Kids Learn How to Code Games Free at Microsoft Stores this Summer

Looking for something to help keep your tech-minded kids occupied this summer? Take a look at the Microsoft Store: This summer, the company’s retail locations are offering free YouthSpark Summer Camps that give kids aged 8 through 16 hands-on experience in coding, video game design and app creation.

One option for kids, Smart Game Design, teaches beginners aged 8 through 10 some basic game and app creation skills. Younger kids will learn the Kodu visual programming language for kids and the TouchDevelop app development suite. Kids aged 11 to 16, meanwhile, can take an intermediate verison of Smart Game Design that also teaches kids how to create websites via Microsoft WebMatrix and Project Spark.

Microsoft is also offering a class called Smart Game Coding. In the beginner version, kids aged 8 through 10 will learn Kodu, experiment with basic programming logic and hone problem-solving skills, all while creating their own video game. In the intermediate version of the course for kids aged 11 through 16, kids get an accelerated lesson in coding and game creation using Project Spark, Windows App Studio and Microsoft website software.

As we’ve discussed before here on Techlicious, learning how to code is an incredibly valuable skill for all kids, both boys and girls. It helps set them up for a career down the road, sure, but coding also teaches kids how the technology and games they enjoy everyday actually work. Working with video games is also a fun, creative exercise – I’m jealous these kind of classes weren’t available when I was a kid!

Each Microsoft YouthSpark Summer Camp runs for two hours per day over four consecutive days. They are free to join, but you'll need to sign up now online to reserve your spot. Don’t dawdle – Microsoft says they expect the classes to fill up fast. To learn more about the program and to see if and when it’s available at a Microsoft Store near you, visit the YouthSpark landing page on the Microsoft website.

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en

A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.

• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!

• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....

See More

Pixotri Gaming Studio

Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823

PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

Facebook highlights the rising power of Europe’s game industry

Since Facebook first opened its platform to developers in 2006, games have been one of the most critical and successful category of apps on the social network.

But a lot has changed in nine years, both for Facebook and the gaming industry. And two of the latest trends were at the core of the fourth annual CEO Gaming Summit in London last week.

Held at the Ugly Duck meetup space, the event gathered CEOs from more than 150 of the top gaming companies in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region. And that number, while still smaller than a companion event that Facebook held in the U.S, represents one of those big themes: the growing might and influence of European gaming companies.

“In terms of revenue from Facebook games, EMEA is disproportionately part of that,” said Bob Slinn, Facebook’s head of games partnerships for EMEA, in an interview with VentureBeat.

Facebook is engaged in a fierce battle with rivals to win the hearts and minds of developers. But so far, the company has maintained a competitive edge by creating a range of tools for developers while also cultivating their loyalty at events such as the CEO Summit, where Facebook can offer advice and community.

To understand just how important gaming is to Facebook, consider just a few stats:

More than 445 million people play Facebook-connected games on desktop and mobile every month.

Facebook drives 441 million referrals to games every day.

Developers launched more than 130,000 new Facebook-connected games last year.

Within those numbers, Europe looms increasingly large. The invite list for the London event included King, Supercell, Ketchapp, InnoGames, Miniclip, Pretty Simple, NaturalMotion, Wargaming, Space Ape, and Goodgame Studios.

The first year Facebook held the event, 30 companies attended. Last year, 100 did. “Each year, the scope has only gotten bigger,” Slinn said.

At the event, Facebook held panels on how to raise money and how to build a brand. The latter is increasingly important as developers try to move from being one-hit wonders to creating long-term companies. In addition, developers are finding it tougher and tougher to stand out and be discovered by users. User acquisition was a big topic at the summit, Slinn said.

“That is arguably the big challenge,” he said.

The CEO Summit this year highlighted another big trend: the shift to mobile. Facebook initially had big success getting developers to build for the desktop using its Canvas tool, which let them embed games within Facebook.

These days, though, it’s all about mobile gaming. In some cases, Facebook is trying to help some of those Canvas users make the transition to mobile. But Facebook is also aggressively looking for new, mobile-first (or mobile-only in some cases) developers.

“In the past year or so, we’ve really focused on people who are only focused on mobile,” Slinn said.

A prime example of this new breed of mobile-focused, European gaming company is Scimob, based in Montpellier, France. Founded in 2008 to build apps for other companies, Scimob shifted in 2012 to being a studio that built its own mobile games, according to Gaël Bonnafous, Scimob’s founder.

The first game was called 94 Seconds and was No. 1 on Apple’s App Store in France for several weeks and even topped the U.S. charts for a week. Since then, Scimob has released four games that mix trivia, word play, and puzzles.

Scimob is small, with just nine employees, and entirely self-funded, pulling in $12 million in revenue so far. But it has big plans. It is hiring new teams to build for iOS and Android simultaneously. And perhaps next year, it may go in search of venture capital to expand even faster.

“We are scaling this year, because now we have the experience and we have the knowledge,” Bonnafous said.

