Bam, bam, bam, I got you!

In 2015, Guns of Boom had been a fully playable PC game project with several levels. After conducting market and user research, however, Game Insight realized that they had a great opportunity to tap a niche market if they changed it to a mobile game.

They believed that if they created a multiplayer FPS that was quick, convenient and easy to play, people would embrace it.

“We’ve done everything we could to make the game design as accessible as possible. With features like auto-aim, the controls are so simple that anyone can master them in seconds. Plus, you can play anywhere: Waiting in line at the market, on the bus, in bed. You can play it lying down, sitting or standing. And our maps are not so big, so you turn the game on and have five minutes of non-stop action,” says Anatoly Ropotov, CEO at Game Insight.

Once they decided to port the game to mobile, there was no question about which technology they would use. The studio had vast experience creating mobile games with Unity like Airport City and X-Mercs, which experienced over seven years of success on the market. So they knew it had everything they needed to create a quality mobile game efficiently.

Unity saved them half a year of development

“With Unity, moving from the console version to the first mobile look & feel iteration only took about a week. After that, it was a matter of months to make the full transition from PC to mobile with optimized graphics, performance and controls,” says Ropotov.

They used the Unity Asset Store to speed up that first transition to mobile, and since they continuously add new content to keep players engaged, they still use the Asset Store for prototypes of new content.

“When you just need models or controllers or something similar, the research team can go to the Asset Store to create the first look & feel, and it can save them up to six months of development time,” says Ropotov.

Another crucial factor for Game Insight was the ability to continuously update Guns of Boom with the newest features that would give their players the latest and greatest experience possible.

Every new smartphone release comes with a stream of platform-specific features, like haptic feedback, ARCore, ARKit, and 3D Touch, which means it can be challenging to stay on top of the latest technology. That’s why Game Insight has a strong R&D department, including four dedicated tech artists.

“Immediately after Apple or Google announces a new feature, we start researching how we can implement it,” Ropotov says. “Guns of Boom has 12 platform-specific features for Apple alone, and we implemented them really quickly – we are among the first in the world to do so. But if it weren’t for Unity’s multiplatform support and deep partnerships, it wouldn’t matter how fast we moved. Unity makes it possible for us to keep up with the latest mobile technology.”

Giving players a great experience not only means keeping up with the latest features, it can also mean implementing new technologies. For example, Game Insight released an Augmented Reality Spectator Mode immediately after Apple unveiled ARKit in September 2017.

Guns of Boom enters the world of eSports

The success of the AR Spectator Mode made Game Insight realize that there was big potential in the area of eSports. For almost two years, they have been partnered with the Electronic Sports League (ESL), recently launching a tournament with $500,000 in prizes. The kick-off was held at the 11,400-capacity Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland, and the ESL season finale in Los Angeles in November 2018 drew a peak of 15,000 concurrent viewers, making Guns of Boom the first mobile shooter to enter eSports at such a large scale.

So whether players are online or offline, playing for fun or for huge prize money, one thing is crystal clear: Guns of Boom has won the hearts and minds of millions of passionate players around the world and will continue to inspire and grow with them thanks to Game Insight’s leadership and their commitment to innovating with the latest technology.

Game Insight has been using Unity Enterprise Support for three years. In addition to a direct line between their developers and Unity engineers, they particularly appreciate the project reviews, which speed up production.

“The project reviews are very important because of our continuous, time-sensitive updates. Everything we get out of them we could do by ourselves, but it would take us much longer. The Unity engineer comes to our office and we go through the whole project,” Ropotov says.

“We ask him questions about how we can optimize memory, fps, and other things that can enhance player experience and device performance. We also ask him how we can improve visuals, shadows, cloth simulation, and post-effects – anything that will make our players happier.”