As well as latest hit Into the Dead - already over 12 million downloads - it's just released Turbo Racing League, a tie-in with Dreamworks' Turbo film.
But it's more than just a mobile developer.
As managing director Mario Wynands points out, it will be releasing games at least across iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360 in 2013.
So we had plenty of questions to ask...
Pocket Gamer: For those who don't know about PikPok, can you provide us with a potted history?
Mario Wynands: As a company, PikPok actually celebrates our 16 year anniversary in May - much longer than the PikPok digital publishing label itself has been in existence.
We actually started developing console retail games under the brand Sidhe, and worked for many years across console, handheld and PC developing games like GripShift and Shatter, Speed Racer The Videogame, and Rugby Challenge.
However, we aspired to be self-funding and self-publishing to take more creative and commercial control into our own hands, which has ultimately led to PikPok.
Originally a PSP title, GripShift was also released on PS3 and Xbox 360
PikPok, then, is the realisation of our publishing aspirations, being a leading digital publisher across mobile, tablet and desktop.
You have a great balance of work-for-hire projects and original IP. How to you manage to sustain that balance?
Strictly speaking, we don't really do work-for-hire projects any more, as we are mainly focused on creating original IP or licensing brands and third-party developed titles to publish.
The exception to this is our relationship with Adult Swim which I'd actually characterise as more of a strategic longer term partnership than work-for-hire.
Aside from being great to work with creatively, Adult Swim as part of the Turner group and with a footprint on television gives us access to a large TV audience that we couldn't otherwise reach through other means, at least not cheaply.
The mutually beneficial collaboration we have with them certainly is of benefit to the studio beyond the outcomes of individual products.
Why is such collaboration good?
Working with other studios and creatives is very important to help enable new ideas, techniques, and knowledge to come into the studio.
A recent Adult Swim-PikPok collaboration is Robot Unicorn Attack 2
There is so much competition and change happening at such a pace that you can't stay across it all as an individual entity, so complementary partnerships, which result in strong innovation and diverse quality content, can help you stay ahead of the curve.
How difficult is it for a company based in New Zealand to work with the big US media outfits?
I think the key challenge is perhaps less to do with distance and more to do with culture. New Zealanders tend to be very practical and humble to the point of self deprecation which contrasts heavily with the American style of business that often requires a bold and brash approach.
Americans just tend to assume by default you are over-promising and will under-deliver, and mentally adjust your sales pitch or communication on the basis of that assumption.
In order to overcome this, you need to have strong dialogue and build up a level of trust and understanding over time, well beyond what a local business might require.
Beyond that hurdle there are really only opportunities though.
The Lord of the Rings films have boosted local expertise
New Zealand creatives and technicians are very well respected worldwide, and there is demand to collaborate once people can see what we are capable of.
If the New Zealand industry can find a strong voice to promote and evangelise ourselves, building on the successes we have already had from here, then I think we have a chance to establish a very strong reputation with industry and consumers in both the US and around the world.
Historically, you've always been strong on sports games but it seems that more recently you're been focusing more on casual genres. Is that just the way the market's moved, or should we expect more sports stuff from PikPok?
The studio has had a long history with sports, and we continue to consider sports games a cornerstone of our portfolio. We have multiple sports titles in development currently, in fact.
However, we do see many opportunities outside of that genre, and want to build a balanced portfolio, not only across genres but also mixing original IP, licenses and brands, and third-party developed titles.
The motivations for this are creative as well as commercial.
Your latest game Into The Dead has just hit 10 million downloads. What was the inspiration for the game, did you ever play Distinctive Development's Dead Runner?
Dead Runner was indeed an inspiration for Into the Dead, along with Zombie Highway. I played both of those games a lot, impressed by the immersion of Dead Runner and the compulsion loop of Zombie Highway.
I saw an opportunity to take the great aspects of those games and marry them together in something that provided the feel of a first person shooter, but with the accessibility and immediacy of an endless runner.
I wrote up an initial design treatment based on that premise and 10 months or so later Into the Dead was the result.
How big do you think it can go, given its horror theme?
Horror seems to have had a real resurgence in recent years in movies, TV and videogames. I don't think you could quite say that horror was mass market, but there is a large, appreciative audience that is hungry for horror content.
Just a few weeks on, the game is now at 12 million downloads so there is still good momentum that suggests ongoing success and strong long term growth potential.
We continue to invest in the title on the basis of that potential, so more Into the Dead updates and content are on the way.
What's your view on free-to-play gaming?
We've had great success with free-to-play gaming, and huge success with advertising within that. We are fully behind free-to-play as a model and pretty much everything we do from here on in will use it.
For us, free-to-play is a vital tool for overcoming the challenge of discovery. We have confidence that once gamers have taken the opportunity to play our games that they will want more, investing their time and money as a result.
If we can lower the barriers to get the gamer to give our games a try then we see more success on the back-end. And an entry price of zero is about as low as that barrier can get.
PikPok has historically been an iOS shop, so what's your take on the different platforms that are now available?
PikPok has certainly made a name for ourselves on mobile, though as mentioned we have a console background and this year will actually be releasing titles across iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, PS3, and Xbox 360.
We have developed for many more platforms over the years, seeing them come and go. Really, we've been quite platform-agnostic.
We have a developing multi-platform strategy that will see our games across a wide variety of platforms, giving us the opportunity to reach a wide range of consumers and to reach the same consumer in multiple gaming contexts. Evaluating these new platforms as they arise is therefore really important.
Some platform decisions are more obvious than others. Relatively mature platforms like iOS, Android, PC and Mac are our primary targets as they are a known quantity that can produce somewhat predictable outcomes.
Boutique platforms such as Ouya and GameStick, I think we'll need to see prove themselves before we make a meaningful commitment.
While they are likely to attract very dedicated and engaged audiences who will likely monetise well, the install bases are going to be relatively low compared to other platforms so the opportunity cost of targeting those platforms over others may just be too high.
We'll be keeping a close eye on them for sure, and may look to experiment with a title or two on them in the next year.
As well as developing, you've been getting into publishing. How difficult is it to balance the different requirements of these operations?
We've been fortunate that as we have evolved our studio that we have been able to grow our publishing function organically.
We have always been proactive in marketing our games and with community engagement, so moving into a formal publishing role has merely been a formalisation of process and adequately resourcing these functions over time. It has been a slow but natural progression in that sense.
The move from self-publishing to now publishing third-party content has been a really exciting one and being able to work with talented developers such as Goodboy Digital [Twang the Fox] has been very rewarding.
Coming from that development background, we have an appreciation for the challenges of the development process, and feel we can help the games themselves be the best they can be via lending our expertise as well as picking up the more traditional PR, marketing, and promotional aspects of publishing.
We are still finding our feet around this, but having published some great third-party games already with more on the way is making us increasingly confident.
Thanks to Mario for his time.
