Although Zynga is mentioned across tech news on a daily basis, it is important to take a look at some of the successful application developers who have gone under the radar but still managed to create very successful apps. Some examples are as follows:
1. Natural Motion
Natural Motion has created a few apps that have reached the top grossing chart, and maintained it for quite a while. Some of their titles include: Backbreaker football, My Horse and most recently CSR Racing. They are located in London and San Francisco and have claimed to have 30 million downloads of their games to date.
2. Phoenix Age
Phoenix Age is a small indie development company that released Castle Age 3D. The game is their first major title as a company and has been quite a success, claiming to have been played by over ten million users.
3. Crowdstar
Crowdstar is the expert at gamifying socialite and animal simulations. They have created games like Social Girl, Top Girl, Happy Pets, and Zoo Paradise. Crowdstar has received close to 35 million in venture funding for their social applications, and they may not be considered as “lesser-known” as the others, but still deserve a mention.
4. Supercell
Supercell is responsible for currently a very high grossing game: Clash of the Clans along with Hay Day, which is a farmvillesque game. They have a very legitimate set of backers and team, and are currently grossing in the top 3 for over a month with Clash of the Clans.
5. Ndemic Creations
Ndemic Creations may be a smaller example, but their first game Plague Inc reached the top downloaded app on the Apple app store for over a few weeks. Their first game has been played over 10 million times to date.
6. Kairosoft
Kairosoft may not have top 5 selling games in the app store, but everyone of their titles gains the downloads of their very loyal following. All of their apps are rated four stars or greater and include names such as: Game Dev Story, Dungeon Village, and Venture Towns. They have previously developed pc based games and now have moved into pushing those titles into mobile.
7. A Thinking Ape
A Thinking Ape is a small development company that puts out a number of hit simulation games. One includes their best seller, Kingdoms at War, along with Party Dorms, Gangs at War and Future Combat. They are made up of a young team located in Vancouver, CA and Redmond, WA and have received funding from Y Combinator.
