Tapgage releases new SDK and updates Dashboard

We have been working closely with many developers and listening to their needs. Here are some of the updates that you will notice:

• The SDK has been tweaked with a new UI design and Logo.  This can be easily change to match the UI of the apps integrating it.
• The SDK is now also iPad compatible. 
• The App Wall is now equipped with an Interstitial Ad screen at pre-roll. 
• The Interstitial Ad can also be used at any point in the game, which we work with developers to help optimize.
• The Dashboard now tracks a full range of stats to monitor conversions and effectiveness of Ads. 
• Developers can now internally promote apps and track clicks and installs. 
• Improved dashboard for better navigation. 

Looking forward to more feedback from Developers. If you have any suggestions please email us at Developer (at) Tapgage.com 

Interview with Oleksandr of AppMania

Where did your passion for gaming come from?

Everything happened by chance. Ten years ago or so, as a young architect I was invited to one of the game studios to check out their virtual game projects. The work was interesting, given the fact that there was no limitation to creativity, as there is in real architecture. Only later did I get interested in the Game Dev business. I wanted to know how all these companies operated and what the keys were to successful projects. Basically… what the most important thing was in development? Jumping ahead now, I can say that so far I haven’t found an exact answer to this question.

Did you always know you wanted to do something like this?

Actually, young people will often say they knew, of course for me, it all came much later because in my childhood there weren’t any computer games. But the good news for me was that I managed to catch the wave of rapid business growth and merge with this early on. It’s always a more advantageous position to grow along with the games. This helped me not to get lost and be able see the essence of the business. To see a small group of people who gave their lives from its professional beginning as I did.

That’s putting it deeply…. Can you describe yourself in 3 words?

This is the first time I’ve have had such a complex question… well…in 3.5: Strategically Moving 3DHumanJ

What do you think is the future of gaming consoles?

I’m not the first who’ll express this opinion, but I think in the future they will integrate partly with mobile platforms, partly with TV. In their pure form it seems they will cease to exist. Generations of technological change happen at such a high rate in the TV and mobile platforms far above the consoles, and they’re catching up to consoles in power, and this is not an accidental process - the line that develops more quickly seems to be the one which has the most market potential.

What’s the best part about working in gaming?

Here I can’t give preference to any particular stage. It’s a very important to create a really good and professional team. At this time you meet and converse with many interesting people. It’s also very important to work on pre-production and think what the audience would like, and what they won’t like. It is very important process when you’re preparing to bring the different parts of the project together and then see what happens Finally, when the project sees it’s first players - it’s a very exciting moment, because at this point, the producer finally understands whether it will be successful or not. That’s true whether you made ​​a bet on some decisions to have it a certain way or not. Even if everyone out there says this is a science, nevertheless it’s a lottery in many cases. Have you reached a target audience or not? Thankfully, this is happens in the testing phase in focus groups, and you have a chance to make some adjustments.

What would you share from your past experiences and knowledge that would help future designers and game developers?

This might sound trivial, but I’ll quote the words of my architectural visualization teacher – “Never try to lie to the audience.” Yes, the game is a fairy tale, but the story must be believable. Games are like an actor in the theater - they play a role and this role should look natural, so that the audience believes it.

Learning doesn’t stop after your degree, what are the best sources of knowledge for you on the web?

I’ve been working with the Eastern European regional markets a lot now, unfortunately they often do not have an English localization, and a lot depends on what you need at the moment. When I worked with artwork and AAA projects of course resources required such as CGTalk.com, a good idea is to visit and exchange experiences over there. Now, when I’m working with companies on business development, the personal contacts I make with certain people is important. I hope everyone understands that it’s rare for a company to come out and say that they went this way and that is not true - On what they won and what lost. That this is just good for making new acquaintances such as my group at Game Developers LinkedIn.com.   I’m well acquainted with the materials leading to resources such as ign.com, gamedev.net. But then again, if you want to work seriously with the market and work on projects and strategies for their development, you need to learn to compare different data and use to make your own conclusions.

 

Where do you think the market will be in 5 years?

Forecasting is a thankless job. After 5 years we will not see anything of what is on the market today… that’s my guess. I still think the nearest future is multi-platform projects and cloud computing. In games development budgets increasing, and the matter is not so much to build the highest quality game or visual components, it’s clear this is not the main thing.  It will be a race for greater interactivity and players involvement. More likely it will be about you, forcing a person to act in the space of a particular algorithm, react to weather conditions at the time of day etc. In that you can play with the same success when you ride on the subway or sitting at home.
 Another important aspect will be cooperation of game development teams, because it is more difficult to achieve success when you’re alone. Appmania already feels this way. Here we’re in constantly trying to establish new lines of international partnerships and access to different world markets with our new projects.  I think in the near future, in addition to large companies, we will see the fusing of small unique companies.

Why did you decide to start a LinkedIn group?

Interesting story. Generally, I like when someone invites me to work in new locations that are not in my home city and country. Changing environments, people… it’s stimulating to get rid of routine and do something new. And in one of these occasions, I arrived in an unfamiliar city and as were the early days on the new place and I especially did not know anyone, I was sitting at home with my laptop and thought it would be nice to create a group where you can communicate with those people from whom I am far away now and not lose touch. Well, if so many talented people I’ve met in different locations - we all can discuss important professional topics, it will be powerful. I opened Photoshop and drew a simple logo GAMEDEV and created a group on LinkedIn.com. After that I invited my former and current co-workers. At the first time everything went exactly as I wanted, but then people that I didn’t know, co-workers of my co-workers, people from other companies and countries wanted to join.  

       A month later I’ve got 150 requests to join into the group each day. It was a real panic and I spent a lot of time reviewing each profile every evening when I came home from work. I didn’t want everyone in the group, only those who actually engaged in the development of games. Apparently everybody liked my point of view. Now the new administration at LinkedIn is helping me control who joins, and this isn’t so difficult. However, such an audience of 40,000 people gives the many obligations and now I want to do something more for all of these people. I’ve been planning to create a separate portal on the Internet in addition to the group which would extend the capabilities of the group.

I think I’ll have to attract  some investors to build something of great quality that people around the world will benefit greatly. While it’s not in my immediate plans, I believe that one day it would be really great to have a terminal where everyone will be able to solve their business problems and help each other.

     Thank you for your excellent questions. It got me to think globally when answering them.

Regards,
Oleksandr Kompanets

AndroidTO October 26, 2011

Catch Bizmey at AndroidTO on October 26, 2011. Salman Habib (Co-Founder & Vice President of Business Development) will be a panelist for the topic “Building Business On Mobile”. 

Bizmey’s Future

Bizmey started off over a year ago thinking it would make some distruptive changes in the monetization of Virtual Currency. However that did not happen due to certain circumstances such as Facebook Credits and Apple banning Incentivized Installs. That did not scare this young team away but allowed us to think it through and change our business plan. In the start up world you could call it a “Pivot”.

So what are we doing now? We are focusing on the Monetization & Distribution of Mobile applications. Our vision is to be one of the largest mobile application distribution network. At the current moment we are in beta with our cross promotional network that allows applications to share its user with each other. A simple free way to build a larger user-base. We are working on various other innovative products that we plan to bring to the market in the next few months.

New York Mobile Gaming Summit

Come check out CEO (Arfan Chaudhry) speak at Mobile Gaming Summit on July 4, 2011. The summit is being held by General Assembly (Incubator / Co working space)  in New York. The Panel discussion he will be speaking about will be about “Monetization: The 2011 Landscape”

Register here: http://nyc.mogasummit.com/register/