While Scimob’s games are on iOS, Android, and Amazon, Bonnafous said the company still relies the most heavily on Facebook. He said Facebook’s mobile analytics tools are still superior to Google’s. And Scimob uses Facebook’s Parse mobile-development platform to build and host its games. The company gets the bulk of its players via Facebook app-install ads.

“When you have a player coming from Facebook, they are really engaged,” Bonnafous said. “They are going to really play your game.”

That’s just the kind of feedback Facebook wants. Maintaining that kind of goodwill will only become more essential for Facebook as Europe’s gaming industry rolls on.

“A lot of these companies in EMEA are global leaders,” Slinn said. “We think we have a lot of the global hotspots for gaming here in Europe now. And the diversity of games is incredible, and we only 

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en

A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.

• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!

• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....

See More

Pixotri Gaming Studio

Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823

PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

expect that to increase.”

Playphone’s mobile game-centric app store is coming to Cyanogen OS

Playphone, which develops a third-party social game store for Android, has a new partner in Cyanogen. The company’s app will soon be included on Cyanogen OS phones in developing markets where mobile games may not have as high penetration as they do in Western countries.

Aside from distributing many of the same games you can already find in the Google Play store, Playphone also offers a “Social Gaming Network” through which gamers from any of multiple platforms including Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and more can compete against each other in games without having to be on the same platform. Playphone’s store may not be an app you’re familiar with, but it has been repackaged for some Verizon phones as Games Portal, and is also on some phones in Brazil.

The company spent a lot of time in its press release emphasizing its new focus on emerging markets:

“Playphone is excited to partner with Cyanogen, whose leading commercial OS in emerging markets offers a massive distribution opportunity for game developers,” said Ron Czerny, CEO and Founder of Playphone. “Game developers can easily realize significant added revenue from their existing Android game by adding it to the Playphone Game Store.”

The release doesn’t specify in which markets Playphone will be included on Cyanogen phones, but with the emphasis on emerging markets we can expect to see it in places like South America and certain parts of Asia.

Cyanogen diehards will be glad to know that this does not affect the main open source CyanogenMod version of the operating system.

For the uninitiated, Cyanogen is a mobile OS built on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) meaning that it’s the Android you may be familiar with, but with Cyanogen’s own tweaks and improvements to the “vanilla” Android experience—and none of Google’s official apps. Cyanogen monetizes the development of its OS by creating a spin-off commercial version, called Cyanogen OS, where it partners with different companies for services like mapping applications, packages it all up, and then sells it to an increasing number of OEMs including OnePlus and Oppo who preinstall it on their devices as the main OS.

Cyanogen competes in places where Google isn’t very well established or is blocked, and places in general where people are perhaps getting online for the first time through a smartphone. Playphone is one more building block in creating a defensible, long-lasting business for the operating system developer.

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en
A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.
• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!
• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....
See More
Pixotri Gaming Studio
Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823
PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

Uber Creates A Mobile Game To Help Drivers Navigate San Francisco

Ever had an Uber driver that didn’t know where they were going? It’s a pretty frustrating experience, and there are plenty of Uber customers voicing their opinions about the problem on social media. So Uber has created a mobile game for iOS to help drivers figure out how to maneuver through city streets, starting with San Francisco.

Called UberDRIVE, the game is meant to give players a sense of a typical day as an Uber driver. It works like this – You open up the game and see a bunch of characters you will work with throughout your day. Players pick up and drop off various passengers and identify markers around SF by tapping on an interactive map.

Players earn points throughout the game as they accept trip requests in dispatch zones and take more efficient routes. The more points a player earns, the more chances they have to unlock better cars and new areas of the city.

A character named Miss Emily encourages players as they move up in the game. (side note: I was told Miss Emily is based on a real character named Emily Weslosky who currently works as a driver operations manager at Uber).

Uber has also embedded some fun facts about certain city landmarks and included a trivia mode so players can test their knowledge of a few SF destinations.

The game started as a side project about a year ago. Senior product manager Mike Truong, who had worked in gaming before with Loud Crow and Electronic Arts building games like Need for Speed and Good Night Moon, came up with the idea for a game as a way to help struggling drivers who were new to the city.

Anecdotally, it seems like there are a lot of new drivers lately. At least in my experience I’ve noticed most of my drivers still fiddling with the navigation system or telling me they are new. While we don’t have current numbers from Uber, the company did release data on a blog post back in January that said about 12 percent – or 40,000 – of Uber’s drivers were new.

Uber doesn’t make this game mandatory for drivers to play, but perhaps it will help new drivers get the know the city a bit better and provide a better experience for riders.

But there’s another use for UberDRIVE – it can also be used as a recruiting tool for potential drivers. As players move up in the game a prompt comes up asking them if they would like to sign up to become a driver. The screening process begins directly in the game if the player pushes the button.

“UberDRIVE was designed as a fun and engaging resource for our driver partners to hone their navigation skills if they choose to. It’s also a great way for prospective drivers to experience firsthand what it’s like to drive with Uber,” an Uber blog post about the new mobile game reads.

