Blizzard developers form union with WoW Game Makers Guild
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 by Austin Harris
Over 500 workers at the World of Warcraft development team have joined the Communications Workers of America and Microsoft subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment has recognized their union. The World of Warcraft Game Makers Guild - CWA Union (WoWGG-CWA), which includes designers, engineers, producers, artists, quality assurance testers, and other game developers, is the firs...
The Baby in Yellow Black Cat update is out now
Friday, May 26, 2023 by Brittany Hainzinger
Scottish indie developer Team Terrible has today announced The Black Cat, the major content update for their highly popular game The Baby in Yellow, which is now available on iOS, and Android and debuting on Steam via Early Access!
"The Black Cat Update represents an incredible wealth of new playable content, including three new chapters, an abundance of pu...
Game Developers Choice Awards at GDC 2021
Monday, August 2, 2021 by Brittany Hainzinger
Organizers of the 21st annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) have revealed the recipients of this year’s Pioneer Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. Tom Fulp, creator of Newgrounds and trailblazer of the Macromedia Flash games that helped define a generation of indie developers, will receive the Pioneer Award, while influential game designer with 28 years ...
AudioMob runs competition for aspiring games developers and students
Friday, September 18, 2020 by Brittany Hainzinger
AudioMob ,and pioneers of the audio advertising format in mobile games, announced one of the most exciting game jams of the year! It has been designed for Indie developers and students looking to break into the industry and the prizes are some of the best a game jam could offer.
AudioMob’s ‘Resonate’ competition is aligned tightly w...
Publishing mobile games with Gismart now possible
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 by Richard Harris
Gismart has added an investment program for mobile app startups to its already established publishing unit. In addition to developing and publishing its own titles, Gismart also acts as a strategic partner for aspiring indie developers. The newly launched investment program highlights Gismart’s commitment to helping independent developers bring their titles to mar...
App developer and software jobs might be declining says new report
Thursday, January 17, 2019 by Richard Harris
If your title is app developer, or work if you work in the software development field and are starting to feel like the Jedi are dying off - you might be on to something.
According to a new report put out by Freelancer.com, the software developer job title, and a few others including app developer, and app designer, have seen a dramatic decrease in popularity since l...
New app marketing tool gets smart about user acquisition
Tuesday, December 18, 2018 by Richard Harris
Mobile monetization and marketing company ironSource has announced the launch of its ROAS (return on their advertising spend), Optimizer tool. The new tool enables user acquisition managers to automatically bid on dynamic CPI (cost-per-install) rates to reach the desired ROAS goal, solving one of the most painful challenges of user acquisition today of efficient and rea...
Software architecture in 2019
Wednesday, December 12, 2018 by Richard Harris
Software is increasingly becoming more complex, and dealing with the changes happening in the software industry every day is something all developers, especially software architects, need to pay attention to.
While software architecture isn't anything new - the speed of mobile undoubtedly has put critical elements of creating software outside of the main focus fo...
iOS project management tips
Sunday, December 2, 2018 by Richard Harris
If you are creating an app for iOS here's a tip - get organized! Sure, sure - you write super clean code and are diligent with your in-line documentation. But as programmers, we tend to not be the best at conveying important parts of projects to others that could save loads of time (and money), when other team members are involved. That's where team management s...
Appodeal rewards Indie developers this holiday season
Wednesday, November 28, 2018 by Richard Harris
Appodeal is launching a limited-time bonus program exclusive to Indie mobile app developers and small to midsize mobile app publishers. The #TimeToEarn program, which promises an up to $7,000 bonus on top of ad revenue, ends on December 31, 2018.
“As a part of the Indie developer community, too often we see great mobile apps fade away due to the lack of income....
Mobile publisher Gismart teams up with Appodeal
Friday, August 17, 2018 by Austin Harris
Gismart partners up with Appodeal to support mobile apps and games chosen for publishing with global monetization reach. Strategic cooperation between companies will allow indie developers to benefit from Appodeal’s ad monetization platform and Gismart’s publishing expertise by improving the application, bringing their mobile product to millions of players, ...
The iOS app store sales data app AppSalesTrends gets an update
Tuesday, June 5, 2018 by Austin Harris
Finnish indie developer, Esa Helttula announces AppSalesTrends 2.30, the update to his iOS and Mac App Store sales tracking application for macOS. The app allows iOS and macOS developers to download and analyze tracking information about their apps. Users can track an unlimited number of apps and bundles, view daily sales reports, sales graphs, and much more. Version 2....
