One of our goals this year is to learn to develop and release our games on other platforms like iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, XBox and more. With Windows Mobile and Palm OS sales steadily declining, we figured its about time we expand our game catalogue horizontally. Late last year if we hadn’t ventured into the iPhone market, our huge loss wouldn’t have been compensated. After releasing several iPhone ports, we’re now planning to explore the BlackBerry and Android platforms. We’re currently evaluating the two platforms as far as markets and ease of development are concerned. We’re also excited to expand our PC/MAC game catalogue this year because we have plans of releasing “extreme” versions of some of our recent mobile games. Things are definitely going to be busy here at eSoft in the coming months!

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eSoft Interactive, in partnership with Glyphic Entertainment and Chillingo Ltd. has just released Earth Day for iPhone and iPod Touch! Earth Day puts you on a survival game challenge where you have to defend the Planet Earth from a horde of invading alien ships. Every second counts! Earth Day for iPhone/iPod Touch maximizes the device’s tilt controls and vibrant screen! Get your copy now for only 0.99 cents!

Earth Day is also available for Windows Mobile Pocket PCs, Smartphones and Palm OS.

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This part of the development phase is our most favorite because this is the time where our schedules loosen up, things become less hectic and everybody gets excited as to how the “real” public will accept our software. But Product release isn’t just about creating a package for the game files and uploading them to our online store, it also involves pre-release marketing, product page development and advertising. Before a new title is released to the public, a product page showcasing the game’s features will be created first and then added to our online store. After this, a press release statement is sent out to all our media partners. Banner ads are created by the art team and forwarded to our merchants. Press copies are handed out to online reviewers. A message board for the new title is also created so we can easily get feedback from our customers and further improve the game should the need arises. At eSoft, it’s not just about selling and generating revenues from our products. We treat our software like our babies, which means we provide regular updates to further improve them and also to support new devices that come out every so often. More than the profit itself, our major fulfillment comes from the players and customers who send us their thoughts and comments about our software. Let us know what you think about our products!

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After all the assets have been integrated and a final build is ready, a copy is forwarded to the eSoft Interactive BETA team for quality assurance and compatibility testing. In this stage, the team thoroughly tests the game for bugs, errors, gameplay issues and loopholes and lasts for at least two weeks. In most cases, the BETA team’s feedback also include suggestions that would further enhance the game. Each point is carefully noted and assessed by the development team and then integrated if they feel the need to do so. On some occassions, new ideas are even voted by the BETA team before it gets on the final version. Once all the bugs have been ironed out and the team feels that the game is almost ready, it is passed on to the web/marketing team for release!

Speaking of the eSoft Interactive BETA team, let me take this chance to thank the guys: pointoflight, blazingwolf, tjasko, fraggler, jledesma, cheryl, spmwinkel, mbaker5408, bacchus_3, ndench, phoebs, reubkov and saldatore. These guys have been with us through thick and thin! If you would like to join our internal BETA team, please feel free to email us at beta(at)esoftinteractive(dot)com.

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Being in an industry where imagination is used more often than anything, one of our passions (or most of us, at least) here at eSoft is to catch up on reading–all kinds of interesting books, novels, comic books (yeah! we’re huge Marvel and DC fans!) magazines and other reading materials. Creating video games, like any form of art, comes from a source of inspiration and we often find it by exposing ourselves to various reading materials. This gives us a chance to gather new ideas or something that we can improve our own ideas. Its not always play and work here at eSoft, we also stock up on knowledge about the gaming industry and its history, related businesses, various technologies, upcoming games and software, the latest mobile devices, what’s hot and what’s new. Have you read any good book lately?

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Want some more challenge? Check out eSoft Interactive’s Jewel Challenge and Sudoku Challenge! Available for Windows Mobile – Pocket PC and Palm OS.

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We know this is way off-topic but we would like you to check out this collection of photos about a Katamari Cake by Sherrying on her Flickr account. It’s really cool! Katamari Damacy was one of the games we were hooked on years back and we really can’t help posting this one because it made us reminisce those days! Recently we’ve got our hands on a copy of Me & My Katamari for Playstation Portable and most of the people here in the office can”t seem to put it down. It’s a pretty neat action-puzzle game by Namco.

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1)Complete name
2)Device make and model
3)Mobile games played or beta tested in the past

Thanks!

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