Why Windows Phone has become the best platform to launch the game "Torque"
Preface: Last month, PocketGamer.biz , focused, as you might have guessed, on mobile games, interviewed Victoria Pavlova , a former member of the famous ZeptoLab team (developer of the Cut the Rope), and now the CEO of London game developers at Lextre .
Considering that in this interview Victoria not only talks about the dizzying success of the first game of the studio, the racing arcade “Torque” (in foreign countries, the game was named Perfect Shift) on the Windows Phone platform, but also explains the reasons for this very success, we simply could not pass by. The desire to share only positive development experience for WP, especially with those who are just starting their way of development and prompted us to try a new format for our blog.
Victoria Pavlova, formerly working on the Cut the Rope project at ZeptoLab, today is the CEO of a small game developer game company Lextre Studio with headquarters in London. The debut for the studio was an arcade simulator "Torque."
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Lextre decided to release this game exclusively on the Windows Phone platform, and in the first two months it reached a level of two million downloads, which served as a good springboard for the further launch of Torque on iOS and Android platforms at the end of 2014.
Why did you bet on Windows Phone?
“Torque” was the first game we put on the market. Therefore, it was very important for us to receive high-quality feedback from non-indifferent users. This is probably why we paid attention to Windows Phone, where the gaming community, although not as big as on other platforms, is very interested in high-quality games.
The release of the game has helped us not only improve the user experience, but also more accurately understand the mechanisms of attracting and retaining users in the game. We saw how you can customize the gameplay so that users constantly enjoy the game.
Having received this invaluable experience thanks to the gaming community of Windows Phone, we were able to turn “Torque” into a cross-platform game that works perfectly on all modern mobile devices.
On the other hand, such an approach strongly contradicts industry standards: the majority of developers test their creations on wider audiences, i.e. on one of the two user-populated platforms: iOS or Android, and maybe both at once. And only then they redraw and port the game to Windows Phone.
As a result, novice developers often suffer in the battle for space under the sun on large platforms, while Windows Phone lacks good content.
Struggling with this annoying circumstance, we developed a completely new 3D engine for Perfect Shift, which is ideally supported by almost every device on Windows Phone. This means that fans of the Microsoft mobile platform will be able to enjoy the best gaming experience even before the game is released on Android and iOS.
What are the advantages of developing for Windows Phone?
I am sure that those developers who choose Windows Phone, very quickly understand how active and interested audience prevails there.
Such game breakthroughs, like our “Torque”, show that games released specifically for Windows Phone not only attract the attention of users of this platform, but also allow you to receive exceptional feedback that players are happy to leave.
This means that developers get a complete idea of how to make the game even better now and in the future.
Kabam [mobile games developer, approx. Lane] abandoned plans for the further development of their projects on the Windows Phone platform after the release of just one game. What would you say to those who claim that WP is a dead end?
The fact that we decided on an exclusive launch of "Torque" on the Windows Phone platform allowed us to get 2 million downloads in just 2 months. This state of affairs shows how strong the demand for really good games that use all the capabilities of smartphones is on the Windows Phone platform.
In addition, only this platform could offer "Torque" great opportunities for natural progress at launch.
In the end, there are thousands of quality games that lie unknown in the back streets of the App Store and Google Play. And they probably never will become popular. And with the advent of new, attractive devices on Windows Phone, the power of the platform will only increase, and the variety of applications and games will improve.
At the previous job, in ZeptoLab, you worked on the famous Cut the Rope, the number of downloads which to date has exceeded 600 million. What do you think it would be if you first published this game on Windows Phone?
To be honest, now it is very difficult to imagine what would have happened if we decided to take such a step. Cut the Rope was released four years ago, when the position in the smartphone market was very different from the current one.
But still it is necessary to recognize that the same strategy may not suit everyone. In the end, it all comes down to understanding your audience and choosing the right approach for a particular game at the right time.
In our case, we saw a good opportunity to release “Torque”, as a really attractive and good looking game, on Windows Phone, much ahead of its release on other platforms.
What did you teach the release of the game under Windows Phone? Will you continue to be released on this platform?
Believe me, in the development process we learned quite a lot of new things, including thanks to Microsoft, which gave us quite strong support, as well as thanks to the feedback we received from gamers who really loved our project.
