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16th June 2015

Nintendo Transforms Iconic Franchises To Give Players Unique Gaming Experiences

Nintendo CanadaThis year Mario reaches an impressive milestone in video gaming: 30 years as a leading man in Nintendo’s timeless dedicated website series. At E3, Nintendo celebrates Mario’s longevity with a new installment in the franchise called Super Mario Maker, one of many games at the show that transforms familiar characters and their games with unique new looks, styles and game-play features. Players will see new installments of beloved franchises like Star Fox, Yoshi, Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi, Xenoblade and Metroid, and enjoy the reimagining of Bowser and Donkey Kong as Skylanders figures that also have amiibo functionality with compatible Nintendo games. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted in Action Adventure, Card Games, Casual, Driving, Events, Everyone, Everyone 10+, Fighting, Mobile, Music, National News, Party, Platform, Puzzle, RPG - MMORPG, RTS, Shooters, Sports, Teen, Upcoming Releases By: | Print This Post Print This Post

2nd June 2015

Nintendo Announces New Games In A Nintendo Direct Micro Video Presentation

Nintendo CanadaNintendo’s Digital Event video presentation for E3 2015 might be only a couple weeks away, but Nintendo is jumping at the chance to get started early on some of its new announcements. A special Nintendo Direct Micro video is now live, and is not short on new reveals and further details about previously announced Wii U and Nintendo 3DS games. If you don’t want to spoil any of the fun surprises for yourself, stop reading now and watch the full 17-minute video presentation in its entirety. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted in Action Adventure, Casual, Digital Products, Events, Everyone, Everyone 10+, Mobile, National News, New Releases, Platform, Puzzle, RPG - MMORPG, RTS, Simulations, Social Media, Sports, Teen, Upcoming Releases By: | Print This Post Print This Post

30th April 2015

Satisfy Your Late Night Snack Attack With Mega Munchies

Inkpad StudiosVancouver’s Inkpad Studios would like to invite you to match n’ munch your way through a delicious game of Mega Munchies, currently available for Canada and New Zealand. This tangy match-3+ puzzle game will be sure to leave you drooling for more. Swap out flavourful food items one at a time to link three or more scrumptious munchies and clear the board. Trigger a cascade of sizzling reactions, collect tasty bonus points, and devour your way to the top of the leaderboard. Read the rest of this entry »

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2nd April 2015

Red Meat Games Releases Egg Zag On iTunes And Google Play

red meat gamesRed Meat Games is ‘egg-cited’ (yes we went there) to announce the release of the studio’s mobile game Egg Zag, available as a free download on both iTunes and Google Play. An addictive game about a rogue egg that is racing uncontrollably down a grassy pathway, Egg Zag will test your mettle and nerves as you try to prove that you have what it takes to keep an out of control egg on the path to egg-cellence! Get a high score, and with the touch of a finger, brag about it to all your Facebook friends. Challenge them to see who is good enough to beat your high score. How could you go wrong?! Plus, they have naked chicks … Read the rest of this entry »

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2nd April 2015

Nintendo Details Upcoming Wii U And Nintendo 3DS Games

Nintendo CanadaWith so much information, it would be easy to dismiss the latest Nintendo Direct presentation as an elaborate April Fool’s Day prank. But the latest Nintendo Direct is definitely no joke. The next evolution of amiibo? It’s happening! Lucas from Mother 3 in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS? He’s joining the battle! The debut of a 200cc speed class in Mario Kart 8? Yup! A new line of Yoshi amiibo figures made of actual yarn? Oh yeah. A home-designing Animal Crossing game? Launching this year! Splatoon launching on May 29 and more details about Mario Maker, Yoshi’s Woolly World and the new game in the Fire Emblem series? It’s all accurate! Read the rest of this entry »

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29th January 2015

Victoria’s KANO/APPS Discusses User Acquisition

KANO/APPS  is a Victoria BC mobile and social game developer that has been very successful with game distribution on Facebook and is on the verge of launching a new game for iOS distribution. Go2mobi interviews KANO/APPS CEO Tim Teh for Village Gamer.

Tell Us about KANO/APPS

KANO/APPS focusing on mid-core to hardcore RPGers, KANO/APPs develops free-to-play strategy games. Mob Wars: La Cosa Nostra is one of our more popular games.

Our smaller, niche audience provides more focused opportunities for in-game monetization. Since we’re free-to-play, about 95% of monetization occurs through in-app purchases, such as vanity items & power-ups.

We develop strategy games rather than “casual games.” Our users invest a lot of time into playing the games, and so, with the popularity of tablets and other screens, it makes sense to launch a mobile version of our game. Mobile gives us the opportunity to provide more engagement for our users.

We’re getting ready to launch a game called Free Rider HD on mobile for iOS.

Free Rider HD is the sequel to one of the most played online games of all time with over 500 million plays and +1 million player drawn tracks.

