Chay Hunter

Editor’s note – this is an interview from 2017. Since then, we’ve had a couple more interviews and talks with Voodoo. You can find them here:  How To Create “Hyper-Snackable” Casual Games – Tips from Voodoo How GameAnalytics helps Voodoo identify and release hit mobile games each month Hyper-casual in a Hypercompetitive Market (VIDEO & PRESENTATION) Thanks for taking the time to talk to me Hugo, could you kick things off by describing a little about Voodoo, yourself, and what drew you into the gaming industry? Sure. My name’s Hugo and I’m currently a Publishing Manager at Voodoo. I met the co-founders, Alex and Laurent, 4 years ago when the company was still a small startup. I was actually completing a 6-month internship for them at the time. We immediately got on very well and after finishing the internship I...

Editor’s note: This innovative studio has released 7 games so far, with another 15 in production for Q2 2017. In less than 2 years, FRVR has gained more than 2 million daily active users and 70 million all-time players. We chat with the founder of FRVR, Chris Benjaminsen, to draw light on this success. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me, Chris. To kick things off, could you give a little background about yourself and what motivated you to start FRVR? Of course. Back in 2013 I had worked as the director of gaming for Yahoo! for two years, and it was very clear to me that I needed to do something else. I wanted to go travel the world while still generating income, and taking on as little responsibility as possible. Essentially, my initial motivation was to...

Editor’s note: A few weeks ago, GameAnalytics turned 5 years old. What better way to commemorate this landmark than by interviewing our senior frontend developer and SDK team lead, Nikolaj Pedersen. Nikolaj has been with us from the beginning and his work has been essential in the development of the tool that you know and use today. ? Q. Nikolaj, you’re GA’s longest standing employee. How did it all begin? The idea behind GameAnalytics originally came from a Danish game company (now called Cape Copenhagen). Back in 2010, they created an internal analytics tool and met with our founder, Morten Wulff. Morten had previously founded a tracking company called TraceWorks and together they discussed the idea of building an analytics tool available for all game developers. However, Cape Copenhagen decided not to pursue analytics and instead chose to focus 100%...

Now that 2016 has officially (and mercifully) been declared over, we thought we’d kick off the New Year with something more uplifting: a look back at some of the best, but less conspicuous games from last year. [bctt tweet=”? The Top 10 Mobile Games That You (Probably) Haven’t Already Played #IndieGame #MobileGame” username=”GameAnalytics”] Many of these games released in the latter half of 2016. They’re true hidden gems and if you haven’t already played them, we’d highly recommend you check them out. Without further ado, let’s begin the countdown of our top 10 mobile games. 10.  Touchdown Hero Developed by Cherrypick Games ?  Download for iOS ?  Download for Android Score big, become a Touchdown Hero and recreate the Madden’s of yesteryear on your phone in this birds-eye infinite running retrogame. The movement is fluid (simply drag from left to...

What’s the deal with iMessage games? With iOS 10, developers are now creating games that are directly integrated with iMessage. This seamless, inherently social play style is viral by nature with built-in engagement and retention mechanics. If you’re not already building for the iMessage App Store, it’s a channel to watch. In this post we’re going to start by outlining the technical setup for such a game. We’ll then explore how you can make the most of this relative new kid on the block, with comments from some thought-leaders to help answer the question: what makes a great game for iMessage? Click here to skip the technical part. [bctt tweet=”iMessage Apps ✉? Create, Design & Release a Successful iMessage Game! #imessage #app #gamedev” username=”GameAnalytics”] How to create an iMessage game iMessage Apps allow users to engage with your content without having...

Speak to anyone in the mobile gaming industry and the topic of conversation will always turn to one thing: monetization. Who can blame them? Statista predict that mobile games will generate $40.6 billion in revenue by the end of 2017. That’s more than double Facebook’s 2015 revenue. Not a number to sneer at. Perhaps more noteworthy is that – as of January 2016 – this revenue was generated by less than 1.9% of the overall player base, showing a 0.4% increase from the same study in 2014, according to a report by the mobile marketing automation platform, Swrve. Mobile gamers are spending more Their study aggregates data from over 10 million purchasing players – from the minnows, to the dolphins, and the whales. Interestingly, at just 0.19% of the demographic the “whales” account for a whopping 48% of the total revenue....