Today we announced that we have used our ground-breaking ‘moFlow’ games engine technology to instantly convert the critically acclaimed iOS social game ‘Funpark Friends’ to the Android operating system.
The moFlow social mobile games engine, developed in parallel with ‘moMetrics’, a complete data analysis solution, and ‘moConnect’, a complete scalable server and player-account infrastructure solution, allows us to develop 2D and 3D player-to-player applications for iOS and Android devices simultaneously. One of the first of its kind, mo technology provides a multi-platform social mobile development package with support for web, Windows, Mac and other hand-held platforms in the works.
Funpark Friends for Android (released under our ‘Tagplay’ brand) is scheduled for launch early February and will allow players to log-in and play using their cloud-stored game data on any Android or Apple device. What’s more, they will be able to interact with other Funpark Friends players regardless of the devices being used. Our talented Scott Downie, architect of the moFlow engine, outlined how mo technology makes this possible:
“moFlow’s modular design allows functionality to be added or removed dependent upon the specific needs of the game. Application sizes are therefore much smaller than those built with other engines, whilst providing support for a variety of proprietary and 3rd party libraries (including our own moConnect and moMetrics).
Our scalable code solution allows moFlow to take full advantage of multi-core hardware – benefiting current and future platforms without any additional work – and its powerful UI system enables users to customise look and feel across a variety of screen sizes, resolutions and languages.”
When recognising the growing importance and market share of the Android platform we found ourselves, like many independent studios, unable to fully capitalise on the opportunity due to the increasing cost of porting code from the lead iOS platform. moFlow eradicates this problem, allowing us not only the ability to deliver social games which are device agnostic but also launch content on the two largest App markets simultaneously.
Paul Farley, CEO commented:
“With the launch of Funpark Friends on Android using our proprietary moFlow, moConnect and moMetrics technology stack, we have demonstrated not only our continued excellence in game design, but also a technical capability that puts Tag on par, or ahead of the competition. We now look forward to extending platform support beyond mobile and exploring how we can use this technical advantage to help other independent mobile developers deliver better social games, across more markets and at a lower opportunity cost.”
Did you know that there were more clicks on the Funpark Friends bouncy castle by Funpark players last month than people living in Denmark? Or that if all the iPhones/iPods and iPads that have downloaded Funpark Friends since its launch were laid end to end the line would stretch over 6 miles long?
Well, you do now!
Tag’s In-House Data Scientist
As the resident data scientist at Tag it is my job to get to the heart and soul of what makes a good game and, more importantly, how to make it better. I look at what you the players like to do in our games and make sure you can do more of it. I also, again perhaps more importantly, look at what you don’t like to do and ascertain why that is the case so that I may best advise our designers and artists of how to rectify issues in the game’s mechanics which are often at the root of your dissatisfaction. What is cool to note is that this approach to game development is so new that no one else in Scotland is applying data analysis in this way – Tag, it seems, is again leading the curve as far as mobile games development is concerned!
Data Analysis in Games
That is not to say that metrics and analytics are new concepts for games developers however – companies like Zynga and Playfish see these facilities as key in the development of their Facebook games – but it is only now, with the advent of freemium applications, that we are seeing these facilities becoming a core component of the more expanded mobile games industry. Terminology like retention, DAU’s, MAU’s and conversion rates are steadily becoming common place across the mobile games industry and there is a clamour to understand this data as best as possible and as quickly as possible. You only have to look at the success of Zynga and Playfish to understand the effect data analysis can have and why it is becoming as important as it is.
Mobile 2.0
In order for us to be successful in the future then we have to embrace Mobile 2.0 gaming within the free-to-play model. It’s not enough to put a game out for free digital distribution and watch the sales roll in anymore – the service model is all about two way engagement. We want to make the best games possible, but it’s only by listening to what you say and looking at what you do that we are able to make the changes to the game that you want to see.