Inspired by the great success of “Torque” on the Windows Phone platform, we will, of course, consider Windows Phone for our new projects in the future.
Considering that in this interview Victoria not only talks about the dizzying success of the first game of the studio, the racing arcade “Torque” (in foreign countries, the game was named Perfect Shift) on the Windows Phone platform, but also explains the reasons for this very success, we simply could not pass by. The desire to share only positive development experience for WP, especially with those who are just starting their way of development and prompted us to try a new format for our blog.
Victoria Pavlova, formerly working on the Cut the Rope project at ZeptoLab, today is the CEO of a small game developer game company Lextre Studio with headquarters in London. The debut for the studio was an arcade simulator "Torque."
')
Lextre decided to release this game exclusively on the Windows Phone platform, and in the first two months it reached a level of two million downloads, which served as a good springboard for the further launch of Torque on iOS and Android platforms at the end of 2014.
Why did you bet on Windows Phone?
“Torque” was the first game we put on the market. Therefore, it was very important for us to receive high-quality feedback from non-indifferent users. This is probably why we paid attention to Windows Phone, where the gaming community, although not as big as on other platforms, is very interested in high-quality games.
The release of the game has helped us not only improve the user experience, but also more accurately understand the mechanisms of attracting and retaining users in the game. We saw how you can customize the gameplay so that users constantly enjoy the game.
Having received this invaluable experience thanks to the gaming community of Windows Phone, we were able to turn “Torque” into a cross-platform game that works perfectly on all modern mobile devices.
On the other hand, such an approach strongly contradicts industry standards: the majority of developers test their creations on wider audiences, i.e. on one of the two user-populated platforms: iOS or Android, and maybe both at once. And only then they redraw and port the game to Windows Phone.
As a result, novice developers often suffer in the battle for space under the sun on large platforms, while Windows Phone lacks good content.
Struggling with this annoying circumstance, we developed a completely new 3D engine for Perfect Shift, which is ideally supported by almost every device on Windows Phone. This means that fans of the Microsoft mobile platform will be able to enjoy the best gaming experience even before the game is released on Android and iOS.
What are the advantages of developing for Windows Phone?
I am sure that those developers who choose Windows Phone, very quickly understand how active and interested audience prevails there.
Such game breakthroughs, like our “Torque”, show that games released specifically for Windows Phone not only attract the attention of users of this platform, but also allow you to receive exceptional feedback that players are happy to leave.
This means that developers get a complete idea of how to make the game even better now and in the future.
Kabam [mobile games developer, approx. Lane] abandoned plans for the further development of their projects on the Windows Phone platform after the release of just one game. What would you say to those who claim that WP is a dead end?
The fact that we decided on an exclusive launch of "Torque" on the Windows Phone platform allowed us to get 2 million downloads in just 2 months. This state of affairs shows how strong the demand for really good games that use all the capabilities of smartphones is on the Windows Phone platform.
In addition, only this platform could offer "Torque" great opportunities for natural progress at launch.
In the end, there are thousands of quality games that lie unknown in the back streets of the App Store and Google Play. And they probably never will become popular. And with the advent of new, attractive devices on Windows Phone, the power of the platform will only increase, and the variety of applications and games will improve.
At the previous job, in ZeptoLab, you worked on the famous Cut the Rope, the number of downloads which to date has exceeded 600 million. What do you think it would be if you first published this game on Windows Phone?
To be honest, now it is very difficult to imagine what would have happened if we decided to take such a step. Cut the Rope was released four years ago, when the position in the smartphone market was very different from the current one.
But still it is necessary to recognize that the same strategy may not suit everyone. In the end, it all comes down to understanding your audience and choosing the right approach for a particular game at the right time.
In our case, we saw a good opportunity to release “Torque”, as a really attractive and good looking game, on Windows Phone, much ahead of its release on other platforms.
What did you teach the release of the game under Windows Phone? Will you continue to be released on this platform?
Believe me, in the development process we learned quite a lot of new things, including thanks to Microsoft, which gave us quite strong support, as well as thanks to the feedback we received from gamers who really loved our project.
Inspired by the great success of “Torque” on the Windows Phone platform, we will, of course, consider Windows Phone for our new projects in the future.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/258575/
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