Uber is known for trying a lot of different ways to market the product, but campaigns have mainly centered around delivery (food, kittens). Though Uber spokespeople said Uber is not getting into the gaming business, this is a very different experiment for the ride hailing service. Will drivers play? Will it bring in new, young, fresh-faced recruits? Who knows.

I have to add in here an odd experience I had on my way to Uber HQ to check out this new game that very much has to do with this story. My Uber driver Roger was a San Francisco native with four years of Uber driving experience navigating the over-abundance of one-way streets with no left turns of San Francisco. He knew the best, safest and most efficient route to take me, despite what Uber’s map told him to do. It was delightful. So delightful and so perfectly coincidental to this story that it made me wonder if Uber planted the guy. Uber spokespeople laughed and insisted he was not a plant.

Maybe it just happened. But it was strange. Whatever the reason, I hope this game will provide more drivers like that.

UberDRIVE is available for anyone in the U.S. to download for free in the App Store starting today.

The   Bubble  Boy

• The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

• Download this free game: 

• https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.bubbleBoy&hl=en

• Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

• Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

• Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

• Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

• Beware of the naughty bubble. If popped you will lose a life.

• No Ads while playing.

Steam Machines, Steam Link, & Steam Controller Launching November 10th

For a couple of years now Valve has been developing and promoting the concept of what has become their Steam Universe. The Linux-based SteamOS running on top of console-sized Steam Machines for the living room, controlled with the Steam Controller. Now after becoming subject to Valve Time and delayed from 2014, today Valve and their partners are announcing that Steam Universe is finally launching later this year.

Steam Controller

First and foremost, let’s start with the Steam Controller. The final version of Valve’s controller is pretty much identical to what we saw at GDC 2015, featuring what has become the controller’s signature touchpads, along with an analog stick, motion controls, haptics (vibration), and what Valve is calling dual-stage triggers, all communicating with host systems over Bluetooth. Though ultimately lacking the touchscreens of Valve’s original design, the final controller retains the touchpads and the same goals Valve had held to since the start: making more traditional mouse-driven PC games playable on the couch with a controller. Valve has put up a short promotional video showing it in action, and it will be interesting to see if it works as well in real life as Valve would like it to. When not part of a Steam Machine bundle, Valve will be selling

Next up, this brings us to Valve’s Steam Machines initiative. With last year’s delays we’ve seen a few of the initial Steam Machines reissued as Windows machines in the interim, but now with Valve finally ready to ship on their end, the full collection of Machines will be available. In terms of design all of these Machines are all small form factor designs intended for the living room, with the actual designs being a mix of existing SFF designs – such as the Gigabyte BRIX Pro or the Falcon Northwest Tiki – while other designs being brand new entirely.

Meanwhile as far as performance and costs go, the initial wave of Machines run the gauntlet from low-powered, console-like computers to high-end machines that are meant to take a stab at 4K rendering. The cheapest machines start at $449, such as the Alienware in its low-end, Core-i3 powered configuration, and also the iBuyPower SBX. Meanwhile at the middle of the pack are machines like the Zotac SN970 at $999, and finally at the high-end the sky’s the limit. With many of these designs accepting desktop class CPUs and video cards, the price tag on the top configurations can go into the thousands of dollars, with Falcon Northwest quoting $4999 for what will be their top-end Tiki.

As one might expect, all of the Steam Machines are shipping with one Steam Controller, with additional controllers available from Valve for $49. Meanwhile the very first Steam Machines from Alienware and Syber are already available for pre-order from GameStop and Syber respectively, while the rest are slated to be available in November. The pre-order machines are said to be a “limited quantity” (though we don’t know just how limited), and will be shipping on October 16th, for gamers who are willing to order the machines before the reviews and formal launch. Otherwise we’re expecting to see everything else go out around November 10th.

Steam Link

Finally, we have the Steam Link, Valve’s in-home streaming receiver for Steam. Intended to be used with Steam’s existing, built-in streaming technology, the Link is designed to allow playing Steam games in other locations away from the host PC/Machines, be it things like spare bedrooms or locating the host in said spare bedroom and putting the Link in the living room. The Link features a 2x2 802.11ac for wireless connectivity, or a 100Mbit Ethernet port for wired fallback, along with a trio of USB 2.0 ports and of course the necessary HDMI port.

Valve will be selling the Link on its own for $49, while a package with the controller will be $99, and somewhat surprisingly for a consumer device these days, Valve’s even throwing in HDMI and Ethernet cables. As with the Steam Machines, the Link is available for pre-order through Valve or at GameStop, with a limited number of the devices shipping on October 16th.

GAME DEVELOPMENT

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en

A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.

• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!

• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....

See More

Pixotri Gaming Studio

Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823

PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

PlayStation and XBox Increase Purchase Consideration and Impression

In an almost unprecedented event in the gaming industry, Sony announced in February that they’d make PlayStation Now, a cloud gaming service already available for PlayStation 4, backwards-compatible for PlayStation 3.

