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We're proud to present, Crazy Kings!

Crazy Kings

A project that we started in 2012 is finally about to be released on the App Store. After about three years we're finally ready to launch our latest game, a tower defense game called Crazy Kings to the App Store. The game will launch tomorrow, May 21st, globally on the App Store, so to say the least this is definitely exciting times for us at TicBits.

During the development of Crazy Kings the game has undergone quite a lot of changes, both when it comes to the game mechanics as well as to it's visual style. And even though I guess I'm a bit biased I must say that I'm really pleased with how the game turned out, which I guess I can prove by looking at how much time our tracking says I've spent on the official in-house test version, over 1 hour per day on average for the last year! (And this does not count the time spent on the various debug builds at the same time)

The game Crazy Kings is, as mentioned, a tower defense game. In the game you control an Avatar who has at his disposal various cards that can be used to build towers, cast spells or summon heroes to fight by his side. As you progress in the game you gain access to more and more cards which allows you to use cards that suit your fighting style, be that by using only powerful towers, or by summoning a massive horde of heroes, or even by using only spells to stop the hordes of enemies.

The game has been built with the players in mind, offering a lot of challenging levels to play as well as a lot of different cards to collect. At launch we have over 250 levels, over 50 different cards and over 70 different enemies, with even more on the way for our next planned updates!

Since Crazy Kings is by far our most ambitious project to date we decided to look for a great publisher to partner with for the release of the game. And that's what we found last summer, when we got in touch with Wooga, the creators of games such as Diamond Dash, Jelly Splash, Pearl's Peril, Agent Alice and more. Since last fall we've worked with them to get the game ready for launch, and it's been great having some outside help, both for their expertise in making really polished games with smooth gameplay, as well as having some clear objectives and deadlines, which has helped us focus on working on the right things.

We hope that tomorrow's launch will go well, and most of all, that all of you who play our games will enjoy the game, and let us know what you think of it! Launching the game is in no way the end of the project, it's actually just the beginning of it. This is just the first step on the way, we hope to keep all of you entertained in the Crazy Kings world for years to come!


Exciting Times!

After one of the nicest summers in a long time all of us at the TicBits office have returned to work with full energy and we are all now working hard to bring you some new titles later this year. The first months after our vacations have been spent putting the final touches on a couple of our new games, so that we soon can unveil them to all of you.

We have had a few different projects under development simultaneously, and as it looks right now we might be able to get a couple of them released still during this year, at least on a test basis, meaning that we’ll launch them in a few countries first, so that we can iron out any final issues that there might be before we do our full scale launch.

Anyway, we hope to be able to share more with you over the coming few months, so stay tuned!

TB Racer

We're looking for a 2D Game Artist

We're expanding TicBits and we are now looking for a 2D mobile game artist to join our team.

We've got a team of 9 people, and are now hoping to find one more to join our team. What we're looking for is someone with:

  • Experience designing 2D graphics for games, either on a professional level or on a hobby basis
  • A passion for creating games with a great user experience
  • A good knowledge of Photoshop or similar graphics software
  • Good English skills
  • Good Counter-Strike skills are a plus ;-)

If you think you've got what we're looking for and would like to join our team then please send your CV and portfolio to info@ticbits.com

Edit: The position has been filled


Lessons learned during our first 3 years

TicBits Ltd was founded in April 2010, and what started out as a two person company has slowly grown over the next three years into a ten person company. During this time we’ve gone through quite a few changes, both ourselves, as well as the App Store, and I thought it’d would be a good time to write down a bit on how things have worked out for us.

What ultimately led us to found TicBits was that we both launched our own games on the App Store soon after Apple opened it up and saw what huge potential the App Store offered.

When we first founded TicBits both me and my co-founder, and cousin, Niklas Wahrman, had previous experience both as developing games on a hobby basis, resulting in countless almost ready projects as well as some release games, and as developers for a Canadian mobile game company in the early 2000s, where we mostly developed branded movie-tie-in games. And, what ultimately led us to found TicBits was that we both launched our own games on the App Store soon after Apple opened it up, first Niklas released his game, Asterope, followed by me a bit later with my game iAssociate, and both of us saw what huge potential the App Store offered.

