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  • Victoria’s KANO/APPS Discusses User Acquisition

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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14th January 2015

New Nintendo 3DS XL Launches In Canada February 13th

Nintendo CanadaDuring a Nintendo Direct presentation earlier today, Nintendo announced that the new Nintendo 3DS XL system will launch in Canada on February 13 at a suggested retail price of $229.99. New Nintendo 3DS XL offers a number of new enhancements designed to offer the smoothest and most engrossing portable gaming possible. New Nintendo 3DS XL features a wider range of controls with the addition of a C Stick and ZL/ZR buttons, super-stable 3D via face-tracking technology and built-in NFC functionality that allows for communication with amiibo figures. Read the rest of this entry »

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9th December 2014

Diametric Games Would Like You To Get Gas

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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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18th November 2014

Far Cry 4 Available Around The World Today

ubisoft canadaUbisoft has announced that Far Cry® 4, sequel to the #1 rated shooter of 2012 (based on Metacritic as of 12/18/2012), is now available worldwide on PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Arena Master, the Far Cry 4 Companion App, is now available on IOS and Android, both for tablets and smartphones. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with other Ubisoft studios Far Cry 4 invites the player to experience the most expansive and immersive Far Cry ever, in an entirely new, massive open world. 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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6th November 2014

Renown Entertainment Brings Top Rated All-Star Basketball To Android OS

renown entertainmentWith an average 4.8 star rating, as well as being the most downloaded basketball game in it’s debut weekend on the Apple App Store*, All-Star Basketball is now available for Android devices on Google Play.  The team at Renown Entertainment utilized additional polish time for the Android version of All-Star Basketball to ensure its new legacy as the top rated, best playing arcade hoops shooter in the sports game category. The Android version is more than a straight port, offering an improved experience compared to previous platform releases. Read the rest of this entry »

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6th November 2014

The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D Descends On Nintendo 3DS In 2015

Nintendo CanadaDuring a Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo dropped a moon-sized announcement: The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D, a remake of the beloved Nintendo 64 game, is coming exclusively to Nintendo 3DS in spring 2015. The Nintendo Direct video also revealed new details about amiibo functionality and upcoming games like Splatoon, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Code Name S.T.E.A.M. and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Read the rest of this entry »

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17th October 2014

Explore Tiny Realms Available Now For iOS

tinymobgamesReal-time strategy fans can engage in fantasy warfare on a global scale as Tiny Realms has launched throughout North America, Europe and other territories for iOS devices. Tiny Realms includes a completely unique game mode called Battlegrounds. Battlegrounds is a modern take on classic strategy board games mixed with the latest in online mobile games technology. Now strategy game fans around the world can fight and collaborate with each other as they battle for domination of the Realm of Light. Read the rest of this entry »

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4th September 2014

Assassin’s Creed Pirates Free To Play

ubisoft canadaUbisoft has announced that Assassin’s Creed® Pirates, the stand-alone Assassin’s Creed® mobile game from the popular franchise, is now free across all platforms. Additionally, a new content update takes players to the Arctic and introduces a legendary new crew member. Read the rest of this entry »

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