Traditionally, the gaming industry is known for encouraging their consumers to adopt the latest console by neglecting previous models – a move that likely frustrates some consumers. However, PlayStation Now has offered over 100 games to be streamed on PlayStation 3 since May 12th of this year. That decision seems to paid off well for PlayStation’s Impression and Purchase Consideration scores as tracked by YouGov BrandIndex.After the announcement, PlayStions’s scoresamong Millennials and Generation Xers increased to their highest levelsin 2015 to date.

By mid-May, Impression and Purchase Consideration among Millennials  had returned close to pre-announcement levels but continued to grow for Generation X. Perhaps this difference in score trends points to greater appreciation among Generation Xers for not having to upgrade systems to get the newest features. Moreover, PlayStation 3 was first released in 2006 and PlayStation 4 in 2013. Many of today’s youngest Millennials might only be familiar with PlayStation 4 so backwards-compatibility may be a less important issue for them until the next model PlayStation comes out.

Impression and Consideration scores are trending similarly for Xbox among the same demographic groups. In addition to Xbox’s score trends potentially benefitting from a PlayStation ‘halo effect’, Microsoft has made its own big announcements this year. Windows 10, an operating system that seeks to unify the Microsoft PC, mobile phone and Xbox into an ecosystem, was first announced in January. Xbox Impression and Purchase Consideration scores saw a bump up during the following month.  Features were fully 

revealed in a press conference in April, followed by a second increase in scores. Upon release of Windows 10 later this year, Xbox gamers will be able to record video of their gaming experience without additional hardware, as well as, stream console video games to be played on the PC with an Xbox controller, among other features. Tech-savvy gamers have already managed these capabilities through 3rd party apps and devices but with Microsoft taking these features on, they’re likely to be more seamless.

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en

A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.

• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!

• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....

See More

Pixotri Gaming Studio

Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823

PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

What do you get when you cross a PlayStation 4 and an Xbox One?

Earlier this year, we talked about an Xbox One-PlayStation 4 hybrid device that combined both consoles into a laptop form factor. The PlayBox is the work of independent designer/builder Eddie Zarick who spends countless hours hand-building the console-hybrid for those looking for such a device. Now, the new PlayBox 4One Mark II is available for pre-order.

The Mark II still features the same two consoles but now features some added improvements, namely the larger 24” 1080p Visio display instead of the older 22” one. The new displays are also smart displays meaning that they have built in Wi-Fi and provide access to streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, and iHeart Radio without having to power on the Xbox or PlayStation first. There’s also a HDMI Out port for those that plan to hook the device up to their TV at home.

While the increase in screen size also makes the device slightly larger, it allows for more room inside the system - which is already very tightly packed - for better air flow and ventilation. Both consoles within the unit have not been tampered with hardware wise, so the processors aren’t overclocked and there’s no watercooling or anything that may cause you to be banned from the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live, however the warranty of the individual systems are no longer valid as you can expect.

The PlayBox 4One Mark II sells for $2,595 (plus extras and shipping) and you can customize your device with different colors and accents. The device does cost more than buying both consoles individually, but remember that you are also getting a built-in display, a form factor that is easier to carry around, and you’re also paying for it being hand-made to meet your individual tastes and needs.

If you’re interested, head over to www.playbox4one.com for all the ordering information. Do note that there is a waiting list so the sooner you order, the sooner you’re going to get your unit. Let us know what you think of the PlayBox 4One in the comments section below.

The Balloon Boy

The Balloon Boy - Free fun Game !!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.BalloonBoy&hl=en

A boy goes soaring up into the sky after holding on to too many balloons.

• Help him to get back down by popping all the balloons before time runs out!

• Be careful of the dangerous balloons which will result in penalties....

See More

Pixotri Gaming Studio

Affordable Website Design and Development,E-commerce Websites,SEO services,Digital Marketing, 2D and 3D Animation and Game development company.Call +61491108823

PIXOTRIGAMES.COM|BY PIXOTRI GAMING STUDIO

ASSETTO CORSA COMING TO PLAYSTATION 4 AND XBOX ONE

Assetto Corsa's developer Kunos Simulazioni has teamed up with 505 Games to bring the previously PC-only racing sim to consoles in 2016.

That's not all, though. The PC version will also be receiving new content, to be showcased at E3 later this month.

Launched late last year on Steam after spending a year in Early Access, Assetto Corsa is a racing game with a focus on realistic car handling and physics.

According to the announcement from Kunos Simulazioni, cans can expect over 100 cars, such as the Ferrari LaFerrari, Mercedes C9, Team Lotus 98T, Pagani Zonda R, and the McLaren MP4-12C GT3, as well as 20 track configurations.

Its single and multiplayer modes come complete with a career mode and challenges, plus the usual customization and modification options Assetto Corsa is known for.

Stay tuned for more info on Assetto Corsa at E3 2015, which takes place between June 16-18. IGN will be reporting on all the latest E3 game announcements and more all that week.

The   Bubble  Boy

The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

Download this free game: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.bubbleBoy&hl=en

Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

Beware of the naughty bubble. If popped you will lose a life.

