Japanese mobile game publisher Cocosola has announced that its Alpaca Evolution game has surpassed the 4 million downloads mark. I was pretty surprised back in March when it was announced that the game had reached a million downloads, so naturally, 4 million is no small feat either.
The object of the game, as I previously mentioned, is to bash your fellow alpacas and absorb them into your own body so you can evolve into something of an alpaca monstrosity. Yes, it’s very weird, but at the same time it’s sort of cool too. You can see more about how it works in our demo video above.
4 million downloads in less than 3 months
While the gameplay is painfully simple, the character appears to have hit the same kimo-kawaii sweet-spot as Ponos’s Battle Cats. And like Ponos, which is capitalizing on the appeal of these cute characters by expanding into merchandising, Cocosola is selling game-related goods as well. If you pop over to runatown.com, for example, you can check out a wide assortment of Alpaca Evolution iPhone cases (pictured below).
The game was originally released back in February, meaning that these four million downloads have come within the very short time span of less than three months. So its pace thus far is impressive to say the least.
Cocosola says that new updates to the game are on the way very soon, bringing new evolutions for fans of this very strange game. (Cocosola, via VS Media)
Last year Japanese mobile gaming company GREE (TYO:3632) introduces a football battle card game for the North American market called NFL Shuffle. Despite a few bugs in early iterations of the title, I quickly became a fan, and have enjoyed the game ever since. Recently GREE announced an update that brought some interesting new elements into gameplay, leading up to the up the 2013 NFL season. A new “talents” feature has been introduced to certain players/cards, giving them special abilities that can be triggered at certain times in your game. For example, in the picture below you can see a LeSean McCoy card added ability that can be triggered at key moments. While I have enjoyed the game so far, I think that it is sorely missing an element of skill – and perhaps this new variable can fix that. I have yet to pick up a card that has to new feature, but I’ll keep you posted and perhaps follow this up with a video review. For me the early levels in season mode were painfully easy, and then when you reach “captain” level (particularly when you run up against the 49ers) the game becomes painfully difficult – almost…
Last year Japanese mobile gaming company GREE (TYO:3632) introduces a football battle card game for the North American market called NFL Shuffle. Despite a few bugs in early iterations of the title, I quickly became a fan, and have enjoyed the game ever since.
Recently GREE announced an update that brought some interesting new elements into gameplay, leading up to the up the 2013 NFL season. A new “talents” feature has been introduced to certain players/cards, giving them special abilities that can be triggered at certain times in your game.
For example, in the picture below you can see a LeSean McCoy card added ability that can be triggered at key moments.
NFL Shuffle’s new ‘talents’ feature
While I have enjoyed the game so far, I think that it is sorely missing an element of skill – and perhaps this new variable can fix that. I have yet to pick up a card that has to new feature, but I’ll keep you posted and perhaps follow this up with a video review.
For me the early levels in season mode were painfully easy, and then when you reach “captain” level (particularly when you run up against the 49ers) the game becomes painfully difficult – almost impossible, unless you buy premium cards, which may be GREE’s intention. But for users who opt not to pay, it has left the game somewhat crippled, so I hope the new update remedies that [1].
This game is an intriguing port of the Japanese card battle model into a game genre that traditionally sticks to other formats. GREE’s MLB Full Deck is a similar effort for those who prefer baseball. I’m curious to hear from other players of NFL Shuffle to get your impressions of the game so far. Can GREE iterate it into a hit game as the 2013 season progresses? The company is still in search of its first real overseas hit, so we’ll have to wait and see how the year plays out.
talent activated!
