Gun Bros = Genius

If you've not played Gun Bros on your mobile phone yet, what are you doing?

I think this game will set many best practices for all computer games (eg. not just mobile games) in the future.

I'll ignore the great game, stunning graphics and high production value on this blog. These items are obvious for all to see. It's the nature of the payment system and the devices around this to incentivise content purchase that are most interesting to me.

Take the top five future gaming trends I identified in December. Glu have managed to integrate three of them seamlessly. The 'sharing your Gun Bro' concept is number four on my list virtually word for word. It's just ridiculously clever.

Great work Glu.

So what does a Chairman do?

I've been a bit busy of recent with many things I can't put online, yet. Sorry blog. However, here is one item that has gone out as a press release so I guess this is therefore public knowledge...

TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, has today announced a drive to raise the profile and to support casual games creators in the UK. Central to this is the creation of a Casual Games Committee designed to support companies creating games of all formats with production budgets between £10,000 and £300,000.

Mike Hawkyard has been appointed acting Chairman of the Committee. He is co-founder of 4T2, an award digital winning agency specialising in creating online games for children. The move from TIGA comes in response to exponential growth in casual gaming platforms, development software and methods of monetising content.

The Committee has been set up to ensure UK games producers can take full advantage of these commercial opportunities through advising on best practice, identifying new trends, organising discounts on software, developing strategic partnerships, providing networking events and offering marketing support.Membership of the Casual Games Committee is open to all TIGA members who develop casual games.

Mike Hawkyard commented: “The UK has a tremendous amount of skill in the casual games market. Our goal is to utilise this collective talent, helping all of our members deliver the highest quality of gaming experience, at a lower cost, to a larger audience.”

Dr Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, said:
“TIGA’s vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. The UK has successful and dynamic casual game developers, including Kempt, 4T2 Multimedia, Neon Play, Kerb Digital, Playniac, Koko digital, Stick Sports and Matmi. TIGA, through our new Casual Games Committee, will work to advance the interests and to promote commercial opportunities for casual game developers.”

If you work in a UK company looking to join this group, create software / services that would benefit our members or organise any event where this subject is relevant please email mike@TIGA.org for more information.

So please do email me and let me know how I can help!

Porting to Flash

Porting Wii games to Flash 11 and Unity would appear to be the up coming trend in San Francisco GDC. Using your mobile phone as the controller seems obvious. Thus I guess the biggest online game of 2012 will be some derivative of Mario Carts where you use your Android phone as the steering wheel. Further more it will generate revenue via virtual or cash based micro payments.

But one mystery remains... Why are American male toilets so low to the floor? Are they expecting an invasion of dwalves with bladder problems?