No Ads while playing.

PLANETSIDE 2 COMING TO PLAYSTATION 4 IN JUNE

Free-to-play online shooter Planetside 2 will leave beta and officially release on the PlayStation 4 on June 23.

The announcement was made on the PlayStation Blog, where the developers explain the PlayStation 4 will have exclusive content different from its PC counterpart, including a new battle map called Koltyr. Future updates on the PS4 will also include additional features, events, and marketplace items.No PlayStation Plus subscription will be required to play.

Planetside 2 is a massive online first-person shooter with a focus on large-scale combat fought between players in the air, on the ground, and in vehicles. It recently set a Guinness World Record for having the most online players engaged in a single battle. The number came in at over 1,000 people.

Read IGN's Planetside 2 PC review to learn more about large-scale sci-fi warfare

The   Bubble  Boy

The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

Download this free game: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PixotriTechnologies.bubbleBoy&hl=en

Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

Beware of the naughty bubble. If popped you will lose a life.

No Ads while playing.

Why Japan’s lucrative mobile gaming market isn’t great for foreign developers

SINGAPORE — Mobile-game spending is higher in Japan than any other market, but that doesn’t mean you should necessarily do the work to localize your product for that country.

It’s easy to look at Japan and assume that if you’re making a game you should release it in there as well, but the raw data is deceiving, according to Kantan Games analyst Serkan Toto. At the Casual Connect Asia conference in Singapore earlier this week, Toto gave a presentation that highlighted some important points that he would want developers to know before entering the Japanese market. Most notably, he noted that it’s not nearly as easy to make money from gamers in that country as you might think it is.

“Japan is one of the hardest mobile-game markets to break into worldwide,” Toto said during his presentation.

The average revenue per gamer who spends money on in-app purchases (ARPPU) in Japan is about $65 every month. That’s a very high number, but you’re probably not going to capture even a dollar of that if you release your Western game in Japan — historically speaking. The country has long preferred to consume Japanese-made products over foreign releases, and that’s especially true in gaming.

“Whenever I talk to bigger game companies, there’s so much self-confidence going on,” Toto said. “And I’m always trying to tell them that people in Japan will say, ‘Who are you? We don’t care about what you’ve achieved in the U.S. or Europe.'”

This was always true in Japan’s traditional console-gaming market as well. Toto points to an incredible fact to prove his thesis.

“Between 2001 and 2013, the number of [foreign-made video game] titles in the top 100 in Japan was zero,” Toto said. “I think that’s an amazing number.”

But even for Japanese games, the app market is not printing money. Instead, most of the money is going to just two games.

“If you just look at the raw data, you’re on a very dangerous path,” Toto said. “Two apps dominate everything: Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike.”

These two games now run a duopoly on Japanese mobile-game spending. That’s not even a tiny bit of an exaggeration. Puzzle & Dragons accounted for approximately 51 percent of all mobile-game spending in Japan in 2013 on its own. These days, between Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike, the two games probably make up around 70 percent to 80 percent of the entire market’s spending, according to Toto.

So, yes, Japanese gamers are racking up huge charges in their smartphone games, but most of that is going to the same two places.

This prompted me to ask Toto if he would advise a developer to even try to bring a game into Japan.

“I shouldn’t do this as a consultant, but I spend a lot of time trying to convince developers out of the idea of getting into the Japanese market,” he told GamesBeat. “But, generally speaking, you should consider Japan only if you have met certain criteria or completely saturated the rest of the major markets in the world.”

Toto specified that the “certain criteria” includes having an enormous marketing budget. This has worked for publishers like Supercell, King, and Machine Zone with their games Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and Game of War, respectively. Though, even while those games are in the top 30 highest-grossing charts for iOS and Android in Japan, they aren’t performing nearly as well as they do in other countries.

If you don’t have a huge budget for TV ads, Toto suggests that you should have at least one if not all of the following:

A game with an innovative concept, high production values, and/or targeting a specific niche.

A local publisher.

Mechanics that generate decent levels of revenue even with very few players.

If your game doesn’t match any of that, Japan probably isn’t worth your time.

The Bubble Boy

Download this fun game. Android Phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDp-pYXtxMs

• Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game! Get it free on Play Store.

• Ø The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

• Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

• Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

• Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

• Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

• No Ads while playing.

• visit:www.pixotritechnologies.com

The Future of Mobile Gaming: Moving Beyond Angry Birds and Endless Runners

Mobile gaming and traditional gaming platforms frequently attract different customers. PC and console fans typically spend their money on games that feel worth the $60 purchase, which usually means a much larger time investment. Graphics are also typically more important in traditional gaming, and many players like in-depth stories rather than quick timesinks.

On the other hand, mobile gaming tends to be all about the quick distraction. The most popular games—Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Clash of Clans for instance—can all be played in bite-sized chunks while waiting at the doctor’s office or on your lunch break. Games that take a little longer or require a little more investment—such as Device 6—may not be as successful because, despite their quality, they don’t attract as large of an audience.

