Proudly Announcing the Indie Prize Winners at Casual Connect Eastern Europe 2018

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Events Game Design News

Proudly Announcing the Indie Prize Winners at Casual Connect Eastern Europe 2018

October 4, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

The Indie Prize competition at Casual Connect Eastern Europe featured an exciting variety of games that displayed amazing innovative talent. With the judging now complete, Casual Connect announces the winners and nominees.

The award for Best Game Audio went to Awakening of Heroes, created by COFA Games from Serbia. Awakening of Heroes lets the player forge through minions to overcome other players and destroy their towers. But for weapons, players must choose between such items as ladles, chimney brushes and hair dryers. The ten minute matches have you exploring character skill sets and best combos as you fight to win.

Events Game Design News

Meet the Indie Prize Serbia Entries from Eastern Europe

September 18, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

The entries for Casual Connect‘s Indie Prize coming from Eastern Europe will challenge players in many different ways. A game may explore fighting with weapons that include ladles, chimney brushes and hair dryers, while another requires players to cooperate in teams to reach their objective. A more serious game explores the stages of grief as a different game explores a network of universes and another leads players to rely on their sense of hearing to explore. Players will need to use quick reflexes, logical thinking, puzzle solving skills and more in these games.

Game Title: Cube
Developer: ColdCoffee
Platform: Android
Country: Turkey

In this game, you are trying to reach the key with Cube while avoiding the tricks and overcoming the traps. To do so, you must keep your head, remain calm and don’t rush. But eventually this won’t be enough; the path ahead will only be revealed when Cube rotates on its axis.

Europe 2018 Video Coverage

Baris Ozistek and Turning Your Idea into a Successful Game | Casual Connect Video

July 11, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

Are you someone with an idea that you believe could be a successful game? Do you plan to create your own indie game studio? Unfortunately, no matter how great the idea is, it takes more to turn it into a success; you need to know you can get from here to there. You will have to figure out what you have to do to make it happen.

Baris Ozistek has the experience to help you make the crucial decisions that will help you succeed. Baris is the CEO of Netmarble EMEA and a board member of StartersHub. He has also been President of Turkish Digital Games Federation and a board member of Turkish Informatics Foundation.

Baris Ozistek at Casual Connect Europe 2018

StartersHub, one of the largest venture building funds in Turky and the Middle East, focuses on areas such as gaming, IoT, digital content and fintech. At Baris’ session at Casual Connect Europe, he shared some of the things they have learned from investing in forty-one very early stage startups in the past 2½ years. If you would like to find out more from Baris with insights into what you need to do to succeed as an indie game developer, watch the video of this session Learnings from StartersHub: From Ideas to Successful Games at Casual Connect Europe 2018 in London.

For more about Baris’ insights and career, see this exclusive article.

Events News

Introducing the Indie Prize London Participants from Middle East and Asia

May 21, 2018 — by Catherine Quinton

The entries from the Middle East for Indie Prize at Casual Connect Europe 2018 are five completely different games. However, they share an interesting element – each has an unexpected environment. In one soccer is played in a medieval castle; one takes place in a world of jelly; one is in an ancient world that rotates; one is in a desert filled with hordes of ghastly enemies; and in one the player actually creates the environment, drawing their own path. In all other ways they offer great variety, with new twists on sports, battles, strategic planning and creative thinking.

Game Title: Dirty Soccer Online
Developer: Vahit Hanoglu
Platform: Android
Country: Turkey

Dirty Soccer Online is a free multi-player sports and action game. To begin the game you choose a medieval character; each possible character has different powers. The game can be played in up to 3v3 live matches with players worldwide. You fight against your opposing team while trying to score goals in their castle.

Events News

Indie Prize Participants During Casual Connect USA from Europe and Asia Part 2

December 31, 2017 — by Catherine Quinton

Europe and India are bringing a fascinating variety of games to Indie Prize during Casual Connect USA at Disneyland® Hotel. This group of games include beautiful puzzle games, games requiring skills, learning fairy tales for children, games of suspense and, of course, games of competition. Indie Prize is seeing amazing innovation and diversity in these new games.

Game Title: Stack & Crack
Developer: Jambav
Platform: iOS
Country: India

Stack & Crack is a 3D puzzle game with beautiful levels. There is no tutorial; the levels are designed in a way that makes a tutorial unnecessary. But it is not an easy game. Each chapter introduces a different creative element that makes cracking the game a challenge to the brain.

Stack & Crack was shortlisted in the “Upcoming Game of the Year” section of NGDC 2017, Hyderabad, India.

Contributions Events Indie News

Introducing Eastern and Southern European Finalists for Indie Prize Singapore 2017

April 19, 2017 — by Yuliya Moshkaryova

Developers from six countries will represent Eastern Europe at Indie Prize during Casual Connect Asia in Singapore. Five games from Poland, two games from Spain and one game from Czech Republic, Russia, Cyprus, Italy and Turkey.

The single representative from Italy is the game Downward. The game was nominated by Indie Prize nomination partner in Italy: Codemotion Rome. Codemotion is the biggest tech conference in EMEA. It is about all programming languages and technologies.

Europe 2017 Video Coverage

Baris Ozistek: Is It Life Or Is It a Game? | Casual Connect Video

March 5, 2017 — by Catherine Quinton

Just what is the relationship between games and life? Do games reflect real life or are our lives becoming more and more influenced by games? These are the questions Baris Ozistek considered in his session at Casual Connect Europe.

Baris is CEO of Netmarble EMEA as well as board member of StatersHub, the largest acceleration program supporting startups in this region. Baris has also been President of Turkish Digital Games Federation and a board member of Turkish Information Technologies Foundation.

In this session, Baris used several of Netmarble’s successful mobile RPG titles to illustrate how gamification is becoming more and more intertwined in our lives. As he pointed out during his session, games are no longer just entertainment and are certainly not simply for children. Games have now expanded to include such things as the Nike app for running which not only tracks your progress, but also allows you to compete with others. Baris emphasizes that, just as we have short and long term goals in life, games do the same, and offer rewards that depend on the efforts we make.

To learn more about the similarities between games and real life, watch the video of this session below.

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For more insights from Baris, see this article from Casual Connect Tel Aviv 2016.

Contributions Development Events Indie News

Devs Coming from India, Turkey, Korea and Egypt to Casual Connect Europe

January 19, 2017 — by Yuliya Moshkaryova

Three games from India and Turkey, one game from Republic of Korea, two games from Tunisia and one game from Egypt at the international Indie Prize showcase in Berlin during Casual Connect Europe 2017. Among them three games were nominated by Game Nation Nomination Partners: NASSCOM Game Developers Conference in India, Run Double Jump in Egypt and Tunisian Game Awards in Tunisia.

Tel Aviv 2016 Video Coverage

Baris Ozistek: Reaching and Succeeding in More Markets | Casual Connect Video

November 17, 2016 — by Catherine Quinton

It’s really fun and exciting if you love challenges. - Baris OzistekClick To Tweet

Baris Ozistek, CEO of Netmarble EMEA, was the keynote speaker Casual Connect Tel Aviv 2016. In his speech, Baris covered common stats on key Asian markets, along with the major differences between them, and the importance of localization according to target territory. Baris explained that in Asia, “The key issue is the content. The key issue is the quality. Data is not one of the key issues.” Autoplay came from Asia and is growing in popularity. Baris stressed to try Autoplay out if you have not tried it yet. To learn more, listen to the full lecture featured below.