A Q&A with Eruptive Games CEO Julian Ing. The Vancouver–based company, which was previously named Kaboom Social Games, was founded in 2010 and raised $1 in new funding in early July.
SUB: Please describe what Eruptive Games is, and the value proposition you offer to gamers.
Ing: Eruptive Games is a social gaming company. We’ve been developing social games since 2010. We develop original, high-quality action based games for core players on social and mobile platforms. Our first title, Mercenaries of War, made Inside Social’s Top 10.
SUB: Who are your target users?
Ing: Our target market is predominately male—with an 85:15 male:female split—aged 25-45 years. As a mid-core gaming company, we attract both casual/social and hardcore players.
SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition?
Ing: There really isn’t much competition in the mid-core social gaming market at the moment.
SUB: What differentiates Eruptive Games from the competition?
Ing: Our originality and IP development. At Eruptive, the games we build impact the industry. Although this approach is riskier, we tend to take calculated chances, leveraging our experience and ongoing research to design cool new titles that don’t already exist in the space.
Brand equity is also very important to us. Every Eruptive game should be a graphic novel, a movie—they are so much more than just a social and mobile game.
SUB: When was the company founded?
Ing: Eruptive was born in 2010. We were previously branded Kaboom Social Games.
SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for Eruptive Games? Was there an ‘aha’ moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?
Ing: I started in the monetization side of gaming and switched over. The ‘aha’ moment came when I realized that the fun was in really impacting the industry with innovative game design. I’m a creative director and entrepreneur by trade and getting back to my roots never felt better.
SUB: What have the most significant obstacles been so far to building the company?
Ing: Bootstrapping a social gaming company in such a fast-moving space as traffic acquisition costs rocket. The pressure is on to produce a high growth, highly monetized game. So many companies have come and gone. We’re sticking to our guns and producing games we believe in and hoping the timing will work out. So far, so good.
SUB: You recently raised $1 million in new funding. Why was this a good time to raise such a round, and how do you plan to use the new funds?
Ing: Timing is everything. We’ve gotten this far without taking more than we need. It’s important for us to stay lean. Yeah, $1 million isn’t a huge amount, but we’re very aware of what we need to achieve in the next year and our strategy for growth as well.
SUB: How does the company generate revenue or plan to generate revenue?
Ing: Like many other gaming companies in the space, we focus on generating revenue from our portfolio of social and mobile games. Mobile is a next frontier for us and we’re going to kick some ass in it.
SUB: What are your goals for Eruptive Games over the next year or so?
Ing: Citizen Grim is our flagship game. We’ll be driving the Citizen Grim brand and getting Grim launched on platforms in China, on Facebook and in Asia. Grim’s mobile game, Offspring, is also in the works and will be launching for IOS and Android. We have a few other titles coming out as well.
Eruptive Games – www.eruptivegames.com