The Future
What I hope you have taken from this blog is that we at Tag understand that all of our users are key to the on-going development of Funpark Friends and to the development of our future titles. Through playing our games you help to develop our games, so keep playing and thank you!
Wow. Last month Paul left you on quite a cliffhanger, didn’t he?
We had just moved into our new office and had received news that the first social mobile game to be released by Tagplay – the self-publishing sister brand of Tag Games – had passed the Apple review process and was clear to launch on the 1st of October.
Well, here I sit, a mere 25 days later from a successful weekend launch and I am awed by how far we have come, how much we have learned as a studio, and how long ago the launch feels despite only being 25 days ago! So, whilst there have been many awesome new additions to the office that I would love to tell you about – like our new foosball table, our new bean bag brainstorming area, or our new remote controlled flying fishes (yes, you read correctly… and yes, you should be jealous) – this blog update will be dominated by news of the launch of ‘Funpark Friends’, the first social mobile game by Tagplay!
On September the 31st at 11:59pm we took a deep breath, flicked the button on our Apple Account and released Funpark Friends onto Apple’s App Store.
It was dramatic, but to both our joy and relief we had our first customer transaction just one and a half hours later. Truly, that first transaction was an exceptional moment for Tagplay as, despite only being for the sum of £0.69, it represented 9 months and thousands of hours of work coming to fruition. We had released a gorgeous game, built on our very own moFlow engine, supported by our very own server team and which was sending data back to us on how our users were playing the game, allowing us to treat Funpark Friends as it was always intended to be treated – as a service, not as a product. We had done something only a handful of studios in the country had done and we were overjoyed. Funpark Friends was online, it was being played, it was being loved and it was making money.
Of course, the launch of Funpark Friends was not all sunshine and roses. A bump on the road came when we realised that demand for the game was far greater than had been anticipated. The result was that the Funpark Friends server structure became overloaded and many people who had installed the game were simply unable to play the game. This was a huge blow and many potential Funpark Friends players were lost forever. Within the space of a few hours the server structure was expanded to handle the demand, but the damage had been done and a sobering lesson had been taught.
However, despite launching Funpark Friends in a soft manner, and despite the server-demand hiccup, Funpark Friends has had fantastic DAU and retention rates since it was launched a little over three weeks ago. We can only be extremely positive taking Funpark Friends forward into the future then as large return-on-investment is possible from extended market pushes if monetisation of the game is optimised. Certainly, analysis of how our users have interacted with the game thus far has raised a number of issues which can, and are, being addressed in real-time. The capability to react in an informed and speedy manner to such issues will allow us to improve the playing experience of Funpark Friends over time and improve already very palatable customer acquisition and monetisation figures as a result. As previously mentioned, Funpark Friends is service and like all services it must be updated, improved and expanded if it is to be successful.
Our commitment to developing Funpark Friends as a service was exemplified just yesterday when a cut-down HTML5 version of Funpark Friends was released in partnership with the leading mobile social network MocoSpace. This version contains the core gameplay dynamics of the native game and is the first step in bringing the full Funpark Friends experience to web browsers. Additionally, an update of the native iOS Funpark Friends app has been implemented and another content update is due within a few weeks. Finally a HD iPad version of the full game is expected by the end of November.
All of these developments are being conducted with the aim of creating one cross-platform, social, mobile service that will satisfy the demand of our user base for a fantastic casual gaming experience.
There is plenty of work ahead then and plenty to do before Funpark Friends can be the success that it deserves to be. I can only imagine that in another 25 days I will look back on writing this blog update and be in awe again of how much we have learned, how far we have come and how long ago today seems.
It’s been a frantic and high energy couple of weeks here at Tag Games. We’ve started another one of our own social mobile games, had loads of milestones, a final build of Funpark Friends to upload to Apple, a couple of comings, a couple of goings and of course a brand new and rather splendid new office that we now call home!