GDC 2018 breaks attendance records
Monday, April 2, 2018 by Richard Harris
The 2018 Game Developers Conference (GDC) ended after a week of networking, learning and inspiration. This year, the event saw a record attendance of 28,000 industry professionals at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center from March 19-23. GDC and VRDC will be returning to the Moscone Convention Center on Monday, March 18 to Friday, March 22, 2019. The call for submi...
Learning ARKit for the average iOS developer
Monday, November 6, 2017 by Angela Yu
Augmented Reality is not new and developers already have tools to create augmented reality (AR) apps. But with Apple’s brand-new ARKit, we’re going to see a massive shift in the landscape as this new framework simplifies the process of building AR experiences for iPhone and iPad. With ARKit in their arsenal, developers are presented with a golden opportunity a...
App monetization and choosing the right partner
Friday, September 22, 2017 by Ignasi Prat
The process of defining the business model for monetizing your apps and mobile games starts before even a single line of code is written. It's one of the most important considerations that'll shape your future strategy. It's the type of strategic decision that will influence your present and future development. And if you decide to monetize through advertising, choosing...
HacknPlan 1.0 game developer project management tool launches
Monday, April 3, 2017 by Richard Harris
HacknPlan is a collaborative project management tool tailored for game developers and producers. With HacknPlan, teams can create tasks and assign them to members, set up milestones and deadlines, create game design documentation, track the progress and generate metrics and statistics to evaluate the performance of the team. This way, game developers can avoid or minimi...
How to increase app revenue by using analytics
Wednesday, March 1, 2017 by Richard Harris
Editors note: Guest submission by Mark Rosner, CRO of AppLovinYou wouldn’t create a website without at least one line of code for Google Analytics. So why would you create an app without it? Analytics might seem like an obvious element to incorporate into app development, but I’m still shocked that I regularly meet developers who don’t use analytics at all, or bare...
Comparing server virtualization and containers
Monday, November 14, 2016 by Richard Harris
Apcera is a San Francisco-based company building the next-generation container management platform, and they believe that cloud computing is an ever-evolving way of interfacing with technology. With Apcera’s platform, they aim to solve the hard problems that enterprises face in embracing the new world of containers to unlock the potential of modern architectur...
AppGameKit Now Offers HTML5 Version of Game Development Engine
Thursday, June 9, 2016 by Richard Harris
The Game Creators, the team behind the AppGameKit instant game development engine, have announced the launch of an AppGameKit HTML5 version.The new functionality leverages the latest HTML5 Hypertext Markup Language which now fully supports native execution of 3D games content, which means no more plugins to install. With the new version of AppGameKit, developers c...
Pocket Gamer Connects Vancouver Game Developer Conference is June 28 and 29
Wednesday, May 4, 2016 by Richard Harris
Pocket Gamer Connects Vancouver is a mobile gaming conference offering five tracks covering global strategy, monetization, future technologies, funding/deal making and indie survival. The event will be held on June 28 – 29 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.The conference offers access to more than 100 speakers from the mobile games and technology industry. It provides ...
Companies Are Falling Short in Meeting Consumer Mobile Expectations
Thursday, March 31, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
According to a recent research study, companies are still finding it difficult to create mobile experiences that meet consumer expectations. The study was conducted by Sitecore which polled 4,500 consumers in 11 countries about their attitudes toward mobile interactions, expectations, and experiences. We recently visited with Scott Anderson, CMO of Sitecore, to dis...
Two Case Studies On How Programmatic Ad Mediation Maximize Revenues
Friday, February 26, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Programmatic ad mediation is quickly becoming the standard in the next level evolution in monetization strategies for app publishers.Programmatic ad mediation works by giving publishers access to the whole marketplace, including traditional ad networks and mediators as well as RTB marketplaces - providing an expanded number of ad networks competing for ad inventory. Pro...
Twistlock Offers Small Development Firms Free Version of its Container Security Suite
Friday, February 19, 2016 by Stuart Parkerson
Twistlock is releasing a free version of its signature Container Security Suite that is aimed at providing individual developers and small organizations with the ability to try out containerization. The free “Developer’s Edition” is designed to help individual developers or small companies that are just getting started with container technologies. It opens up the i...
Webinar To Help Indie Developers Learn How to Increase App Revenues
Thursday, November 19, 2015 by Richard Harris
Apsalar and InMobi will host a webinar titled “Six Ways Top Apps Drive More ROI” to be held on December 10 from 11 am – Noon PST. The webinar will focus on techniques and advice on how to increase ROI for an app based on its category.The webinar will focus on tactics and stratagies practiced by some of the top apps within their specific category. Topics will include:- H...