 

We are doing the development work, while Ira provides the intellectual property (IP). For game developers a great strategy is to partner with someone with established, compelling IP. Of course, for startups this can be risky depending on the IP partner because there may be revenue expectations, and it can be tough to determine how successful your game will be.

What has been the biggest change since you started making games?

In the past it was challenging and expensive to develop games for different platforms. The challenge at the time was we could not respond quickly to user needs in order to optimize acquisition and monetization.

However, now with better devices and utilizing HTML5, it’s easy to update quickly across multiple platforms.

How do you acquire new users?

For desktop we typically work with partners such an online games hosting websites that help us to publish our games and worry about distribution so that we can focus on game development.

We started out on desktop at the dawn of Facebook. We have experienced a ton of success working with several desktop portals including Kongregate and Armor Games.

What do you think is the key mobile advertising for game developers?

For user acquisition on mobile a tool that can identify users by demographic and by OS would be important. We’re looking for relatively affluent, English-speaking users on iOS. So a tool that provides that degree of precision would be important.

Tim Teh is CEO of KANO/APPS has launched a number of new titles in 2014, and will launch even more in 2014. Check out the amazing trailers for some of their games here.

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Mobile Advertising Insights for Game Developers

Mobile advertising provides an additional tool to drive user acquisition.

With mobile advertising, there are tactics and strategies that optimize and dramatically lower the cost of acquisition. An approach for a developer like KANO/APPS might look like the following:

  • Create initial modest test campaigns targeted at iOS users in their target countries.
  • Target one at related games and APPS likely to be played by folks who would like their new game.
  • Target another campaign targeted at people frequenting mobile sites with related content.
  • Run the campaigns for a short while, gathering enough data to provide insights.
  • Look at performance by iOS version, iOS device, region, app placements, site placements and other factors.
  • Taking the just the highest performing pockets from the targets noted above, create new campaigns targeting just those pockets. For instance, there may be specific iOS versions and devices that dramatically outperform others, or there may be specific targeted APPS that work very well.
  • Get to work on optimizing those campaigns and scaling them up further as performance dictates.

Go2mobi is a Mobile Audience Targeting Platform and used by many different kinds of performance based advertisers, brands, and agencies around the world. The company is based in Victoria, BC.

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9th December 2014

Diametric Games Would Like You To Get Gas

diametricFor everyone who enjoys platformers, Diametric Games Inc. would like to let you know about GAS, their mobile game that stands out from the rest as it is the only game in the genre that engages the player with resource management, not only the “learnt it playing Super Mario” familiar gameplay.  Because of the combination of slapstick humour, classic gaming style, and serious game design GAS will bring a new way to look at the platformer while not screwing up the pure enjoyment of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

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19th November 2014

Super Smash Bros. For Wii U And amiibo Take This Holiday Season By Storm

Nintendo CanadaThis holiday season is all about Mario. And Link. And Yoshi. And Samus. And Kirby. And … well, a lot of classic video game characters. That’s because Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and the first round of amiibo figures, Nintendo’s first foray into the toys-to-life category, are both launching on November 21, right in time for the holiday shopping season. Nintendo’s favourite characters are going to be everywhere, whether on the battlefields of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, on store shelves as must-have amiibo figures or at the top of everyone’s holiday wish lists. Read the rest of this entry »

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13th November 2014

Big Blue Bubble Releases My PomPom for iOS

Big Blue BubbleYou’ve sung with her in the hit game My Singing Monsters, now you can talk, dance and even bring her into the real world! From Big Blue Bubble, the makers of the award-winning mobile phenomenon comes the latest title – My PomPom!  The more you play with PomPom, the more there is to do. Play with her to earn diamonds, then buy her treats to make her happy. Challenge yourself to become a master juggler in an exciting mini-game, and level her up to unlock new worlds and animations. Infused with all of the laughter and music from the original game, My PomPom is nonstop fun! Read the rest of this entry »

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29th August 2014

Nintendo Announces Holiday 2014 Games And Products

Nintendo CanadaNintendo has prepared a massive lineup of new games and products for the 2014 holiday season. The lineup includes new entries from some of the biggest franchises in gaming, new hardware bundles for Wii U and Nintendo 2DS, and new amiibo interactive figures featuring some of the most iconic characters in the world of video games. The holiday shopping season begins soon for Nintendo fans, as the first 12 amiibo interactive figures become available for pre-order at a suggested retail price of just $13.99 each. The first dozen characters available for pre-order at select retailers are Mario, Peach, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Kirby, Fox, Marth, Villager and Wii Fit Trainer, with more on the way in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

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posted in Action Adventure, Card Games, Casual, Digital Products, Driving, Early Childhood, Everyone, Everyone 10+, Fighting, Mature, Mobile, Music, National News, New Releases, Party, Peripherals, Platform, Puzzle, RPG - MMORPG, RTS, Simulations, Sports, Teen, Upcoming Releases By: | Print This Post Print This Post

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