Newsletter 11/2009
Zen Bound best iPhone game
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Zen Bound, which was brought out at the beginning of 2009, climbed rapidly to the top of the sales lists at Apple game stores. The game has received excellent reviews, grades, trophies and awards. What makes it the world’s best?
“No compromising with the final touches,” replies Jani Kahrama, the head of the studio. “It was a pleasure to cooperate with perfectionists in making a game in which each individual detail was designed for the iPhone down to the very last detail.
New games coming
Secret Exit, which was established in 2006, is a Helsinki-based firm focusing on iPhone games. The Verso-Vertical Software Solutions programme of Tekes-Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation has been financing the firm’s product development.
“Zen Bound’s success is tasty but it will be short-lived. New games are coming onto the market at an unprecedented pace, so attention will transfer quickly to the next object of interest,” says Kahrama.
Zen Bound is described as a relaxing even meditative skill game. The idea of the game is to bind different sculptures with a rope.
Secret Exit has started two new game projects after Zen Bound. Next in turn will be the entertaining Stair Dismount, which has been made with black humour.
“Hopefully at the end of the year the game will allow us to see on social networks how many people are settling scores with each other,” Kahrama hints.
Heading the sales lists
Other Finnish mobile games have had worldwide success, too, not just ZenBound. In June the Finnish Wooden Labyrinth 3D game was chosen as the best student application for iPhones in Apple’s WWDC developer showcase.
At the beginning of the year the Finnish game studio Mr Goodliving achieved a feather in its cap at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, where the studio’s Tiki Towers game won the casual series. The game quickly sprang to the number one spot in five countries and became the most popular iPhone game in terms of sales.
Likewise the flipper game Pinball Dreaming, which was developed for the iPhone by the Finnish company Cowboy Rodeo: Pinball Dreams has reached the number one position in many countries.
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