We started the new year with a bang: Our most successful iPhone ad game, Barclaycard Waterslide Extreme, has cracked 10 million downloads, Rally Master Pro™ will be released –  for free (!) – in an extra high resolution Symbian version for Sony Ericsson Satio™ and Vivaz™ in a few days, and we recently launched a new iPhone game for Volkswagen: Volkswagen Think Blue. Challenge. This iPhone promotional game we are particularly proud of, because usually promotional games are inferior to regular commercial games for reasons of budget, and the subject of fuel saving is rather uncommon in games. Nevertheless, we were able to turn all that into a high-quality, exciting game, as even the folks at toucharcade declared (a great honour!). You see, promotional games can be quite entertaining, and so you can look forward to at least two more free  casual games, that will be launched by this summer.

Fresh games for iPhone, iPad & friends

Of course, this year, we aren’t just developing ad games for iPhone and iPad and revamping existing iPhone games for other smartphones; we are also working on several completely new titles. With a racing game that has music as an essential component, we are entering new territory. We can’t tell you too much, but the first playable version caused quite a sensation both in-house and with marketing partners.

Along with our iPhone and iPad developments, we also want to put out feelers towards Android this year. As with the iPhone before, we will first port our casual games, like Burning Tires™, to get a feel for the new platform. If the effort proves worth the trouble, we will definitely follow up with more titles. Beyond that, we are working on a AAA title closely together with Nokia featuring OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics for a large screen.

Reunion with Keith on iPhone, iPad and Nokia Smartphones

It’s been at least a year since we ported our most important brand to the iPhone: Galaxy on Fire™. Our 3D space shooter with open gameplay and RPG-like equipment options for spaceships is still unchallenged in the AppStore. But despite heavily pepped up graphics and crisp sound, GoF on the iPhone cannot deny its Java origins and its five-year old design. Sci-fi action fans will be glad to hear that we have been working on converting Galaxy on Fire™ 2 to the iPhone and other smartphones since October.

The sequel to the space epic has set standards in the Java field similar to Part 1 and, thanks to the even more open game design, offers significantly greater potential to be a megahit on the iPhone. So you can look forward to seeing Keith and other acquaintances from the first part once again later this year and play the Alien part for the first time in the Mission Pack in summer. And to keep the wait from being all too boring, we will keep you up-to-date with the status of the development with a regular developer’s diary.

Become a fan of FISHLABS on Facebook for instant updates on all current projects.

Casual Connect in Hamburg, from 10. – 12. February 2010 right at the front-door of FISHLABS 

We are very pleased to attend Casual Connect with three topics on the second day. Casual Games Association Events are the premiere events for the casual games industry with over 3,500 professionals attending Casual Connect Events each year. Casual Connect Europe brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning.

This year FISHLABS is among the front runners: With 10 iPhone Games and more than 21 Millionen downloads we are now ranked as one of the top players worldwide.

At Casual Connect we are attending three panels:

What’s the Smart Choice in Smartphones?

Attendees:
Alex BUBB, Senior Partner Manager, Media and Games Nokia
Joe NEALE, Head of End User Programs Symbian Foundation
Michael SCHADE, CEO FishLabs
Moderator:
Chris JAMES, Founder Pocket Gamer

Smartphones are the new black in the mobile content world, but who are the main players and which of the many new platforms and accompanying app stores should you be supporting? Our expert panel of platform representatives and publishers offer an invaluable guide from Android to Windows Mobile.

Case Study: Ad-Funded Games

Speaker: Michael SCHADE, CEO FishLabs

Smartphones are on their way to become the most engaging media in everyone’s life. Millions of downloads with hundred thousands of hours game time make ad games on smartphones like iPhone, Android and other new mobile platforms the Trojan horse for brands to cut through the daily media noise. Learn from best practices with Volkswagen and Barclaycard how to engage with consumers on a global level in a long-lasting and lean-forward experience.

Business Models & Pricing – Making Money on the App Store

Attendees:
Nicholas LOVELL, Director GAMESbrief
Michael SCHADE CEO, FishLabs
Christopher KASSULKE, CEO HandyGames GmbH
Moderator:
Tim HARRISON Founder The Mobile Consultancy

The iPhone has well and truly shaken up mobile games pricing, enabling a wide variety of new business models. This session examines these models and key pricing trends from the initial rush to the bottom to the emerging premium bracket along with micro-payments, lite and free versions, subscriptions and asks the simple question…which models are making money?

