Mseed’s first game did great. This is how that happened

Southeast Asia’s first game accelerator, Thailand’s Mseed, published its first game last week. Titled Jump Flower and developed by South Korean studio Noritong, the game shot to the top of the app store charts within a day of its release in Thailand.

Jump Flower is a simple game. At first glance, you might think it similar to Roto from India’s Lucid Labs. But Jump Flower has a running game rather than puzzle game mechanics. As a fairy, you must jump from flowery orb to flowery orb in order to keep a step ahead of a mud monster. It’s basically an endless runner, except you jump rather than run on platforms.

Once featured on the App Store, Jump Flower – anglicized as Pong Pong Flower in a previous story we wrote – shot to the first spot of the free game iOS charts. It became the number one app in all categories a day later. In the Google Play store, Jump Flower took the number one new free app spot in one week. It is in second place in the Android free game category for Thailand, and number 10 for all types of apps.

But just what has Mseed done to make this brand new game rocket up the charts?

Chief marketing officer Saiyai Sakawee says there are two factors. The game’s name, when translated in Thai, sounds a lot like a swear word. “You basically have to read twice when you see [it],” she says. “People first thought it was a joke. Then they realized it’s a real game […] They say the name is very creative.”

Mseed also culturalized the game, on top of localizing it into Thai. “We inserted Thai characters in it,” she said of Jump Flower. Users are able to purchase avatars to represent them in the game, on top of buying pets and earning in-game currency.

“We used those that are very influential and have a lot of followers on Facebook,” Sakawee says. Jump Flower’s first two characters are called Ejeab and Dogdiri, with Facebook fans of about 620,000 and 1.18 million, respectively. “The response to this tactic was beyond amazing,” Sakawee adds, saying that users love that they can play the game with their favorite characters.

Mseed is in talks to release Jump Flower in other territories, and it has concrete plans for games from the Mseed accelerator. Gem of D, developed through the program, will launch early next year. Jump Flower will also receive more characters and online celebrities. All in all, it’s a good wrap-up for the end of the year, and we’re looking forward to see Gem of D, Mseed’s first completed game from its accelerator program.

Disclosure: Saiyai Sakawee used to write for Tech in Asia.

This post Mseed’s first game did great. This is how that happened appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Mseed’s first game did great. This is how that happened