Hans Zimmer’s orchestrator. It was not until 2004 that Bruce started giving me jobs. He also introduced me to Steve Jablonsky who later plugged me in on Transformers films and games, Gears of War 2 and 3 and on Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands, for which I composed 2 hours of game music.

As to what I did right…I have always been extremely passionate, devoted, hard-working and loyal to my clients. The hard work on a great variety of projects allowed me to develop great skills. I am also very proactive, stay in touch with my collaborators, foster new relationships. I am a good collaborator and try to be always positive and constructive, even in the heat of the battle.

To me, it seems that working as a composer on a film means creating an audio environment that adds to the narrative experience.  What does being a composer mean to you?

My job is to support the vision of the game makers (or filmmakers) by creating an environment of music and sound to support the characters, emotions, genre and, most importantly, the story. I breathe life into the images and add emotional depth to the story. With my music, I make the audience or the gamers feel deeply, laugh, cry, connect with the film or game and remember viscerally the experience of watching or playing.

What are some challenges you’ve encountered while being a composer for a film? For instance, was there ever a time you felt that the music should be significantly different from what the director wanted?

I work hard to understand the director’s vision and support their vision. Sometimes it takes more than one conversation, especially if they are unsure, or willing to explore various ideas. Usually good, open communication solves all problems. Composers learn to ask insightful questions of their collaborators. I ask a lot of questions, take notes and then think about it.

Your LinkedIn profile states you worked on the 2002 videogame, Enter the Matrix.  Why did you decide to begin working on videogames?

Actually, I became really passionate about games a bit later, with us getting a PS2, then PS3 and Xbox. The game narratives and visuals were stunning, the stories were engaging and the music was fantastic – inspired, ground-breaking and fun. The turning point for me was the BioShock games, Uncharted 2, and Gears of War 2. I decided to devote my full focus to games. I had never before felt so energized and inspired as I felt by these games. Enter the Matrix was a very complicated job, and my task was to support the composers on it. I didn’t play it until later.

Most people simply watch a movie from start to finish, but with videogames, there is the expectation that players will fail a level at first and have to replay a section of the game multiple times.  Does this affect how you approach composing for videogames?

Yes, it very much affects the interactive (dynamic) design of the music. The score has many elements (Drums, low strings, melodies, embellishments) and each layer is combined with various elements on consecutive plays, so that there is some difference and it’s not totally repetitive. I remember once playing Modern Warfare 2 and got stuck on a level for 2 weeks, and the same music kept playing over and over again.

I can’t imagine composing music for a film and not watching the movie.  How many times do you play a videogame in order to get sense of how the music should be developed?

Usually I receive concept art, characters, some early prototypes (stick figures and grey blobby 2D figures, with no color, no movement). On GOW3, we did receive animation (for the cinematics) but no one moved their hands or feet, they were just floating. I can imagine quite well how the animation would look in its final rendition. I also love art, architecture and design, so I am very visually oriented composer.

I’ve never felt inhibited by lack of moving picture. Usually the music is implemented before the game is playable, so I get “level walkthroughs” but never play the game myself while composing. My composing process is all based upon a combination of images, prototypes, written briefs about the story, and conversations about concepts, style, tone and ideas with my collaborators.

On this note, what are some differences between composing for videogames and for movies? In your experience, do the industrial differences between games and movies impact your work?

The similarities are being able to write great themes, to support characters and genre, and to create a sonic imprint for the world of the game or film. This is where the similarities end. While in film, all the music is composed to picture, in games, only the cinematics are composed to picture. The rest of the score is based on the concepts and function of the music. The score is delivered with a high degree of technical rigor – in stems, in 2 or 3-minute loops, in stingers, themes, variations. We receive incredibly detailed audio briefs that list 100’s of bits and pieces of music that are needed by the game. Then we have to deliver with utmost technical precision.

While I’m sure you’re proud of all your work, have there been some games that have stood out the most to you?

Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands (PS3, Xbox, PC) was my break-through job and my most cherished experience, because I was able to combine my Bulgarian background and deep knowledge of Eastern music with knowing the epic Hollywood sound. I also loved composing on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen a few big battle pieces and right now, I love the iOS games I am scoring (one Medieval and another exploration game).

There have been several debates about if videogames are becoming too cinematic. However, these discussions are usually about a game’s visuals. Why do you think gamers are more willingly to accept movie quality sound effects, but struggle with movie-like scenes?

In my opinion, some games benefit from being more cinematic (most console games like Uncharted, which is a very cinematic game).  On another hand, other games have absolutely no need to be cinematic (e.g., platformers, experimental games).  Probably gamers want to feel that gameplay is distinctive and different than sitting on your sofa watching a movie. I think as long as a game creates its own unique world with a vision for the art, sound, game mechanics and game play, I’ll enjoy it.

