NonStop Games: Social HTML5 Games with a Twist
Guest writer Vlad Micu has been a freelance game industry journalist for over five years while running his company VGVisionary. He is also the managing director of WindowsPhoneFans.com. Currently residing in Bangkok, Thailand, he is pursuing his dream of making video games as the game producer of arkavis, an up and coming casual game studio.
In an old Singaporean office crammed with start-ups lies the humble shared space of the up-and-coming HTML5 social games start-up NonStop Games (nonstop-games.com), formerly known as Dollar Isle creator GamesMadeMe. Founded on the friendship and shared ambitions of the former Wooga head Henric Suuronen and ex-Nokia business development manager Juha Paananen, the studio is redefining how HTML5 is used to develop cross-platform, fun, and community-based social gaming experiences.
They’re currently working on their newest title Paint Stars (see screenshots below), whose community recently marked the production of over 500.000 drawings. I sat down with the duo to talk about creating the Instagram for painting, avoiding app store dependence, and using games as a web-link to make sharing your creations the easiest thing ever.
Friendship, CTO power, and start-up foundations
Friends since high school and gamers for life with a similar educational background, Suuronen and Paananen couldn’t wait to start a company together. The spark that initiated their first ideas for founding NonStop Games came with the rising popularity of browser-based games back in 2010. Paananen explains:
友情、CTO（最高技術責任者）の威力、そしてスタートアップの設立
SuuronenとPaananenは、高校からの友人で、生涯ゲーマー、そして似たような学歴ということもあり、共に企業を立ち上げるのを待ちきれずにいた。Non-Stop Gamesを立ち上げるための初めてのアイディアが舞い込んできたのは、去る2010年にブラウザベース・ゲームの人気が上昇してきた時だった。Paananenはこのように述べた：
There came a time when browser-based games were slowly taking over client-based ones. We felt the same thing was soon going to happen in mobile phones and tablets.
NonStop Games’s main goal is to make its HTML5 software so fast that it almost feels like a native app. Suuronen notes:
That is the main sore spot in HTML5. You pushed the button, but it takes time to load and you don’t know what is happening at that time. That’s not very app-like. This is where we put a lot of effort, so you push a button and a color change tells you it was pressed. If it’s loading, there is always a load-bar. All these small things that make it feel responsive.
Non-Stop Gamesの主な目的は、あまりもの速さに、それがネイティブアプリのようだと感じる独自の高速HTML5ソフトウェアを開発することです。
Suuronenはこのように付け加えた：
HTML5の弱点はそこにあります。ボタンを押すけれどもロードに時間がかかり、その時点では一体何が起こったのか分からないのです。それではアプリらしくない。そこで、ボタンを押すと色が変わることでボタンが押されたことが分かるよう、私達は一工夫しました。ロード中は、ロードバーが必ず表示されます。これらの小さな点を取り込むことで、きちんとした反応を示していると思ってもらえる訳です。
Instagram for painting
With the user numbers and sales of OMGPop’s hit dropping drastically, a drawing game might not appear to be the safest bet for any studio. But for Suuronen and Paananen, the concept introduced by that title felt strongly underdeveloped. The duo realized that the success of an app like Instagram and Draw Something doesn’t lie in the core activity of taking photos or painting. Suuronen argues:
It’s about things that you want to show off. Some people draw just for themselves, some just take photos for themselves, but most want to show what they’ve done and kind of build their online photographic or painting identity. Suddenly they get followers commenting and liking and loving their work. When I saw this drawing genre rise in popularity, I realized it can have exactly the same impact as Instagram. I’m painting and I want to get my friends to comment on it. I want to come back and see that I’ve got 20 new likes or 50 new comments. This is the real driver for me to draw more.
HTML5’s capabilities to work around any filtering system on school computers even got some schools in the US to already ban the popular Paint Stars from their computer labs.
