War Dragons Enters Second Phase of Global Growth with Android Launch and National TV Campaign
Partners with J.J. Sedelmaier and Wexley School for Girls
SAN FRANCISCO – April 14, 2016 – Pocket Gems is announcing today that its top-grossing mobile game War Dragons is now available on Android and is launching a national TV commercial with renowned animator J.J. Sedelmaier (Beavis and Butt-head, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Saturday TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live). These things combined mark the start of War Dragons’ second phase of growth, which will significantly increase the game’s global player base.
War Dragons has been steadily climbing Apple’s top-grossing charts since launching last April. The game has also built an incredible community in its first year with more than 183 million battles fought and 13 million dragons bred. With the Android launch, War Dragons will have cross-platform capabilities, allowing players to form alliances or attack anyone, whether they’re on iOS or Android.
“War Dragons’ first year was all about refining the game to make it as kickass as possible. We’ve drastically improved everything from the art to the multiplayer components, and it really shows,” said Harlan Crystal, Pocket Gems’ founder and product lead on War Dragons. “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 commercial, titled Dragon Days, takes viewers back to a simpler time when dragons and humans co-existed peacefully… and then burns it all to the ground. The tongue-in-cheek spot seamlessly contrasts the cheesy morning cartoon style of the ‘90s with War Dragons’ rich 3D graphics. Renowned animator, J.J. Sedelmaier, was chosen as the project’s creative director due to his sharp sense of humor and visionary comedic work. The commercial will begin airing nationally this month.
“Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to contrast the children’s programming we all grew up watching with the intensity of the gaming realm?! On top of that, this was a wonderful chance to combine two animation techniques that have been fighting each other for decades anyway,” said Sedelmaier.
The creative agency, Wexley School for Girls, brought its considerable talent to the commercial with Ian Cohen serving as chief creative director. For the animation and production duties, acclaimed creative studio Fellow LA was brought onto the project. Tying it all together thematically, the commercial’s distinctive song was penned by GRAMMY Award winners Adam Schlesinger and Steven Gold.
War Dragons is now available in the Google Play store here.
“Since War Dragons launched, our community has been clamoring for an Android version, so it was really important that we got it right,” said Priyanka Jindal who oversaw the game’s Android expansion. “We’re really happy with the results and are very excited to make this game available to many more people around the world.”
About War Dragons:
Launched in April 2015 for iOS devices, War Dragons is a 3D Real-Time Strategy game with weekly tournaments, hundreds of dragons to collect and real-time PVP. Pocket Gems built War Dragons on its proprietary Mantis Engine, which contains full native support for 3D graphics with a small memory footprint optimized for mobile devices. It was designed specifically to handle the connectivity issues generally associated with mobile networks while still having true synchronous multiplayer. Pocket Gems built the Mantis Engine to ensure that War Dragons could achieve a high level of visual fidelity and the smooth, cross-platform online performance gamers demand.
About Pocket Gems:
Founded in 2009, Pocket Gems is a leading developer of original mobile games and interactive entertainment. As one of the pioneers in games for smartphones, Pocket Gems’ titles have been downloaded more than 200 million times across iOS and Android. The Pocket Gems team has grown to 200 people based in San Francisco. To learn more about War Dragons, visit www.wardragons.com