I count myself among that category of gamers who don’t want to pay for in-app purchases. Most of my iOS spending ends up (for better or worse) going towards productivity apps and text editors! ↩
Recently Tokyo-based CinemaCraft, the startup company behind the clever paneled video presentation service Videogram, released its iOS application. The app delivers the same slick thumbnail panel interface that we previously saw from the Videogram web app, allowing users to understand at a glance what kind of content a given video contains. In terms of being an entertainment destination, the Videogram app has lots of fun content from providers like Hulu, Discovery Channel, Funny or Die, and even a Videogram picks section. But what I find most interesting about the service is the advantage that it holds for publishers, by measuring which thumbnails are the most active, and then automatically regenerating the tiled presentation based on that feedback. Once popular thumbnails are identified, publishers can then run ads next to them if they choose, thus optimizing the chances that a user might see them. CinemaCraft’s CEO Sandeep Casi told us a little more about this feature: The trending thumbnail can change on a daily/weekly basis depending on the user engagement. The pre-roll/mid-roll will move to the trending thumbnail such that there is some amount of assurance that ads will be consumed. This is much better than throwing an ad at the…
Recently Tokyo-based CinemaCraft, the startup company behind the clever paneled video presentation service Videogram, released its iOS application. The app delivers the same slick thumbnail panel interface that we previously saw from the Videogram web app, allowing users to understand at a glance what kind of content a given video contains.
In terms of being an entertainment destination, the Videogram app has lots of fun content from providers like Hulu, Discovery Channel, Funny or Die, and even a Videogram picks section. But what I find most interesting about the service is the advantage that it holds for publishers, by measuring which thumbnails are the most active, and then automatically regenerating the tiled presentation based on that feedback.
Once popular thumbnails are identified, publishers can then run ads next to them if they choose, thus optimizing the chances that a user might see them. CinemaCraft’s CEO Sandeep Casi told us a little more about this feature:
The trending thumbnail can change on a daily/weekly basis depending on the user engagement. The pre-roll/mid-roll will move to the trending thumbnail such that there is some amount of assurance that ads will be consumed. This is much better than throwing an ad at the start of the video and hoping that consumer will not skip thought it.
Sandeep says me that his company also offers a white label Videogram solution which publishers can use on their own sites. And I expect this will be one of the most promising aspects of Videogram’s business. I understand that more developments are coming in the near future for the startup, so stay tuned for more on that front.
The startup certainly appears to be on the right track, with lots of positive developments since it accepted into the 500 Startups incubator program back in late 2012.
Japanese toy camera manufacturer Superheadz has released the world’s first solar-panel enabled digital camera called SUN&CLOUD. In fact, the camera can be charged in three ways. You can place the device in direct sunlight for 12 hrs to get a full-charge, or turning the built-in hand crank (one minute gets you four to eight photos). Or if you’d like to do it the easy way, simply connecting to a computer via USB. What’s great about this is that on a sunny day the camera will automatically stay powered no matter how many photos you take. Even if the weather isn’t great, turning the hand crank won’t be too much trouble either. This environmentally friendly camera weighs 190 greams and has a 3 megapixel sensor. You can also enjoy taking short videos, and play with 15 color modes. The specs for SUN&CLOUD aren’t exactly cutting edge, so why should you be interested? The idea of self-sufficient camera came up over four years ago, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake pushed the idea into a reality. Omori and Nakamura from Superheadz elaborated in a recent interview with Greenz.jp: SUN&CLOUD needs to be taken care of. Everyday when you arrive at the office, you…
Japanese toy camera manufacturer Superheadz has released the world’s first solar-panel enabled digital camera called SUN&CLOUD. In fact, the camera can be charged in three ways. You can place the device in direct sunlight for 12 hrs to get a full-charge, or turning the built-in hand crank (one minute gets you four to eight photos). Or if you’d like to do it the easy way, simply connecting to a computer via USB.
What’s great about this is that on a sunny day the camera will automatically stay powered no matter how many photos you take. Even if the weather isn’t great, turning the hand crank won’t be too much trouble either.
This environmentally friendly camera weighs 190 greams and has a 3 megapixel sensor. You can also enjoy taking short videos, and play with 15 color modes. The specs for SUN&CLOUD aren’t exactly cutting edge, so why should you be interested?
The idea of self-sufficient camera came up over four years ago, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake pushed the idea into a reality. Omori and Nakamura from Superheadz elaborated in a recent interview with Greenz.jp:
SUN&CLOUD needs to be taken care of. Everyday when you arrive at the office, you want to place it in the sunlight. These little efforts are what makes people feel affection towards things.
