Big Bad Quiz – register now

Like TV quiz shows, you will love Big Bad Quiz. It’s a fast, fun and furious trivia quiz game hosted by the one and only Bag Man. He is one crazy quiz master and has scoured the universe for the toughest questions ever. With topics like sports, music ,movies, history and celebs, the full game features over 150+ levels of ultra fast non-stop rounds. With only seconds to answer each question, a fast brisk brain and snappy fingers are needed. No waiting for other players, just get going.

The Big Bad Quiz is packed with truck loads of tough challenging questions that will come at you relentlessly. While playing, you will be presented with a mixture of topics, so your brain has to stay alert at all times. Be warned though, you will have only a limited number of game lives before the Bag Man busts you out of the game.

The Bag Man will be challenging you every step of the way, making sure that the questions get harder with every round. Being a quiz host, he’ll let you know when you are playing badly, in his own special way.

Games features include:
BFactor – this ranking is a combination of your speed and accuracy in answering questions.

Highscores – the game features a global highscore table. See if you can get ranked.

Extra Lives by Sharing – you can get extra lives by sharing your achievements on Facebook and Twitter.

Hall of Fame – the Bag Man will feature players who contact him with mega highscores.

Tons of Topics – you get questions on: sports, celebs, tv, music, movies, places, people, history, technology, geography, dates, science, nature, numbers, fashion, media and lots more…

The Big Bad Quiz is not for the faint hearted – like a rhino on roller-blades, it is big, mean and fast.

The Bag Man challenges you to take on The Big Bad Quiz!

Register for it here:

Apple and Android App Development

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So you are planning your next digital campaign for the Irish market. You’ve got all boxes ticked; SEO, PPC, banner ads, social media and blog posts. The problem is your competitor has also got those boxes ticked.

If you need your campaign to be effective in the Irish market, you should consider a custom mobile gaming app. Like other territories, Irish mobile consumers love gaming apps. A gaming app can be used as:
– A mobile focused advertising or marketing campaign.
– An interactive tool to educate consumers about your product features
– A highly effective viral and social media marketing tool
– A competition to get new registered users

Above all, they offer a cost effective solution to increase your online and mobile business. Contact us for more details.

Minister Harris plays Big Bad Quiz

Fierce Fun recently took part in the PwC 2015 Docklands Innovation Awards. These awards are an enterprise initiative between Docklands Innovation and the DIT Hothouse New Frontiers programme.

They are for companies based in the Docklands Innovation Park. The awards were held in the very cool PwC Spencer Dock buildings on the 11th March 2015.

As part of the awards, there was a companies exhibition. Fierce Fun had a stand at this event.

Best of all, we got the Minister to play our mobile trivia game Big Bad Quiz. The Minister in question was Simon Harris, TD, Minister of State with responsibility for International Financial Services, the Office of Public Works and Public Procurement.

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Peter Lynch from Fierce Fun with the Minister of State Simon Harris

He liked the game and got through the first round of questions pretty quickly. We will add him to our list of beta testers!

Big Bad Quiz will launch in Q2 2015.

Links:
PWC
Docklands Innovation
DIT Hothouse

Big Bad Quiz – The toughest trivia on mobile

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The Big Bad Quiz is the brainchild of none other than the Bag Man, you can find out more about him here, but, he has spent most of his life taking and making quizzes.
He wanted more, he wanted to be able to bring his quizzes to the world, so he joined forces with the good people at Fierce Fun to create a mobile gaming app, a game based around a trivia quiz, and of course the bag man himself.

We were given the task of trying to create the toughest quiz on the planet.  Now, of course the Bag Man came up with all of the trivia quiz questions which make up the majority of the Big Bad Quiz.  But in order to make a truly difficult or tough trivia quiz game, you need more than difficult questions.

We made the game multiple choice, you might think this would make answering the trivia questions easier, but giving people an option will make you hesitate and doubt what you think you know.

This brings us to another tough aspect we added to our trivia game, the Big Bad Quiz. We decided that in order to make this one of the toughest quizzes on the planet, we needed to put people under pressure, so we added a timer for each question in the quiz, the timer begins as soon as you see the question, you only have 5 seconds to answer the question, or you forfeit those points. Now, we aren’t totally without mercy, if you are quick enough you can get a bonus, but if you are like Bag Man (aka a Trivia Quiz god), and you can answer the question with in about a second, then you will be awarded a ‘Mega Quick Bonus’.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this is definitely sounding like one of the toughest quizzes out there, but we weren’t quite convinced that it would become the toughest trivia quiz game on the planet, so we decided to add another tough aspect to the Big Bad Quiz, we added a life system.  You just get a few lives to complete the quiz – are we cruel or what. Now you can earn more lives but you need to get the same first.
Register on the Big Bad Quiz page to get the game as soon as it is published.

