Business is nothing without a vision and vision is nothing without business. Do you want to learn what Microsoft can offer to independent game developers and be successful in the Microsoft ecosystem? See how Flaregames used these resources to reach 1 million downloads on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 in just four weeks with Royal Revolt.

1. BraveSmart. iOS, Android. Match 3. More than 500.000 downloads.
Ocean Tower. iOS, Android. Strategy. More than 1.500.000 downloads.
Royal Revolt. iOS, Android. Action-RPG. More than 1.500.000 downloads.
Lost Chronicles. iOS. Interactive Comic RPG. Only just launched.

2. flaregames
Who We Are And What We Do

3. We‘re flaregames
We’re a developer and a publisher of mobile games.
We do F2P, we nice guys, we’re from sunny Karlsruhe.
Our founder is Klaas Kersting of Gameforge fame.
We’re funded by Accel Partners and T-Venture.

4. Our Games So Far
BraveSmart. iOS, Android. Match 3. More than 500.000 downloads.
Ocean Tower. iOS, Android. Strategy. More than 1.500.000 downloads.
Royal Revolt. iOS, Android. Action-RPG. More than 1.500.000 downloads.
Lost Chronicles. iOS. Interactive Comic RPG. Only just launched.

5. What‘s Royal Revolt?
A challenging and clever “Reverse Tower Defense” game. In
beautiful 3D.
The tongue-in-check scenario casts the player as a young
Prince, who, betrayed by his relatives, sets out to win his
kingdom back.

6. The numbers
• 6.500.000 million downloads, steady at 100.000+ DAU since
launch (September 2012).
• Out in 6 stores so far: iOS AppStore, Google Play, Amazon App-
Store, Mac AppStore, Windows Phone, Windows 8
• No 1 role playing game in 73 countries (AppStore)

7. Accolades
• Won “Best Mobile Game” at the Game Developer’s Award
• Nominated for “Best Mobile Game” at German Computer
Games Award
• Won “Mobile Tech Award”
• Chosen as a launch title for Kindle Fire HD in Europe
• Average review score by journalists: 85/100
• Average review score by gamers: 4.5/5 (AppStore); 4.3/5
(Google Play), 4.5/5 (Windows Marketplace)

8. Features
We got featured „big“ in every store we published to.

9. Critical acclaim
“The Prettiest Medieval Warfare Simulator You'll Ever Play”
–Ryan Whitwam, androidpolice.com
“There should be more games with this level of polish and player-friendly
design.” –Chris Aylott, slidetoplay.com
”I was smitten with Royal Revolt! as soon as I started playing. ”
–Paul Wilks, androidtapp.com
“Yes, Royal Revolt is free to play, but more importantly it is an excellent
videogame.” –Neil Long, computerandvideogames.com
“Royal Revolt is a gem in the AppStore” –Torbjorn Kamblad, touchgen.net

11. Launch
Talks started December 2012
Dev started in Spring 2013
Launch was June 5, 2013 on WP.
Featuring started immediately.
W8 launched on June, 10th.
500.000 downloads within 2 weeks.
Downloads kept coming.

12. Game operation
User behave pretty normal, correspond to other organic users.
(We can‘t talk about CPI users, we didn‘t buy any.)
Monetization is about as good as iOS users.
Retention (in our case) was slightly higher,
PR was different.

13. What features do

14. What features do

15. What features do

16. User breakdown
Users
China
Thailand
USA
Vietnam
India
France
Germany
UK
Italy
Hong Kong
Rest of World

17. Numbers to date
Windows 8 (Surface and Desktops):
483,968
Windows Phone:
927,479

18. For take-away
PRO:
MS was easy to work with.
WP is a valid platform, able to drive significant installs.
WP users monetize on par with iOS.
MS store backend is not easy but okay.
CONTRA:
MS billing system sucks.
Age ratification is more complex than on iOS.
THUS:
Royal Revolt II will be on Windows Phone and Windows 8. Period.

19. Questions?