“The
very thing that makes the market attractive is what creates the risk associated
with competing in a space where consumers have many options”
Developer Stephen
Williams in an interview with Shereita Grizzle form the Jamaica Gleaner explaining
why his Game TapKat Fiesta is marked for success
Does
Jamaica have the talent to make it big in Video Game Design? While the
Government seeks to make Animation into the next success modeled off BPO
(Business Process Outsourcing) aka Call Center, Video Game Developement has
gotten scant regard.
 |
Thus,
given the competition and Piracy surrounding Video Game development, I must
truly tip my hat to those fledgling Video Game Developers in Jamaica. To this
end I’ve been doing the occasional Video Game review, hoping to spot a local
Jamaica Developer worth blogging about as I’ve stated in my blog article entitled
“2048
is Italian Gabriele Cirulli's Mathematical answer to Flappy Bird - HTML5
Time-Wasting Fun like Threes! with 3D Gaming Potential on Facebook's Oculus
Rift VR”.
I’ve
found one such worthy of a blog article: a one-man Developer for Pandosoft, 24
year old Stephen Williams, Developer of the Google Android Game TapKat
Fiesta
Developer Stephen
Williams of Pandosoft - TapKat Fiesta is taking Google Play by Storm
 |
His
Game, TapKat
Fiesta, was launched in August 2014 on the Google Play Store, an indication
that he's made it his choice to go with the more popular Mobile Operating
System that's typically the choice of persons in the Developing World as I've
pointed out in my blog article
entitled “Vision
Mobile’s 10,000 Developer Global Study – Why Developers prefer developing for
Android and Apple iOS yet Enterprise makes Steady Money”.
Released under the registered Animation
Company Pandosoft, this one man Developer Team’s
TapKat
Fiesta has been getting some good reviews on Google Play Store. Since being
updated on August 12, 2014, the TapKat
Fiesta game that has a Maturity rating of Medium Maturity on the Google
Play Store has between 100 to 500 downloads.
Its
rating thus far from 23 persons who cared to comment is 4.5, which is fairly
good for a new game in the Google Play Store. It really needs a How to Play
section for persons to really get into playing this game.
The
Casual Game for smartphones and Tablets pits you as a secret agent cat flying a
helicopter that has to inoculate mutated birds by shooting them with healing
balls of medication even as these birds try to shoot you out of the sky.
 |
It's
basically a first person shooter, like Deer Hunter 2014 as described in
Kelroy’s Geezam blog article entitled “Deer Hunter 2014 –
Hunting Simulator on your mobile phone”. Ultimately, in order to win the Game,
you have to eventually defeat Rattimus and his various henchmen.
Like
the Game Flappy
Birds released by Developer Dong Nguyen, also a one-man Developer
with his Game Developer Studio DotGears and
now Swing Copters as described in my blog article
entitled “Swing
Copters is Dong Nguyen's Flappy Bird Replacement - Why Swing Copters is more
frustrating to play than Flappy Birds”, Stephen Williams’ Game has
potential.
TapKat Fiesta potential
– It’s all about the Marketing that’ll make an App a million dollar success
However,
it still up in the air as to whether or not he'll be as much as success as Dong Nguyen.
His game, Flappy
Birds, was so notoriously successful that he had to take it down due to
complaints from angry parents claiming it was distracting their children.
This
despite making some US$50,000 per day from In-App Advertising as noted in my blog article
entitled “Developer
Dong Nguyen takes down US$50000 a day Flappy Bird App - Unwanted Media
Attention leaves DotGears Game as the first In-App Advertising Gaming App”.
But
that seems to be what he's gunning for, as he's also adopted the same freemium
In-App Advertising model as the famed Vietnamese Developer, to quote Stephen
Williams: “Angry Birds is currently worth an estimated US$9 billion, while Flappy
Bird's Developer, Dong Nguyen, was earning up to US$50,000 daily”.