How WildTangent is Shaking Up the Android CPI Market
Monday, September 14, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
We recently visited with WildTangent’s Sean Vanderdasson to discuss how the company’s platform helps developers achieve Android app installs.The WildTangent network is facilitated by distribution partnerships with many of the world’s top devices manufacturers (OEMs) and mobile operators. The WildTangent network provides the ability for users to choose in one click which...
Open Source Virtual Reality Platform now Supports Android
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 by Richard Harris
The Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR), an organization working towards an open standard for virtual reality devices, has announced that OSVR software now accommodates Android devices, adding to existing distribution for Windows and Linux.To demonstrate the Android support for mobile VR enabling cross compatibility between hardware and mobile content integrated with OSV...
User Acquisition: The Hidden Driver Behind the Unbundling Trend
Tuesday, June 2, 2015 by Adam Foroughi
There’s no doubt that unbundling or launching specialized apps has been a sound strategic move for incumbent apps (think Twitter’s Vine and Periscope and Instagram’s Hyperlapse and Layout, not to mention Facebook’s Messenger), as has specializing from the get-go - the extreme examples being Yo, or IFTTT’s Do. This is for good reason. Streamlined, single-function ap...
Attend the Failure Workshops at GDC to Learn Why Some Developers Fail
Thursday, February 26, 2015 by Stuart Parkerson
AT GDC there is a strong success bias – you are not going to hear a lot of companies trumpet their failures. Failure, however, can be often be more instructive than success. That’s why you might want to consider attending the GDC “Failure Workshop” and hear first hand experienced game developers who will speak candidly about those times when development didn't go well, ...
Discussion: How Can App Developers Earn Revenue With Low Download Numbers
Monday, January 19, 2015 by Richard Harris
One of the biggest challenges facing indie developers in today’s mobile economy is being able to get a revenue stream from a small amount of free downloads. Discoverability is a big issue but many indie developers do not have budgets to help with marketing or general discovery issues other than stock ASO options such as keywords, review sites, and the like. An exam...
Avocarrot's New Tool Set Aims to Help Developer's Revenue with Native Advertising
Monday, December 15, 2014 by Richard Harris
Avocarrot recently unveiled its launch of a tool-set for developers that allows the same native ad type of displays (including in-stream ads) that companies like Twitter and Facebook are using for their apps.The product is a technologically advanced tool for mobile native advertising. The product offers premium eCPMs and users get $2 eCPM on average and up to ...
An App Developers Starter Guide To Mobile Analytics
Thursday, October 9, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
Mobile analytics as a business has exploded recently and there are a number of reasons why. One primary reason is that companies who serve the app development industry are learning how to squeeze out every bit of information available from a variety of sources: the mobile devices themselves as well as from outside influencers such as WiFi vs. carrier connections, i...
How to Turn Your Mobile App into a Scalable Business
Monday, August 25, 2014 by Itay Riemer
It might be easier than ever to develop your own app, but turning that app into a viable business is only getting harder.Apple's App Store is adding close to 20,000 new apps every month, and Google Play is matching or even topping those numbers. This makes for a crowded market where app developers are struggling to cut through the noise to have their product discovered ...
Advice for Mobile App Developers Turned CEOs
Friday, August 22, 2014 by Miguel Valdés Faura
When Apple introduced the concept of mobile “Apps” on the first iPhone, they provided developers with the unique opportunity to sell their creations directly to consumers. And all of the sudden, developers were not just developers, they were business people concerned with all aspects of running a business – marketing, accounting, etc. Many indie developers for all inten...
Games Developers Conference Opens Calls for Submissions for a Chance to Win $50,000
Wednesday, August 6, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
The 17th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF), a festival, summit, and showcase for indie games, has announced the opening of its call for game submissions. The 2015 IGF will be held at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco March 2-6. Entries for the main competition are now being accepted through October 22, 2014. Entries for the Student Showcas...
A Beginner’s Guide to App Analytics: More Users, More Usage and More Revenue
Tuesday, July 15, 2014 by Stuart Parkerson
More users, more usage & more revenue. It sounds simple, right? However, you and I both know better. Yes, the opportunity is there - US daily smartphone screen time has now exceeded television time. Mobile usage is only going to continue to grow. But the days of launching an app and sitting back as the money rolls in are long, long gone. It doesn’t matter who y...
