Today, we were given the opportunity to interview BulkyPix’s COO and CMO, Vincent Dondaine. Created in 2008, BulkyPix is a well known developer of high quality games and applications for a mobile platforms for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, Samsung and tablets. Mr. Dondaine gives us an insight about BulkyPix’s future plans and his thoughts about the portable gaming industry.

Company Name: BulkyPix
Name: Vincent Dondaine
Title: COO and CMO
URL: www.bulkypix.com

Can you tell us about BulkyPix’s future plans?

Our primary goal remains to publish great games for mobile devices. Additionally we are focused on developing our own games with in-house development teams.

We’re also actively moving towards games on a wide range of platforms, with the addition of PC, Mac, Connected TV, web, and Facebook platforms to our existing smartphone base. It’s an incredibly exciting challenge.

In short, we want to be everywhere, spanning the range of platforms both mobile as well as console.

What are some other features or gameplay changes coming to BulkyPix’s games?

We can sum it up in one word “FREEMIUM” – it’s definitely where the real revolution in gaming is happening.. It’s changing everything about how players are engaged in-game. The Appstore pricing war has accelerated the rate of change dramatically. So from now on, more and more BulkyPix games will be based on a freemium business model such as in The Pirate King to be released next October and My Perfect Man currently in development. We really think freemium is the ideal way to bring fresh and regular new content to mobile gamers. The evolution in social gaming that began on Facebook is simply moving from PC and the web to mobile.

 How do you think the iPhone has revolutionized the portable gaming industry?

As the Wii has dramatically increased the number of console players, iPhone was the first real step towards popularizing mobile gaming. Only 2 to 5 % of people participated in mobile gaming prior to the advent of the iPhone. Now hundreds of millions of users are playing games every day.

From a creative perspective it was as dramatic as the evolution from the Stone Age to the modern era in a matter of just a few short years.  I had worked for Vivendi Games Mobile before co-founding BulkyPix, and we were used to developing games in less than 1mb of RAM on more than 2000 different phone models. It was intensely frustrating to express what you wanted in terms of gameplay, arts and game design. In addition to that you were totally ignored by phone carriers if you wanted to bring a new IP if you were not able to support at least 85% of their phone handsets. It was a very lonely and frustrating  system for small indie developers.

iPhone has completely changed the rules as well as the playing field. Now everybody can bring new and fresh content. Sure it’s created a vast jungle where you need to create real gems of imagination to rise up to the surface and be noticed, but at least now everybody can be onboard and has an even chance.

 What separates your company from your competitors with mobile applications?

I would definitely say the way in which we are working with our partners. We’ve established a very fair model, only taking 15% of the revenues where others generally take a much larger slice of the pie. It helps to create a truly win-win relationship: we grow if we are generating value, exposure and fame for our partners. We are building a trusted and long lasting relationship with more than 35 studios around the world. Right now we are also coproducing games with many of them, it means that we are creating new licenses together, and we are co-financing the title’s development and sharing the ownership. We’re creating an atmosphere where it’s in both companies’ best interests to do their best work possible to create titles that will be successful and long lived.

What is your company background, size (employees, developers, etc.), and company inspirations?

We founded BulkyPix in 2008 with 9 former Vivendi Games Mobile employees. They have created a really strong core team each with at least 5 years of experience in gaming industries spanning the full range of platforms. Before creating BulkyPix we had already worked on more than 70 games that had been released into the marketplace. For my part I was the senior producer on Crash Bandicoot Nitro, which was one of the first best sellers on iOS. We are a team of 27 at the moment and growing. Regarding our inspiration, I would have to have to say that our team of founders is comprised of gamers whose tastes range from casual to hardcore games so it’s a challenge to express our inspiration to a few simple lines, let’s just say that we are very active players and are constantly playing and keeping abreast of everything that is released in the console, Facebook and mobile gaming spaces.

Do you outsource any projects or development, if so, how much?

We are not outsourcing any development per-se. As I noted, we are working with 35 partners from all around the world co-producing the creation of new IPs. It’s not simply giving them work for hire; it’s creating new brands in which those partners will also have a genuine vested interest.