With our new office we have doubled floor space and everyone is appreciating the extra room. We installed table football today, but despite the demands from certain team members (I’m looking at you Angus) we’ll be stopping short of the 10 pin bowling lane! The local media have been quick to pick up on our plans to increase the team size from just under 30 to around 50. It’s great to be in the spotlight for a few days and it’s satisfying to be adding more positive news stories to Dundee’s gaming history. I hope there are many more to come as we grow to become the #1 indie mobile games company in the world.
Before
After
Thankfully all the major work in moving office has now been completed and this very evening we recieved an email from Apple to say that Funpark Friends has passed review and is clear for launch on Saturday 1st October. Phew!
It’s time to wipe the sweat from our collective brows and get ready for the next chapter in our social mobile gaming adventure. The next couple of weeks are going to see the culmination of over 9 months of hard work and we just can’t wait to share Funpark Friends with you! Watch this week for a game-play trailer and more details on the game and then from next week we have some very special promotions for you to get involved in. Here’s a sneak peak of the special edition T-shirts we’ll be giving away. The prizes only get better from here on in!
Funpark Friends T-Shirts
Hopefully in the next update I’ll be able to share some facts and figures from the Funpark Friends launch. Until then make sure you’re following @Tagplay on Twitter and are watching the Tagplay Facebook page for details on the game and how you can win one of these amazing T-shirts!
You may have noticed that a couple of months ago we launched a new brand called Tagplay, along with a cool new logo (right). The label was set up distinct from Tag Games to allow us to separate the two main activities of the studio, namely self-publishing our own games and developing titles for others. Tag Games carries on as usual working with some of the biggest partners on the planet such as Square-Enix, BBC Worldwide, Endemol, Namco Bandai and many more, whilst all of our own content will be published by Tagplay.
The first game from Tagplay marks our baby steps into social and freemium gaming. Funpark Friends is going to be an awesome free to play game in which the player must build the theme park of their dreams. It’s due for global release on 1st October of this year and we’ve very excited about the opportunity to grow the game over time with weekly and monthly content updates planned. It may start off small, but this is one game that has the potential to become huge! The design team are just bursting at the seams trying to stop coming up with cool game-play ideas and so we know if you have as much fun playing the game as we’ve had making it you’ll be in for a treat!
Funpark Friends will introduce a number of quirky social features allowing players to share the game experience with their friends. One problem with so called social games on mobile is that very few of them are actually all that social. We’ve tried to avoid this kind of response, after all no-one visits theme parks alone! What point is there in taming the wildest of rollercoasters if your friends aren’t there to experience it with you? This won’t be a problem in FPF. You can find out more about Funpark Friends by “Liking” us on Facebook to keep up with the latest info.
In many ways Funpark Friends marks a major shift in the studio as we gear up for games as a service rather than a product. The fundamental way in which we approach the design and development of games has had to change and the personnel and skills needed has expanded as well! So there are a number of new faces to the Tag team including talented Server Engineers Drew and Stephen, Product Evangelist Simon and HTML5 expert Steven. These guys are working hard alongside the game development team to ensure that Funpark Friends is not only the most fun social game on mobile, but also the most stable, reliable and scalable!
This is just the start for Tagplay. These are exciting times to be making indie mobile games and we can’t wait to really get to grips with making elegant social games that you can play at home, on the go or on the can!
Follow Tagplay on Twitter for all the latest on our exciting original games.
Join in the Funpark competition on TouchArcade and get your ride design in the game PLUS win a $100 iTunes voucher.
We are delighted to report that Tag Games has been included in this years “Top 50 Mobile Innovators” awards. This prestigious list is sponsored by O2 Blue Via, published by mobileentertainment.biz and showcases the best the UK has to offer in mobile entertainment innovation.
Taking our hard earned place alongside such illustrious companies as Wapple, Grapple, IdeaWorks3D and usTwo shows that Tag can duke it out with the very best in the industry!
The award entry states:
“This Scots gaming studio has a burgeoning global reputation that has seen it gather an enviable roster of global partners. They include Channel 4, Namco Bandai, Square Enix and more. The BBC chose Tag to create its Dr Who app, while Endemol hired Tag to make Red Ball Challenge, which was based on the hit TV show Total Wipeout.”
