At Casual Connect Europe, Andrei Gradinari took the stage and described the challenges of game development for smartwatches. Andrei covered UI/gameplay and technical problems that Spooky House Studios encountered and how they solved them in the process of porting over their existing games and designing new games for smartwatches. Wearable devises “are on pare with phones that were on the market a couple of years ago . . . You get pretty decent frame rate in any game you port”, said Andrei during the session.
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As Founder and Lead Game Designer at Spooky House Studios, Andrei Gradinari’s self-described mission is to create fun and innovative games for everyone to enjoy.
And millions of people have enjoyed Spooky House games, which include Bubble Explode, Rail Maze and more. Prior to starting Spooky House Studios, Andrei worked on Ragdoll Blaster and Paper Toss.
“I believe that a truly great game doesn’t have a niche and can be enjoyed by absolutely everyone,” Andrei says.
At Spooky House, Andrei is in charge of the production process. Andrei comes up with game design ideas and revises ideas from other team members before they go into production. They also does programming and “a bit of everything when I have time for it.”
Hit Makers
Spooky House was founded in 2010, and since then the studio has had a couple of apps reach number 1 in App Store and Google Play categories in the U.S. and other countries. One of the most fulfilling experiences in the games industry, Andrei says, is “bumping into random people around the world playing our games on the streets, in coffee shops and public transportation, and telling them, ‘Hey, I made this game.’”
Andrei attributes those successes to creating original apps and releasing them onto the market at the right time. “It’s such a great feeling when you know the whole world is playing your game,” Andrei says.
The Old School
Andrei’s interest in games was kindled at a young age, before widespread internet, back when someone interested in learning about game development would have to search for information in magazines and books. “When my parents bought me my first computer, I played games on it and started wondering how they are made. I dug up some information on the topic, and that’s what got me interested.”
Andrei is pretty straightforward about the decision to pursue game development as a career: “I love games, and making them is the best career I could think of,” the designer says. But back when Andrei entered college, there weren’t many (or any) degrees for prospective game developers.
“So I just went for a computer science degree, because it seemed to be the closest degree to the games industry,” Andrei admits. But it all worked out, eventually. “After graduating, I found a job related to computer graphics programming, and after that I moved over to the games industry,”
Trends and Trends Hoped For
If Andrei had to forecast the coming trends in the mobile games industry, it would be that people will install fewer games and stick to the ones they have, so success for developers and publishers will be more about retention than acquiring new users.
As for trends Andrei would like to see in the industry, a little less cloning and a lot more originality are high on the wishlist.
“I think the game industry as a whole would benefit if new game genres were developed, instead of releasing tons of games with similar mechanics,” Andrei says.
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