Israel’s Planet of the Apps churns out zany games one after another

Small indie mobile-game companies have to be nimble, or they quickly become prey in the $30 billion mobile-games market. Ben Engel-Kacen, the chief executive of Israeli game startup Planet of the Apps, has learned that lesson during his company’s short life.

Planet of the Apps, a “boutique” game studio based in a small town outside of Jerusalem, is making titles in some very crowded parts of the app store: casual, arcade, and puzzle games. It is publishing often, with 22 apps released so far since 2013 — all with a team of just 12 people. None of the games has been a huge hit yet, but Planet of the Apps has generated more than 4.5 million downloads to date.

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“They’re the games you play when you’re on the toilet,” Engel-Kacen told GamesBeat at the recent Casual Connect Tel Aviv event. “They’re short sessions that you play where you’re on the phone the most.”

That’s why it’s not surprising that the company’s very first title was Poo Happens, a funny game about dodging poo that the company made during a weekend game jam. The title was released in early 2013, and now the company (founded by Engel-Kacen and Yair Horowitz) is making more elaborate but still zany titles: Scary Dreams, Sticky Balls, Balls & Holes, and Major Tom. All of these games have simple controls, but they’re tough to master.

For example, Sticky Balls is a side-scroller that requires you to watch a rolling ball and not get squished by it. It is very casual, but it has 45 percent day-two retention and 15 to 20 percent seven-day retention. That means players come back to it at rates above the industry averages. Planet of the Apps has adapted to user requests, allowing users to change the color and size of the balls.

That may not sound really impressive, but Engel-Kacen contends that his company is doing some things that no one else does. Planet of the Apps is a vertical company, handling everything for its games from concept to release, marketing, analytics, and cross-promotion.

“I’m doing everything in-house,” Engel-Kacen said.

For starters, Planet of the Apps is creating an ecosystem of games that are linked together via a common hub. The games are connected to a game portfolio management system, dubbed the Cockpit. The company’s own in-house developers use an internal-only software development kit that enables them to plug the cloud operations and business intelligence into their games.

“The toolkit enables the developer to focus on the gameplay and not the technology behind it,” Engel-Kacen said. “Everything is connected to the cloud. We get business intelligence from different suppliers. We can do A/B testing to see what is working the best and adjust the games for the users.”

The process isn’t automated, which means creating the Cockpit was a lot of work. But Engel-Kacen said it will pay off in the long run. Planet of the Apps runs ads within its games that can take users to the other games.

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“Discovery is almost impossible,” Engel-Kacen said. “My goal is to keep my users inside my portfolio as long as possible. I want to create a funnel that drives users toward our own games.”

Life isn’t easy for such a small company. One thing that you could envision is that Planet of the Apps could create one app and have the games constantly rotate through that app. But Apple doesn’t allow that kind of app on the App Store.

Planet of the Apps also made a transition from the Cocos 2D game engine to Unity. That was a lot of work, but it enabled the company to publish across platforms more easily.

And despite the frequency of game launches every two or three weeks, Engel-Kacen said he is focusing on creating quality and survival in the long run.

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“I’m trying to respect my users,” Engel-Kacen said. “I would never publish a game that I am not proud of, or is abusive, or is not polished. I am not creating big games. I am publishing small packages of joy.”

Over time, Engel-Kacen hopes to develop a community of fans. In some countries, particularly in Europe, the strategy is working, as Planet of the Apps is in the top download ranks in some of the regional app stores. Multiple games have been featured as “best new app” on the Apple’s App Store. The titles are also available on Google Play.

The company has raised money from private investors, and Engel-Kacen said that it’s generating good revenue, mostly from advertising. It has not disclosed how much it’s raised from investors.

“I’m focusing on the 97 percent of the market that does not purchase in-app items,” Engel-Kacen said.

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