12.8.2011

iOS first or Android first? With Griffin, TinyCo no longer has to choose.

Today we’re unveiling Griffin, our landmark development engine that allows us to develop simultaneously for iOS and Android! To see it in action, check out our first game developed on Griffin: Tiny Village, now available with both an Android version and an iOS version.

Why we decided to build Griffin

iOS and Android are both exploding. Historically, iOS has been the primary mobile game market, but Android has also been growing rapidly and quickly catching up. Android now has over a billion downloads per month!. Like many other game developers, we initially developed on iOS, then ported our games to Android. This really wasn’t an efficient way of doing things since we needed twice as many engineers, twice the development time, and the Android version would always lag behind the iOS version. We realized there must be a better way. Last April, we began developing an engine that would allow us to write code once, and then deploy and make content updates on both platforms simultaneously. We’ve been working on Griffin for months, and we're excited to announce it today!

Awesome Griffin features

• It runs natively, so you can see native performance on both iOS and Android.
• It’s written in C++, so game developers from other platforms will know how to use it.
• It’s customized to develop mobile social games. It includes social gaming features like goals, isometric environment, etc.
• Fragmentation, shmagmentation! Games created in Griffin look beautiful on all Android and iOS phone and tablet devices. Griffin automatically adjusts itself to unique screen aspect ratios and resolutions.

Griffin also has...

• Analytics tracking built in to automatically push data to Vertica, allowing us to visualize in Tableau.
• Our "TinyContent" system to push new virtual items to users in real-time.
• Social features for players to add Facebook friends, visit their friends' games, and interact with each other.
• Urban Airship-like push notifications.
• An interface builder to auto scale to multiple screen sizes and aspect ratios automatically.
• Single path to feature development.
• Designed such that platform support is an abstract layer that the game engine interfaces with behind the scenes.
• This means game developers don’t need to think about file systems, network connectivity, platform features (email, SMS), etc. They just call a Griffin method, and it takes care of the dirty work.
• Tier 1 tool chain.
• Designers and artists work best when using their preferred tools. There is no need to use a clunky Interface Builder, where subtleties of design can be lost in translation or during the handoff from an artist to a UI engineer. We can go straight from Photoshop to the game.

5.24.2011

Calling All Mobile Game Developers-- Apply for our $5 Million TinyFund!

Here at TinyCo, not only do we love making awesome games but we also love seeing other passionate and talented developers do the same. We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the TinyFund -- a $5 millon fund to help promising iOS and Android developers bring hits to market.

Selected candidates will receive:

• Up to $500K per title, as well as marketing, development and business support
• Access to TinyCo’s large and rapidly growing user base-- within a year, we’ve launched 5 top grossing games that have all reached the Top 10 Free Games on the App Store and accumulated +20 million downloads!

“There are over 600,000 iOS and Android apps. We see it as our mission to help quality games rocket to the top of the charts.” -- Suli Ali (CEO)

Excited? Apply here!

2.25.2011

TinyCo Gets a Not So Tiny Investment

$18M Series A From Andreessen Horowitz

You may have noticed the new look we’re sporting at TinyCo.com -- the refresh coincides with a not so tiny investment.

We’ve just raised $18 million in Series A funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by Ron Conway, Keith Rabois, and a handful of other angels. Marc Andreessen will join our board of directors. With the backing of these Silicon Valley legends, we’re intent on building TinyCo into a mobile gaming force. What will we do with the money? Grow our team, grow our portfolio of games, and make them all more riveting to come back to again and again.

More Games, More Fun

Thanks to all of you, Tiny Chef and Tap Resort Party have been downloaded by over 10 million iPhone users to date and are consistently among the top-grossing games in the App Store. In addition to keeping these games fresh through feature updates and new daily in-game content, we’re in the midst of developing several cool new titles and we hope to share more with you soon. Stay tuned!

Hiring Great People With Big Dreams

TinyCo is building a world-class game development and engineering organization. Already 37 strong, our team includes industry veterans from Playdom, Electronic Arts, Amazon, Microsoft, and other technology powerhouses, and we’re always looking for motivated game hounds with big dreams to join the TinyCo adventure. We’re looking for awesome engineers, game designers, producers, QA testers, and more. Fit the bill? Visit our Jobs page for more information.