Few developers manage to have a hit the first time around, but Pretty Simple Games did just that with its Facebook debut My Shops. Not only did the game earn rave reviews (including 4.5 stars from us), but it also has a monthly user base of over 1.5 million players. Pretty Simple is hard at work on a follow up and recently managed to raise €2.5 million (US$3.5 million) in funding. Gamezebo spoke to Pretty Simple’s Corentin Raux about what it’s like to start out with a hit and what the studio plans to do with all that money.
Few developers manage to have a hit the first time around, but Pretty Simple Games did just that with its Facebook debut My Shops. Not only did the game earn rave reviews (including 4.5 stars from us), but it also has a monthly user base of over 1.5 million players. Pretty Simple is hard at work on a follow up and recently managed to raise €2.5 million (US$3.5 million) in funding. Gamezebo spoke to Pretty Simple’s Corentin Raux about what it’s like to start out with a hit and what the studio plans to do with all that money.
First of all, can you tell us a bit about Pretty Simple and how it got started?
We founded Pretty Simple in January 2010 with the idea to make original games on Facebook. We play and love a lot of games on Facebook and we do our best to create games that are a little different from what the others do. We hope that our users can feel that difference.
Your first game My Shops was a hit both commercially and critically. What does it feel like to have such early success? Was it a surprise?
Actually, we didn’t sleep the night before launching My Shops and were incapable of knowing whether the game would be a success or not! We are very proud ot see that many users play My Shops and gave the game such good reviews. We’re trying to improve My Shops each time we launch a new release.
You recently raised €2.5 million in funding. How will this effect the growth of Pretty Simple? What will it allow you to do?
First of all we want to recruit the best developers and artists to join our team. Building up a good team and creating a great environment to work is our main concern. The funds will allow us to create new games concepts and give us the time to be as creative as we like to be.
Are you planning to stick with Facebook development in the future or do you have any plans to expand into multiplatform development?
For the moment we just want to make games on Facebook. In our opinion making games on other platforms, such as mobile devices for instance, involve very different knowledge and talent.
What can we expect to see from you in the coming months? Can you talk about any new projects? Will My Shops continue to see updates?
We’re working on a new game that should come out by the end of 2011 but we can’t tell you more about it for the moment. We can just say that it will be very different from My Shops.
We’ll keep on making updates on My Shops as long as there are enough users who play the game!
Any final words for your fans?
Stay tuned, we’ll update the phone numbers and factory very soon!