The game’s exponential growth in user activity and engagement is easy to measure by looking back at only 4000 daily paintings from just one week before this interview was held. Suuronen says:
I don’t even dare to think about how much it will be in a week, in two weeks. I am most happy about our hypothesis of people wanting to comment and like each other’s paintings being true.
このゲーム内でのユーザーアクティビティとユーザー同士の交流が急激に上昇している模様は、このインタビューが行われるわずか1週間前に毎日投稿されている4000もの絵を見れば一目瞭然である。Suuronenはこのように語った：
1週間、2週間と経過するにつれ、その数字がどのようになるのかを考えるのも怖いくらいです。私達は、お互いにコメントを残し合いたいとし、お互いの絵を気に入っているとする、それら人々の気持ちが曇りのないものだという我々の仮説に一番喜んでいます。
The number is now at nearly 30,000 pictures being painted daily and it is growing every day. A recent release and change in functionality doubled the daily amount in one day. “It is all about the details,” Suuronen adds.
The next challenge for Suuronen and Paananen is to discover how paintings can get to services other than Twitter and Facebook.
Who needs an app store?
A NonStop Games’ browser game that runs just as fast as a native app might not need to be inside an app store anymore. Better yet, users can always play an HTML5 game that is instantly fully updated after it is launched. Paananen explains:
SuuronenとPaananenの次なるチャレンジは、いかにこれらの絵をTwitterとFacebook以外のサービスへ拡散していくか、その方法を見つけることだ。
アプリストアなど必要ない
ネイティブゲームと同じく高速で作動するNon-Stop Gamesのブラウザゲームは、アプリストアに頼る必要などなくなるかもしれない。その上、ユーザーは、起動後すぐにアップデートされるHTML5ゲームをいつだってプレイすることができるのだ。Paananenはこのように説明した：
最初の文、訂正をお願い致します→ 今では毎日3万もの絵が描かれており、日に日にその数は増加している。最近新たな機能が追加されたことや機能が改変されたことで、1日の作品数が倍増した。「全ては細かな配慮にあるのです」、とSuuronenは付け加えた。
We are not saying the app store is a bad channel, and we will be launching our games in the app stores too by wrapping them into a standard app. But being outside of app stores gives you a lot of advantages. You can just move faster. You don’t have to submit anything and wait for approval. Instead you can submit updates live anytime and there is no installation process. It helps things become much more instant, and viral too.
His partner Suuronen adds:
We already make money with different solutions, but it could be better. Facebook credits on mobile seem very good and each day it’s getting better for us. We’re using HTML5 because it’s a new technology with real user experience benefits. But as it is new technology means that it won’t be easy. We also have the opportunity to be among the first to get it right, which is definitely worth the extra effort.
I’m told that NonStop Games are currently preparing for the next step in their journey, which they will hopefully be able to announce later this summer. Paananen adds on a final note:
Man didn’t go to the moon because it was easy!
私達は異なるソリューションの開発で既に利益を得ていますが、より多くの利益を得られるはずです。モバイル版のFacebook Creditsは成功例で、日々私達に利益をもたらしてくれています。私達は、HTML5が実ユーザー体験と言う利益を含む新しいテクノロジーだとの理由から、HTML5を使用しています。ですが、それが新しいテクノロジーであるため、困難な試みでもあるのです。私達は初めてHTML5を正しく用いることができた企業の１社ですが、これは一層の努力をした甲斐があると言うものです。
Non-Stop Gamesは現在、彼らの計画における次の段階に向けて準備中だ、と私に告げた。彼らは、今年の夏にもそのプランについて発表したいとしている。Paananenは最後にこう付け加えた：
簡単だからと言う理由で、人類は月に行ったのではないですよね！
最後の分、訂正をお願い致します→ 私達は、お互いにコメントを残し合いたいとし、お互いの絵を気に入っているとする、それら人々の気持ちが曇りのないものだという私達が立てた仮説に一番喜びを感じています。