But what mobile gaming does have is potential. Games have largely been a static activity—something you do at rest—but taking our games with us could redefine how we play. With innovations like the Apple Watch and improved smartphone capability in the market, mobile gaming might have a lot more up its sleeve than flinging birds at flimsy structures.

Mobile Gaming Could Make Exercise a Game

Pedometers aren’t exactly new technology, but as our mobile technology gets better, we have even more opportunities to turn everyday activities into games. Pokémon used this technology back with the release of their PokéWalker, technology integrated with HeartGold and SoulSilver that let players gain experience for their Pokémon by walking, along with some other features.

It isn’t much, but with improved technology, this kind of thing could be great. Imagine a traditional Pokémon game developed for mobile gaming, where playing in different places rewards you with different types of Pokémon, or being able to battle people you meet through a program like StreetPass. Even if Nintendo isn’t interested in pursuing these avenues, that doesn’t mean they’re off the market. With mobile gaming being a growing industry, other developers could easily snap up mechanics like these to develop their own games.

The Bubble Boy

Download this fun game. Android Phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDp-pYXtxMs

• Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game! Get it free on Play Store.

• Ø The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

• Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

• Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

• Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

• Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

• No Ads while playing.

• visit:www.pixotritechnologies.com

Researchers: Identifying Tor users isn't as hard as many think

Independent researcher George Tankersley and CloudFlare security team member Filippo Valsorda again showed how Tor users are not as secure as they wish.

Speaking during the Hack in the Box conference in Amsterdam, the researchers said motivated users can subvert anonymous access to the service. Hackers can identify the original location of users by operating rogue HSDir (hidden service directory) nodes that are required - with two sets of three needed to connect to the hidden service - with four days of operation to be marked as a "trusted" HSDir node.

A malicious HSDir instead of an exit node can be used in the process, making it easy to attack hidden service users.

The Bubble Boy

Download this fun game. Android Phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDp-pYXtxMs

• Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game! Get it free on Play Store.

• Ø The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

• Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

• Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

• Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

• Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

• No Ads while playing.

• visit:www.pixotritechnologies.com

Why Twenty is my latest mobile gaming obsession

Last year, I wrote about why the tile-sliding number-matching puzzles of Threes had become a go-to game for stolen moments of iPhone gaming. These days, another tile-sliding, number-matching game has become the one I come back to again and again when faced with an idle moment on my iPad. That game is Twenty, a title that plays like a mix of Threes and reflex-based puzzles games like Tetris and Columns.

Like Threes, the basic interaction in Twenty is sliding matching, numbered tiles into each other, creating new tiles with larger numbers. In Twenty, though, you drag individual tiles around a 7x8 board under a single finger, rather than sliding the entire board in one of four cardinal directions. Mashing two tiles together creates a single tile with a value incremented by one, so pushing two 1s together makes a 2, then pushing two 2s together makes a 3, and so on. The goal, as implied by the title, is to work your way up to a 20 tile (or multiple 20 tiles, if you're really good).

If this was a choose-your-own pace, turn-based puzzle like Threes, getting to that titular 20 would be trivial. But Twenty really mixes up the formula by adding new rows full of tiles from the bottom every few seconds—if a tile gets pushed off the top of the screen, it's game over. The time between these new rows gets smaller as you advance to higher-numbered tiles—once you see your first 15, there's precious little time for careful consideration between each move.

Since tiles can't go through each other, a lot of Twenty is spent rearranging tiles so you can weave your way to a match. This gets much harder as the game progresses and new tiles come in with thick black hooks attaching them to adjacent tiles, meaning you have to move them together or not at all. Matching one attached tile breaks the hook, but if you're not careful, a buried cluster can be effectively blocked off from the match that it needs near the top of the pile.

At first, I thought Twenty would be a simple diversion that I'd play for a few minutes before moving on with my life. But after a few rounds, I started to get hooked in by the higher strategy hidden underneath the simple concept. After a few games, you start to see a few moves ahead and plan your next matches. The bright, color-coded number tiles make it easy to get a feel for the state of the full board at a glance, and to see potential matches out of your periphery.

The result is one of those games that quickly reaches that magical state of flow, living in a zone of focus that runs off of pure reflex and muscle memory, without much conscious thought outside of a quickly ascending count. It's the kind of game that latches itself in the back of your brain and the inside of your eyelids for quite a while after you finish a session—as I type this right now, every time I glance down at the keyboard I'm semi-consciously trying to figure out how to smash the keys together into more orderly pairs.

You can get some idea of how the game works using this free Web version, but the extra time needed to move the mouse ruins the flow a tiny bit. The free iOS version is generally playable on the iPhone 5 I tests, but the tiles are just a shade too small to grab reliably on that tiny screen, and your finger tends to get in the way as you're moving tiles about (larger phones may have better luck). The iPad experience is much better, with big, grabbable tiles that are easy to see.

