Nurogames could justifiably make a case for branding itself one of the most successful independent mobile games studio in Cologne. Or, at least, one of the most prolific.
The German outfit has 37 iOS releases under its belt from talking character apps through to licensed releases, such as the official game for the Stallone action movie, The Expendables.
The studio's founders, Jens Piesk and Holger Sprengel, are no strangers to the world of mobile entertainment. Their previous company, Plan_B Media, specialised in serving up downloadable content - ringtones, music, images, movies and games - before smartphones were even on the scene.
But how has Nurogames and, indeed, the burgeoning development scene in Cologne as a whole coped with the industry's switch from largely open feature phones to the walled gardens of iOS and co?
First steps
"In 2006, we started Nurogames in the same city [as Plan_B Media] because of existing connections to potential employees, freelancers and cooperation partners," CEO Piesk tells us.
"Cologne is a great city to start a company. It's a vibrant city with a lot of people working in media and telecommunication, here and in both Bonn and Düsseldorf, which are close by."
Jens Piesk
Setting up a new games business in Cologne was not always Piesk and Sprengel's main plan, however.
In the early days of Nurogames, the studio acquired a smaller outfit and, as a result, almost moved away from the city for a new life in the German capital.
"We acquired the assets of Lieblinx Games in Berlin and were thinking about a move to their headquarters there," says Piesk.
"Berlin is a fantastic city and a good hub for game developers with good funding opportunities, but we already had our team here and we only had a small office with three people working there."
Still, Piesk admits, there are more opportunities for both funding and support in both Berlin and Hamburg.
"Above all," admits Piesk, "in Berlin, the investment bank of the federal government is investing in game developers."
Lonely in Cologne
So why choose to stick it out in a city without a track record in mobile games development, and where support for the studios operating there is comparatively thin on the ground?
In short, sometimes the heart rules the head: Piesk loves Cologne, and he'd rather stay in his home than follow the money to Berlin.
One change Nurogames did make, however, was to abandon the firm's previous company's drive to deliver ringtones and other forms of media in favour of developing for smartphones a sector Piesk believed in from early on.
"The games market had been growing very quickly at that time, with a lot of disruption and new platforms arising," Piesk says.
"The know-how about making good games was there, as well as great people who wanted to continue to work on games. So the decision was easy to take."
Starting a games company in a small city that's yet to build a strong reputation for game development, of course, presents a unique set of challenges.
Without much of a community to call on, Cologne is a different entity to many of the other hubs we've covered on PocketGamer.biz in recent months.
There's no great network of other indie devs for those setting up shop in Cologne to call on it's a city, from a mobile development sense at least, that's just starting out.
"There is not such a big game developer community like in Hamburg or Berlin, so there is less networking and collaboration," Piesk claims.
"Furthermore, there is no University offering education in game development. The Cologne Game Lab of the University of Applied Sciences is a great institution, but only offers postgraduate masters.
"They started four years ago and have got a great schedule and a very good team, but they should get more financial and political backing."
Transmedia: Opportunities in disguise
What Cologne does have, however, is an enormous media industry, from TV and film, to mobile network operators and internet media firms.
It's an atmosphere that, for the handful of local developers who have taken a punt on Cologe, presents a massive opportunity for collaboration between mobile games and so-called transmedia brands an opportunity denied those operating in less media-savvy cities in Germany
Naturally, Nurogames is excited about the future possibilities of working with such companies.
Nurogames offices
"The existence of various major television channels in Cologne, as well as lots of production companies, offers great cooperation possibilities," says Piesk.
"This opportunity is, to our mind, not yet very well exploited, but is a big chance for all companies involved. There are a lot of collaboration and cross-promotion options which will be advantageous for developers in Cologne.
"Television and film IP are more and more developed, taking game development in consideration for further monetisation and cross-promotion. This is a strategy which Nurogames wants to step into."
In addition to these business opportunities, game development is also supported by the regional government in North Rhine-Westfalia.
"The Film and Medienstiftung of the regional government just started a program to give interest-free loans for selected projects of game developers," Piesk tells us.
"They are eager to foster the support for game development in the future, but the amounts are not very high. They are not enough to push production and distribution of games."
That's an issue we took up with the managing director of said funding programme one you can
find on PocketGamer.biz later this week.
Beyond Gamescom
Cologne's other advantage, of course, is Gamescom. While a massive industry event can't sustain a local development scene all of its own, the annual influx of important people from around the globe certainly can't do any harm.
The convention originally started out in Leipzig but moved to Cologne's larger convention centre to cope with its rapid growth. The show now claims to be larger than E3 and Nurogames is looking forward to the benefits it brings.
"It is always great to see all the important people of the global games market coming to Cologne," says Piesk.
"We try to meet as many people as possible and network as much as possible."
Given Gamescom has now been based in Cologne for several years, is why has a show of this size not inspired more interest in video game development in this city?
"In other states and cities of Germany, game developers have got more support from the public, like in Hamburg and Berlin," Piesk argues.
"Another reason is the [lack of] education of game focused staff at institutions and universities. The great success of big players in several cities triggered the creation of other developers too, for example Bigpoint in Hamburg."
It would appear that, if Cologne is to extend its influence beyond one week in August every year, support beyond Gamescom is going to be key.
The opportunities are there to spark something of a development explosion, Piesk argues, but additional education and funding is needed if games are ever to compete with film and television for position of top dog in Cologne.
Come back to PocketGamer.biz tomorrow for an interview with The Good Evil, a two-person indie studio also hoping to make its mark in Cologne.
