November 9th, 2010 by Arjan Olsder Posted in Analysis & Editorial | 1 Comment »
Russel Kay, one of the gaming veterans in Dundee and currently CTO of YoYo Games Ltd. took the stage to discuss the state of fragmentation for the mobile industry and how their Game Maker software might be a solution.
YoYo Games ia a four year old outfit started by people that have been working in various gaming positions for many years. The company recently settled down in Dundee.
One of their key products is Game Marker, first released in 1999. The Lite version of Game Maker (PC) has been downloaded over 2 million times since 2003. The pro version only sets you back $25. 60% of downloads come from the US. Game Maker allows users to create games without the need of any coding.
YoYo Games attracts 1.5 million visitors a month. It has 100.000 games online and 50-150 new ones are submitted a day. Games can be played, rated and reviewed. The community holds 305.000 members. 2/3 play games, 1/3 play them. The youngest game developer is 8 years old.
Up to now, developers can do whatever they want with the games made in Game Maker. They can publish their games for free, publish them through a big publisher etc etc. Starting this year, the company will be adding their own development services. Games made in Game Maker can be published on mobile platforms like the PSP and iPhone. It is not a one click solution yet, so YoYo games will offer this service only to selected games.
9 Games will be on iPhone and iPad before Christmas. 2 games will be online on the PSP at that same time and Android support will be added early 2011.
So to conclude, technologies like Flash allow deployment on many platforms already, but a tool like Game Maker allows developers to enter platforms that would benefit from native development instead.
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