From the creator of Streetfood Tycoon, Elevator Joe is a fast-paced mobile game for Android and iOS, putting you as the commander of an … elevator. Your job is to ferry tenants to and fro in the most efficient way possible. The elevator you man can only accommodate a limited number of tenants and the hook, really, is to find the most efficient floor route to take when managing very impatient tenants. Points are awarded for high satisfaction ratings which you can use to buy upgrades such as more building floors, faster elevator movement and even more space inside the elevator.
So I’ve been spending a little bit of my on-the-go free time with Erick Garayblas’ latest masterpiece .. the sequel to his smash hit, Streetfood Tycoon. Presenting: Streetfood Tycoon World Tour. In a nutshell, World Tour reflects Erick’s brilliance by taking what was awesome about the first game and topping it (pun intended!) with a juggling act behind the counter.
It was really great catching up with Erick Garayblas (@egarayblas) last week over coffee. We talked about the success of Streetfood Tycoon and how his life as a mobile game developer has evolved with the rise of the Apple App Store. We talked about a ton of things so here’s a more organized version of the interview.
** Ed’s note: Not mentioned in the written interview is how Erick was able to have his ‘kwek-kweks’ in many baskets. He noted how he’s shifted from an ad-driven business model (free to play but ad supported) which earned him a ton of money a month into in-app purchases which, although earns less, is more stable as the latter relies on Google’s Adsense platform which can be subject to a lot of technicalities.
1. How did Streetfood Tycoon come to be? What’s your thought process in designing a game?
Streetfood Tycoon came from my penchant for playing simulation and business-related games. I’m a huge fan of Lemonade Tycoon and Sim Tower. I “borrowed” a few mechanics from these two games and presented them in my own unique way w/in the game. I normally don’t follow a “thought process”, I just browse through my list of ideas (which come from dreams, reading books/comics, playing “other” games and talking to friends), try to mix them up, create a prototype and see how it goes from there. A lot of prototypes get shelved while the good ones become full blown games.
I’ve known Erick Garayblas since my “way back” days in the old MaPalad.org and Pinoy Windows Mobile forum groups. Back then, he was already rocking the mobile gaming scene with hits like Traffic Jam and the highly addicting Tower Mogul that ran on both the Palm OS and Windows Mobile, the top two “advanced” mobile platforms at that time.
Just yesterday, Erick released another home-grown game for iOS under his new development house, Kuyi Mobile. Streetfood Tycoon is a strangely addicting “Jolly Jeep” simulator where you have to fulfill orders from walk-in customers by combining ingredients in the right order. Other than the time limit given to complete each order, you have to deal with restocking your ingredients, upgrading your facilities and buying better ingredients.
