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Fans of the original “Cut the Rope” will be well aware of the adorable little character known as Om Nom, who somewhat became a pop culture phenomenon overnight. This fun little friend was with gamers every step of the way, cutting candy rope like there was no tomorrow. While the creators didn’t initially market him as the main part of this addictive puzzle game, fans still fell in love with him. Embracing this craze, Zeptolab have announced that the highly anticipated “Cut the Rope 2” will encourage users to get to know Om Nom on a whole new level.
Along with a more in-depth look into the life of Om Nom, gamers can expect to see brand new mechanics introduced into the physics-puzzle game, along with brand new challenges on every level, power-ups and secret levels. The game developers at Zeptolab have created a whole new way for users to interact with Om Nom, where they can spend time getting to know this new entirely animated character. While the first installment of “Cut the Rope” somewhat tested the waters to see what would and wouldn’t work, the new sequel has been created to cater for “both puzzle novices and puzzle veterans”. When asked by ‘Pocket Gamer‘ how the company plans to monetise this new creation, Zeptolab announced that they would be offering the app at a discounted introductory price in the Apple Store from its release date on 19th December, 2013. Furthermore, users can expect to be enticed by in-game purchase options, with the choice of purchasing power-ups and even outfits for Om Nom. For now, Cut the Rope 2 will only be released on iPhones and other iOS devices, with the creators hoping to expand to Android devices in the near future. With Zeptolab having taken on-board the feedback from the gaming community, existing and new users can expect to see some great new additions and updates to this already popular puzzle game.
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Long ago, games were seen as another form of entertainment among so many others. Now they represent one of the most profitable markets in history. That's great: with the advancement of the industry, we have a number of studios starting the development of games, and the ones that already did, have improved a lot more. If you're a big fan of video games, you probably have a calendar with all the great releases of the year written down. This is just one of many other ways to show that games have gained immense relevance in a few years, even surpassing the film industry as an option for fun since 2003.
But amid so much economic growth, there is one small problem: the consumer. The logic is simple: without the consumer to the market, the market does not exist. By that, I do not mean that the video game industry will lose its current consumers. No way. In fact, the trend is that this area will grow much more in the coming years, even more taking into account the numerous applications for games. The problem is that the consumer has been dissatisfied. And rightly so. The year 2014 marked the neglect of publishers who were more concerned with meeting schedules than delivering a quality smartphone app development product. The solution was to offer immense patch fixes to make some projects at least playable. And if we have that kind of complication for PCs and console, in the mobile device market the situation is apparently more disturbing. During the last edition of Campus Party, Guilherme Camargo, partner of Sioux presented a research on the panorama of digital games in Brazil made with 909 people in the national territory. Despite lots of interesting data, data on mobile games has a special highlight. There has been talk for a long time about how digital games are the most popular among the various applications of the virtual stores. And in this Sioux poll, almost 75% of people have a habit of downloading games to their cell phones. But there is another important fact: almost 34% download games EVERY WEEK. Even though it is a national survey, one can imagine that the outlook is not very different. The reason? Well, several games are released daily at these stores. The amount of game developers is increasing with the many options of developing games in a simple way. But quantity does not represent quality. According to Wooga (one of the best-known mobile game developer companies), less than 0.1% of the games released on the App Store are successful. And there's an estimate that about 80% of the apps on it are zombie apps (which are either low-download or never downloaded). If I had to kick the reason people download games so often on their cell phones, I'd say it's due to dissatisfaction with the games they already have. And that sucks. Due to this economic growth that unfortunately does not accompany the qualitative growth, I believe that the market needs more games and less industry. When I say more games, I mean we need fewer games in quantity, more games in quality. The focus of the developers should be on presenting a quality product that they will sell as a consequence, and not selling their game even before its full development. It is important that the landscape of the digital gaming market is increasingly positive indeed. I do not disagree that games should be increasingly profitable and show that this industry should be valued. But like in 1983 with Atari, we are in a moment of crisis. We have many games, however, few options.
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In a recent interview, Digital Marketing Manager, Shawn Aguilar, revealed his top tips for game developers. Creating a platform where your games become more appealing to big brand advertisers is the key to success, but that’s easier said than done, right? Aguilar places great emphasis on monetisation efforts, saying that this is a key aspect to securing the attention of big brand advertisers.
According to Aguilar, there are four main points to which you should focus your efforts:
When it comes to Premium Inventory at Scale, Aguilar states that, “Your mobile game needs to have significant reach to create the scale that is attractive to brands.” Many game developers struggle with reaching such a large scale, commonly due to the poor quality of impressions. While many developers have no problems getting their mobile game to throw off millions of impressions, if these are not premium ad impressions, you’re wasting your time. “The best approach is to segment clearly define your premium inventory”, says Aguilar. It’s imperative that you take the time to Feature High Quality Content in your mobile app. Consider what it is that your game offers users and choose a route that is “brand safe”. While almost any app can find some kind of advertising, you’ll soon discover that the apps which contain graphic or adult content do not attract big brand names, such as Disney or Coke. Apps such as the infamous Words with Friends or Angry Birds offer great choices for developers, as they already have scale and high quality content. “Brand advertisers are always searching for interesting ideas and opportunities. Going beyond the standard banner ad is a great way to attract them. Rich media, video, and other unique display formats are all very attractive.” In order to have a Unique and Differentiated Offering, it is important to step away from the norm and implement your own distinctive ideas to your advertising strategy. This may sounds like an incredibly simply strategy, but never underestimate the power of Developing your Brand as a Mobile Game Developer. I couldn’t have said it better myself, as Aguilar states, “Brand advertisers are attracted to other brands. Building your brand as a mobile game developer will work wonders when trying to attract brand dollars from advertisers.” While there’s no one way to ensure that you attract the attention of big brand advertisers, guidance from industry professionals, such as Shawn Aguilar, Marketing Manager at TapSense, is a great place to start. When you set out to create your advertising strategy for your new iOS or Android app, be sure to consider these four key aspects, in order to guarantee that you’re on the road to success. |