Sponsored Feature: Producer Masanori Kusakabe on how Zoo Keeper is a great fit on iOS

There are plenty of match-three games on the App Store - so many, in fact, that it's sometimes difficult to keep track of the ones that are actually worth your time.

Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition is up there amongst the best of the genre, though – and the fact the series has been around for ten years is testament to its enduring appeal.

Masanori Kusakabe, producer for Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition at the game's Japanese developer Kiteretsu, spoke to us about why the franchise has been bought to iOS, how the series continues to improve, and his company's future plans.

The animals went in three by three

Zoo Keeper started off as a free PC game ten years ago, and has been released on formats such as the PS2, DS, and J2ME. The main gameplay mechanics, however, have remained untouched whatever system it’s on.

For those who don't know the concept, the aim is to keep swapping animal heads in a grid, so that a vertical or horizontal line of three or more of the same creature is created.

Once this is achieved, the line of three or more disappears, and more animal heads appear in their place.

It’s a ridiculously simple setup, but one that can still consume hours of your time. Kusakabe explains that a lot of effort went into making sure that everyone could play and enjoy the game.

"Since Zoo Keeper is fundamentally a game that people play recognising colour, I thought the theme should be understood intuitively for people all over the world," he says.

Going wild on iOS

The touchscreens on both the iPhone and iPad make them a perfect fit for Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition's animal head-shuffling action, and Kusakabe believes the game can continue to improve and grow.

"I think there is a great potential in the iOS platform because of its global market, sales price, the feeling of interaction on the touchscreen, and the original new functions that are being released for it," he explains. "Millions of people can now play Zoo Keeper every day, and the chance to enable network battle games [multiplayer games] in the future is a very viable option for us."

Unmatched

But, what makes Zoo Keeper DX Touch Edition such a compulsive experience, especially in the bustling and over-populated match-three crowd?

"It helps that there’s a great combination in terms of its character design and gameplay, as well as the rhythmical action of game design, and the game balance between elements of luck and player’s skill," Kusakabe says. "I think these three points are hugely important."

"Despite a competitive market, Zoo Keeper has been played for ten years. We would like to keep improving it more and more so that the games in the series will be played for more than a century.

"In all aspects of planning, graphics, and programming, each member of the team strives to improve every detail of the Zoo Keeper experience."

New attractions

Future updates to the game also sound promising: a Score Attack mode is coming very soon, which looks to mark just the beginning of a slew of upcoming new content.

"We plan to add other modes such as Battle with the Manager mode, Quest mode, and Puzzle mode," says Kusakabe. "We are preparing to include a Battle or Multiplayer mode, too."

An Android version is arriving soon, too: "It's almost finished, about 90 percent," Kusakabe says. "We would like to deliver Zoo Keeper to all devices available, so some plans are going ahead."

Zoo EN-GB">Keeper DX Touch Edition EN-GB">on iOS is available now at the temporarily discounted price of 69p / 99c / €0.79 [iTunes link].