However,
unlike Flappy
Birds, he also allows gamers to advance to higher levels by buying more
powerful weaponry, health and lives via purchasing them directly using the In-App
purchasing model that's making Glu Mobile's Kim
Kardashian: Hollywood App a hit with her fans as stated in my blog article
entitled “Glu
Mobile's Kim Kardashian Hollywood App - Anatomy of How an A-List Celebrity
based App propels In-App Purchases”.
With
that type of competition, he's very much aware that even with a great Game and
the rave reviews thus far, success isn't guaranteed, to quote Stephen Williams:
“Here is where careful strategy, proper execution of your business model and
focus is required. If a Developer approaches the market with the notion that a
good Game (product) is all that is required to do well, their Game will end up
in a pool of Apps with little to no downloads, hence little to no revenue”.
Most
likely his marketing involves the use of Social Media for Pandosoft, which is still under construction
and their Pandosoft Youtube
Page, which isn’t getting much love by the way!
@pandosoft's
TapKat Fiesta is worth taking a look at. If you like Duck Hunt, this brings
back the memories! https://t.co/TH6MEiHfGD
—
Graz (@elementalfact0r) September
8, 2014
At
least his Pandosoft Twitter Page
and TapKat
Fiesta Facebook Page are active, so I can follow his latest tweets just as
was the case with Dong Nguyen, Developer for the game
Flappy
Birds!
App Development in
Jamaica – VoIP Apps for Corporate and Enterprise still untapped Telecoms
Opportunity
I
personally wish him all the success in the World as well as the other Game Developers
who are the products of the recent Digital Jam 3.0. I'm of course referring to
such Developers as Working Enigma and their thus-far published Casual Games Pan
Chicken Dash and their most recent Game, Lef
Mi Farm as detailed in the article “Enigmatic
techies to create jobs through App development”, Published Sunday August 3,
2014 by Andrew Harris, Gleaner Writer, The
Jamaica Gleaner.
Another
Developer Team I’ve got my eyes on is Team
NewAge who have two Game Apps out as well, Jungle
Escape and Project Exit as per
the article “Ja
Team seeks US$120,000 in pitch to Microsoft judges”, published Friday,
August 01, 2014 BY STEVEN JACKSON
Business reporter, The Jamaica
Observer.
Like
Stephen Williams, they're well aware of the fact that they're competing in a
very crowded field with other Game Developers on a Platform that's known for
free-to-play games. Makes sense that they've chose a freemium model and they've
concentrating their efforts on developing an App for the Regional Microsoft
Imagine Cup in September 2014.
This
is based on the Global Survey by Vision Mobile, it's still my premise that the
real money in Developing Apps is in making Corporate and Enterprise
Applications as I've long argued and now distilled into my blog article
entitled “How
BYOD trend in Jamaica will require Local Jamaican Developers to develope
Enterprise and Corporate Apps”.
A
ready example, ripe for the picking, is the development of VoIP Apps, being as
the blockade against them will be ongoing for quite some time and the OUR (Office
of Utilities Regulation) isn't planning on lifting it any time soon as pointed
out in my blog
article entitled “VoIP
Talks at 30th Annual Conference of CANTO - How VoIP robs Telecoms as Not All
Traffic is Equal as Caribbean VoIP Operators needed”.
Thus,
it presents the Perfect Storm within which an entrepreneur App Developer with
knowledge of how to set up a VoIP Platform and design a solid VoIP App to
connect to Cloud Servers running that VoIP Platform can launch a VoIP Service
and offer the same services as Viber and Nimbuzz, but as a licensed VoIP
Operator, an idea that's worthy of a Blog article all by itself.
For
now, the Government of Jamaica and particularly the Ministry of Science,
Technology, Energy and Mining will continued to push the agenda of Animation in
Jamaica. Especially now that the World Bank is investing some US$20 million in
developing this fledgling industry over the next 5 years as stated in my blog article entitled
“Animation
after KingstOON - World Bank Invests US$20 million in Jamaican Animation BPO
Brother from another Mother with Great Expectations”.
So
hats off to Stephen Williams, a one-man Developer for Pandosoft and maker of the game TapKat
Fiesta on Google Play Store,
who’s also a pioneer in a field that Jamaicans are yet to tap into but bears
lots of Birds of a feather worth plucking!
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