Remember MindPol Company

A few years ago, I established my own company, MindPol. We developed several games for mobile platform with our own game engine technology. I ran my company for about 3 years and 6 months. Today, I’m going to tell you some memorable moments of MindPol.

MindPol and Galatea Engine 2007-2010

The company MindPol was started with technology on game engine at first. The Galatea Engine, a name of our engine, supported rendering 3D models with software skinned animations, massive particle systems with editor, various texture formats with tool, useful user interface classes, and also rendering fonts for Hangul character system. Furthermore, Galatea Engine was designed to support portable platforms including PC at first. It supported experimentally Nintendo DS platform too with specialized features such as Fixed-Point data type or rendering 3D models in cartoon style.

We also developed a game called The Flower And The Wind (꽃과 바람) to introduce our technique. It was a arcade game with adorable action characters in 3D graphics. We demonstrated our engine skills effectively with it even if we couldn’t publish the game to the end.

Now we have a couple of great game engines, however it was way different back then. There were tons of game engines, and lots of solutions had their own specilized features with own philosophy. Since we focused on mobile platforms like Windows Mobile or Android early, we could have a chance to make our own business.

We also participated in G-TEK 2009, Global Technology Exhibition in Korea, and demonstrated our engine with mobile 3D graphics running smoothly on Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 device. It was quite impressive at that time because Xperia X1 was a device accelerated 3D graphics officially with very first GPU chip by Qualcomm. We’ve got attentions from XDA forum and companies who want to cooperate and share our experiences on mobile platforms.

• Galatea Engine Demos on Xperia X1 for G-TEK 2009

• Galatea Engine Samples on Samsung Omnia 2 (i8000)

Now, let’s talk about games after we developed a game engine.

2009-2010 10 Games for Betting (Windows Mobile, iPhone)

10 Games for Betting was a collection of tiny betting games. It was very fun and light to enjoy. Lots of people downloaded and enjoyed it from various market. We estimate there were more than 200,000 downloads altogether. Actually, it achieved quite good because there weren’t plenty of games on Windows Mobile at that time. This game was awarded a bronze prize too in Samsung Application Store Developer Challenge 2009.

• 10 Games for Betting on Windows Mobile Xperia X1

2009-2010 Run Kattie (Windows Mobile, iPhone)

Run Kattie was a casual 3D game that a cat is a hero jumping between buildings and avoiding obstacles on the roof. People loved the cat character because she was so cute and adorable. There were 3 amazing maps with theme songs, and various items to play fun.

• Playing Run Kattie for iOS (Apple iPhone)

• Playing Run Kattie on HTC HD2 (Windows Mobile)

After we released Run Kattie, we thought now it’s time for heading towards new platform, iPhone market. With a little work on our engine code, we could simply make our products run on iPhone platform.

2010 Sweety Ball – Fairy Tale Edition (iOS, iPhone)

Sweety Ball – Fairy Tale Edition was a kind of snow ball toy. It was an entertainment app designed for everyone. There were 3 themes with songs, and also was a feature for creating customized theme with a user message and picture. People loved this tiny interactive snow ball app.

• Sweety Ball – Fairy Tale Edition for iOS Playing

2010 Sys-Cake – Shut Da Mouth (iOS, iPhone)

The Sys-Cake was a very special project of our work. It was so experimental, and we wanted to make something unique with electronic music. We contacted a few musicians, and we could have a chance to collaborate with Shut Da Mouth, one of great DJ duos with DJ Beejay. It was so great opportunity to us actually. We enjoyed working on this project, and we could release Sys-Cake – Shut Da Mouth proudly. It was a collaborated DJ app with awesome club music. You could make and play your own club music with this tiny DJ app on Shut Da Mouth style. It was really fun there! Wherever you go with it, you could make it club style!

• Sys-Cake – Shut Da Mouth for iOS Introduction

• Sys-Cake – Shut Da Mouth for iOS Ghost Playing

2010 House Rulez – Magic Television (iOS, iPhone)

After Sys-Cake project, we wanted to continue developing music app more. We this time decided to develop music album app with musicians. House Rulez was one of impressive musicians in groove and house music. Their music style was so special and unique. We fortunately could have a chance to meet them to discuss our next project. It was so great since we had a great idea for music application on mobile platform. We finally published House Rulez – Magic Television which had entire songs of their 3th album, lyrics, and also a special hidden song. It was very special because extra song was only provided with our app. We also provided lots of animations in the style of album jacket.

