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Game Development

We just raised $1.6M for Mixed Reality games

By Bobby Voicu

It took a lot of patience and effort not to write about my latest company, MixRift.

The company started with a message from David in December 2023: “Did you ever play Mixed Reality games?”

Less than a month later, we had a vision, a co-founders team that also included Andrei, and I started the long process of raising money for the new company. I say long because the last time I did this, in 2012, it took me almost a year.

This time, though, it took us just 7 weeks to get the deal done. Yeah, it took a few more weeks to finally have the money in the bank, but we had the deal in place by the end of February of 2024.

I want us to try to find the “native mechanic” for this Mixed Reality gaming space. Like Gorilla Tag is for VR or like Angry Birds and Candy Crush were for mobile.

We already have two games in the Meta Quest store: Fractured and Hell Horde (early access). Fractured is also available on the Apple Vision Pro store.

If you want to read more, Venture Beat has an amazing article based on an interview with me: here.

How is Mobile Gaming Gonna Die?

By Bobby Voicu

In 2012 I started a gaming company called MavenHut. It was making Facebook canvas games. About 2 years after we started we needed to change platforms to mobile because Facebook games were dying.

Well, there’s a chance mobile gaming will similarly die as well:

I believe that mobile games could be facing the same deliberate death-by-a-platform as games Facebook suffered a decade ago. We’re like frogs being slowly boiled alive. The temperature is gradually increasing due to all the privacy changes. But the changes are happening relatively slowly. So, we’re not jumping out of the water to save ourselves from impending death.

This is a really good article at Deconstructor of Fun.

24 Hours with Apple Vision Pro

By Bobby Voicu

Not me, unfortunately. I would’ve loved to test it and buy it, but, you know… 6 weeks of wait time.

Anyway, Joanna Stern from the Wall Street Journal spent (almost) 24 hours testing it. I would’ve loved to see some games in there, as well, but nevertheless, the video is worth watching.

Apple Vision Pro Sold Out

By Bobby Voicu

I wanted to order an Apple Vision Pro today. And it was sold out! I mean, I can still order it, but it will come in 5-6 weeks, at least.

Yeah, I know, first world problems, but still. I expected the device to sell at the most 100,000 devices this year, see how expensive it is. What do you know, though, 180,000 Vision Pros might have been pre-ordered!

This is really good news for the Mixed Reality/Augmented Reality space, after Meta Quest 3 selling more than 1 million devices for the holiday season of 2023.

Best Video for Retention and Virality in Social Games

By Bobby Voicu

This is an old video we watched in the early years of MavenHut to understand how to improve our games.

A lot of it is obsolete on the actual tactics and tools, but the thought process behind analyzing and improving the First Time User Experience for any player is what you need to know.

I looked for it for about 2 hours for a friend, because I forgot the name of the game that was the subject of the case study: Pretty Simple’ Criminal Case.

My search keywords, in case I need to remember it again: retention, virality, GDC, Casual Connect, game, case study, ftue, onboarding.

Panic’s Playdate gaming device

By Bobby Voicu

I aws pretty excited when I first heard about Playdate. Not because of the amazing games, necessarily, but because of the type of new games it could generate. And also because it looks quirky.

After about 2-3 years since they first announced it, here’s an update including their first accessory and a non-game app: Poolsuite FM.

A Real Life Robot Cue Stick Playing Pool

By Bobby Voicu

You know how sometimes you go on YouTube and you discover a video that grips you and makes you forget about anything for a while?

I’ve just found a video about a guy that created a robot cue stick to play pool with you in real life. Yes, like an online pool game in real life… which kinda makes and doesn’t make sense at the same time.

It’s more than that, because the robot knows what ball to play, when to play, how hard to hit the cue ball… it’s AMAZING!

Watch the video below and thank me later for making you lose 20 minutes of your day:

Supercell’s business deconstructed

By Bobby Voicu

When we were growing MavenHut, one of the models we used was SuperCell. I’ve actually used their business model to convince our investors to put more money into MavenHut.

The company created several games and generated $12.5 billions in 6-7 years with just a few employees (300) compared to other gaming companies.

