by TutoTOONS LTD
Game development is not just a fun and cool way of making a living, it’s actually a lot of work. It requires time, creativity, programming, designing, game knowledge, marketing strategy, monetization tools and publishing channels, to name the basics. TutoTOONS game builder aims to disrupt mobile game industry by making it open for artists and illustrators, and letting them focus only on game idea, story and graphics.
A few years ago, we were operating as a tiny game studio in Lithuania, building educational games for kids. A few weeks ago, this once small company crossed 85 million game downloads. Our team probably wouldn’t have reached this milestone if we hadn’t decided to implement the idea that was in our heads for quite a while: anyone should be able to make a game fast and easy.
Today, we have a growing community of artists who use TutoTOONS for creating mobile games, and an expanding player base who play games made by non-game developers.
From Tutor Cartoons to Drag & Drop Game Builder
While TutoTOONS was just in our heads, we saw it as a tool for teachers that lets them create educational cartoons and improve learning process. After all, we’ve been making educational games and software for 6 years back then. The main thing that left from this idea is our startup name, a blend of “tutor” and “cartoons”. At this early customer development stage, we also saw that our users wanted to create games, not cartoons.
Our first partner was a major book publisher in Lithuania. We adapted a popular children’s book ‘Two Piglets’ for an app, which came out as a mix of an ebook and a game. The idea was to show that book authors and illustrators can reuse their stories and graphics, and benefit by turning them into interactive apps with our platform.
TutoTOONS developed into a free drag and drop mobile game builder that lets you create games without any coding, and learn from it. Once you have a game idea and create game graphics, you can upload them to TutoTOONS, choose game types, drag and drop your images to game scenes, and that’s it. You have a working game that we can publish, promote to millions of players and share game revenue.
Games Made Everywhere
By now, TutoTOONS game builder has been tried by more than 7,000 people worldwide. Over 300 artists are creating games with TutoTOONS every day. Most of them are from Ukraine, Russia, Italy and other European countries, Latin America and USA.
“I am very pleased to work with TutoTOONS, it gives me complete freedom: I can create games about what and who I want, draw game graphics in any style I want. This simply buys you”, says Olga Vasilevskaya, Ukrainian artist and one of the first TutoTOONS users.
Since her first game launch less than a year ago, Olga has created 6 princess and pony games, played by 3 million kids worldwide. She plays games every day, gets apps for her daughter and, at the same time, analyzes the market.
Newest TutoTOONS community artists Irina and Ronald Maier from Berlin are another successful example. The whole family is behind ‘Sweet Little Emma’ game series with 700K downloads.
“For me, TutoTOONS is just what I needed. I’m always looking for programs that are made specifically for designers and don’t require any knowledge of programming”, shares Irina.
Artists and illustrators are not the only ones who use TutoTOONS. We have moms working from home and creating games for their kids and teachers building games for school classes. Even kids use TutoTOONS for homework assignments and school projects.
In Business with Artists
Following the notion that in the 21st century, everyone should be able to create a game, we decided to give away our platform for free. We’ve put all our game knowledge to build this platform and we’re sharing it with our users.
Since launch in January 2014, we’ve released over 200 games. Having a tool to build and publish games fast, lets us test the game market, topics and characters at minimal cost. If you don’t know where to start with TutoTOONS, we will suggest to you game ideas that are more likely to be successful. If you experience some technical issues, our developers will provide you live support. It’s like a free online gamedev school.
We’re in game business together with TutoTOONS users. Artists and illustrators make sure that games are beautifully made and interesting to play, and we make sure that their games get players, visibility and traction.
Untapped Potential for Making Games
We asked our top game creators to share what they believe are the most important things in game development. Most of them are first-time game developers but what they say shows how much potential artists and illustrators have in gaming business.
“Making good illustrations and being well organized”, “Be quick to modify the illustrations” - Anna, “Funny Halloween Party”
“Think carefully about the plot and characters of the game - they should be attractive and interesting for the player” - Oksana, “Life of My Little Dinos”
“Always listen to your heart. Try to do what you really like” – Irina, “Sweet Little Emma” games
“Never give up and think positive. And also you should make an eye-catching app icon” – Andrew, “Word Catcher”
“Have a clear folders structure and try to name files clearly. “MG_1_back_new” is better than “omgWhatis_goingon” – Olga, “Pajama Party”
“Be thrilled by games. Passion helps to follow the ultimate goal” – Nikolai, “Treehouse Club, Play with Clay”
“Game should give your players experience they could never have in real life” – Evgenii, “Greek Gods”
“Make it as interesting as possible for the kids!” – Olga, princess game series.
Let’s Build Games Together!
We are always looking for talented artists with a dream to create their own mobile game. Email us at support@tutotoons.com and turn your drawings into games with TutoTOONS game builder!
Connect With Us
Play TutoTOONS games: http://tutotoons.com/apps
Newsletter: http://ow.ly/HlYbn
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TutoTOONS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tutotoons
Instagram: https://instagram.com/tutotoons/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Tutotoonsgames
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TutoTOONS
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