• House Rulez – Magic Television (3th Album) for iOS

Remember the mind for precious our life..

Over a long term of years, MindPol developed various games and apps on mobile platforms. We can’t say that our business was successful, however it was priceless time. I was young, and guts and passion were the only things I had. No matter how much I spent my time, it’s a valuable experience which I don’t want to exchange forever. We had lots of partners at that time including big firms such as Microsoft or Samsung. I hope MindPol contributes a little bit to mobile industry. Thank you for reading my old memories.

Here’s the list of all products and platforms of MindPol.

• 2010 Techno Bone Galaxy Tab (Android, Galaxy Tab)
• 2010 House Rulez – Magic Television (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 Sys-Cake – Shut Da Mouth (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 Sweety Ball – Fairy Tale Edition (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 Run Kattie (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 10 Games for Betting (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 Buggy Exterminator (iOS, iPhone)
• 2010 Galatea Engine iOS (iOS, iPhone)
• 2009 Run Kattie (Windows Mobile)
• 2009 10 Games for Betting (Windows Mobile)
• 2009 Buggy Exterminator (Windows Mobile)
• 2009 Galatea Engine WM (Windows Mobile)
• 2008 꽃과 바람 (Nintendo DS)
• 2008 Galatea Engine DS (Nintendo DS)

고양이 다방, Cat Cafe Released

Hello friends! I have awesome news today.

Have you tried breeding the cats that you dreamed of?
or just wanted to see animals and play with?

A brand new game, 고양이 다방, Cat Cafe in English, is released!

This is a casual SNG game that you can run your own cat cafe. You can provide a service for entertaining a guest by your adorable cats. This is so cute and fun! Everyone can enjoy it easily for everywhere.

“Give your pet delicious treats in love!
Play and communicate with your pet in peace.”

You can adopt cats as many you want and it is so fun to pet your adorable cats. Korean Short Hair, Siamese, Russian Blue, Bengal, Norwegian Forest, Turkish Angora cats and more and more!

There are also lots of people in the cat cafe world. Meet new friends in Cat Cafe and try to give them little help. You can be a top player in global ranking by completing joyful quests.

How about decorating your cafe? There are also great themes you may love. From lovely pink theme to classy provence style, hundreds of furniture are ready for you! Make your own style cafe with your pet.

This game is not my official project actually, but it was developed based on Hair Shop Friends that I was involved. So I post here and play it together!

Official Website: http://catcafe.estgames.co.kr/
Official Community: http://cafe.naver.com/ocatcafeo

• This game is published by ESTgames.
• It has been published on Google Play for now.

Rhythm Boxing, Crash Girls Released

Hey guys! Just few weeks ago, the brand new action rhythm game, Crash Girls released! This is the boxing game with cute girls. Let’s challenge for boxing competition with exciting music & rhythm! Yay~!

“Welcome! You are invited to our world boxing championship competition. Compete with global challengers for the world championship title. Fame and wealth only for the champion are awaited. Wish you good luck!” – Mysterious Host

This game is focused on gamers who want to play casual 2d rhythm game with female characters in Japanese style. Yes, here we have cute and lovely boxing girls for you. You can choose one of the boxing girls as your partner to enjoy the game tournaments.

The game also needs playing skill to get high scores and combos. When you punch and guard at perfect time to exciting music and rhythm, you will be a winner of premier leagues. Don’t give up till you take the victory at the champion league.

Let’s talk about the programming part. After we have developed Boom Boom Power, I started to develop Crash Girls for next step. I decided to use Unity for following project, so it became my first official project developed with Unity. Unity is the powerful and effective 3d game engine of Unity Technologies. For more details, visit www.unity3d.com.

In my team, we mainly used to develop games with cocos2d-x. But we needed to develop our following game with Unity for future project. We wanted to support various devices and platforms easily and also make development process good to teamwork. Unity had already everything we want, so we decided to change our development environment to Unity even if the first project needed only 2d features.

Now, the game is begun. We invite you to global ranking of Crash Girls. Invite your facebook friends and fight for the highest world ranker!

Official Website: http://crashgirls.blueo.com/

• ‘碰碰少女’ is the Chinese name of Crash Girls.
• Crash Girls supported Korean, English, Chinese languages.
• Crash Girls may or may NOT be available on your country. It will be released sequentially soon. Please hold on till the market is available.

It was published by BlueO, a subsidiary company of ESTsoft.

