New game company Koukoi Games predicts the next step in mobile gaming. The team is working towards releasing their first game before long, and they have a crystal clear view of what is to come.
You can ask two equally successful entrepreneurs how they became successful, and you might just get two very different and opposite answers. It’s the same thing when it comes to digital games. They can be simplistic and massively popular, but they can also be big and advanced and still reach a level of high popularity. The newly founded studio Koukoi Games is going for the latter of those two. The Finnish company strongly believes that enough time has passed since the day we first saw mobile games, and they want to take it further than ever before. Producer at Koukoi Games, Antti Kananen, states that everything that starts small has to grow into something larger in order to evolve.
“Everyone knows that there can be exceptions from time to time, but usually when you think about building a sustainable business, you don’t want to waste your time on finding your rare exception with less input. You most likely want to invest into making awesome game experiences that can bring up a stable future for the team you are working with and a much broader experiences for the players. At least we think in this way because we also see that the mobile games market is mature enough to start providing much wider experiences for the players, and we kind of don’t want to waste our skills on making simple games and hoping those will fly some day. We want to make a huge difference from the beginning.”, Antti Kananen says.
Not long after Kouikoi Games was revealed, the studio started receiving a lot of attention. And not without reason. The Oulu based company talked to NordicGameBits about how they plan to become a major developer before long. Antti Kananen explains how their strategy involves using the ever-evolving mobile technology to create games that can use the full potential of phones and tablets.
“Every time a new platform for games is made available, people need time to adapt to it completely. This won’t happen immediately and even game companies need to adapt to new platforms. (…) So even though there are people making much wider games, there are those who start with little and can still be successful from time to time. It’s just a different approach everyone takes and we do believe that for long-term success, it’s better to start scaling things up from the very beginning.”, Antti Kananen responds
“Our team consists of 10 professionals with experience from entrepreneurship and game development, from companies such as Rovio, Nokia and some located abroad. Our wide skillset covers game development, technology, marketing, business development, art creation and media production.”, Antti Kananen elaborates.
Antti Kananen continues to point out that the success of a game is not about which platform you choose to create the game for, but rather how good the game turns out to be. According to him, it’s about maximizing performance to the top. He goes on to explain why the studio chose to start working with the mobile and tablet platforms.
“Time is just very propitious for us to start with mobile platforms. The market is still growing and business looks promising. Even Nintendo has announced that they will start making mobile games to scale up their business. As the business is something we will focus also on, we will hit where we know we can bring something much better and different than others. In time, we will expand our focus areas more, but most likely, you will see us developing a couple of games first for mobile platforms.”, Antti Kananen says.
When asked what the ultimate goal is for Koukoi Games, Antti Kananen says that they have a unique vision for the newly established company. He stresses that they want to create games that, several years from now, will bring back fond memories and happy moments.
“We want players to grow up with our games and remember those from time to time. We also aim globally to compete against the giants of the game industry in the long run. This is mostly about living the dream and doing good business, while at the same time aiming to have provided lovely memories for the players.”, Antti Kananen concludes.
“We work very creatively in a unique way for providing a bigger and better experiences for the players, and that is the secret sauce of our team.“ – Antti Kananen