Mofables

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the category manager for a game company and I’m responsible for board games and playing cards.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mofables?

We needed AR [artificial reality] development for a unique and innovative board game.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mofables suggested to us that we connect a traditional board game with AR through an app for mobile devices. They invented it, developed it, and did almost everything. Our part involved providing some minor suggestions regarding gameplay factors, as well as on the graphic design. The application was developed for Android and iOS.

What is the team composition?

I was responsible for the project from our side and worked with three people from their team. Each of them was responsible for a different part of the project. There was a main designer of the board game, someone responsible for VR [virtual reality] and electronic aspects. I was also in contact with their CEO regarding financial issues and other administrative aspects.

How did you come to work with Mofables?

They found us. We weren’t looking for any partners or this type of extension for classic board games because we didn’t know there were such possibilities. They proposed the idea to us, and we asked them to prepare a rough prototype to show us the main idea. They prepared that, and we had several meetings before we finally decided to go ahead with it. What they showed us was really promising, and we decided to continue and did so until the very end. I think the result was really impressive.

How much have you invested in them?

We paid an amount for developing the electronic aspects, but the main part of the business plan was the royalties, which are still paying according to sales numbers.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from January to December 2015.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We had to have it ready by December in order to prepare the working prototype and mock-up for a large toy fair that happens in Germany in January.
Our company believes this project is so innovative and extraordinary that we decided to invest in a television campaign and advertise the product. In Poland, the average board game sells around 6,000 per year. We achieved around 50,000 with this product, supported by the television campaign. I think the biggest success of this project was finding a distributing partner for Belgium and Holland after presenting the game at the toy fair in Germany. After the first year, it was announced as the game of the year in Belgium.

How did Mofables perform from a project management standpoint?

Even though they are located in another part of Poland, we had very good communication. We used tools like Skype, telephone, and email. We were in touch during the development process and we had in-person meetings in our office, for which they traveled to us. They were very flexible and ready to travel to us so that together we could discuss any changes or suggestions we had.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their technological skills were impressive. When they first came to us, they presented a wide picture of what could be done and what it would look like. They really know what they are talking about and did exactly what they said they would; it wasn’t an experiment for them. The only thing we decided to change was the graphic design, which we did with our designers, because the rest of it was absolutely great.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Acotel Interactive is a digital entertainment company that has a number of different properties, websites, and apps mostly in entertainment fields, including gaming. I was a creative director, managing the design team and the frontend development team (I'm no longer with Acotel Interactive). I was also responsible for dealing with the outside vendors, like Mofables. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mofables?

We were developing a new suite of education and entertainment apps for children. We wanted to do it in a cross-platform way, so that we could develop the product for both iOS and Android. We needed a company that had experience in developing games for children to help us with that.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They developed three apps for us, which were all part of a series of kids apps. One was an English language learning tool for children, ages 3–6 . It was a very challenging interface to build because we were creating an app for kids who didn't speak English as their first language and we couldn't rely on them to read or understand the text.

Another app we built was a video-on-demand service, where we licensed video content from a number of different providers. The third app was a drawing app. Mofables helped us build out the technology that allowed kids to draw on a device and keep or share their drawings.

We used mostly Unity, C#, and JavaScript, as well as native iOS and Android programming languages.

What is the team composition?

We had a direct contact with a lead developer and a team lead, but we worked with three developers in total.

How did you come to work with them?

When we found Mofables, we saw that they had experience in developing games for children – both digital and physical. In addition, they had experience with Unity, which is the technology that lets you develop the product for iOS and Android at the same time. After we interviewed them, we decided they'd be a good fit – they were easy to talk to and attractively priced.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent about $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from November 2015 till April 2016.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

These are the products that didn't exist before we developed them, and we got very good feedback from our customers. We saved about 50% of our development time working with Mofables as opposed to relying on our in-house resources alone.

How did they perform from a project management standpoint?

I was extremely happy with them – they took on the project as if it was one of their own and were interested in developing the best product they could. 

We had regular Skype meetings and used Jira to keep track of the project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Taking ownership of the project, they were more than a development partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing comes to mind.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Allow them to use their strengths and let them be more than just developers for you. They're idea generators and you may end up with a better product if you listen to them.