High praise indeed for our fully deserving team!
Managing director Paul Farley commented “This is the second time that Tag have made the Mobile Entertainment/O2 Top 50 Innovators in mobile list and yet again it is an honour to be included. This industry recognition of the contribution Tag makes to innovation in our industry comes at an important time as we end the first phase of an extensive period of research and development. We hope that this signifies the start of another successful phase in the development of the Tag group”
We are pleased to announce that Tag Games is 5 years old this week. It’s been a rollercoaster ride for sure, yet despite the ups and down of independant game development and publishing we’ve never been in better shape for the challenges and opportunities ahead. We’ve come along way from humble beginnings in a small cottage in Fife and our first game Dead Water, to an expanding studio with cross platfrom, social, connected and game analytics capability. Not to mention the vast creative capacity and general greatness of our team!
We’re excited because we know the best is yet to come from Tag, this year is a big one for us as we look forward to the release of some of the biggest and most ambitious work for hire and own IP projects we’ve ever undertaken. Thanks must go to all our friends, family, players, users, customers, current clients, future clients and everyone else that has in some way been a part of the story so far. We look forward to the next exciting chapter with anticipation!
Happy 5th Birthday to us!
As part of the Tag birthday celebrations we’ve been running the first ever Tag Hack Day. Five brave teams worked for 24 hours to create a finished game and earn the right to be crowned Tag’s Hack Champions of 2011! It was a close contest with all of the teams demonstrating a large degree of creativity, skill and commitment. Much fun was had, but Hack has a serious side as we learnt again the value of rapid prototyping and iteration in the game development process. It was also great to see our own moFlow and moConnect game engines/platforms going head to head against Unity and bespoke solutions and holding its own! Now that we’ve had a taste of the Hack experience we’ll be going back for more later in the year. Now it’s time for some drinks. Cheers for the good times and the bad, Heres to another five years of fun and games!
After 24 gruelling hours of coding, drawing, designing and eating junk foods our teams are done. We’re all off to grab some lunch before the judging begins later this afternoon. Well done to all the teams for their sterling effort, awesome creativity and sense of humour – even in the face of disaster! We’ll be back with the results of Tag Hack 2011 later. Until then here’s some movies of the finished games. Do get in touch and let us know which is your favourite and why. Who knows if there is enough interest we may well finish some of them off and release them.
Super Rescue Buoy by Thunderdeth
Cantankerous by Bath Toaster
Rescue Robots by TEAM
Flaming Eamon by The Roger Moore Adventure Club
Immunoglobluin by Lowest Visible Sandwich Layer
For those of you interested in the voting system:
Everyone at Tag has ten points to assign in each of four categories (fun, technical excellence, artist excellence, commercial potential), people can’t assign points to their own team. The team with the most points wins. Simples!
We are into the final couple of hours of Tag Hack 2011 here at Tag towers. It’s a seriously hot day here in Dundee. The office would be warm enough without the teams needing to sweat it out in the pressure cooker environment of a Hack day. Thoughts are starting to drift to lunch, the glory of the award ceremony and the beer garden thereafter, but in the final hours the winners and losers will be decided. Now is the time for heroes to emerge from the depths of sleep deprevation. Who will rise to the challenge? Who will stand proud? Who will fund air conditioning for Tag HQ? Stay tuned folks!
Proof that Dundee IS the sunniest city in Scotland
Here’s a quick update on the state of play. Our next post will feature final video from each of the games so it’s now or never for the five teams battling to become Tag Hack 2011 Champions!
ThunderDeth – Super Rescue Buoy
It’s been a tough time for team Thunderdeth. Having never used moFlow they started with a major disadvantage that they have struggled to overcome. “If only we were where we are now 12 hours ago” we overheard. We’ll folks it’s too late now! The team are confident of getting a controlable game character in before the deadline but seem to have already accepted defeat in terms of having game rules implemented. Still they have some nice art…
Nice splash screen but will there be a game?