Paying $1.99 unlocks a few additional modes that twist the basic game a bit: reversing gravity; adding bubbles that pop when their attached tiles go away; dropping tiles from above rather than raising them from below; and so on. Only a couple of these have really grabbed my interest—a mode that raises the maximum goal to a 30 tile, and a zen mode that takes away the time pressure for a more relaxing experience. There's also a single-screen two-player mode if your partner just can't wait for you to finish a round to play themselves.

If you're anything like me, though, the free version will keep you busy for many combined hours of stolen moments and infect the obsessive-compulsive part of your brain that has a deep desire to make order out of chaos. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to reach that fourth 20 tile with just one more game...

The Bubble Boy

Download this fun game. Android Phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDp-pYXtxMs

Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game! Get it free on Play Store.

Ø The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

Beware of the naughty bubble. When you pop it you lose a life.

No Ads while playing.

visit:www.pixotritechnologies.com

Google Chromecast Will Enable Mobile Devices to Stream Games to TVs

Google announced the availability of beta versions of new APIs that will enable Android devices to stream games directly to TVs.

Users of Google's Chromecast will soon be able to stream more than just video and audio from their mobile devices to the TV. In addition, they will also be able to play iOS and Android games on their big screens without having to mirror content between their mobile devices and the Google Cast device.

Beta-test versions of new application programming interfaces (API) for developers of mobile games for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets were one of many new products and services that the company introduced at its Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco.

The new Google Cast Remote Display APIs will give game developers a way to enable an "integrated second screen experience," for users of iOS and Android devices, Nathan Camarillo and David Allison, Google Cast product managers, said in a blog post.

Unlike the "Casting Your Android Screen" option that is currently available on Chromecast, the new APIs will enable iOS and Android games to send video and audio frames to a TV where users can play them without the need for game consoles. In addition, a new Game Manager API for Google Cast will make it easier for developers to build multiplayer games than can be streamed to a Google cast receiver, the two product managers said.

The new support for gaming apps could boost Chromecast's popularity even further. Released in July 2013, Google's $35 to $40 Chromecast is currently only second behind Roku in terms of market share in the streaming media segment.

Market numbers released by Parks Associates in December showed Roku holding a 29 percent share of streaming media sales, followed by Google Chromecast with 20 percent.

In the less than two years that the device has been in the market, Chromecast has supplanted Apple TV for second place, according to Parks Associates. Google itself claims it has sold about 17 million of the devices since launch. It claims that active Chromecast users currently consume about 66 percent more Web content daily, compared to when the device was first launched.

In addition to the new support for mobile games, Google has also released new APIs that will soon enable autoplay and queuing of video and audio files on Chromecast. Currently, the streaming media device lets user stream only a single audio or video file at a time. The new APIs will allow developers to build support for content queues and buffering while a previous video or audio file is finishing playback, the Google product managers said.

"This enables the creation of a continuous playback experience and can significantly increase watch time, helping lift per-session watch times by 10 to 20 percent or more," Camarillo and Allison claimed in their blog entry.

Google's moves come amid surging interest in media streaming services and devices. According to Parks Associates, about 10 percent of U.S. households with broadband services owned a streaming device, like Chromecast in 2014. The number is expected to soar to 25 percent of U.S. broadband households this year. By 2017, Parks Associates estimates there will more than 50 million media players sold globally.

In addition to Roku, Google and Apple, other big players in this market include Amazon and Sony. Among the current streaming media market leaders, only Apple has yet to release a streaming media device, the analyst firm has noted.

The Bubble Boy

Download this fun game. Android Phones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDp-pYXtxMs

Fun and Addictive Bubble Pop game! Get it free on Play Store.

Ø The Bubble Boy is an entertaining game for kids and all age groups.

Pop the maximum amount of bubbles without losing lives.

Soothing visuals and engaging sounds for immersive game play.

Choose between two difficulty settings. Easy and Hard.

Pop the power up bubbles to earn additional points.

Beware of the naughty bubble. When you pop it you lose a life.

No Ads while playing.

visit:www.pixotritechnologies.com

Splatoon Sells Out In Japan, Nintendo Apologizes

Splatoon is Nintendo’s first major in house new IP in over a decade, and it is also a very fresh new spin on the shooter genre. Players have been awaiting its launch for a while now, and Nintendo itself has also been giving the game all of its marketing push. 

And the result of that seems to be, the game has sold. Like, a lot. More than Nintendo was expecting. As a matter of fact, it appears that the game has completely sold out in Japan, and that there are shortages, to the point that Nintendo has had to issue an apology and promise to deliver more stock soon.

“We would like to apologize for Spatoon’s shortages in retail stores,” Nintendo said. “We plan on replenishing the stock next week with a new shipment, but if you wish to play the game now, please consider buying the game off of the Nintendo eShop, where it is available digitally. We would also like to assure you that the Splatoon Amiibos, which are in short supply, will be seeing more production runs soon too.”

So, it sounds like Nintendo’s newest game is, in spite of all of its problems, a hit. Whether or not it continues with this level of success remains to be seen, but we will keep you posted. Stay tuned for our Splatoon review as well.

