1）据pocketgamer报道，《涂鸦跳跃》开发商Lima Sky最近宣布将于2013年夏季推出基于该游戏的毛绒玩具（由美国毛绒玩具制造商Gund生产）以及一系列新颖的电动玩具（将由Innovation First International制造）。

doodle jump plush toy(from bigbadtoystore.com)

此外，Lima Sky还将与Innovative Concepts以及开发商Raw Thrills开发高清游戏《涂鸦跳跃街机版》。

2）Virgin Media Business最近调查结果显示，37%的英国企业首席信息官（CIO）认为，苹果将在未来5年成为智能手机市场霸主，而认为三星更可能胜出者所占比例为30%。

Apple Kings Crown(from techin5.com)

但也有10%受访者认为RIM终将时来运转，并在2017年在智能手机市场居于领先地位。更令人意外的是，2%受访者认为传闻中的Facebook智能手机将在2017年操纵局势。Facebook智能手机的支持率甚至超过了索尼，仅有1%受访者认为索尼将成为2017年智能手机市场冠军。

3）Zynga With Friends工作室高管Vijay Thakkar在日前GDC Online大会上发言称，消极态度会损害新IP，他们会尽量保持小型团队规模，以便创造更良好的工作环境。

据其所称，快乐的员工才能创造有趣的内容。Zynga With Friends每隔两个月都会抽出三天时间，让全体成员集中精力创造新游戏理念及原型，这种方法令他们的工作更有效率。

zynga-with-friends(from appadvice.com)

Thakkar表示游戏公司应该为员工提供时间、资源、鼓励、帮助以及目标，支持他们提出新理念，以便创造新IP。在他看来，提出新理念、创造原型及开发新IP并没有什么高招，这是一个需要持续反馈的过程，只有随时做好接受失败的心理准备，才有可能创造出色的游戏。

4）据pocketgamer报道，Red Robot Labs成员Pete Hawley最近表示，地理定位游戏《Life is Crime》（游戏邦注：该游戏于2011年入驻Android平台，在今年初登陆iOS平台）目前下载量已超过400万次。

life-is-crime(from gamersdailynews.com)

玩家在游戏中争夺最激烈的地点分别是星巴克、麦当劳和Subway这三家全美最有人气的快餐品牌店。尽管现在游戏美国用户占比达85％，但英国和香港玩家活跃度更高。在最近的游戏挑战中，平均每名美国用户参与656场战斗，但香港玩家的这一数据却是1574场战斗，并且在香港40级以上玩家数量也远超美国用户。

5）据The Guardian报道，Rovio执行副总裁Andrew Stalbow在最近的MIPCOM大会上透露，《愤怒的小鸟》至今仍有2亿月活跃用户（游戏邦注：该游戏今年5月份在各平台总下载量已超过10亿次），每天都有2000万-3000万用户连网体验该游戏。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

1）Brand bounce: Lima Sky unveils new Doodle Jump merchandise

by James Nouch

Doodle Jump developer Lima Sky has become the latest in a line of mobile studios to license the merchandising rights to its games.

The company claims a range of Doodle Jump plush toys is currently being readied for retail by Gund, a division of Enesco and the oldest manufacturer of plush toys in the US.

What’s more, a collection of novelty, collectible and robotic toys based on Doodle Jump is also set to be developed by Innovation First International.

Doodle Jumpers?

“Doodle Jump is one of the last untouched powerhouse app brands,” explained Innovation First Labs president Chris Troyak.

“We are thrilled to bring this modern classic into the homes of fans globally with our broad assortment of toys and collectibles.”

Lima Sky isn’t stopping there, however.

The studi haso also announced a partnership with Innovative Concepts in Entertainment and developer Raw Thrills to produce Doodle Jump Arcade – an HD coin-op version of the mobile game that will be played on a vertically mounted 42 inch display.

Lima Sky stated that it still has dozens of other licensees “in every product category” yet to announce, although the developer declined to provide further details such as retail partners.

Summer loving

The developer did confirm, however, that the Doodle Jump merchandise line will receive a global launch in summer 2013.

“Lima Sky prides itself on giving Doodle Jump fans a rewarding experience, both in terms of visual aesthetics and elegance of gameplay,” explained Lima Sky’s chief licensing officer Eric Karp.

“Our ambitions for consumer merchandise are the same: quality of product and design sensibility must meet exacting standards,

“To fulfill on that promise, we’ve chosen best in class partners to create merchandise that Doodle Jump fans will bring into their lives.” （source：pocketgamer）

2）Survey: Apple will own the smartphone market within five years

by Mike Shaw

UK CIOs have their say about how the business smartphone landscape will look in 2017.

In a survey conducted by Virgin Media Business, more than a third of CIOs in the UK believe that Apple will eventually gain the upper hand over Samsung in the battle over being the preferred business device.

The 37 per cent who backed Apple were closely followed by 30 per cent who think Samsung Galaxy phones will be the top dogs.

However, ten per cent think that RIM’s fortunes will reverse and that the BlackBerry manufacturer will be the dominant player by 2017.

Even more surprising is the fact that two per cent of respondents think that the rumoured (and oft-denied) Facebook smartphone be running the show in five years.

In fact, the non-existent Facebook phone got more support than Sony, who just one per cent of people thought will be the main supplier of smartphones for business come 2017.

Tony Grace, chief operating officer of Virgin Media Business, said: “There’s a huge amount of choice out there for CIOs looking to purchase smartphones, even more so now the iPhone has launched.  It can be difficult to work out which model works best with your workforce. What’s clear is that Apple and Samsung are way ahead of the others at the moment.

“Driving the popularity of these devices is superfast connectivity that’s allowing staff to realise the options available to them with these items of kit.

