Vietnamese game developers seek niche direction

The game "Back to Childhood" is loved for its nostalgic style, images and sounds that evoke players' memories. Photo: Nhat Minh .

In the mobile gaming market, games with detailed graphics and complex gameplay are not always enough to ensure “big wins”. For game developers with limited resources, finding their own direction and targeting a niche market of gamers can bring faster success.

Finding a path with “games for girls”

When it comes to gamers, many people will think of the image of men. However, for Imba Studio, a game development company based in Ho Chi Minh City, female gamers are the group that brings success.

Founded in 2015, Imba Studio only achieved great success in 2019 with the game Kawaii Home Design. Understanding the preferences of female users for decorating, arranging houses and accessories, the development team created a game where users can choose their own furniture to suit their aesthetic taste.

Sticking to the cute design style is a characteristic that helps Imba Studio's games develop quickly. In addition, the development team also understands the preferences of female players for content with storylines. This is also a factor that the team invests in.

After the success of Kawaii Home Design, Imba Studio also developed the "Kawaii universe" with many other games, as well as expanding the genre. Photo: Nhat Minh.

“However, we do not go in the direction of drama. The game's content is mainly gentle, healing, and helps players evoke emotions,” Tran Linh Chi, product development manager at Imba Studio, shared with Tri Thuc - Znews .

The biggest success of the game was like a “snowflake” rolling, helping Imba Studio continue to develop the Kawaii game series (also a Japanese word referring to cute, adorable designs) with many different genres. To date, the developer has reached 50 million downloads for its games, of which the Kawaii game series alone accounts for 80%.

In addition to the game content, the studio also focuses on community development with groups on Facebook and Discord. Game rankings by “season” also create competition for gamers. In addition, the team also builds a “multiverse” to develop content.

After the success of the Kawaii series, Imba Studio continued to expand into other game genres such as RPG, puzzle, reaching out to male gamers. The group also received support from Apple such as the times it appeared on the App Store homepage. According to the studio representative, the group of users in the Apple ecosystem is highly appreciated because they are "more willing to spend".

Touching emotions, memories "returning to childhood"

If Imba Studio found its direction in female players, Corochti, a development team in Ho Chi Minh City, looked to the memories of players. The team's game "Back to Childhood" focuses on children's activities in the 1990s-2000s, such as summer games, school canteens or moon watching at night.

Nguyen Chan Nam, a member of the development team, was already famous for his content about young people's memories on the channel "Children's Rice". When Vo Minh Thong, an old friend who was making games, invited him to develop the game, Nam immediately had many ideas for the game.

The original development team of "Back to Childhood" had only 3 people. Photo: Nhat Minh .

However, the Corochti team's journey to develop the game has not always been smooth. After nearly 2 years of development, the team has been rejected 5 times, unable to post the game on the App Store due to errors such as security or misleading features.

“The rejections were big challenges, but they also helped us realize that we needed to develop the product carefully,” Nam said.

By the 6th time, the group had the game listed on the App Store at the end of January. This was another lucky opportunity, because it fell right on the long Tet holiday, many people were looking for content and games for entertainment. Combined with the existing attraction from Nguyen Chan Nam's channel, the game reached 1 million downloads after only 1 week, and was number one in the free game category on the App Store after 2 weeks.

To evoke the emotions of the players, the team invested heavily in the graphics, details associated with the childhood of young people. Minh Thong said that in addition to images, the game also invested in sound so that players could both entertain and satisfy their old memories.

From the initial team of 3, Corochti has now expanded the team to 11 people. The team also wants to continue expanding both content and features, with the further goal of bringing the game to the world to introduce Vietnamese culture.

Source: https://znews.vn/nha-phat-trien-game-viet-tim-huong-di-ngach-post1556685.html