The mobile game industry churns out new products seemingly on a daily basis, and a local couple is taking part in the action.
Ryan Leonski and Shandiin Woodward were born and raised in New Mexico, and attended UNM for some time. Leonski was a computer science major, while Woodward was studying studio art. However, they both left before finishing their degrees in order to pursue a freelancing career in game development.
“Even though I’m out of school, I never stop learning and teaching myself,” said Woodward on leaving UNM to pursue a career in game creation. “Game development technology is always changing, and I’m constantly polishing my art skills.”
Like most games, “Sky Pets” has an overall theme and story behind it. Although it isn’t a role-playing game, its story makes for a fun and unique style of play.
“The stars have fallen from space and ripped apart the Earth, so it’s up to our furry friends to return the stars and save the day,” read a press release for the game. “In ‘Sky Pets’ our furry friends will soar high and perform death-defying acts in the name of fun.”
In the press release, Leonski gave a brief overview of game mechanics: The primary goal in Sky Pets is to avoid certain barriers that prevent you from winning the game, all while collecting coins and trying to reach the finish line.
“You also get to create your own pets with our Sky Pet Maker,” Leonski said. “You can re-create your own pets or create weird monsters.”
Woodward said that their objective was to create a game with a traditional feel for the modern consumer, with inspiration derived from classic Nintendo games as well as the couple’s pets.
“We wanted to capture the feel of console, but design it around the inputs of mobile, so instead of making a traditional platformer we imagined what a game like Mario would be like if it started on a smart-phone,” said Woodward. “We decided to make it pets because of our three cats; and instead of them falling out of an airplane, we made it about the pets saving the world by collecting the stars from space.”
“Sky Pets” doesn’t come free: there’s a $1.99 price tag attached to it. The game has no in-app purchases or ads, which usually generate profit for creators. Leonski said that decision came from experience with a previous product.
“In order to make $1 from ads, I will need at least 1,000 people interact(ing) with an ad that is paying me at least that amount. If there’s not a huge volume of people, you’ll get pennies,” Leonski said. “With our (previous) game, ‘Oh My Fat Guy’, we made it free with ads and in-app purchases, but it never made more than $10.”
Woodward said they also wanted to focus on creating a polished product in lieu of ways to generate money in the app.
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“While we have had less installs of Sky Pets than OMFG, we already made more money,” Woodward said. “From those early adopters, we’re adding in features that we didn’t have time for to make the game better for everyone.
Javier Castillo, a freshman business major, enjoys “Sky Pets”, but had one request to make his experience better.
“It’s a pretty fun game for passing time,” Castillo said. “I just wish it was free instead of having to pay for it.”
“Sky Pets” was released last Thursday and is available on both Google Play for Android and the app store for iOS for $1.99.
Matthew Narvaiz is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @RealMattNarvaiz.
