We know what you’re thinking – not another poker app review. You have to trust us, PokerUp is much more than just another card game that’s sole aim is to hustle you out of your cash. In fact, PokerUp doesn’t …
We know what you’re thinking – not another poker app review. You have to trust us, PokerUp is much more than just another card game that’s sole aim is to hustle you out of your cash.
In fact, PokerUp doesn’t even ask you to invest any real money into it at all. Confused? Then let our chat with Arthur Asatridis – former PokerStars director and founder of UpGames – explain all…
Could you briefly explain what PokerUp is about as a game?
PokerUp is a next generation social poker app offering a new way to play poker with friends and players from across the world.
What’s unique about your game compared to other poker games in store?
Starting from day one, our ambition was to create a truly unique and revolutionary product. First, we decided to deliver a purely mobile first poker experience which has lead to the fact that we were the first to offer poker in portrait mode, so the user could enjoy playing in one handed and natural way. Then, we wanted to make it as social as no other app and hence we are the only product which offers a way to play with friends from contact list, share short video messages during the game and chat using built-in fully functional messenger. On top of this, we are the only native app offering truly simple, intuitive poker experience packed with plenty of unique features.
What were the biggest difficulties/challenges you faced creating the game?
Everything is a challenge when you set yourself an objective to reinvent something. At the same time, the phenomenal UpGames family make the challenge as pleasant as it gets. To name a few, one of the key tasks we set ourselves was to make the player experience simple, intuitive, free of no noise or clatter. As such, we had to stick to one variant of poker to keep everything simple and make the look and feel of the app very clean and minimalistic. Gadfly, over a million of our users have appreciated the effort.
What was the process of creating the game?
It all started with getting the big idea rolled out to the market in the form of MVP. So, PokerUp beta came to live with one key feature – a messenger like way to chat and play with friends. We knew that it was key to get the product on the market as quick as possible to get user feedback, so that’s what we did. The feedback was overwhelming but the major request was to offer a way to play with non-friends, so we delivered. The process went on in a similar fashion for two years which has led to the point we are very proud of, that is having the top user rated poker app on the market – the only metric that really counts.
Why didn’t you create a game that focuses around real money?
Having spent over 8 years at PokerStars will lead you to the point when you try to switch to something different. It’s a joke obviously. The key reason behind the decision was to deliver poker to a much wider audience and make it in line with ever evolving social trends and player needs.
How easy is it to start playing PokerUp?
I’m confident to say that there is no other app out there which offers such an easy start as PokerUp. Over 30% of our players haven’t played poker before and find our tutorial very useful. Plus, the game mechanics, single duel format and beautiful story progression make it an overwhelmingly pleasant experience.
How are you planning to develop the game? Can you share any details about what to expect in future updates?
Our product roadmap is jam-packed with great features our players keep bombarding us with. The key focus in the coming months will be around enrolling social features. We would like to make finding new friends a lot more accessible, further improve friendly games and overall bring social poker experience to a whole new level.
Check out PokerUp for yourself via the App Store and Google Play.
