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 a look inside the world of hardcore Pokemon GO players, an interview with Monument Valley 2 producer Adrienne Law, insights on Facebook Instant Games, and how Vainglory can compete with its new rival Honor of Kings.
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.
Inside the hardcore 'Pokemon GO' community
"I decided to jump in headfirst, not yet knowing what I'd gradually uncover: these waters churn with bitter turf wars, massive egos, baseless accusations, and at least one real world confrontation that was broken up by police."
"The Pocket Gamer Podcast chats with Monument Valley 2 producer Adrienne Law about mobile's premiere art-puzzler series."
Developers share insights on designing for Facebook Instant Games
"Instant Games represents an important confluence for developers able to get onboard early, a new platform still finding its identity that reaches a large, underserved audience."
How Vainglory Can Compete with Honor of Kings
"If Vainglory can grow faster, they will be able to stop Honor of Kings from eating their lunch. Vainglory is a better game and people won’t switch to a crappier game if they get hooked with Vainglory first. More growth will lead to more streamers, more YouTubers, and more professional eSports teams. In essence, more marketing and growth will lead to even more growth."
Playing the games found behind clickbait adverts
"Listening to stories of the inter-order wars, player-made alliances, back-stabbings and other political intrigues show that there’s plenty of human-created depth in what was, on a mechanical level, described as a 'mindless' game by some of its own players."
"Developers no longer have to rely on 3rd party plugins to ensure that their games can be played. Additionally, with HTML5 working well in most mobile browsers too, cross-platform deployment can be done with a single version of a game instead of creating native apps for each platform. This technology has existed for a decade, but now it has reached a point that it can compete toe-to-toe with plugins."
Interview: Let the ladder do the lifting
"When you look at TV shows, computer games – we think there’s a missed opportunity [for education]. There’s always a really interesting point to be made about something in there, and it’s often being left behind. So one really good example of that would be that Angry Birds misses the opportunity to talk about trigonometry. And actually, it makes trigonometry really fun. That’s just an example. There’s no harm in it, but we see an opportunity there.
Netmarble's acquisition shopping list
"From now on, we will be more open and diversified in identifying targets and areas. We're very interested in finding and working together with smaller studios whose capabilities we're missing in specific areas so we can be a more influential player and better appeal to US users."
Arms at length: The big Nintendo interview
"Something that we as development staff at Nintendo are always being told, and a point that's hammered home by Mr. Miyamoto and senior staff, is 'are you making something new? Are you making something different? Are you making something unique, that hasn't been seen before?' That consideration is something we're always thinking about. That consideration about newness cuts across all genres."
Why the man who oversaw Tomb Raider turned his back on games
“Angel of Darkness just about killed us all, and it was a life-changing experience for everyone involved in it - and not necessarily a great one."
