Career Spotlight: Storm8 at Inside Social Apps

San Francisco played host to Inside Social Apps 2013 (ISA) last week, bringing together some of today’s leading social and mobile app developers. Discussions during the two-day summit centered on issues facing the social and mobile app economy, including trends in distribution, monetization, mobile advertising and audience engagement, among many others.

Storm8’s Head of Product Management, Vatsal Bhardwaj, was on hand to share his expert insight on Developing Cross-Platform. The Day One panel featured Storm8 alongside executives from King, Rumble Entertainment, Tilting Point and 5^th Planet Games. Arseny Lebedev of Signus Labs moderated the lively discussion.

With the topic’s focus on designing and marketing games across platforms, one of the first questions Arseny asked of the panelists was to provide an example of a game that really surprised them with its success across platforms. Most panelists named Candy Crush Saga. Candy Crush is by no means the first match-3 game on mobile or on the web, but everyone pointed out that it’s a great example of a game that took a proven game genre and made it better - incorporating new art styles, progression and social features that appealed to the masses.

Continue reading for more key takeaways from the panel!

Read More

Career Spotlight: Storm8 at Pocket Gamer’s Mobile Mixer in San Francisco

**Photos courtesy of PocketGamer.biz

UK mobile gaming publication Pocket Gamer recently brought their successful Mobile Mixer series across the pond to the U.S. Of course, Storm8 was on hand to participate. The series’ second installment was held on Tuesday at Vessel in San Francisco.

Pocket Gamer’s Mobile Mixers unite leading companies and up-and-comers in the world of mobile games development with a mixture of panels, networking and of course, food and drinks. Tuesday’s event was no exception.

By 6:30 pm, the venue was buzzing with some of San Francisco’s gaming industry heavyweights. Storm8’s own Head of Business Development, Quincy Yang, joined a panel that also consisted of executives from Warner Bros. Games, KIXEYE, GREE and Immersion. The discussion was moderated by 148Apps Editor-in-Chief, Jeff Scott.

The panelists shared their expert insight into some hot button topics for the industry: from tackling the increasing challenge of discovery, to knowing when to partner with a publisher, to key trends abroad that are worth watching.

When do you know the time is right to partner with a publisher?

All panelists agreed that partnering with a publisher could help with game discovery, especially for smaller developers, but warned that they also need to be realistic about expectations. Working with a publisher does not guarantee success; the most important part is developing a high-quality and engaging game.

What international trends are worth watching?

The five speakers also recognized the growing popularity of mobile messaging apps in Asia such as Line, KakaoTalk and WeChat – an international trend that they are keeping an eye on given its highly social and viral proposition. 

If you’d like to learn from the best in the industry, join the Storm8 team! Maybe you can attend the next industry event with us as a Stormie! We’re currently looking to fill the roles of Outsourcing Producer, Accounting Manager, and Game Designer (Puzzles Games). If you think you’ve got what it takes, then check out the qualifications after the jump!

Read More

Storm8’s Big Holiday!

Shopping, eating, gifting - just a few of the activities we cherish around the holidays. But guess what? Based on all the activity we saw here at Storm8, it turns out gaming is yet another one to add to that list. The infographics below show what the Storm8 mobile gaming network was up to last week, which illustrates some key takeaways for mobile developers.

2 Million Downloads on December 25!

On Christmas Day alone, Storm8 recorded a whopping 2 million downloads across our mobile gaming network. Two million!  That’s equivalent to more than twice the entire population of San Francisco downloading and playing a Storm8 game, and over 100 times the number of people who visit the Eiffel Tower daily. 

Impressive, but what does this really mean for mobile developers everywhere?

Divert the increased holiday traffic to your games. 

The holidays present a huge opportunity to attract new users. Friends and families give and receive more gifts during the holidays than any other season. With phones and tablets usually among the most popular gift items, it’s the perfect time to check out the hottest and most popular apps. Why not let that be your game? On December 25, we saw a 4x increase in downloads. Also, with more people on vacation from work and school, there’s a bigger chance that players will spend more time in your game. As we see in the graph above, players spent 2.5 million hours playing our games on December 25 alone. 

‘Tis the season for giving and spending.

Players’ willingness to spend is heightened during the holidays with the festive spirit in the air. The graph above illustrates the tremendous potential to increase revenue by being smart about the games you deliver during this season. On December 25, we saw up to 4.5x increase in ARPDAU in some of our most popular games. In addition, by offering holiday-themed content and features, you can keep the spirit of the season alive in your games. Fresh content and new promotions can entice more spending and, in turn, make it a happy holiday for your revenues, too.

Say hello to Bean Dog!

Jewel Mania was an exciting project for the art team here at Storm8. The artists really got to run wild with the theme, content, and art style. We started off with some pretty crazy ideas and slowly distilled them down to create a final look for the game. Concept art is never wasted time. Even if a design doesn’t surface in the final game, every doodle helps inform the final art style.

Read more about our newest game below!

Read More