“Although our survey shows CIOs are firmly backing two manufacturers now, there’s no guarantee that’ll always be the case. A new model might come along and change everything.”（source：mobile-ent）

3）GDC Online 12: Zynga With Friends on the creative process and coming up with new IP

by Jon Jordan

Zynga is a much talked about company at GDC Online 12.

Giving an insider view to how it’s coming up with new IP was Vijay Thakkar, from the Zynga With Friends studio.

Entitled Finding ‘Ways to Create Joy: The Quest for New IP’, Thakkar said the studio was tasked with coming up with new IP for Zynga.

Small, fast

“Destructive attitude kills new IP. We try to run as small teams as possible, and push forward as quickly as possible,” Thakkar said.

Part of this is creating a good work environment.

“Happy people create fun,” Thakkar explained.

The studio doesn’t crunch and encourages its staff to have a creative mindset, both inside and outside the work environment. For example, based on Google’s ’20 percent concept’, it runs a program called Indie Fridays, where people spend each Friday prototyping their own games.

Sandbox

This has developed into a more formal prototyping process, which is backed with tools and resources including an experienced central team who can help the prototyping process, with each game developed through two week sprints.

“It’s a progress-or-die situation, which is really positive as long as you have clear goals,” Thakkar said.

“Failing quick is not failure because you’re learning.”

Yet the biggest issue with prototyping a lot of games is you never have enough resources to bring all the games to market, which can be disheartening to workers.

Because of this and other issues, Zynga With Friends has broke out some of the ’20 percent time’ of the Indie Fridays into off-site periods of three days – every couple of months – where the entire company works on new ideas.

“We get a lot more productivity from this approach,” Thakkar said.

Flexibility

It’s also trying to get people to take use ’20 percent time’ to work on new IP not just on Fridays, although this is difficult to schedule around the normal development activity of the studio.

In this way, Thakkar’s view was there’s no silver bullet approach to coming up with, prototyping and developing new IP.

Yet, companies need to empower their staff with time, structure, encouragement, backing and strong goals, if they want them to come up with new ideas.

“Coming up with new IP is a very holistic process that requires constant feedback,” Thakkar ended.

“And you need to be prepared to fail. That’s the only way to come up with great games.” （source：pocketgamer）

4）GDC Online 12: Hong Kong-based Life is Crime players are 6 times more aggressive than US, says Red Robot

by Jon Jordan

“How can I have fun playing this game in Winnipeg during the launch week?”

It’s not the question many game designers ask, but that was the starting point for Pete Hawley of Red Robot Labs, when he was thinking about its location-based game Life is Crime.

The question wasn’t just about Winnipeg of course, but about how you launch a game that might only have 1,000 players spread across a country as large as the Canada, at least in the early days.

In the game

Life is Crime didn’t stay at that level for long, however. Launching on Android in 2011 and iOS in early 2012, it’s since been downloaded over 4 million times.

“We now have hundreds of people fighting over our local Starbucks,” Hawley said.

Indeed, the most popular venues that people fight over in the game are Starbucks, McDonalds and Subway, which are the most popular fastfood brands in the US. In this way, the game mirrors some general movement patterns. The most ‘violent’ cities in the game are Chicago and San Francisco.

Yet some surprises have been thrown up.

A bank in the small town of Ridgecrest, California is the most ‘robbed’ in the game – over 25,000 times. This is something that’s likely to continue as the more times a bank is robbed, the more rewards you get for robbing it.

While one wealthy individual in Manhattan flew his helicopter over the city just to regain control over a location he had lost.

Different strokes

The biggest change in the game, however, was when the gang mechanic was introduced, enabling social interactions, which massively increased usage and concentrated national characteristics.

This also highlighted some regional differences between players.

For example, while the US accounts for 85 percent of Life is Crime players, UK and Hong Kong players are more likely to join gangs, and are much more aggressive in terms of how they play the game.

In a recent in-game challenge between US and Hong Kong players, on average US players had 656 battles each, while Hong Kong players had 1574.

There are also more 40 level players (the current maximum) in Hong Kong than there are in the US.

“Hong Kong players are 6 to 7 time more aggressive than US players,” Hawley explained.

The result is that Red Robot is now very focused on geo-psychology in terms of how it deals with – and optimise – different play patterns in different countries.（source：pocketgamer）

5）Rovio: Angry Birds still drawing in 200 million active users a month

by James Nouch

Back in May 2012, Rovio announced that the various games in its Angry Birds franchise had amassed a total of more than 1 billion downloads.

Now, speaking at the MIPCOM conference in Cannes, Rovio’s executive vice president Andrew Stalbow has revealed that the series still draws in 200 million monthly active users.

“In any given day, we have 20-30 million people playing our games connected,” Stalbow explained.

“And in any given month we have up to 200 million people playing our games.”

Building outwards

By these lofty standards, Rovio’s latest efforts – Amazing Alex and Bad Piggies – have performed relatively poorly, as we discovered in a recent PocketGamer.biz Charticle.

Most titles could be considered relative failures when compared to Angry Birds, however.

On the subject of Bad Piggies Stalbow refrained from revealing any usage or download figures, instead explaining how the game tied into Rovio’s attempts to extend its brands.

“It’s a really nice way to start building a new franchise by extending something out of our core game,” he added.

“You’ll see a lot of focus from us in the next year on expanding the Bad Piggies franchise.

“We’re looking at some incredible other brands out there and learning from what they’ve done. If you look at how Hello Kitty has evolved, or Super Mario – it’s about trying to have an impact on pop culture.”

Stalbow also revealed that Rovio is preparing to launch its animated Angry Birds shortform series, and that it was still planning to develop a Hollywood feature based on the franchise.（source：pocketgamer）