Critical Mass Interactive Completes One Hundred Fiftieth Mobile Game Review
AUSTIN, Texas -- June 1, 2006.
Emails of congratulations were exchanged with the well-known but identity-protected development team on the one hundred and fiftieth Critical Mass Interactive Mobile Game Review on June 1st, 2006 after the completion of the game. Brad Woolwine, CMI's Lead Game Reviewer and Cell Game Manager has put the final touches on yet another client's review product in time for his suggestions to be implemented before the game is submitted for approval by the cell phone carriers.
"It's very gratifying to be part of a development team's effort to create the best quality games," commented Woolwine. He continued "What we do is more of a 'ghost producing' service, as we are brought in "virtually" to consult on games still in development. We provide a completely objective viewpoint to each game developer with no nonsense, actionable suggestions for development teams to implement. Game categories are rated on a ten point scale so developers can see how they compare with the current marketplace. The final step of each review is a phone call with the developer to ensure they understand each comment. Being brought in as part of a team that puts the additional polish on their title to take it to the next level is very satisfying."
A few games and clients from over the years.
CMI began this service in 2003 when they entered the cell phone arena, providing design documents and art services for mobile phone games. After playing a few dozen mobile phone games, they noticed that there was a huge difference between games that were the most and least fun. The interesting part was that even in the least fun games, all (or almost all) of the ingredients for 'fun' were there, but they didn't quite 'gel.' Billy Cain, who has been producing games for years, believed CMI could help these teams improve their games by making small suggestions here and there, providing ideas for 'tweaking' the game for more fun, and by continually providing positive reinforcement to the players during the games.
The challenge was to get development teams to trust that CMI knew what they were doing, and then ensure that the development team got clear, actionable comments each time they would send in a version of their games. So for years, they have been working with a select group of mobile publishers and developers, one game at a time, helping them improve their games in many ways, which improves their game scores in the press once the game releases, which ultimately improves the bottom line for the game. In other words, the more people that have a better game experience, the more that tell their friends to buy it, and therefore the more money the game makes for the developers.
Director of Development Billy Cain notes that "many clients wish to remain secret, and have our involvement be their 'competitive advantage' in the market. Having a game that is even a little more accessible and balanced really resonates in the market, and we have given our developers an edge over their competition. One important note is that all comments we make go straight to our clients and that's where it ends. We make the suggestions and if the developer believes the changes are worth doing, have the time or have the budget to implement them, they do. We're just happy to help our fellow game developers make better games. Plus we do it at a reasonable price!"
Critical
Mass has a wide and deep staff of game reviewers ready to provide game feedback on your title. They have experience on single player, multi player, and even Global Positioning System (GPS) games, and are ready for new challenges. If you have a project that needs some outside eyes, CMI would be proud to be your external team helping to get your game ready to ship with finer tuned gameplay and more polish. If you would like to learn more about this service, please view this page on their website: http://www.criticalmassinteractive.com/htm/review.htm
Critical
Mass Interactive delivers a wide variety of services, including full game
production from concept to completion on any platform, any type of outsourcing including concept sketches
and storyboards, 3D (three-dimensional) models for in-game or marketing materials,
design documents, and more. Recent clients include: Electronic Arts, Majesco,
THQ/relic, and the United States Air Force. Visit them on the Web at http://www.criticalmassinteractive.com
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For more information, contact:
Critical Mass Interactive, Austin
Billy Cain (512) 219-1600 bcain@criticalmassinteractive.com