Regarding the titles which we are co-producing – it’s between 12 and 24 per year depending on how many first rate ideas we come up with which we decide to pursue.

Advancements in graphics and animations in the mobile phone industry have astronomically grown within the past couple of years. How much time does your company devote to graphical, animation, and sound production for mobile applications? Are there areas that you focus on?

I have to admit that graphics and animation have become more and more time consuming but it’s also related to the fact that it is now possible to have significantly sized games which were impossible in the past utilizing java J2ME. More time also means that we have to be really careful to ensure that the final version of the game has a high level of quality. That’s what we like to create: quality games!

At the moment we are fully focused on polishing and tuning the games, we want all aspects of the experience to be highly tuned and enjoyable. Just having a good game is not enough; we want it perfect in all aspects, from the gameplay to the user interface, to the sound effects and graphics.

How many applications has your company planned, developed, or created at any given time?

At the moment Bulkypix has already published more than 60 games on iOS, and several on Android and Bada.

Our goal is to release around 30 games per year from now on across the range of platforms.

Is your company currently developing for other mobile platforms, if so, which ones and why?

Yes, at the moment we are developing games on Android but we have to admit we are still watching what kind of money we can earn from the Android platform. It’s not as predictable as iOS right now. We are also going to move towards the Windows Phone 7 platform as it’s already established a strong gaming experience. The Microsoft and Nokia to team up is definitely a very good sign for the future of Windows Phone 7 as a platform.

Marketing an application can be a very difficult task. With so many applications being developed and released on a daily basis, capturing user attention in an App Store is challenging. What have you found to be an effective way to market your products to users?

First you need to avoid any temptation to become lax with the quality; you need to have a fully polished game if you want to compete in any of the platforms’ appstores. It’s really a minimum. In addition to that you need to take time to create a buzz and interest around the game – building the momentum and exposure for your game. It’s quite an understandable challenge – reviewers all around the world are receiving tons of requests every day, so you need to explain to them what your game will be about while also giving them time to prepare and publish a review. You have to create a fan base before the game’s release, one that you can be sure the will help spread the word. You can also try to meet with Apple themselves during big events; if your game is a quality piece of work they will very often step up and help increase that exposure.

There are tons of ways to increase your visibility but it’s a lot of manual effort, that’s where Bulkypix is useful. We are providing our expertise, our established relationships and our teamwork to help ensure that your game is a success.

We don’t bullshit our partners – but sometimes games become a success, other times they don’t. Battling it out in the jungle of the Appstore is the reality of today, but everything possible is done to give each of our titles its best chance of becoming a viral success. Often it’s also a question of being the right game at the right time to help capture the imagination (and interest) of the players.

Following the response above, what do you think of the store review process? Is it helping or hurting your business? What are some recommendations in order to speed up the process?

It was by no means perfect in the past but like all new platforms, it couldn’t have been the perfect end-all be-all from day one. However, now things are really smooth on Apple side, with game certification and release to the Appstore happening within a very short time. When issues do arise and a game is kicked back out of certification, a precise explanation of what is wrong in a title is generated so you can fix the issue(s) and then be able to quickly resubmit.

What do you think about other application review websites? Are they effective at providing in-depth reviews of applications and help market your products? Or is your company experiencing challenges of trying to find quality application websites? What do you think of Appmodo?

Generally speaking reviewers are passionate about gaming and we can feel it through their articles. It’s always constructive even when a reviewer doesn’t like what we’ve done, there is always interesting and edifying for us in their write-ups. That’s what we need to strive to continue do, to hear what people are saying about our games to tune them and to continually make them better, by updating existing games and for us to be as best informed as possible as we create new games.

It’s sometime hard to contact a website’s reviewers but it makes sense when you are receiving more than 30 games per day to cover ;-). That’s why we work with them extensively and long before any game’s updates and expansions hit the Appstore.

Regarding Appmodo – we think that’s definitely one of the most important websites within the iOS arena, with solid news, reviews and an excellent source of smartphones and their application marketplaces.

Appmodo would like to thank Mr. Dondaine and BulkyPix for giving us this interview.

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