Interview

Moblyng talks social games for Android and iPhone

And why a cross-platform strategy is the way forward

Moblyng talks social games for Android and iPhone
Moblyng is one of the increasing number of social games publishers looking to bring titles from online social networks to mobile.

However, unlike many of its rivals, the publisher isn't just focused on iPhone on the latter front. Its first two games, Dungeon Quest and Poker Dice, are available on Facebook, iPhone and Android.

We asked CEO and founder Stewart Putney a few questions to find out more about Moblyng's strategy.

What's your cross-platform strategy about - why is it important to release games on mobile as well as Facebook?

Firstly, many users are not at their desktops all the time, so mobile games let gamers play the same game more often. It is more fun and they maximise the time they spend on the game.

Secondly, in many global markets, the mobile device is the primary - or only - game platform. Our mobile technology will get our games to more markets, more quickly than competitors.

You've targeted iPhone and Android so far, and have said Nokia phones are next up. Is it important to look beyond the iPhone on mobile?

Yes, the mobile market is very fragmented worldwide. To have long-term, sustained growth we expect to have games on multiple platforms; iPhone, Android, Nokia, Pre, Blackberry, etc.

Nokia by itself is still over 40 per cent of the global smartphone market. Our technology allows us to efficiently develop games for all mobile platforms - so we will be able to reach a larger market.

We love the iPhone, but it is still just a fraction of the potential global audience for our games.

What are your thoughts on Android as a platform for social games? Does it have any advantages over iPhone?

Developing casual games for iPhone and Android is pretty similar. While they support different (but well-supported) coding languages, both feature solid browsers and have good developer support.

The Android App store is a very good distribution channel. The main difference is that Android’s app approval process is a bit faster and takes fewer steps than iPhone’s.

What kind of games are you looking to produce? Dungeon Quest is an RPG while Poker Dice is a casual dice game, so it seems quite varied already...

Yes, but both games fall in the “casual” or “social” games segment. That segment is the best fit for our cross-platform technology, and where most of our efforts will be focused.

As for themes for games, the possibilities are limitless and we are producing several varied games currently. We are exploring everything from various types of RPGs to casino, puzzle, quiz and virtual pet games. Stay tuned.

How do you see the challenge of making games work seamlessly across Facebook and mobile platforms, while also making use of some of the unique aspects of mobile? Is it even possible to do both?

It is possible to do both. Our technology makes the coding much less challenging, but we do need to have very good design to be sure users have a consistent experience on different platforms.

We also integrate many of the innate features of each mobile device like gestures, access to contacts, motion/accelerometer, vibration, GPS, sounds, etc.
Dungeon Quest, for example, supports iPhone gestures and allows users to invite friends to play directly from their iPhone contacts (or Facebook Connect).

So far our cross-platform users have been very positive, but we will continue to make sure we have great cross-platform game design.

What are your thoughts on pricing and business models in mobile, and how they compare to Facebook? Are iPhone 3.0's micro-transactions interesting for you?

We make most of our revenue from virtual goods transactions (a small percentage from ads) and the pricing is consistent between platforms.

Overall, user transaction behaviour is mostly consistent across platforms. Conversion rates and ARPU are very good.

Our mobile game pricing is just a way to approximate a virtual goods transaction online. We are looking forward to iPhone 3.0 microtransactions.

Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)