With more and more games being developed for cell phones and other mobile devices that lack the sound systems found in theaters or houses, how do you think sound develop for games will be affected?

Well, most iOS games have slightly less elaborate and complex scores anyway. I think the quality of earphones is pretty advanced.  We are all required to submit stereo mixes for iOS games, not super-complicated stems as for console games which are mixed in “surround sound.”

Penka Kouneva is currently working on two iPhone games – Rollers of the Realm and Black Hole Explorer, via Indie Game Audio based in Toronto (and her collaborative partners) and another which she’ll announce when it’s released.

Mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing and most rapidly changing parts of the entertainment industry. In just a couple years, we’ve seen it evolve from a wild-west market chock full of indie developers figuring out the best way to utilize a touch screen, to a place where developers of all shapes and sizes create AAA-quality games with strong lifetime values. Through all of these changes, there has been one constant: people are constantly searching for the best way to turn a buck in mobile games. Whether it’s premium games, lite games with ads, or freemium, monetization is arguably the biggest driving factor in mobile games, and native advertising is one of the best ways for game developers to make money off their titles without taking away from the user experience.

So, what exactly is a native ad? The term has been thrown around a lot in the advertising and public relations markets as the next big iteration of paid content. It could mean anything from a sponsored post to a branded advertisement. In mobile games, the native ad takes on a slightly different form. With mobile games, developers and advertisers are paired to games and products that share similar themes and are going after the same audience. Companies such as NativeX (formely W3i) help developers to create branded interstitials where the ad can be displayed.

For example, let’s say there is a developer whose game has an audience of mostly older women. They may want to advertise a children’s game in their native interstitial. Mom sees a game her kids might like without being taken away from the game experience, the developer makes money off the ad, and the advertiser gets targeted ad views from people that are much more likely to check out their game. It’s a triple-win situation.

Based on early data, NativeX found that click through rates on native ads are 225 percent higher than on traditional ads. Additionally, effective cost per thousand impressions (eCPM rates) are, on average, 142 percent higher on native ads than on traditional ads. This data was found by comparing publishers who used native ad interstitials against publishers who ran non-native interstitials from February 2013 to March 2013. Each publisher used the same relevant advertisement. Click through rates on non-native ads were .06 percent on average, with an average 3.46 percent on native ads. For eCPMS, non-native ads had rates of about $4.98, where native ads had average rates of $12.04.

In layman’s terms, this means that a gamer is almost three times as likely to click on an advertisement if they see it as a native ad than a regular banner ad. Having an eCPM that’s 142 percent higher in native ads means that total earnings gained from the ads will be significantly higher. Using native ads means more money for developers and a better experience for the user.

As developers continue to innovate new ways to monetize their games, it’s a safe bet that native advertising will continue to rise in popularity on mobile. In the relatively short time NativeX has been working on native ads, they’ve shown incredibly promising results as a new source of revenue for developers of all sizes. The time of native advertising is at hand, so consider well what ads to include in your mobile games when the time comes.

NativeX (formerly W3i) has worked with developers to help them build strong user bases and figure out the best ways to create revenue without affecting the gameplay experience. The company rebranded on March 20 to reflect this. For the last few months, we’ve worked with developers and advertisers to create better native ad experiences. So far, we’re seeing some very promising results.

CSR Racing was leading the top grossing charts not too long ago. At the time, It was reported that the game was making 12 million dollars per month from In App Purchases. One might notice that the game play experience is actually very simple and instead of providing a full driving simulation, all that is required from the user is to shift gears in time. That is really not hard to mimic and in fact, many games are offering that exact same interaction.

What really makes this game different from other games is the In-Game Store. It was reported that users are spending more time in the store than driving the car on the road. Judging from personal experience, this is very true. Like you, I was also curious, so I repeatedly played the game with the risk of getting addicted in order to find out what’s the secret sauce of the CSR Store.

Let’s start with the technical details. The store for CSR Racing has two main parts: Car Dealer and Workshop. The car dealer offers a large variety of cars organized by maker and levels. It’s interesting to note the fact that all the cars can be compared based on four parameters: Bhp, Grip, Weight and Gearbox. The other part of the store is the Workshop. This is where you can upgrade the car with seven different items: Engine, Gear, Weight, Intake, Tiers, Nitro and Turbo. Each one of these upgrades comes in five levels where each item you buy unlocks the next one in the series. For example – buying Engine Level 1 unlocks Engine Level 2.

