It's been a long road for the developers working on games for PlayScape's GameCast competition.
And now the winner can be announced.
Ukrainian start-up Pinokl Games has won the $100,000 main prize for its colourful arcade title Fruit Story.
The prize is provided as $10,000 cash, $40,000 funding for the establishment of a local gaming development community, and $50,000 credit for a marketing campaign on the PlayScape platform.
We spoke to programmer Alexandr Ponomariov and artist Eugene Boychenko about their experience.
Pocket Gamer: So tell us more about Pinokl Games?
In September 2011, a small group of inspired people who had never done games before, started to make its first game. After a year, we'd had a great experience and made some small social games, but we wanted more, much more.
Everyone knows the future is mobile games. We knew this too and were looking for ways to get involved.
How did you hear about PlayScape and the GameCast competition?
We visited many of the game conferences in our region, and in autumn 2012, in Kiev, we met PlayScape and learned about the GameCast contest. We decided to take part.
How did you get the idea for Fruit Story?
A game should bring happiness to children and their parents, so we decided to create a game that would will be funny for everyone.
The hedgehog is cute and a fresh character that fits this concept. It's a very nice game.
What was the development process like?
The process was hard enough, but it brought joy after each point that we reached.
The platform - mobile - and PlayScape Studio were both new for us, but the tool is easy to learn and it's powerful enough. You have opportunity to create different kinds of games using the Studio and it's a pleasure to work with.
What stage is the game currently at?
The game is almost ready. We need to polish here and there, add a few new sounds and some comic images in new locations.
We're also looking to tune the gameplay and add a store.
There are lots of mobile games available, so why do you think Fruit Story will stand out?
We feel Fruit Story has brought back the almost forgotten Arcanoid mechanic, but it does it in a new way.
We also think the character's cuteness, the high quality animations and nice interface will help to give every player a feeling of happiness and pleasure.
How did PlayScape Studio help in terms of you building other aspects of the game like monetisation and social interactions?
During development processes, PlayScape was in touch with us and gave us helpful tips especially about the store, monetisation and gameplay.
It also focused much attention on details such as the title screen, menu, and user interface. This helped us improve the game.
What's next for Pinokl Games?
We're just at the beginning of making our own way in game development.
Winning the GameCast contest is a big achievement for us. We will work hard and make new great games for the mobile platform.
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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.
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