Each weekend we’ll be rounding up a selection of the most interesting articles related to mobile and the games industry at large.
This week includes Nerial's Francois Alliot on designing the gameplay mechanics for Reigns, an interview with Supercell's Ilkka Paananen on his aim to be the world's least power CEO, the fall of Mad Catz, awkward multiplayer moments and more.
See an article you think we should share? Email PocketGamer.biz Craig Chapple at craig.chapple@steelmedia.co.uk to add it to our weekly round-up.
Video: The casual (but regal) swipe: Creating game mechanics in Reigns
"In this GDC 2017 session, Nerial developer Francois Alliot explains how the Reigns development team gave themselves a set of constraints defined by the swipe-based gameplay they were exploring to help create the tone they wanted to give to the game."
Why Supercell’s founder wants to be the world’s least powerful CEO
"At one point during the development of Boom Beach, which we launched in 2014, basically everyone in the company wanted to kill it – except the cell who made it. I was thinking, what should we do? In the end, we went with what the Boom Beach team thought, because that’s the culture of Supercell. And thank god we did, it’s been a huge hit."
How Mad Catz used up its last life
"My first response was: 'I can't believe it lasted this long'," says former Mad Catz VP and Tritton founder Chris von Huben, who left the firm in 2014, says. "In my mind, Mad Catz had been doomed for three years."
Electronic Arts gets a galaxy of money from its Star Wars mobile game
"The decision to get a multi-year license to use/publish Star Wars on games from Disney (DIS) is paying off well for Electronic Arts (EA). After almost 18 months since launch, EA’s Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is still the company’s top-grossing mobile game."
Awkward Moments in Multiplayer Gaming: You’re a Sixth Grader?
"To weed out immature players, some squad leaders conduct interviews like a crafty human-resources manager. Daniel Acosta, a 47-year-old health-care professional, is a gatekeeper for his guild in “Summoners War”. He asks team applicants, by text, about their strategies for collecting the crystals used to acquire monsters and defeat opponents."
A presentation of 355 slides covering trends in games, mobile, the cloud, the internet and many other sectors around the world. It includes key research and stats about what's happening in these industries and the technology sector at large.
"I consider the information in this video to be extremely important, especially when it comes to SM64 analysis (e.g. can Mario dive recover onto this box?). In fact, I've been using this information for years to help me execute strats (e.g. clipping through two walls at a corner when I have less than 400 speed) and quickly dismiss impossible strats (e.g. even if we had enough speed, we couldn't launch to above the chests in JRB since that's above a ceiling). And so now, I've finally compiled all of this knowledge into one video so that everyone has access to it."