The world of photography is now polarized into high-end professional cameras and built-in cameras on mobile phones. But it’s not fun really to have nothing else outside of this hierarchy. That is exactly why we developed SUN&CLOUD. It has a message to tell. We want our users to enjoy and wonder why we made such a camera.
SUN&CLOUD comes in both black and white and is available for 18,900 yen (or about $190). You can learn more over on the HeadsShop website. Check out the video below.
There are no shortage of newsreader apps out there these days, especially as the landscape adjusts in the wake of the announcement of Google Reader’s upcoming retirement. Most of our readership will no doubt already be aware of useful reader apps like Reeder, Feedly, Leaf, or even maybe even SlowFeeds. But it’s also interesting to see what kinds of reader apps are emerging here in Japan [1]. We recently featured the news curation app Gunosy which pulls news that you might like by analyzing your social media accounts, and even emailing you interesting stories every morning. It’s a handy service, although it’s currently for the Japanese language only [2]. But today I stumbled across another handy made-in-Japan reader app called FeedDrop. While it’s not as smart as Gunosy, the app is useful in that it comes with a number of pre-made content categories, each of which can be toggled on or off by the user. You can also search for your own content feeds, and this process works surprisingly well, giving you RSS and XML feeds for just about any search you can muster – in English or Japanese (note, I tried it with English ones, see pictures below). There’s…
There are no shortage of newsreader apps out there these days, especially as the landscape adjusts in the wake of the announcement of Google Reader’s upcoming retirement. Most of our readership will no doubt already be aware of useful reader apps like Reeder, Feedly, Leaf, or even maybe even SlowFeeds. But it’s also interesting to see what kinds of reader apps are emerging here in Japan [1].
We recently featured the news curation app Gunosy which pulls news that you might like by analyzing your social media accounts, and even emailing you interesting stories every morning. It’s a handy service, although it’s currently for the Japanese language only [2].
But today I stumbled across another handy made-in-Japan reader app called FeedDrop. While it’s not as smart as Gunosy, the app is useful in that it comes with a number of pre-made content categories, each of which can be toggled on or off by the user. You can also search for your own content feeds, and this process works surprisingly well, giving you RSS and XML feeds for just about any search you can muster – in English or Japanese (note, I tried it with English ones, see pictures below).
There’s also a ‘read later’ function that allows you to simply tag any article to be sent to your ‘read later’ queue. While this is certainly useful, there isn’t any styling that makes the articles any easier to read within the app, so it’s hard not to just send articles to Pocket each time. However, in terms of integration with applications that typical Japanese users like, FeedDrop excels. Twitter, Facebook, Hatena Bookmarks, Evernote, and Line are all supported, as well as the afore-mentioned Pocket.
But of course, like Gunosy, the app’s interface is in Japanese only, which is disappointing to see [3]. But it’s definitely an app that might be of interest to our readers here in Japan.
I’m curious to hear what news readers you guys are experimenting with these days. If you have any interesting recommendations, particularly anything that might be made in Japan, do let us know in the comments.
The Gunosy app interface looks very much inspired by Reeder, so if you like Reeder, you’ll feel comfortable with this app too. ↩
I can’t help but recall what Atomico’s Niklas Zennström mentioned back during the Japan New Economy Summit, noting that if you’re in the software business, you might as well be making it for the global market. I think an app like FeedDrop would be welcomed by users outside Japan if it ventured beyond just Japanese. ↩
When I first met up with the folks behind DecoAlbum, I thought maybe it was just another photo app. Japanese startups have developed so many photo sharing apps, and most of them hope to hit the South East Asian market. So I was wondering if this space hasn’t already been saturated. However DecoAlbum was one of the standouts at the recent Echelon Tokyo satellite event, and it was also chosen to be included in the first batch of NTT Docomo’s incubation program. So what’s so special about DecoAlbum? We sought out the app’s developer, Prime Again, to find out more. We spoke with the company’s CEO Nobuhiro Abe and his right hand Maiko Kojima. Tell us about you and your team? Nobuhiro: We were teamed up in 2010 when we developed a cloud-based contact sharing app at Breakthrough Camp, a two-month app and business development camp for university students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Then we were incorporated in December of 2010, and subsequently developed the app with students from Waseda University and Digital Hollywood University. We’ve seen many similar photo sharing apps. What makes DecoAlbum different? Maiko: We’re a team of students, and that’s our target user base. That’s why we’ve…
When I first met up with the folks behind DecoAlbum, I thought maybe it was just another photo app. Japanese startups have developed so many photo sharing apps, and most of them hope to hit the South East Asian market. So I was wondering if this space hasn’t already been saturated.
