Tag: mobile gaming

Nix Hydra Inc. has raised millions to expand its successful game Egg Baby.

The mobile gaming Los Angeles-based startup, co-founded in 2012 by former Yale classmates Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky, that creates mobile games made by females for females, has raised $5 million from Foundry Group to grow their popular game Egg Baby, as well as launch additional titles.

Egg Baby became a huge hit among young women without marketing.

The game was launched in 2013, was well received and gained quite the following among women and teen girls. The inspiration for Egg Baby came from a school experiment that assigned students to care for a raw egg as if it were their baby. Even though there was no marketing for the game and the initial version was quite rough, it was a hit.

In the game, a player hatches an egg, which produces a unique creature that gives gifts. The type of creature that hatches depends on how the player interacts and cares for the egg (ex. washes, dresses, feeds, tickles it, etc.). If the player forgets to care for the egg, it will die. A major reason why the game has achieved a massive following is players like to show off their creature and many new users download the game after seeing what their friends have shared.

The game has received 9 million downloads. “We didn’t think it was going to be that popular,” said Lina Chen. According to Chen, approximately 85 percent of players are female and the majority of players are under 25 years old.

Nix Hydra will continue its female-focused mobile gaming objective.

Naomi Ladizinsky commented that in the mobile gaming industry there have been a lot of games “with the same ideas iterated on over and over again”, such as games that fall into the trendy battle, quest, and runner game genres. “It’s a tech dude’s perspective,” she said. Nix Hydra anticipates it will hire an additional 20 people over the course of the next year and will use the funding it has received to launch two new games and develop a franchise around Egg Baby.

Glass could be the next powerful mobile gaming platform

Google Glass may come to play a major role in gaming, especially that of the mobile variety. As one of the largest technology organizations in the world, Google has a strong position in the gaming field, largely because its Android mobile operating system is one of the most popular mobile gaming platforms. The company’s augmented reality glasses could soon change the way people experience their games and independent game developers are turning to Glass to revolutionize gaming.

Indie developers are beginning to turn to Glass for its augmented reality capabilities

Glass has not yet been officially released, but a relatively small number of developers and tech industry professionals have advance models of the device. Glass is already capable of taking pictures, capturing video, and engaging in various forms of social media, but a growing number of indie game developers and crafting mobile games specifically for the platform. Because of the device’s augmented reality capabilities, it is quite popular among developers that are interested in producing highly interactive games.

Developers could use AR to create more interactive games

The majority of applications currently available on Google Glass are designed with social media and content creation in mind. Developers are beginning to bring ambitious mobile games to the platform, however. Games like Mind Pirate have recently found their way to Glass, aiming to provide an innovative gaming experience for Glass users. Some of these games focus on the augmented reality capabilities of the platform, leveraging this technology to turn the real world into a gaming environment.

Mobile gaming is becoming a priority for some large development studios and publishers

Mobile gaming has become a very powerful force in the overarching game industry. The field is primarily composed of small developers that are independent of publishers, but large game studios are beginning to enter into the mobile space. As large development studios begin to take mobile gaming seriously, they too may see the promise in augmented reality technology and Glass. Companies like Sony and Microsoft are already taking steps to develop their own AR headsets in order to capture the wonderment of interactive gaming.