Interview

2010 In Review: Michael Schade, Fishlabs

Game quality will improve in 2011, and so must pricing

2010 In Review: Michael Schade, Fishlabs
With a strong history of cutting edge 3D games and working with OEMs to highlight the performance of new devices, 2010 also confirmed German mobile developer Fishlabs as one of the most successful advergames companies. Its work with the likes of Barclaycard and VW garnered tens of millions of downloads.

Yet it was the release of the heavily reworked space trading and combat game Galaxy on Fire 2 for iOS that underlined its reputation and future direction.

Michael Schade is Fishlabs' CEO.

PocketGamer: What was the most significant event of 2010?

Michael Schade: Although it feels like it has been much more than year, I have to remind myself that iPad launched in spring 2010 and has started a revolution in mobile gaming.

Tablet gaming will go through the roof in 2011 with iPad 2 and all the other extremely powerful Android-based tablets to be announced at CES and Mobile World Congress.

The second big event was the the massive growth of Android as a mobile platform in Q3 and Q4.

What was the most significant event for Fishlabs?

For us it was definitely launching Galaxy on Fire 2 on iOS. After re-designing the J2ME version for more than a year with half of the team involved at peak development, it was our biggest investment ever and we are very pleased with how successful the title has been so far.

Furthermore, this version is also an investment into our future as it is the foundation to launch downloadable content, and deploy Galaxy on Fire 2 to more platforms.

What was your favourite mobile game of the year?

There was quite a lot of buzz about games from the big console studios but it was 1137 Game Design's Dark Nebula 2 that really impressed me and kept me engaged for hours.

It's quite a simple yet challenging game that combines different gameplays so nicely and is so polished in every means that every iOS developer should say "Chapeaux!"

What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2011?

Next year will be the big fight of smart mobile platforms for quality content. OEMs will compete for developers to bring their games to iOS, Android and MeeGo.

At the same time the quality of games will improve more and more. OpenGL ES 2.0 shaders and top-notch audio will become standard for premium games on any smartphone and tablet platform. Consequently, production costs will increase tremendously and middleware to deploy titles on several platforms will become much more important.

And as we have seen recently, independent mobile developers will face heavy competition with experienced console and PC games studios, and this is just the beginning.

If you could enforce one New Year's resolution, what would it be?

We hope that enough OEMs understand this whole 99c or even free offering of quality games has diluted most consumers' perception of games on mobile devices. Quality comes at a price, especially with more capable hardware to roll out in 2011.

OEMs have to make sure developers can make a decent profit when they invest into better games. Otherwise we will see only games designed with monetisation on psychological consumer behaviour, and EA and Gameloft playing the 99c game to win the war of choking up the top10 chart positions.

Thanks to Michael for his time.

You can keep up-to-date with Fishlabs' doings at its website.
So how was it for you? If you're in the mobile games development business let us now how you're feeling by filling out our short survey. All results are anonymous but entrants will also get the chance to get the amalgamated data prior to publication plus a 10% discount on our Mobile Games Trends Report.

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.