When we thought about creating our own company, our biggest concern was how we’d be able to sustain the business since we didn’t really have any capital to bring into it. So our original business plan was mostly focused on how we could start generating revenue as soon as possible without the need to spend any money on marketing.

  1. Start off by creating a sequel to one of our games, iAssociate, as that already had a userbase to which we could market the game, so we could get the game to market for free basically, and since the project already existed we had a clear idea on how to improve it and how to get it done quickly.
  2. Make all our games free and focus on creating endless games, so that we could keep all games alive forever and ensure that they generate a long steady revenue stream instead of only offering short revenue spikes.
  3. Initially focus on smaller projects, that we’d be able to release without a marketing budget, this meant that we’d focus on the keyword strategy in the App Store, and create games such as Sudoku, Solitaire and Mahjong, that were already established names in every household and search terms that many already use in the App Store.

The thought behind our initial projects was mostly based on the fact that we wanted to ensure that we could develop TicBits as a business, meaning that we wanted to do it full time and someday be able to earn a salary as well as hire more people. This meant that our original plan wasn’t filled with game ideas that we ourselves thought would be the next killer games, but instead consisted of more traditional games, where we saw the potential to create a solid foundation for our future.

The difference between creating games as a hobby, and games as a business, is that if you create games as a hobby you can afford to create exactly the perfect game you want, without worrying too much about how it will perform. But when starting this off as a business this isn’t always the case, at least not if you don’t have deep pockets, as then the main focus should be on how to ensure that the business can survive and grow.

The difference between creating games as a hobby, and games as a business, is that if you create games as a hobby you can afford to create exactly the perfect game you want, without worrying too much about how it will perform.

What starting entrepreneurs should keep in mind is that most game projects don’t succeed, only a small portion of the released games will turn a profit while most games will just disappear into the abyss. This means that the main focus should be on testing your ideas in the market as early as possible, to ensure that you get valid data to ensure that you are not wasting your time, working on a project that doesn’t have any potential.

That being said, following our original plan we first released iAssociate 2, which we managed to release using the existing userbase and building some good word of mouth around it initially. After that we followed up with the ad based games Sudoku, Minesweeper, Solitaire, FreeCell and Mahjong, all games that we managed to release for free thanks to the keyword strategy, that still at that time worked well on the App Store. All these projects have created the backbone of our company, still getting a decent amount of daily downloads, and having slowly built up our daily active userbase so that we’ve been able to slowly grow over the years into a ten person company.

As we now have managed to secure our financial stability via the revenues generated through those games we are now finally able to create some of the games we always wanted to create, larger games based on our own ideas. This has resulted in more creative freedom and less worrying about deadlines, as we can now polish the games as long as is needed without having the pressure to release an unfinished product just to quickly generate some revenue.

But, even though we now have more financial and creative freedom, some of the basic questions are still the same as when we founded TicBits, namely how to effectively release a projects once it’s release. If we should continue and release all our games on our own, or, if we at some point should look at publishing options, both paths offering their own advantages and disadvantages. As the ecosystem in the App Store continues to change, first changing from paid to free titles, later going away from the keyword focused approach, releasing a game will always be about knowing which strategies work at what time, and adapting accordingly with the changes in the App Store.

TLDR:

  • Focus on games that can generate a consistent revenue stream
  • Keep up to date with changes in the App Store ecosystem and adapt accordingly
  • Listen to feedback, and change your ideas if they don’t work, don’t stubbornly work on something that is doomed even if you yourself happen to love the idea

Finally a few screenshots of some of the projects we are working on:

Project Driver Project Lava Rider iAssociate 3


New Game: Toon Match

Today we've released a new casual game called Toon Match. It's a Mahjong/Matching game that's fun for players of all ages. It has a cute cartoony look and comes with levels that anyone can beat but also has levels that gives even more experienced players a challenge.

It's free and can be downloaded from the App Store! Get it now, give it a go and let us know what you think!

Toon Match