This week, we’re thrilled to announce that two of our developers have hit the top charts at the same time. That’s two games in the top-five charts in the last two weeks: Popular Girls from 24Play and Artist Life from VOG Games. Both were published by Coda Platform, and both were made possible through our ideation tools and services.
They’re games of a similar vein, part of a growing genre of hyper-compact simulators that focus on an ongoing story broken up with mini-games that keep players engaged.
Artist Life hits number one
It’s been just two weeks since we released Artist Life, developed by VOG Games. And it’s already hit number one on the Google Play store. It’s also one of the top-ranking simulation games on the App Store, too.
The title is a hyper-compact simulation game. You play as a budding artist, looking to make a living through your photography and drawing. Customers visit your humble abode and commission you for various tasks. The game is ultimately about choices. Those choices are sometimes everyday, like what to watch on TV. And sometimes large, like whether to sell your art or ask for more social media followers.
These decisions send you on a journey through an artist’s life, including whether to date or not. And they’re broken up through mini-games of your activities, such as setting up your camera equipment. Download it for yourself.
Popular Girls hits number two
Just this weekend, we released Popular Girls into the world, developed by 24 Play. And it’s already hit the number two slot on the App Store. A resounding success, which clearly shows how much demand there is for hyper-compact games like these.
Popular Girls aims to take you through your school days, choosing who you’ll be friends with, how you’ll increase your followers, and seeing whether you can become the most popular girl.
Over the course of the game, you’ll make key decisions broken up by puzzles and mini-games to solve. Give the game a go.
Creating a hyper-compact game
This style of game overlaps a lot with the hyper-casual genre. However the key to a good, satisfying hyper-compact game is variety. Rather than creating a single mechanic, you’re instead guiding the player through a journey with lots of different games inside. Where you’d typically have levels breaking up the experience, in a hyper-compact game you have completely different mechanics.
This keeps things fresh for the player, and keeps them engaged. But it also means that you don’t need to stretch an idea further than necessary. No need to come up with a thousand novel ways to create a puzzle. Instead, you create a new mechanic instead.
Discover new trends for yourself
If you want to keep on top of trends like the hyper-compact genre, and get into the top charts before anybody else, check out our Market Intelligence tool.
