As one of the most consistent and profitable areas of mobile gaming, social casino’s success has led to some complacency in the industry. By this, we see less innovation. In a talk at Casual Connect Europe called Lessons from Real Money Casino: How Game Developers Can Apply Best Practices from the Casino Industry to Maximize LTV in All Games, Lloyd Melnick (Director of StarsPlay at The Stars Group) provided strategies and tactics to help developers overcome and succeed in social casino and other genres of games.
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Announcing the Indie Prize Finalists from South America and North America
Casual Connect Europe 2018 Indie Prize Finalists from South America:
Players who enjoy a good fight will appreciate the entries for Indie Prize from South America. All three are based on various kinds of warfare. But each of these three is completely different, taking place in environments that include a world of avatars and minions, the early British time of King Arthur, or present day multi-vehicle war. Each requires strategic thinking and challenging movement and will challenge players’ abilities.
Game Title: Teratopia
Developer: Ravegan
Platform: Console, Desktop Win
Country: Argentina
Teratopia is an action strategy game with the player controlling avatars who spawn different classes of minions. The minions are completely independent; the player can only decide where, when and which one to throw. Players advance through an open-end world as they defeat bosses to unlock new spawning portals. The game has humor, role playing elements and local multiplayer options.
Teratopia is scheduled for release in October 2018 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
DevelopmentExclusive Interviews
Magmic: An Innovative and Resilient Company
Fifteen years ago John Criswick and Joshua Ostrowalker founded the game company Magmic. They both had experience in a mobile startup and they had worked on what became one of the most installed mobile operating platforms at Sun Microsystems. Then they realized there was a tremendous opportunity in the consumer market.
They believed that early adopters would be dominant in this initial phase of the mobile app market and that the content most easily monetized by early adopters would be entertainment. So they chose to take advantage of this opportunity by founding Magmic as a mobile game developer and publisher.
EventsNews
Indie Prize Winners at Casual Connect USA 2018!
The Indie Prize competition at Casual Connect USA 2018 featured many exciting and innovative entries. Casual Connect is now announcing the nominees and winners.
Best Game Audio
The winner of Best Game Audio was Floor Kids, developed by MERJ Media from Canada. Floor Kids is a break dance battle game that rewards musicality, originality and style. It can be played in solo freestyle mode or in two player battles.
Also nominated for Best Game Audio were Stack & Crack, a 3D puzzle game by Jambav from India; Orbit – Playing With Gravity, a game that has players launching planets and attempting to get them into stable orbits around black holes, by HIGHKEY Games from the United States; and Rumble League, a real-time, action packed strategy game by Lorraine Studio of the United States.
EventsNews
Casual Connect USA 2018 Indie Prize Participants from North America Part 2
This set of games from North America are more exciting entries for Indie Prize at Casual Connect USA 2018 at the Disneyland® Hotel. They include incredible variety, from arena fighting to digital board games; shooters and puzzle platformers to arcade adventures; beautiful explorations of orbital mechanics and collaborative art games to trivia games, games that extend the AR genre and even games designed to explore empathy and communication. Indie Prize will definitely be a great experience!
Game Title: Rumble League
Developer: Lorraine Studio
Platform: iOS
Country: United States
Rumble League is a real-time PVP game taking place in 1987 in a internationally sanctioned fighting competition. You can assemble a team of brawlers, travel to exotic locations around the world and fight other teams for glory and cash. You will enjoy the hand-crafted arenas and fighters, as well as the retro-futuristic synth soundtrack.
EventsNews
Casual Connect USA 2018 Indie Prize Participants from North America Part 1
This year’s entries from North America for Indie Prize will certainly be highlights at Casual Connect USA at the Disneyland® Hotel. These innovative games range through a variety of genres – puzzles of various kinds, dancing, fighting, shooters, even genres that may be unique combinations, such as horror-sports-tragedy. The games are fun, intense, and challenging.
Game Title: CubeWorks
Developer: TinMoon Studios
Platform: VR desktop/console
Country: USA
Could you solve puzzles in a VR environment? CubeWorks gives you the opportunity to find out with challenging spatial puzzles in a fully immersive VR experience. As you progress, you discover new environments and you aim for the top with the highest score on a leaderboard.
CubeWorks launched into early access the same day it had a playable demo at New York’s PlayNYC convention. There is was voted a fan favorite and the top VR title.
EventsNews
Winners of the 20th Indie Prize at Casual Connect Kyiv 2017
Casual Connect Kyiv 2017 has been going strong in beautiful Kyiv, a city known for its history, creativity and culture, October 24, 25 and 26. And now we have the results of the exciting 20th Indie Prize competition.
Best Game Audio
Best Game Audio was awarded to Kenshō developed by FIFTYTWO, a Russian game studio. Kenshō is a mysterious game that takes place within a ruined room with doors opening onto beautiful landscapes. It is an addictive puzzle game with the player matching blocks and overcoming challenges to unfold the narrative.
Nominated for Best Game Audio were Melody Streaks by Beeble Games of India, a game where the player creates music with every move the character makes; Talking ABC by Hey-Clay of Ukraine, which uses animal characters to make learning fun; and Guns ‘n’ Stories: Bulletproof VR by Mirowin of Ukraine, bringing VR to the Wild West Era.
EventsNews
Indie Prize Participants from Argentina and Canada in Kyiv
Two participants from Argentina and one participant from Canada will join the competition at Casual Connect Kyiv and Indie Prize. The two excitingly different games from Argentina is represented at Indie Prize Kyiv both demand skill and determination but are very divergent types.
Game Title: Darkestville Castle
Developer: Epic Llama
Platform: Desktop Win
Website: https://www.facebook.com/epicllamagames/
Darkestville Castle has graphics reminiscent of the twisted aesthetics of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Add to that the classic point-and-and click techniques of games like Monkey Island and you are ready to follow the comedy narrative of Cid, the mischievous demon of Darkestville.
Exclusive InterviewsIndie
XGen Studios: Taking The Low Road
XGen Studios is currently developing the adventure title The Low Road, lead by CEO Kaelyn Boyes. The Canadian indie studio won the Vancouver Full Indie Prize, giving them a chance to to participate in Indie Prize Seattle.
ContributionsEventsIndieNews
Indie Prize Finalists from Brazil, Canada, Paraguay and Iran at Casual Connect Asia
Developers from Brazil, Canada, Paraguay and Iran will come and showcase their games at the international Indie Prize showcase during Casual Connect Asia 2017 in Singapore!
Game Title: Lila’s Tale
Developer: Skullfish Studios
Platform: VR mobile
Website: www.skullfishstudios.com
Country: Brazil
Immerse yourself in a fantastic and artistic experience, inside a dungeon crawler, crafted for Virtual Reality. Explore the mysteries lying beneath the dungeon, solve chain reaction puzzles and keep Lila safe to find her lost little brother.
The game was selected to Indie Pitch Arena during GMGC Beijing 2017 and will be released in 2017.