Game development 

The employees at Pixotri Game Studio have vast experience in creating games and are always trying to push the boundaries of technology and creativity. The games are created using the most popular game enigine Unity, which provides robust, high performance, platform independent solution to creating games.

Pixotri technology is a  creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development .

Contact us for your mobile gaming requirements email-info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Global Mobile Gaming Market 2015

NEW YORK, May 20, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Worldwide, mobile games are advancing their share on the total games market through rapid growth. More than a billion people worldwide played games on mobile devices last year. While smartphones are ahead in usage, revenues from games played on tablets are growing more rapidly. Another trend is distribution of mobile games from messaging app platforms, especially widespread in Asia.

Asia-Pacific was the largest mobile gaming market in 2014. In China alone, close to a quarter of a billion people were mobile gamers. In Japan, smartphones and tablets accounted for more than half of the total gaming revenues, while in South Korea mobile games managed to triple their share of the games market in just one year. South East Asia is another promising mobile gaming market, as more people there already are playing mobile games than online computer games.

In the USA, mobile gaming revenues from in-app purchases are growing much faster than from mobile game downloads. Similarly, in France free-to-enter games were most played on mobile devices. In Germany, smartphones topped computers as the device most used for game play last year and in the UK free mobile games had the highest penetration of all game types.

Mobile games are booming in other regions worldwide also. In Latin America, Mexico leads in share of smartphone users playing games on their devices, while in the Middle East & Africa, South Africa is another an example of a country where mobile gaming revenues are higher than revenues from computer online games.

While the both the number of mobile games and of companies publishing them are growing, the major titles are still coming from a few leading publishers, including King and Supercell. One major new development in early 2015 was strategic cooperation between video games company Nintendo and mobile games publisher DeNA. Among distributors, game app revenues on Google Play were growing faster at the end of the last year than those on the iOS App Store, while the latter performed better in terms of direct games spending.

Mobile app development

Mobile’s strategy is the key to any business success in todays digital world. Pixotri technologies works one-on-one with businesses and individual product lines to develop a comprehensive mobile presence that complements your existing brand identity while building out your mobile brand. Contact us for your mobile app development requirements.email- info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Konami shifts its focus from console to mobile gaming

Konami Digital Entertainment president Hideki Hayakawa has come out to reveal the company will be focusing on mobile saying “We will pursue mobile games aggressively” during an interview with Nikkei. “Our main platform will be mobiles.”

Hayakawa-san hints at key franchises, like Metal Gear Solid and Winning Eleven, may also be heading to mobile and even goes on to speak enthusiastically about charging a premium for actual game modes. “Following the pay-as-you-play model of games like Power Pro and Winning Eleven with additional content, our games must move from selling things like ‘items’ to selling things like ‘features’,” he added. “We saw with these games that even people who buy physical games are motivated to buy extra content.”

Konami has had quite the interesting past couple of weeks as it cancelled Silent Hills and the ongoing drama with Hideo Kojima leaving after the release of Metal Gear Solid 5 while still promising more titles will be released some time down the line. All of the pieces appear to fall into place towards a future where they focus on mobile gaming, which appears to be where some other publishers are focusing their efforts on as well. Let's just hope we don't get yet another iteration of The Simpsons Arcade game to play on our mobile devices.

Game development 

The employees at Pixotri Game Studio have vast experience in creating games and are always trying to push the boundaries of technology and creativity. The games are created using the most popular game enigine Unity, which provides robust, high performance, platform independent solution to creating games.

Pixotri technology is a  creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development .

Contact us for your mobile gaming requirements email-info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8

Konami shifts focus from console to mobile gaming

It seems gaming giant Konami is bending towards casual gaming, with reports now saying the company will be shifting it's main focus from consoles to mobile gaming. 

The studio behind gaming classics like Contra, Castlevania, Metal Gear Solid, and Silent Hill, Konami is not the first gaming company to make the  switch to the mobile gaming platform. Earlier in March, Nintendo also announced that it would begin tailoring some of it's classic titles for a mobile gaming experience, something the company has always been against. The information about Konami comes from an interview on Japan-based Nikkei Trendy Net, which was later translated by a NeoGaf user here. 

The piece has Konami President Hideki Hayakawa telling the interviewer that, "Konami will pursue mobile games aggressively. Gaming has spread to a number of platforms, but at the end of the day, the platform that is always closest to us, is mobile. Mobile is where the future of gaming lies." He continued to say that they would be switching to a "pay-as-you-play" model and, though their console titles like Metal Gear Solid V and Winning Eleven would continue to release abroad, their focus at home would be mobile gaming. 

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start.....

Game development 

The employees at Pixotri Game Studio have vast experience in creating games and are always trying to push the boundaries of technology and creativity. The games are created using the most popular game enigine Unity, which provides robust, high performance, platform independent solution to creating games.

Pixotri technology is a  creative house developing quality web designs, E-Commerce solution. SEO services and Gaming development .

Contact us for your mobile gaming requirements email-info@pixotritechnologies.com. Visit our website: www.pixotritechnologies.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9xSWDsTYC8