Supercell goes ‘tablet-first’, hires former iWin President Greg Harper as General Manager for North America

Inside Mobile Apps writes about our new platform strategy called Tablet First! Check the full article here and let us also introduce our brand new General Manager Greg Harper. Greg just joined our US office in San Francisco.

“Just in time for Apple’s heavily rumored iPad 3 announcement next week, Finnish developer Supercell has revealed from now on it will be following what it calls a tablet-first strategy.

“We’ve been really excited about the tablet platform overall,” says Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen.

Supercell’s first game designed specifically for tablets is a team combat game called Battle Buddies, due out sometime in Q2. According to Paananen, the game was designed from the ground up to be a tablet experience — not just a larger or more processor intensive version of a game the team would have made were it developing for the iPhone.”

Catch the full article here

New Battle Buddies Guerrilla Video

A new guerrilla video was just released from our upcoming game Battle Buddies, showcasing a bit on which devices it runs. Check it out on the official Battle Buddies Facebook page!

2011 in review: Ilkka Paananen, president, Supercell

PocketGamer.biz has posted an interview with Supercell’s CEO Ilkka Paananen about how year 2011 went! Here’s a snippet from the interview:

A co-founder of a small Finnish mobile studio Sumea in 2000, in the years following its acquisition by Digital Chocolate, Ilkka Paananen ended up president of the US publisher’s 200-strong Helsinki studio.

But in 2011, together with veterans from companies such as Remedy, Sulake and Digital Chocolate, he set up Supercell, a Facebook and mobile game developer.

We caught up with Paananen to get his take on the past 12 months.

Catch the full interview at PocketGamer.biz!

Take Feuds On The Road with Battle Buddies

Build and customize a squad for single or multiplayer battles

Bring the battle to friends and enemies alike in Supercell’s Battle Buddies, coming to tablets and smartphones in early 2012. Battle Buddies is a team-management action game designed to be casual, accessible, and streamlined, for bringing those feuds on the go, ensuring combat is never far away.
Battle Buddies is specifically designed for touch interface, features rich social gameplay via anytime multiplayer, and is the first casual, but deep multiplayer title for the iOS platform.

In Battle Buddies, players manage a team of five. They name them, put them through training, then lead them into battle against friends in multiplayer battles or against the AI in single player showdowns. Players outfit their buddies in a variety of costumes that make their troops look like pirates, soldiers, cyborgs, and other options and select fun and funny items, weapons, and gadgets for the battlefield.

All the action takes place in wacky environments like castles, sheds, submarines, and more. All battlefields are interactive and destroyable, meaning blowing up walls, furniture, and most items on the battlefield is all within the realm of possibility.
Battle Buddies will be available on smartphones and tablet devices early in 2012.

To keep up with the latest news and updates, Like Battle Buddies on Facebook!

Supercell Plans To Release Multiple New Games For Mobile And Tablets In Q1/2012

ArcticStartup has posted an article about Supercell and upcoming products.

We had a quick talk with Paananen about the upcoming game. He disclosed that the company is actually working on multiple games at the moment and the company will introduce a new game next week as well. According to Paananen the games will be released in Q1 of 2012. More interestingly, these titles will also appear first on the mobile and tablet platforms instead of the traditional desktop computer.

Read the full article here.

Supercell sponsors IGDA Finland’s gathering today

If you’re in gaming industry and happen to be around Helsinki today, now’s the time to make some evening plans that include good company, refreshments and sneek peaks of Supercell’s future games. Ilkka Paananen’s presentation at 6pm is already full but everybody’s welcome to Cubacafe (Erottajankatu 4) at 9pm.

Jois us there and be among the first to see what’s cooking at Supercell!

Where the world’s best indie games get made

Supercell is featured in an article over at Ars Technica called “Where the world’s best indie games get made”. Check it out!

Computer huddle occurs naturally when you have a number of people working in the same space. For organized meetings, we have meeting rooms and a more relaxed area with sofas, cushions, and bean bags. For spontaneous meetings, we have a nice kitchen area where people bump into each other naturally.