It’s an amazing story and I’m happy I’ve found this article:
10 Years of Excellence – Deconstruction of Supercell

If you’re interested in gaming, this is mandatory reading. If you’re interesting in startups, the same.

Supercell is one of the rare companies that doesn’t try to beat the competition; rather, it tries to beat the high score set by its own prior games. To date, Supercell has created multiple genre-defining games and generated billions in revenues — all with little more than 300 employees (!).

[…]

There are only a handful of companies that try to disrupt the market by creating new genres or redefining existing ones. Disruptors rely on gut feeling, an extremely high level of talent, and… a lot of courage to pull off this high-risk, high-reward strategy. Supercell has clearly mastered this strategy so far, since they can be credited for creating 4 genre-defining hits: Hay Day, Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars. This is an astounding achievement as most disruptors are lucky to produce a single hit of that magnitude in their lifetime.

These are just some of Supercell’s incredible achievements so far:

  • $12B in total gross revenues over the last 6 years (mic drop)
  • Its first 4 games passed $1B in lifetime revenues (and Brawl Stars will soon join the club)
  • Long “staying power” of its games, as they remain relevant for years
  • Clash of Clans is one of the most successful mobile titles ever (revenues estimated ~$6.5B)
  • Global footprint (in 2019 ~40% of revenues came from the US and ~15% from Asia)
  • Well diversified portfolio across genres (from simulation to build & battle and MOBA)
  • Currently only 320 employees to achieve all of the above

However, no matter how big of a fan of Supercell you are (and we at Deconstructor of Fun for sure are), you can’t overlook the numbers. In the last few years, Supercell has been on a gradual decline, as existing titles have slowed down and new launches haven’t been able to fill the void.

Again, read the entire article, it is worth it! And read the entire Deconstructor of Fun blog, while you’re at it.

Apple Arcade, first week

By Bobby Voicu

Apple Arcade

It took me a little bit of time because of some traveling I needed to do, but I finally tried Apple Arcade during the last weekend.

If you don’t know what Apple Arcade is, read this article. The tldr; version is that it’s a new program by Apple where they finance new and high quality games to be launched on all Apple platforms: MacOS, iOS, iPadOS and tvOS. The twist is that you have no in-app purchases. You pay for the subscription and that’s it. The subscription is $5/month and you can try the games for free for the first month, without needing to pay anything.

I’ve been quite excited about it, because I want to have some cross platform games that I can play on TV and on my mobile phone/tablet as well. I use SteamLink, I use Remote Play for PS4, but having native games on all platforms I use is so much better.

Another reason I loved the idea is that, starting with the latest version of the operating systems you can use Playstation’s DS4 controller natively through bluetooth. There were some hacks previously, but now you just connect the controller you want and that’s it. It also works with some XBox controllers, I think, but I don’t have an XBox, so I didn’t test it.

The games I tried yet: “What the Golf“, ustwo’s “Assemble with care” and some OceanHorn 2. I played What the Golf mostly on the iPad, and Assemble with care and Oceanhorn 2 on Apple TV, with the controller.

What the Golf

This is a weird and funny game. I can’t really tell you too much without spoiling some things, so if you have the time, play it. It’s… a golf game. Sort of. It’s really great to play on your phone during travel, among other things.

Assemble with care

This one is more of a story rather than a game. Yes, it is a bit of a puzzle game, but it’s more in the vein of Firewatch, rather than Monument Valley, another game made by ustwo. You learn the history of some people in a small city through repairing their old stuff (watch, camera, statue aso).

I’ve finished the game in about 2 hours, I think. I played it on the Apple TV, with the remote. While the controller worked in the menus, it didn’t work in the game.

I think it’s a nice, reflective game, that you can play when you’re feeling nostalgic. The voice acting is good and the graphics, the colors, make it like a living painting. I liked it.

For a more complete review, read this article.

Oceanhorn 2

It’s a game similar, in looks, to Nintendo’s Breath of the Wild. I played for about 30 minutes, but I remembered I didn’t really like Breath of the Wild anyway, so I stopped there. The controller works really well on the Apple TV, but this is not the kind of game I enjoy playing.

I’m looking for other games to play, so stay tuned, I might actually write more about Apple Arcade. I actually looked for a reason to learn to stream for a long time, so this might be the moment.