War Dragons launches on Android with new ad from Beavis and Butt-head animator

Your mobile game ad doesn’t always need to rely on a celebrity.

War Dragons announced today that it has launched for Android, one year after the mobile strategy game released for iOS. Developer Pocket Gems is also launching a new ad for the game from animator J.J. Sedelmaier, who has worked on mainstream successes Beavis and Butt-head and the Saturday TV Funhouse segments of Saturday Night Live. War Dragons is the No. 328 ranked game on the iOS app store, via App Annie. The mobile industry was worth $34.8 billion last year, according to market research firm Newzoo.

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We’ve seen with Mobile Strike/Arnold Schwarzenegger and Game of War/Kate Upton that having a successful ad campaign can boost sales of a game. However, instead of using a celebrity, Pocket Gems is hoping to gain interest by using an animator with a proven track record, even if he isn’t a household name. You can watch the commercial below.

“War Dragons’ first year was all about refining the game to make it as kick-ass as possible,” said Harlan Crystal, Pocket Gems’ founder and product lead on War Dragons, in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “We’ve drastically improved everything from the art to the multiplayer components, and it really shows. As we enter our next phase of growth, we wanted something different for our first big TV spot and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”

The strategy space in mobile is incredibly competitive, with games like Clash of Clans and Mobile Strike dominating the field. Still, Pocket Gems notes that War Dragons has been climbing up the iOS ranks since it launched last April. Pocket Gems boasts that all of its games combined, which includes Night at the Museum: Hidden Treasures and Runaway Life, have been downloaded over 200 million times.