Of course there will be enough time for chats and discussions after and in between the panels and we look forward to many inspiring conversations.

Apple has just announced its most successful non-Christmas quarter ever with incredible 5,2m iPhones and 10.2m iPods sold. Since launch, that’s about 45m iPhones and iPod touches and users have downloaded 1.5b applications from the App Store so far. That’s 33 applications per iPhone or iPod touch user. Congrats to that and we could not be more happy about Apple’s success as we are making close 60% of our revenue with iPhone games so far. However, there were a lot of talks about the new iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0 might drive fragmentation which could be a serious threat to the developer community and the success of the App Store in the long term.

Since there is hardly any reliable data available how many devices and which operating system is used we thought we share some figures based on Barclaycard’s Waterslide Extreme, developed off the back of the iconic Barclaycard ‘waterslide’ ad, based on a concept by Dare Digital and developed by FISHLABS (obviously).

Since Waterslide Extreme is a casual game appealing to a broad audience and currently the most downloaded app in pretty much every country (more than 2m downloads within 5 days) we think it gives a pretty good overview of the current installed base.

How many iPhones? How many iPod touches?

Let us start with the iPhone and iPod touch statistics. Most of you know already there are slight differences among the iDevices. As a developer, you want to know how many potential users you might lose if you optimize your app (game) to the more powerful devices like the iPod touch 2nd gen and especially the iPhone 3GS, of course. Respectively, you might consider providing different sets of graphical assets, for instance. 

All data records have been collected anonymously, no back-tracking to individual users possible

As we can see clearly, iPhone 3G and the iPod touch 2nd gen are the most popular devices with pretty much identical market share around 38% each. The iPhone 3GS is around 12,5% and given the short time it is available that’s a pretty remarkable chunk, already.

We at FISHLABS optimize our upcoming games for the performance level of iPod touch 2nd gen which give us a great game experience on close to 90% of the iDevices (iPod touch 2nd gen, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS) out there. For the first iPhone and iPod touch 1st gen we reduce some of the graphic features, like disabling vertex coloring or reducing the viewing distance accordingly. On the other hand, it is just too early to come up with a dedicated high-end version supporting the OpenGL ES 2.0 for iPhone 3GS. Even more critical if you think about an app (game) that relies on exclusive iPhone 3GS features.

How many iPhones and iPod touches with OS 3.0?

Most developers are very excited about the new iPhone OS 3.0 features like in-app purchasing, push notification, Bluetooth multiplayer and many more. But when is the right time to launch apps, and games in particular, utilizing these new features. Check out the next chart for your consideration.

 
All data records have been collected anonymously, no back-tracking to individual users possible

If you are up for an app (game) with the new iPhone OS 3.0 features you face about 60% of the total potential user base. Still quite a lot people you can reach out to but it will be very hard to rise to the top 25 if your thrust of downloads is cut by up to 40% (some may upgrade for killer apps, though) compared to any competing OS 2.x app. For sure, Apple will promote apps (games) with OS 3.0 features to compensate that. Seems like risky business once the promotion has ended, though. We haven’t decided yet when to launch our first iPhone game utilizing OS 3.0 features. Perhaps launching a game with OS 2.x features first and when the hype is over running an update with OS 3.0 features is a good idea. Of course, this won’t work for apps (games) that rely on OS 3.0 features completely.

Success or failure of each and every iPhone app (game) won’t be based solely on the considerations above but for sure the right strategy when to support new features of iPhone OS 3.0 and/or iPhone 3GS will be fundamental. Given the dynamic in the App Store we will know soon what approach was good and what was not. Just that Apple will have sold another couple million devices in the meantime and the rules of the game will be changed once again. Which keeps it all exciting.

Alright folks, hope that helps when planning your next app / game. You may quote these figures above. Of course, a link to our blog would be most appreciated: http://blog.fishlabs.net/en

Game on!

Michael Schade

Off the back of the iconic Barclaycard ‘waterslide’ ad, Dare has developed an iphone game concept which will be available for free download from the apps store as of mid-July.  In keeping with the TV execution, the game allows the user to ride a series of waterslides through urban environments and Dare has hired Fishlabs as mobile technical developers to help bring the concept to life.