Get a job with Wooga, Nintendo eyeballs Kim Kardasian, and dying indie dev dreams

We round up the top five stories from last week

• 1 DeNA West CEO points to Kim Kardashian Hollywood as example of how its brand-meets-backend Nintendo deal could work

  

  DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako took the opportunity of Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco to shine some light on his company's partnership with Nintendo.

  While Nintendo approaches games as a product, DeNA comes at them as a service, reinforced by its history as an ecommerce platform.

  "Nintendo has by far the best gaming IP," said Asako. "DeNA's expertise is definitely backend."

  In this vein, he pointed to the Kim Kardashian game as a prime example of how such a partnership can work.

  Even with a fun game built in a good engine, discoverability can still be an issue. But attaching that game to a strong IP is an easy way to secure a massive audience.

  Since its creation in 1999 DeNA has pursued this strategy, partnering with top companies like Disney, Marvel and Star Wars to leverage their brands.

  
  

• 2 Game Insight on why mobile games need to move beyond 5-minute toilet sessions

  

  Former Unity Evangelist Oleg Pridiuk sat down with Matt Suckley at Unite 2015 to chat about Games Insight in his new role leading their push into 3D games development.

  The first thing Pridiuk was keen to point out was that this new 3D vision in no way affects the firm's support-driven approach and games-as-a-service sensibilities.

  “What we're trying to bring into the market - the mission is to raise the bar for quality,” says Pridiuk.

  “And not just the quality of textures or gameplay, but also the user experience.

  “We also believe that the industry, the players, the market - all three sides - they are ready, or going to be ready soon, for less casual and more hardcore games,” Pridiuk argues.

  “You can call it midcore, you can call it early-hardcore - I mean, the definition of hardcore on PC and mobile is different, so what is hardcore? But the industry is ready for the kind of games [in which] you need to invest your time... where your sessions are not 5-minute toilet sessions.”

  
  

• 3 Why the full-time indie game development dream is dead

  

  Stateside columnist Carter Dawson was blunt in this week's entry - he believes the full-time indie game development dream is gone.

  "It's rough, but the problem is that the supply of game developers and games is steadily increasing to the point that most additional games added to the app stores don't matter.

  We see even developers on Steam now seeing diminished returns.

  It's gotten so bad that developers are falling in love with a dying platform, Wii U, somehow viewing it as greener pastures than mobile.

  Yes, the market is officially messed up."

  Unfortunately, he doesn't see the situation getting better any time soon.

  "With tools getting cheaper and easier to use, with new countries emerging as game development powerhouses, and the fact that weekend warriors can crowd the same marketplaces as full-time developers, the full-time indie has a rough future."

  You can read the full piece by clicking above.

  
  

• 4 From Marvel Contest of Champions to Frozen Free Fall: Disney on the power of its brands

  

  Kicking off the first day of Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco 2015, VP of Disney Interactive Chris Heatherly explained where mobile games fit into the Disney corporate universe; the process in which they partner with studios; and what they’ve encountered when bringing their catalog of beloved IPs to mobile gaming.

  He outlined how mobile games had become a key part of Disney's strategy, and form a new way for it to connect with its audience.

  We think about games as audience engagement machines and a storytelling medium,” Heatherly said.

  An example of audience engagement is Disney’s Club Penguin website in which any fan art submitted is instantly displayed and archived on the site as a means to cultivate a meaningful relationship with their audience, who previous were separated through theater groups and cable providers.

  
  

• 5 How to get a job at Berlin mobile developer Wooga

  

  Vera Termühlen has just been appointed Wooga's new head of HR, so what better time to ask exactly how one would go about getting a job with the Berlin-based developer?

  According to Termühlen "We are always looking for outstanding product people, engineers and artists in order to be able to continuously create hit games. Currently we are recruiting for a Senior Systems Designer and for Engineers.

  "We’re also exploring new territory and are on the look-out for someone to join our team as Apple Watch Product Lead and help us come up with innovative games for this new and exciting platform."