Game Development - Kongregate Developers Blog

Developer Spotlight Jul 02, 2019
Developer Spotlight: 'NGU Idle'

Idle games began in the heyday of browser-based gaming, taking up screens while players worked through the day or watched shows in the evening. They have since gone global, cross-platform, and exploded in every direction, but at their core, the truest idle games still focus on that one important fact: the numbers have to keep going up. Welcome to NGU Idle, a silly game that launched on Kongregate.com and has now come in all of its weird, immature glory to Kartridge. We got a chance to speak to the game’s developer, somethingggg (4G) about this indescribable but totally wonderful gem of an idle. Hello 4G. Tell us about the development team for NGU Idle! It’s just me, 4G, wearing pants only half of the time as I code and design NGU. There are several members in my Discord community who have helped with bits of code or art here and there (Hi TBlazeWarriorT, Jiur, and Musluk!). How long have you been developing games? NGU’s my first-ever game, which I started in the summer of 2017! Unless

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Game Development Jun 25, 2019
MVP Like Nintendo in 1980

If you work in or around some kind of software development, you’ve probably heard “MVP” sputtered in passing conversation, or seen it scribbled in a comment of a Google Doc. “MVP” is an acronym for “Minimum Viable Product.” The definition of an MVP is a loaded one, and changes slightly from Product Person™ to Product Person™. One popular definition is, “What can we build that will give us the most validation?” The school of thought I personally subscribe to (and will be using for the duration of this article) describes an MVP as “the smallest solution you build that will bring the most value to your customers.” At first, all of this probably sounds straightforward enough, but there’s deceivingly a lot to unpack here; in my experience it’s never just “what’s the smallest solution.” In one of my favorite articles about MVPs, they say, “Starting with a solution is like building a key without a door” (9). It’s easy to fall into a cycle of Build/Measure/Learn (as the first definition I mentioned often

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Developer Spotlight Apr 02, 2019
Developer Spotlight: 'Mutilate-a-Doll 2'

One of the games with the highest number of plays on Kongregate.com is Mutilate-a-Doll 2: a sandbox game where -- you guessed it -- players can take control of a ragdoll and expose it to everything their imagination can come up with. Boasting 36 million plays, 1,700+ items, and a ton of user-generated content, MaD2’s premium edition has finally come to Kartridge. We got to chat with 0rava (Dash-rava) about his experience with MaD2 and its journey from online project to downloadable sandbox sensation. Are you an independent developer? How long have you been developing games? I’m a solo developer who’s been making games for a decade or so now, since 2008...ish. I’m primarily self-taught when it comes to programming, so the exact “How long have you been developing games?” timeframe is a bit fuzzy for me. A lot of my early stuff was simply me learning how to make games in the first place, so there were lots of tutorial clones and experimental prototypes (not so much actual games) in the beginning.

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Developer Spotlight Oct 09, 2018
How 'YesGnome' Wanted a Sequel to 'Trexels,' and Made It So...

YesGnome, the small game development team based in both India and the U.S., has made a mark on the industry with high-profile hits Champions and Challengers - Adventure Time and Star Trek™ Trexels. With the recent release of Star Trek™ Trexels II: The Next Resolution, YesGnome continues to demonstrate their ability to create exceptional games for big brands. In this interview, YesGnome discusses making sequels, Star Trek fandom, and navigating big brands. [KONGREGATE]: Today we are chatting with YesGnome, creators of Star Trek™ Trexels and the recently released sequel Star Trek™ Trexels II: The Next Resolution. YesGnome is a social mobile gaming company based out of the United States and India. What is the YesGnome origin story? What were your backgrounds previous to starting the team? [YESGNOME]: Ravi: YesGnome is a spinoff of PurpleTalk, Inc. (DBA [x]cube) -- PurpleTalk was started to build games for iPhone, and it actually had a Match 3 game called Firedrop in the App Store when there were fewer than 70 free games in the store, but due to market pressure, they became

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Developer Spotlight Aug 28, 2018
Words with Devs: A Conversation with 'Ultrabit'

