Who’s making the games that the game industry playing? That’s one question I had at PG Connects Helsinki – PocketGamer’s satellite conference that brought together Helsinki’s startup scene. Many of these gamers are making games where they aren’t necessarily the target audience – I don’t think anyone was going around the conference saying “dude, did you see that game where you shoot birds at some pigs’ castle.” Instead I was expecting to see more hardcore games, or something innovating that got gamers thinking.
This could be a much more exhaustive list, but here’s the responses I got after a quick walk:
Alex McCredie, Unity
“Lots of Hearthstone” was the response. Unity is apparently doing a company-wide tournament put together by some of the developers, and Alex promises that this isn’t a plug just because Hearthstone is based on Unity.
Alfonso Ortiz Palma, Applifier
Hybrid, a racing drifting game by F-Technology.
Blek – which won a design award from Apple.
Niklas Saari, Team Jolly Roger
Keeping it Finnish on mobile with “Clash of Clans of course”, Juice Cubes, and Badland.
On PC, he’s playing FTL a lot.
Juho Glad – Glad Game Studio
Hitman GO and Monument Valley
Torulf Jernström, Tribeflame
“We wanted to study the top 100 grossing games on the app store, so our whole company split the top games to see what makes them work.”
Some ‘interesting’ ones from that list include Deer Hunter and Castle Clash.
Jani Kahrama, Secret Exit
FTL was mentioned again, as was Monument Valley
Kahlid Bur – Fifth Wave Brands
Two Dots and Amigo Panco
What about you? What games are you actually opening up every day to play, or what’s resonated with you?