So what’s so special about DecoAlbum? We sought out the app’s developer, Prime Again, to find out more. We spoke with the company’s CEO Nobuhiro Abe and his right hand Maiko Kojima.
Tell us about you and your team?
Nobuhiro: We were teamed up in 2010 when we developed a cloud-based contact sharing app at Breakthrough Camp, a two-month app and business development camp for university students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Then we were incorporated in December of 2010, and subsequently developed the app with students from Waseda University and Digital Hollywood University.
We’ve seen many similar photo sharing apps. What makes DecoAlbum different?
PrimeAgain’s Maiko Kojima pitches at Echelon Tokyo Satellite. (April, 2013)
Maiko: We’re a team of students, and that’s our target user base. That’s why we’ve learned so much about what our users really want to have. When we’re observing our friends using photo apps, they typically use one app for photo collage and another for decoration. So before uploading photos to their walls or timelines, they typically use two photo apps at least. The number of apps capable of both collage and decoration is very few, maybe even zero, because it’s difficult to manage and optimize memory usage for handling photos on smartphones. But we made it.
DecoAlbum allows users to both create collages and decorate with a single app. In terms of differentiation, there is also a storage function. Our app is not only a photo decoration and collage app but features storage on its backend. […] You can create as many albums as you want, and share anything stored photos with your friends or family members via Facebook, Line, or other social media.
Do you have any metrics to share about how your app has performed so far?
Nobuhiro: The app was launched in late June of 2012, and we’ve seen more than 1.2 million downloads in 8 months.
Is your user base different from other photo sharing apps?
Maiko: Our user base ranges from junior high school girls to housewives, especially those who prefer cute or elegant fashions. We’ve been acquiring users from the Southeast Asian market as well, mainly from housewives in their 20s. Our app is now available in Japanese, English, Mandarin, Korean, and Thai.
So are you making any specific marketing efforts elsewhere in Asia?
PrimeAgain CEO Nobuhiro Abe
Nobuhiro: We have never done any paid promotions. So we’re honored to have seen such positive results. The usual acquisition of our user base has been entirely word-of-month, and we will partner with other mobile app developers to take things a step further. One of our strength is providing cute stickers designed from our awesome designers, and that has been very popular with our users, and it can be also used when messaging in other apps. We’ll be providing our specially designed stickers to some partner mobile apps, including Korea’s Between, a mobile photo sharing app for couples. We’re in talks with some other developers about providing stickers, an arrangement we feel benefits both parties.
How will you monetize? Do you have any exit strategy?
Nobuhiro: We’re partnering with Foglio (a photo processing platform run by Fujifilm) and mobile photo-processing company Tolot so that our users can print their pictures [1]. We’re also in talks with Photobook Thailand to give our users a better experience in Southeast Asian regions. Regarding the exit, we have no concrete plan at this moment beyond increasing our user base. We recently fundraised 10 million yen (approximately $100,000) from East Ventures, which might be sufficient to survive for the time being. We don’t want to [target] acquisition by another party, but expect to go straight ahead to an IPO exit.
DecoAlbum is certainly a very powerful app in terms of functions. Combining photo collage and decoration is not an issue that we hear many people complaining about, but based on DecoAlbum’s download numbers it looks to be a surprisingly significant problem. Will DecoAlbum remain the only real solution in this space? Let’s wait and see.
The DecoAlbum development team
Tolot recently fundraised 500 million yen from KDDI Open Innovation Fund. ↩
Rick Martin
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Masaru Ikeda