Ultrabit, a San Diego-based developer sitting at a dozen team members, was acquired last year by Kongregate. With four published titles and millions of downloads and plays across both PC and mobile, Ultrabit is extending their genre reach with their latest title Crossword Safari: Word Hunt. In this interview, Ultrabit discusses their roots, trying new things, what makes a good word game, and how to keep a small team happy. KONGREGATE: Today we are chatting with Ultrabit, creators of Crossword Safari: Word Hunt, Pocket Politics, and Office Space: Idle Profits. Ultrabit was founded in 2014 by veterans from Zynga, Kongregate, Sony Online Entertainment, and Red 5 Studios. How did Ultrabit first come to be? How did the team meet and start working together? ULTRABIT: The majority of the early Ultrabit folks had worked together previously at companies in San Diego, most notably Kongregate and Zynga. Our co-founders were passionate about taking their game expertise into the indie space and so began gathering a team of industry veterans. Over the course of 12-16 months, the team grew to about 10 people

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Game Development Apr 19, 2018
Come On and Slam, and Welcome to the Jam!

Illustration by Jenny Graf, made with Barles Charkley’s Shut Up & Paint! The 41st Ludum Dare is this weekend, and, like me, many of you are probably getting excited about the opportunity to make something new this weekend. Game jams are game development distilled into its purest form and are a wonderful thing. Some of you may be feeling like you’re not ready, or like you’re destined to fail. If you’re not sure if it’s for you, I’d encourage you to just give it a try! It will only cost a couple of days' time. There are no budgets, no stakeholders, and no one is expecting to be topping any charts. Game jams are about expression, and there are no rules about what your game needs to be in order to “succeed.” Your game is whatever you make it to be. What is a game jam? A game jam is a game-making event where participants have a limited amount of time to make a game. That’s it! Game jams have been around for

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Developer Spotlight Apr 17, 2018
'Heroes of Rings: Dragons War' Dev Q&A with Codigames

Heroes of Rings: Dragons War is the latest mobile game published by Kongregate, now available on iOS and Android devices. We sat down with Francisco Martínez, President & Co-founder of Codigames to talk about their development process. KONGREGATE: Codigames is a small team based in Spain. Can you tell us a little bit about your team’s background and how the company was formed? FRANCISCO: The idea of Codigames was born in 2012, two years after Apple released the iPhone, and revolutionized the mobile games industry forever. That year, Francisco Marínez and Zacarías Gómez decided to follow their passion and start working on video games. They believed that mobile video games were the next big thing, and they wanted to create a company that could evolve the mobile games and bring great game experiences to smartphones. A year later, the studio joined Lanzadera, a privately funded start-up accelerator program funded by Angels, a Spanish private investor company. The award granted Codigames with private funds and the assistance of private investors, and allowed the company to create titles like Empires of

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Talks Mar 27, 2018
All the Families: The Making of 'Animation Throwdown' (GDC 2018)

This year at GDC, Kongregate Senior Producer Peter Eykemans and Producer Katrina Wolfe gave a talk titled "All the Families: The Making of 'Animation Throwdown.'" Check out the description and slides below! Talk Summary Ever wonder what it would be like to create a AAA game with a skeleton crew, split between two developers, one publisher, one IP owner, and five individual IPs? Join two producers from Kongregate to hear how "Animation Throwdown" was created in an unusual way, and how they turned an incredible production problem into a major success. Slides All the Families: The Making of Animation Throwdown (GDC 2018) from Kongregate

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Game Development Feb 13, 2018
Creating 2D Particle Effects in Unity3D

Hello, my name is David Finseth and I am a Technical Artist at Synapse Games. I work across multiple games to create visuals that require some technical and artistic components. A big part of my job is working on particle effects for our mobile games. I am very passionate about this work and wanted to share my process and some tips for creating these effects with you. Particle effects are a unique tool that can add interactivity and responsiveness to your games. They excel at creating a lot of movement and impact. Particle effects can be used to create magical fireballs, swirling dimensional portals, or for directing the player's attention to a glowing treasure chest. First, I am going to break down the process that I go through when I make particle effects in Unity. Later I will go over some technical tips and tricks. Most of these examples are from work that I did on the games Spellstone and Animation Throwdown. The Process Breaking down the requirements: The first thing I do when I start to make a particle

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