The Rodger Moore Adventure Club – Flaming Eamon
TRMAC were also slow starters finding their decision to use Box2D a challenge given they had never used it before. It does seem to be a theme that the teams that have done best to this point are working with technology and tools they are familiar with. Maybe something for everyone to remember next time. If there is a next time. All the game art is complete and given Jim rarely works in 2D he seems pretty pleased with the results. Team lead Joe is working hard on the bike controls and physics and along with the other coder Ian are confident they will have something cool by deadline – if a little smaller in scale than what they originally planned.
Looking good baby, looking good!
TEAM – Rescue Robots
One team that don’t seem to be running out of time are team TEAM. “We’re now adding a lot of stuff that we didn’t think we’d get in” they told us. Starting out with the plan to create a simple game with similar rules to Chu Chu Rocket they are now adding more complex game rules such as objects that change the robots colour combined with colour coded gates. “It’s just as important to find the right route as it is to get to the exit” team lead Stan told us. Sounds like they’ve found their USP folks. Having four coders on team has certainly helped get them this far, but will the game be fun to play? Let’s wait and see.
Little people
Game Screen Back Plate
Bath Toaster – Cantankerous
The first thing you’ll notice is that TagTanks is no more. The team finally have a name that they all, pretty much, agree on. Cantankerous it is then. These guys have had an air of smug confidence from the start and with time drawing to a close it looks like its justified. The low dependance on art has worked out well and artist Stewart even had time to return home to the sticks for a good nights sleep before rejoining the team this morning. Facebook functionality is in and all that remains are the implementation of the game rule logic across multi-player. Project lead Tom’s iPhone 4 has stopped working, but we have a feeling this team won’t let that stand in their way.
Ballsy, but could impact on voting behaviour...
It's no lie - they do have tanks
Lowest Visible Sandwhich Layer – Immunoglobulin
Team LVSL have had flexibility at the heart of their approach from the get go. These guys don’t just have a plan B they have a plan Z! It’s been a good call as quickly they realised their original vision was just a touch too ambitions. Coder Stuart was brutally honest “It’s been much harder than we expected really. We had to cut stuff back and Faye (artist) still can’t pronounce the name of the game” The scaled back Immunoglobulin is looking rather fetching all the same and all that remains with all features complete is to merge the various project branches and polish what they have. They aren’t home and dry yet and we’ve overheard they have issues with audio which team lead Kevin will be furious about, so let’s see how this one pans out.
Checks always look good. Except on small screens. Doh!
It’s the morning after the night before and the sun is shining on our hackers here at Tag HQ. The teams have thinned out somewhat during the night but most of team TEAM and team Bath Toaster are here along with a few other stragglers. We’re expecting the teams to be back up to full strength by 9am so we have an opportunity to put TagTanks and Rescue Robots in the spotlight while their competitors are sleeping.
Rescue Robots
The night shift has gone well for team TEAM. The latest work shows a full game screen with close to final character and background art in and working. They may have had the benefit of four coders on the team, but considering they started from scratch it’s already an impressive achievement. The guys are now working on getting the HUD (heads up display) working and adding levels, front end and audio.
TagTanks
They still don’t have a name, but as you can see their game is really coming along well. TagTanks now has working multi-player and the team are now working on the Facebook integration and adding art polish to the game. The video shows play taking place across iPad and iPhone, plus there was rumour of an Android build as well to really show off the power of our internal game tech moFlow. We’ll wait and see if the game is any good, but right now it’s been a fine nights work.
Super Rescue Buoy
It’s been a tough night for the Thunderdeth team and we are yet to see anything resembling a game emerge from their area of the office. The art however is looking good as can be seen in this short video.
Will report on the rest of the teams once they are back in the zone. The 2pm GMT deadline is looming large and there’s still along way to go!
