World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore is training with Zogaj Memo-Gym. What a great guy, what a great game :-)
Learn more about memory training from the Swedish Champ Idriz Zogaj at www.zogaj.se
Field Study
The team went down to Sicily for some inspiration. But don't worry, no maffia games are on there way. Volcanoes on the other hand, pretty cool things...
This Friday 13th
Help fight the bugs :)
Guerilla Video
This guerilla promo video was shot in a Café filled with innocent coffee drinking Swedes. Everybody except our iPhone playing movie star was totally unaware of the video being shot. All participants have agreed to publishing the video, with a laugh.
Field Testing ZOZO BUGS
ZOZO is all about games for the rest of us, we like games that are really easy to learn and really fun right away. In development we go in and out of the studio letting friends and strangers try out our beta all the time. Keeping in constant touch with that first ZOZO experience.
Making Some Noise!
In developing ZOZO BUGS we are really going for a natural almost organic feeling. The music is all analog, The Bearded Angel hits off his base-guitars and vintage electrical pianos, old school style :) The sound effects are from playing around with everyday items: glasses, electric bikes, horse whips...
Who’s ZOZO?
ZOZO Games is a Sweden based developer and publisher of puzzle games for the iPhone and iPod touch platform. We make games that you get the hang of in 5 seconds and start enjoying in 15. We want games that are smart and well designed but they must be easy to learn and enjoy. At ZOZO we are all about - Games For The Rest Of Us!
Got a Great Idea?
We’re financing, commissioning & publishing puzzle games with independent developers. If you're interested in collaborating please email us info@zozogames.com
Interview with the ZOZO founder
ZOZO Games founder Marcus answers some questions about the company.
Why getting into developing and publishing iPhone games? Well, almost no one has missed the incredible development since Apple opened the iTunes App Store back in 2008. Application downloads have taken off in a way never seen before and a completely new, rapidly growing market has been born. In this market traditional distribution no longer exists, apps are downloaded directly to our iPhone or to iTunes on your computer. The old distribution model with discs sold over counters is not longer needed. In this new environment, what does a computer game publisher need to do? The old responsibility of distribution with high costs in inventory is gone and what you have left is marketing. Also this is a changing field, big money stashed away for TV and magazine adds is no longer compulsory. Much can be done with a much cheaper community and PR based strategies.
How about the competition? There are 10s of thousands of iPhone apps out there. True, there are a lot of games and other apps out there and more are hitting the App Store every day. It is and will be competition over the iPhone users' interest. What will be the latest and greatest game for iPhone and iPod Touch. ZOZO Games focus on a specific niche of the market, puzzles and board games. Our creative team develops really great and beautiful titles in these categories. The typical ZOZO customer is not your typical hard core “first person shooter” gamer. The ZOZO games are really for people who are not computer games enthusiast, they want high quality entertainment but don’t have the time or interest to learn more advanced games. Our point of view is also that the puzzle & board games tend to be more classical and less “wear and tear” than the shooters, the platform games and others. This means that we focus more on building and maintaining a high quality catalogue then on going for the next big hit.
How come that you are only developing and publishing for the iPhone and iPod Touch platform? Apple iPhone is great and 40 million users is a bunch, but Nokia ships 30 million phones a month... It is true that Apple still is a small player in the world of mobile phones, but still the leader. In fact the company that all the giants look up to and try to copy. I am a long time Apple enthusiast, I have been following the company and its products since 1988 when my mother got her first Macintosh SE. I like to compare what is happening now to what happened with the, much smaller, MP3-player market a few years ago. I remember when I got my first iPod in 2003 this was pretty late the first iPod version had hit the market already in 2001. In 2003 pretty much everybody had heard about the iPod, but quite few actually owned one. 2 years later everybody I know had at least one iPod and even their parents and grandparents owned or was going to buy one. I believe that the iPhone is now in 2009 where the iPod was in 2003. Everybody knows about the product but the real boost in sales and installed based is yet to be seen over the coming 2-3 years. With this in mind it feels natural to concentrate efforts on the iPhone and iPod Touch platform.
Why casual games? Ok, first thing. Casual puzzles and board games are the kind of games that I prefer to play myself. I don’t have the patience for games that take a long time to learn and to play. I like to just grab my iPhone while having a little spare time and play something fun and not too complicated. I believe that many of us are like that, even those enjoying advanced games when having the time, still like to play something casual once in a while. Then of course as mentioned earlier casual games as puzzle and board games can stay popular for a longer time due to their simplicity. The latest coolest action game will turn bleak when the even cooler is launched 2 months later. At ZOZO we are really building and maintaing a portfolio of casual puzzles and board games rather then aiming for the next hit.
