Videogames and Augmented Reality right in the middle of the Italian countryside, really?
That’s what people say when dealing with KetchApp , the startup of mobile games my brother Elvis and I founded just an year ago.
As fun-lovers, I admit this kind of reactions make us smile a bit, but I can’t deny they are signs of our professional challenge, which is to create an innovative business in the heart of a typical Italian countryside.
Since the release of our first game Chilly Rush to the last War of Chess, a fantasy chess game who took the first prize at the Mob App Awards – Smau Milano 2014, we couldn’t imagine how much effort we should have made into developing a mobile game nor we could expect the market results. Elvis and I had developed apps for companies since then, but you need high quality skills in programming, 2D-3D graphic design and a deep knowledge of mobile marketing to face the iOS, Android and Amazon gaming landscape. The mobile game market is highly competitive although much more profitable, and the growth compound rate in the next 2013-2017 is predicted to be 4 times higher than the total one. Just think how much time you and your friends or family spend in launching the fowls in Angry Birds, matching candies in Candy Crush or launching attacks in Clash of Clans and you’ll get the strength of this world!
Nights at trying out our technologies along a diet of pizza and coffee and the rest is history.
That’s how we came up with our AR games Wack’Attack and 3D Bleus Collector, developed for San Carlo and Carrefour France respectively. They both work in a basic system, that is to bound a mobile game to an in-store product promotional campaign.
After downloaded the game, you frame a card attached to the product you bought in-store and the screen of your smartphone or tablet live up with a 3D world you can look at or play with. Be an animated scene with San Carlo character Wacko’s or French football stars Pogba and Ribery, you’ll always be left amazed.
Fun and excitement users ask for in a mobile game are what we and our 100% Italian team care the most. Developers and creatives working with us are enthusiast people eager to launch engaging projects.
Firmness, talent, a bit of luck and after one year KetchApp is a fact, a growing business that develops games with endless fun for mobile users and offer interesting and profitable business opportunities to clients and partners. Indeed, we offer our partners the chance to share the results of a successful game while we support global brands in creating engaging AD campaigns based on a tailored game created by our team. Working with institutions apart from digital universe and dressing them up with our technologies to drive them into the future of entertainment is an exciting challenge for us. As gamers, we love those kind of “mission impossible”, such as the one to found a startup of mobile and AR games in the middle of the Italian countryside.
Contributor: Cristian Salaris, co-founder KetchApp