Read More

A Deeper Dive Into Supercell

ArcticStartup had a chat with Ilkka Paananen about Supercell and a bit about the plans for the future:

But the bigger picture here is perhaps a little more interesting. Last week, Paananen gave a talk in GDC Europe about their vision as a company regarding gaming. They believe all three major types of gaming; core, social and browser based games are converging into one. This is partially happening as a result of better technology, such as Flash 11, but also due to the evolution of gaming and consumer desires.

Read More

Supercell Raises $12M from Accel Partners

Helsinki, Finland – May 25. Finnish game developer Supercell announced that it has secured an investment of $12 million from Accel Partners, the leading global venture capital firm with a wealth of experience in the gaming industry. Their previous investments include Rovio (Angry Birds), Playfish, Gameforge and Mind Candy (Moshi Monsters), in addition to consumer internet success stories like Facebook, Groupon and Kayak. Klaas Kersting, founder of German browser-game giant Gameforge and currently CEO of flaregames has also invested in the round, as did London Venture Partners, one of Supercell’s previous investors. The other previous investors of the company include Initial Capital, Cerval Investments and Lifeline Ventures.

Supercell’s team is led by gaming industry veterans who have collectively developed more than 165 games across 12 platforms. Supercell will develop titles for gamers who want online browser-based games that are bigger in scope than the most social games, but less involved than massively-multiplayer games. The team has developed a proprietary and scalable technology platform along with a unique conversion tool that allows them to build high quality game features across different platforms.

The company was founded in June 2010, and released the Closed Beta of its debut game, Gunshine.net, in February this year. The game bridges the gap between browser-based massively-multiplayer games and social games, with deep online gameplay and extensive social features. Since starting the Closed Beta, the company has developed Gunshine.net in close co-operation with its fan community. Now that the product is about to enter Open Beta and will become available for everyone to play, the investment will help Supercell accelerate its growth, expand its team and also release new games and target new platforms.
Kevin Comolli, a Partner in the London office of Accel, will join the Supercell Board of Directors. Comolli previously led Accel’s investment in Playfish where he served on the Board of Directors. “We are thrilled to be investors in Supercell and to be working with this incredibly talented and experienced team. We enthusiastically share their conviction regarding the opportunity to develop a new category of online games.”

“We are proud to have Accel and Mr.Kersting as investors. Given Accel’s extensive experience and track record in gaming, internet and social media, their investment is a powerful endorsement of Supercell’s vision of combining the power of social networks with deep and immersive core games that are instantly accessible from anywhere, anytime,” said Ilkka Paananen, CEO of Supercell.

For more information about Supercell, visit http://supercell.net. For more information about Gunshine.net, visit http://gunshine.net.

About Accel Partners
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class businesses. Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies, with offices in Palo Alto, California, New York City, London, New Delhi and Bangalore, as well as in China via its partnership with IDG-Accel.

Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 successful companies, many of which have defined their categories, including Actuate, AdMob, Agile Software, Alfresco, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Atlassian, BBN, Brightcove, Check24, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Groupon, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, IronPlanet, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, OPOWER, Polycom/PictureTel, Playfish, Portal Software, QlikTech, Quidsi (Diapers.com), Rapt, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Responsys, Riverbed, SupportSoft, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, Wily Technology, Wonga, XenSource and Zimbra. For more information, please visit the Accel Partners web site at www.accel.com, or find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/accel

About Supercell
Founded in June 2010, Supercell’s team is led by gaming industry veterans who have collectively developed more than 165 games across 12 platforms. The company was founded on the idea that the best people make the best games, and that development should be an open dialog between developer and player. Supercell will develop titles for gamers who want online browser-based games that are bigger in scope than the most social games, but less involved than massively-multiplayer games. The company released the Closed Beta of its debut game, Gunshine.net, in February this year. The game bridges the gap between browser-based massively-multiplayer games and social games, with deep online gameplay and extensive social features.