Kongregate launches $10 million mobile publishing fund for indies

More Kong games for mobile are coming:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/185958/Kongregate_launches_10M_game_fund_alongside_its_own_mobile_division.php#.UQ_Nmlpxc8s

http://developers.kongregate.com/mobile

That’s quite a lot of money.

You know, I was literally just looking at my Kong mobile app just yesterday for new games to play.

I’d like to think I had something to do with this.

As part of the announcement, Kongregate also revealed that it has hired Panayoti Haritatos, formerly Zynga’s general manager, as vice president of its new mobile division.

Oh boy.

Originally posted by louster:

As part of the announcement, Kongregate also revealed that it has hired Panayoti Haritatos, formerly Zynga’s general manager, as vice president of its new mobile division.

Oh boy.

If Kongregate falls on their level, shit gonna get serious.

Originally posted by louster:

As part of the announcement, Kongregate also revealed that it has hired Panayoti Haritatos, formerly Zynga’s general manager, as vice president of its new mobile division.

Oh boy.

Our first title is Kongfarm Mobile Xtreme. To advance beyond level 1, run up to 100 people and beat them violently round the head with your smartphone while repeatedly asking them to feed your goat.

It’s certainly good to see that Kong tries to get a foot into the booming mobile gaming market again.

Online game portal Kongregate and its parent company GameStop today announced a new $10 million initiative to help fund up-and-coming free-to-play mobile game developers, while also launching its own mobile games division.

Sounds good, as long as you aren’t aiming for Zynga-style games, having hired its former General Manager. But then, he made Bloody Funday, so he knows how to make good games too ;)

Good luck with the mobile gaming project, hope it will be successful.

This is an exciting moment in Kongregate history. I wonder if Kong will be getting new admins to cope with the new mobile division, though I’m guessing not too soon since there aren’t any new openings on the Jobs page.
I have faith that Zynga’s general manager will bring success to future mobile Kongregate games. Zynga makes good games, it’s when Facebook gets involved that those games turn into MMOs that rapidly try to reel in money. I trust Kongregate won’t be as greedy, if that’s the right word to describe Faicbook.

shoulda rather used it to make REAL games

Hey guys – the guy we hired from Zynga is the founder of Urbansquall – who made Battalion Nemesis, Bloody Fun Day, etc. He’s much more of a Kongregate kind of guy. His studio got bought by Zynga but he really wanted to come here.

I am very interested! Right now, the “Contact Us” button isn’t working on the Mobile Developers page, but I will try to get in touch with you guys as soon as possible.

Originally posted by Moshdef:

I am very interested! Right now, the “Contact Us” button isn’t working on the Mobile Developers page, but I will try to get in touch with you guys as soon as possible.

Hmm, that’s funny. What browser are you using? It’s just a mail link that sends to mobile@kongregate.com, so you can use email instead…

I’m using Chrome, and it just opens up a new blank tab called “untitled”. (when I click the link above, the page is also blank).

This is really exciting news! I was discouraged when the mobile section began to shut down shortly after I started uploading there, but this is great! I bet this will get our mobile community really booming.

Originally posted by Moshdef:

I’m using Chrome, and it just opens up a new blank tab called “untitled”.

Ok, I’ll whisper you for more info…

Interesting.

This is great news. Too bad I don’t have a phone capable of playing these games.

Originally posted by BadgeHuntersAnon:

This is great news. Too bad I don’t have a phone capable of playing these games.

Same here.

Anyways, awesome news, I can’t wait to see what happens.

It doesn’t appear to be mentioned anywhere, so is Kongregate looking for ideas to fund or existing games/prototypes/studios/etc to fund? (The Mochi fund is the pitch an idea, so I just wanted to clarify this.)

Originally posted by UnknownGuardian:

It doesn’t appear to be mentioned anywhere, so is Kongregate looking for ideas to fund or existing games/prototypes/studios/etc to fund? (The Mochi fund is the pitch an idea, so I just wanted to clarify this.)

Currently we’re only looking at games with a playable prototype (or more)…

Originally posted by Moshdef:

I’m using Chrome, and it just opens up a new blank tab called “untitled”. (when I click the link above, the page is also blank).

This should be fixed now, thanks for letting us know.

Okay so let me get this right.. Kongregate is now hosting mobile games and supporting developers? So this is straying away from mobile flash games and more into apps? Are there going to be badges associated with these games?

I guess I’m just confuzzled :/

well good luck, hope it works out!

Yeah, didn’t you just disable the ability to upload mobile games, and are now investing a significant amount into that market? If you’re getting back into this market, I sure hope there’s a chance to revive mobile badges.

Originally posted by BadgeHuntersAnon:

This is great news. Too bad I don’t have a phone capable of playing these games.

Ditto.

This is awesome. Glad to see Kongregate stepping into the competitive mobile sector of gaming. Can’t wait to (hopefully) see some quality games available for mobile released by Kong. Wish Kong the best and hope for their success!