However, the title has grown a lot in terms of the content we’re able to give our players on a regular basis. Pool is evergreen in nature, it’s not tied to fads or anything that changes with time, and it will never disappear. Since the beginning, we’ve made sure that 8 Ball Pool is accurate in its representation of the actual sport. It feels like the same game in many ways, specifically the visual aspects, and the gameplay when it comes to controlling the cue or the physics. Has the game changed a lot since the beginning?Ī lot of the major components of 8 Ball Pool have remained relatively similar. There must have been a lot of new content over eight years. Additionally, the social interaction that you have within the game was and is a real contributor to its ongoing growth. Players can also compete against their friends locally, which helps spread word around groups. In terms of growth, the regular updates invigorated the game with fresh content, like season passes. Finally, the game’s innovative controls, which were another industry first, led to the initial popularity of the game at the time of its inception. It has also had seamless multiplayer mechanics from day one, making it very easy to play against another person something that wasn’t very common at the time. The realistic physics in the game are comparable to real world pool, which made it really attractive to players. After seeing the model gain momentum however, we made the game free to all of our users in October 2013, and that delivered even greater success in the long run.īut what is it, in your opinion, about the game itself that ensured its success at launch and subsequent growth over the years? The ‘freemium’ model was also not as widely established as it is now, and we were initially reluctant to give the game away for free. The game is very stable now after many years of ongoing development, but we were still a relatively young business at the time of its success, so we were finding bugs and problems every day. By the way, this architecture hasn’t changed since we launched the game eight years ago. Our main challenge, and it was a nice one to have, was the influx of new users, and making sure our games were able to run 24/7 for them.įor 8 Ball Pool in particular, we had to create an entirely new server architecture in order to make it work properly, but the effort was worth it in the long run. What were the challenges Miniclip faced when switching to mobile? The game came out on mobile in February 2013, becoming an instant hit and the most downloaded mobile pool game in 2014. So three years later, we adapted 8 Ball Pool to mobile, and I was leading the team responsible for the adaptation. Following its initial success as it went on to become the biggest game on the website, we knew it would be a hit on mobile. Do you remember what it was like to make that transition from web to mobile?Ĩ Ball Pool started life as an online flash game on the Miniclip website in 2010, where it drove 20 million monthly visits. Sérgio, you were the mastermind behind the game’s launch on mobile, but 8 Ball Pool had already been a success as an online flash game. I also play an important role in evaluating the companies that we acquire, with a general focus on M&A and managing the relationships with acquired companies. I was promoted to Chief Creative Officer in 2020, where I currently oversee the ongoing expansion of Miniclip’s mobile division, ensuring we’re maximising our position in the market by researching and assessing the viability of new game ideas. In 2015 I became Chief Product Officer, expanding on my responsibility for the company’s overall product strategy, conception and development. I joined Miniclip in 2010 as Head of Mobile, where I grew the team from four to 120, alongside launching several games such as Agar.io, 8 Ball Pool and Soccer Stars. I got my first real taste of mobile games development then, which resulted in launching a game that became a number 1 hit worldwide in 2009. Over the course of almost five years, I oversaw the conceptualisation and delivery of several of Skype’s main revenue drivers, co-authored two patents on scalable audio conferencing, and was responsible for several successful products that helped cement their position as a key tool for businesses.Ī few years later, with a group of friends that I met at Skype, I started to develop games for the app store when the iPhone first launched in 2008. But before entering the world of games, I joined Skype and worked my way through the ranks, growing from a software engineer to a product manager, working on a piece of software designed to boost Skype usage within businesses. Video games have always been a big passion of mine, from a young age. Sérgio, to kick things off, a few words about yourself please? Sérgio Varanda, Chief Creative Officer at Miniclip
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