More Boom Boom Powers

Hello everyone! How do you do in the end of this summer? Nowdays I’m working hard on new project and I think it’s the time to recall our previous project, Boom Boom Power, from ESTsoft.

With several months, we’ve released a series of this game, Boom Boom Power for Kakao and Boom Boom Power Worldwide. Boom Boom Power is the original title that the cutest pig, Popo, runs with his glorious friends to avoid and defeat evil enemies. It’s a casual arcade game and you can play/enjoy it easily.

As we introduced before, our game was designed to play with your friends connected to Facebook account. You can invite them to run together and also compete with them on game score. After we released it first, we could get a chance to publish on Kakao platform for Korean users with these all good features. It was good opportunity for all of us, and it still helps its downloads increasing by people who want to play our game with their close friends.

At the same time, we’re also interested in each components of whole game systems. We called it Reboot Project. Re-designing items and skills, removing/adding new heroes and themes, and keeping everything in the balance. Developing major updates was not an easy decision, but we finished it successfully with hard work. I think it’s worth it.

After we released for Kakao, we faced the time to translate it in english and expand user experiences with people playing our game around the world together. We thought it might be more fun if they can play with more friends even if they don’t know. So we decided to develop new ranking systems with random global friends and highest top 10s of the world ranking. And further more, your own global friends will be changed everyday!

Ok, so here we are. It’s all about our efforts to make better experiences with Boom Boom Power. I hope it would be a little gift to people enjoying our friendly game. Touch the top of the world ranking, Boom Boom!

• Boom Boom Power Worldwide

• Boom Boom Power for Kakao

Boom Boom Power Released

Today, I’m very excited to announce that we finally released our latest project, Boom Boom Power! We’ve been working so hard for so long! I’m very glad that we eventually made it. Yeah!

This, Boom Boom Power, is the second mobile game project of ESTsoft. It’s a casual racing game with the cutest animal characters. All the characters, objects and themes are so cute and very unique. And the game play of Boom Boom Power is so simple that everyone can play and enjoy it easily. Move your hero, avoid evil enemies, and score your ranking. You can compete with your Facebook friends and share your records onto Facebook timeline. It’s the best way for playing game with your social connected friends.

• Ready 5 adorable characters for you.
• Avoid and defeat more than 10 enemies.
• Explore and reach very special themes.
• Collect all letters and make it a whole ‘Chicken’!
• Invite and play it with your Facebook friends.

We’ve developed it with cocos2d-x for both of platforms, Android and iOS. We use Java and JNI for Android, Objective-C++ and Cocoa Frameworks for iOS, and native C/C++ language for game client. Cocos2d-x is the easiest way to support Android and iOS at the same time. You can build and test on one platform, such as Windows, in development process.

You can play it with both of Android and iOS devices now. Here’s the link to Google Play and Apple AppStore for you. Let’s play and compete with your friends in Boom Boom Power!

For now, we support it only for Korean. We plan to localize and publish it for other languages soon. Please look forward to world-wide version of Boom Boom Power. Boom! Boom!

Official Website: http://www.boomboompower.net/

Beyond Hair Shop Friends for Kakao

It’s been a long time! It’s almost a year after ESTsoft published ‘Hair Shop Friends for Kakao’. Live Team for Hair Shop Friends have been managing it and also have released a couple of major updates with very special themes. There were Choco-Vanilla, Modern-Rococo, and so on.

In the meantime, I have been working on next project in ESTsoft. Now I’m working hard to release our next mobile game and we’re about to publish it soon. I know it’s late, but nevertheless I’m really looking forward to it.

So, I thought it’s a good time to look back our previous project, the first mobile game of ESTsoft, Hair Shop Friends. That’s the reason why I post it with some illustrations and screenshots at this moment. In fact, I wish I could post more unique illustrations including other styles of it, but I’m not sure that it’s ok to publish closed resources.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 !!

• You can expand all the images included in this post.

Hair Shop Friends for Kakao Released

Good afternoon! Today I’m glad to announce new mobile game from my work. Just two weeks ago, ESTsoft, I’m currently working for, published ‘Hair Shop Friends for Kakao’ to Google play on Android. We also have a plan for publishing on iOS/iPhone soon. So please don’t miss it.

This is the game about simulating the management with your own hair shop. Simply you can imagine it like other SNG games. You can manage your shop, provide hair-styling services to your customers, decorate your shop with interior stuff, and visit your friends shop for supporting them.

This game has developed with Kakao platform, so if you have your own Kakao account, you’re ready to play it!

Official Website: http://www.hairshopfriends.net/