With the arrival of Scopely's LevelUp, there's yet another mobile gaming platform in town.

Scopely's platform differentiates itself, though, with a focus on quality, free-to-play multiplayer gaming.

The idea is that LevelUp will make itself valuable to gamers be offering a tightly curated selection of titles. That's a promise that's been made by various companies before, of course, but the company's insistent that it can keep the quality bar high.

Scopely's own Bubble Galaxy With Buddies is the first game on the platform, but the company's actively seeking other developers to work with – so long as their games are high-quality.

To find out more about the platform and its mechanics, we caught up with Scopely's resident game designer Travis Chen, a games industry veteran who's credits include the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series.

Pocket Gamer: What is the LevelUp platform?

Travis Chen: LevelUp is an exclusive platform for multiplayer games that provides independent developers with the technology, distribution, and monetisation capabilities of the largest developer/publishers in the mobile market.

How will you handle monetisation on the platform?

LevelUp derives the majority of its revenue from advertising and in-app purchases.

Due to the social format of the games built on the LevelUp platform, as well as Scopely's in-house ads team, we are able to monetise non-paying users at extremely high rates.

Additionally, LevelUp employs a sophisticated, multi-faceted approach to optimising in-app purchasing.

How will LevelUp help solve the problem of discovery?

LevelUp uses proprietary analytics to optimise all forms of user acquisition in real-time.

We cross promote games to millions of existing users, drive virality with LevelUp's integrated social mechanics, and use Scopely's relationships with all the major traffic sources to ensure that games built on the LevelUp platform reach the widest possible audience.

How will the LevelUp platform look and operate from a consumer perspective?

LevelUp will support some of the most polished and innovative social games in the mobile market.

All of the social mechanics, from push notifications to Facebook invites, will be seamlessly integrated into the gaming experience. Additionally, LevelUp's free-to-play model will allow anyone to discover and enjoy our games.

You plan to be selective in your choice of partners. What kind of game developers would you be interested in hearing from?

A variety of games will be built on the LevelUp platform, from casual to mid-core, but the overall quality of the gaming experience is what will remain constant.

We are interested in hearing from developers big and small who want to create engaging social experiences that are attractive to mass audiences.

We are most interested in teams who have demonstrated their ability to create fun, engaging games and who are looking to reach even larger audiences and generate significantly more revenue.

Scopely has a focus on multiplayer. How will this manifest itself in the LevelUp platform?

Mobile devices are inherently social, and we believe that mobile games should reflect this concept.

All LevelUp games will be multiplayer experiences, and one of the most exciting aspects of LevelUp is that gamers will be able to interact with their actual friends, not only against random faceless opponents.
Thanks to Travis for his time.