Interviews

Going to extremes: CobraMobile's move to mobile 3D and PC casual games explained

In a crowded market, you need to specialise

Going to extremes: CobraMobile's move to mobile 3D and PC casual games explained
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Continuing our spin around Dundee's mobile game developers, we pitched up on the steps of CobraMobile. With around a dozen staff, it's the largest company in the area, and also the most interesting in terms of providing an example of the different business models mobile developers are experimenting with.

We got the lowdown from MD Mark Ettle.

Pocket Gamer: Earlier this year, you announced your PC casual website CobiMobi. What was the thinking behind it?

Mark Ettle: We were looking at diversifying. We knew we could create absorbing and engaging casual mobile games with the skillsets and tools we've built up, so we thought it would work well if we extended onto PC.

We took some resources from our mobile side and developed our first casual PC game, Cobi Treasure Deluxe, which was based on a mobile game. We played around with the game mechanic and introduced new features and then polished it up.

But our second game, Numba, was originally done for PC and only afterwards did we prototype it for mobile. It played really well and now we're in the process of getting it finished. It should be coming out early next year.

Does this mean you're moving away from mobile games?

No, but the mobile space is definitely getting harder to operate in. That's just a given. We've been lucky in that 75 percent of the games we come up with get signed but if you have an online version of your mobile game, it makes it easier for publishers to market. It also adds another string to our bow, and if you create a good game, it should work on other devices.

We wanted to experiment, see what's involved and use that knowledge to get better deals or more sales when it comes to our mobile titles. Cobi Treasure Deluxe was a version of a mobile game we upscaled. Numba, we developed on PC, and now we're taking it to mobile, so you can see everything acts hand-in-hand, whether it's a sales tool, a marketing tool, or a combination of both.

You're also doing a lot of work on 3D games, aren't you?

We've been playing around with 3D for about a year. We created our own tools to handle Symbian. We did some research and saw that Nokia handsets were about 75 percent of the market so we looked at Symbian. Not many people were developing on Symbian and we found out why. It was a bit of a nightmare, but we persevered and now we have standard systems for deploying 3D on Symbian.

We didn't really know much about BREW either, so we bought someone in to have a look at that technology and now we've got our tools working for BREW as well. We can take content directly from a 3D package, and export it out for a phone, either in Symbian or BREW.

Are publishers interested in 3D games?

The 3D space isn't as crowded as the Java space so there's more room for original content. We have three games in development and three in pre-production, and there hasn't been publisher we've shown them to who hasn't wanted to sign them. It could be because the market isn't jammed packed, although these games are pretty good too, which helps.

How do you come up with ideas for games?

We have two or three people who come up with ideas; either an idea or a game mechanic. These need to be firmed out, or layered upon so we take them and get other people in the company to look at them. One of the big things we focus on is really simple input.

If we're happy with everything, we may do a little prototype. Last week, for example, we did two prototypes. We have a constant churn-through. We're always coming up with ideas.

Getting them published is harder, though. There have been a couple of times we have shown games to publishers and they're not sure. But six months later, someone else will release exactly the same thing and then you'll get a call saying, 'How quickly can you do that game you showed us six months ago?'. We always seemed to be six to nine months ahead of the market.

You've worked on a lot of licensed games, such as Carol Vorderman's Mind Aerobics, so would you consider trying to get your own licences?

No. It's not what we are. It's not part of the business model. When it comes to a licence, we'll work with a publisher because if you get the licence, you either have to pay upfront or take a royalty cut.

Also, all our games are released globally, and it's hard to get those sort of licences. That's why I like to work with the publisher dealing with distribution and any licence. As the developer, we bring the quality and we'll share the risk together.

Otherwise, if we get the licence, we have that risk and the risk of development. Okay, we'll have a better back-end but is the cost of the licence going to generate twice as much revenue back for us? I don't think so.

Saying that, we have done some really successful licensed products, but we've also done some that have sold nothing. It's a confusing market, so we leave it to the publisher.

Our thanks to Mark for his time. CobraMobile's game Stuck! will be released shortly, while Numba is due in early 2008.
Jon Jordan
Jon Jordan
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon can turn his hand to anything except hand turning. He is editor-at-large at PG.biz which means he can arrive anywhere in the world, acting like a slightly confused uncle looking for the way out. He likes letters, cameras, imaginary numbers and legumes.