With the rising recognition of cellular gaming it’s no shock that you just’ll discover firms in probably the most sudden of locations integrating them into their promotional methods. Other than main heavyweights in foods and drinks similar to Fanta, evidently even theme park operators are getting in on the cellular gaming craze.
Katmandu: Ethermerge is an easy match-2 title being produced by Falcon’s Past and developed in collaboration with Epic Story Interactive. Falcon’s Past are the corporate who run a lot of parks and sights together with the 2 of the titular Katmandu parks, one in Spain, opened in 2007, and one within the Dominican Republic which opened earlier this 12 months. And who’ve pursued this newest surge of multimedia promotional methods.
As a part of the promotional technique for his or her model, Falcon’s Past has pursued not solely a Roblox expertise, an e-commerce retailer and an animated sequence, however now additionally a cellular recreation.
So what does a comparatively innocuous match-2 merge add to extra conventional strategies of promotion? We discover out extra concerning the method and rationale behind their cellular title from the president of digital media at Falcon’s Past, Jason Ambler.
PocketGamer.biz: Are you able to inform us about what you’re doing? It’s slightly uncommon to make use of a cellular recreation to advertise a theme park.
Jason Ambler: We’re actually persevering with to advertise our Katmandu Parks by varied types of promoting and social media activation; nevertheless, we consider that Katmandu has the potential to be a a lot bigger client model than what has now been established and well-received on the parks themselves.
We view our cellular video games much less as a promotional device, and extra as an vital platform extension of our Katmandu model.
Jason Ambler
Our entrance into the world of cellular gaming with Katmandu: EtherMerge helps our 360-degree enlargement technique for the Katmandu franchise, activating the model concurrently throughout all types of leisure, together with media content material, video video games, client merchandise, and, in fact, the themed leisure locations themselves.
In essence, we view our cellular video games much less as a promotional device, and extra as an vital platform extension of our Katmandu model; one that enables us to interact with our viewers in new and significant methods.
Merge video games are a comparatively fashionable style, however why go for this style over others?
We selected to make our cellular recreation debut with a merge-2 recreation, on account of its broad worldwide enchantment and informal nature of gameplay. As a well-recognized and accessible style, we are able to welcome present followers of Katmandu, in addition to introduce the model to new audiences.
We noticed nice worth in a recreation that gamers might decide up and put down and slot in inside their every day lives and different actions. What’s nice about this format is that Katmandu Park friends can play our Katmandu: EtherMerge cellular recreation whereas ready within the queue line at one among our sights and even proceed their relationship with the model as soon as they return at house.
Why did you select to work with Epic Story Interactive on this title?
We had beforehand introduced our alliance with Epic Story Media to help early Katmandu franchise improvement and enlargement throughout media content material, video games, and client merchandise. By means of that alliance, the Epic crew has gained intimate data of our Katmandu model, lore, and aspirations, which is why it made sense for us to collaborate with their recreation studio, Epic Story Interactive (ESI).
Not solely did Epic’s tradition, course of, and methodology intently align with our personal, however in addition they have in depth data and experience in creating and publishing cellular and on-line video games for beloved kids’s manufacturers similar to Slugterra, Ben 10 and Beyblade. Whereas ESI has notably robust expertise in Match-3 fashion video games, EtherMerge was their first foray into making a merge-2 recreation, so all of the gameplay and mechanics needed to be developed from the bottom up.
Who is that this title aimed in direction of by way of age, employment, gender and different demographics?
One of many foremost causes we selected to debut with a Merge-2 fashion recreation is its worldwide enchantment to a really broad demographic with a really excessive age ceiling, each female and male, very similar to our Katmandu Park locations. Contemplating the already broad attain and recognition of merge video games and the inclusive nature of the Katmandu model, we see Katmandu: EtherMerge as a recreation for nearly anybody.
Do you’ve plans for any extra cellular video games sooner or later? Are you able to inform us what they’ll be like?
Falcon’s is just simply starting to grasp its ambitions in cellular gaming, and gaming on the whole. We’re not solely taking a look at additional model extension for Katmandu on this house, but additionally introducing some thrilling new manufacturers and franchises now we have in improvement, in addition to new experiences with our licensed associate manufacturers. We will probably be exploring new recreation kinds, codecs, genres, and goal audiences and are wanting ahead to sharing extra updates on these plans sooner or later.
Do you’re feeling cellular gaming is a crucial a part of promotional methods throughout many industries, together with theme parks?
Completely. Increasing our manufacturers throughout a number of channels on the similar time is core to our technique, and what we consider that audiences are craving. Shoppers and followers wish to join with their favourite characters, tales and types throughout any variety of platforms together with client merchandise, brick-and-mortar leisure locations, media content material, and even, dare we are saying, the metaverse. We’ve got to be in every single place that they’re.
With cellular gaming being the most important and fastest-growing section of the most important class of the leisure trade, it’s actually an enormous a part of our imaginative and prescient at Falcon’s Past as a diversified expertise, leisure, and media enterprise.
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