What makes it interesting is that all of these upgrades are specific to each car and can’t be moved from one car to the other. The outcome of this store design is that there are about 50 cars and 78,125 combinations to upgrade each car, which brings the total to over 3M combinations while keeping the design of the store relatively simple. Furthermore, all the different combinations of upgrades and cars comes back to the same four parameters, which are the interface between the game and the store. This allows for modifying or adding more virtual goods easily by altering the store without changing the code of the game.

Finally, the core game loop is limited by fuel to seven races per time period (normally 30 minutes). This mechanic limits the amount of cash users can get and forces them to be much more strategic when they spend it. Consecutively, they spend much more time in the store, where they will be tempted to pay with cash to save long waits or get a desirable car.

Game Developers for iPhone and Android these days are well aware of the Free 2 Play model and the benefits of applying it in the context of mobile apps to monetize through In-App purchases.

It is no coincidence that out of the $7 Billion dollars paid by Apple to mobile game developers, more than 80 percent was due to transactions made with In-App Purchase Stores.

Less known are some of the hidden traps in this model. Unlike with paid apps, Free 2 Play games are better thought of as a service rather than a product. More specifically, this translates into a lot more post launch effort that can easily add up to a full time job when combining the work spent on business issues, code maintenance and design updates.

Here are some areas in which you can expect post launch activity in Free 2 Play Games:

-Billing support issues
-Monitoring ratings and reviews
-Analyzing and optimizing user engagement and conversion into paying customers
-Trying out different advertising based revenue sources, integrating, evaluating and optimizing
-Integrating different plugins to increase user engagement
-Managing notifications and promotions
-Adding and refreshing content such as seasonal/holiday related content
-Monitoring different SDKs and maintaining the code that interacts with them as the API changes
-Adding billing providers in different territories to increase the likelihood of IAP transactions
-Identifying user segments and designing different app interaction when applicable

All these different activities add up to a continuous stream of tasks that quickly becomes an unexpected burden. If you take another look at the list, you will also discover that none of these tasks are fun or glorious— not really what you signed up for when deciding to make games.

The good news is that there are quite a few ways to minimize the effort needed for these tasks.

Here are 6 methods to manage these tasks more effectively,

1 – Separate the App Meta Data from the Code

This is the most complicated one, so let’s get it out of the way first. When writing the game code, identify every element that can be turned into a parameter and put all of them in a single file, list or database. This will be called your App Meta Data. Doing so can save you a lot of time when you want to update parameters in the game and tweak it later on. Architecting your code in this manner will also allow you much quicker integration with any backend (BAAS) solution down the line.

2 – Use Services that Aggregate Different SDKs

One of the things developers quickly realize once they start using third party SDKs is that each SDK requires maintenance as time goes by. Any service that aggregates different advertising providers or different billing providers can help you save effort on SDK maintenance.

3 – Focus Your User Acquisition and Monetization Strategy

Most game developers would like to improve user acquisition and monetization. There is a temptation to add more channels in each one of those categories. The result is that each one of these channels takes its toll and increases the amount of ongoing effort. There is work associated with monitoring the performance of each one and making sure it doesn’t decline over time. Therefore, it’s recommended to focus efforts on a small number of proven channels rather than chasing too many opportunities.

4 – Measure a Small Number of KPIs and Double the Analysis Intervals

One area that can easily suck up a nice portion of your time is analysis and measurement. In an extreme situation, you can find yourself gazing at the revenue chart and hitting refresh every five minutes. In most cases, the time spent can be reduced drastically by focusing on 3-5 KPIs and resisting the urge to open your analytics console too frequently. In fact, for most games, the optimal analysis interval is bigger than two weeks due to the small number of data points.

5 – Create a Score Card for Providers and Include Post Launch Effort

Another method that can sometimes save effort after game launch is simply increasing your awareness to the ongoing effort issue and adding this parameter when evaluating different SDK and plugin providers. Some even go as far as creating a Score Card for evaluating different providers and adding the post launch time consumption as one of the parameters.

6 – Choose Cross Platform Providers

Many mobile games want to expand into new hardware platforms after seeing early success. Typically, a game would start on iOS and then move to Android, Amazon and Windows. There is an obvious effort in porting the game to a new platform which can be reduced significantly by developing the game on a cross-platform engine. Now, let’s imagine that this was already taken care of and compare a situation where you are using 5 SDKs/Plugins and moving from a single platform to three platforms. If the plugins are not seamlessly supporting multiple platforms, you need to find new providers for each platform which results in having 15 plugins (five plugins times three platforms) to manage.

To summarize, the key is preparation, awareness and focus. If you are launching your first mobile game, you should familiarize yourself with these issues and take the necessary steps beforehand and you should be fine. This way, you will have your mind free to focus on your exciting new game.