 

The Future of Computer Gaming

Modern technology has taken amazing strides forward over the past few years, and this is just as true when it come to gaming technology. With 2015 fully upon us and a number of Gaming and Technology events having taken place throughout January, we here at Fierce Fun thought it would be a good idea to run through a couple of the major developments we can expect to see in 2015.

Virtual Reality:

Virtual reality has been with us since the 90’s when Sega released Sega VR in the arcades (although it never made it to the consoles), but with the creation of devices such as the Oculus Rift, Virtual Reality has made a comeback.  Now that Virtual Reality has once again hit the mainstream, it has become a realistic goal for video game creators to make VR games.This has also led to a rise of devices like the Rift, or other devices which make you feel like you are really in the game.

Games Everywhere:

With the widespread release of wearable technology, primarily the rise of the smart watch, and with the further & further reach of smart phones, and the inevitable rise of the smart TVs, like AndroidTV, technology is everywhere.  Which means that in 2015 we will be able to play games everywhere. With the new challenges and opportunities presented, we can look forward to some new games which take advantage of these opportunities, and perhaps taking augmented reality along for the ride.

Indie Games:

A trend that will increase across 2015 is the large part of video games industry that Independent studios will play.  The mainstream studios are sticking to the tried & tested channels and games. However, with the wide availability of channels, open source software and variety of funding options have made game creation available for independent studios, and they are creating games that are creative, unique and very enjoyable.  We here at Fierce Fun are ourselves independent and are currently creating a variety of mobile app games with Big Bad Quiz for Android & iOs being our first title to launch in Q1 2015.

Social:

Social Media has taken up a large part of our lives over the past decade or so, and it’s reach will only increase in 2015.  However, game developers must capitalise on the this trend in order to maintain their success. Consumers are no longer private about their gaming, and want to publish across their various social channels. Sony and Microsoft have both made a leap toward this with the PS4 and Xbox ONE respectively. For companies to be successful in 2015, they not only have to post quality, relevant content on their social media channels regularly. This goes double for smaller creators, who don’t have the brand recognition, and must strive to make a name for themselves.

Respected Gamers:

Before the 2000’s, video gamers were seen as a subset of kids and immature men. This changed with the emergence of consoles and the creation of motion sensing technology, like the Wii. Recently, the number of gamers has grown exponentially, and has broken down all gender and age barriers. So in 2015, we will see gaming becoming a more socially respected hobby, as there will be more gamers across all platforms than non-gamers. Also, thanks to the jobs being created making games, and the growing professional gamer sector, the gamers of 2015 will be the most respected gamers yet.

 

Fierce Fun at the New Frontiers Showcase

DIT, in association with Enterprise Ireland and IADT run the New Frontiers programme, which is designed to help incubate and grow new Irish businesses. Several companies have come through the programme and gone on to bigger and better things. As a way of sharing these success stories, passing down advice, and arranging some good old fashioned business networking, they organise an annual showcase event.

Last Friday, on the 5th of December, Fierce Fun was able to take part in this event, demonstrate some of our products, and speak with other businesses in the “Hothouse” programme. Peter Lynch and Jackie Jeter attended the showcase and were both very impressed with what they saw and heard.

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There were five alumni of the programme, including Alison Stroh, from Dr. Coy’s Healthfoods, and Adrian Walsh of Checkventory in attendance. Both businesses have been quite successful in recent years, and fostered partnerships with more established firms. Dr. Coy’s products, for example, are available in stores like Brown Thomas or Avoca. Sean Mitchell, the CEO of Movidius gave a fantastic keynote address on adjusting to meet market needs and cracking into potential markets. Movidius, after graduating from the programme went on to achieve great success in the US markets over the last few years. For a digital company like Fierce Fun, which offers a product which is instantly available in all markets around the world, Movidius provides a great example for adapting our marketing plans and how to break into international markets.

The event gave us a great opportunity to showcase our company to potential investors, as well as getting some cheeky free beta testing done. Peter brought along his phone and demonstrated the Big Bad Quiz to a number of people. All of the reactions to the game were positive, and of course, since the game is designed to be a challenge, not many of the testers got past the first few rounds. For us, who have spent the last few months designing, writing and creating the game, this was a great thing to see.

Fierce Fun: HTML5 Cross Platform Capability

What is a cross-platform app? It is one application that your customers can use, regardless of their phone, tablet or PC type. Most consumers now have at least one of each. Even for large companies, it is difficult to continually update your applications to work on all possible platforms. Think of a cross platform app as being like a central point, with different platforms and devices connecting to IT, rather than having individual apps to suit each platform.

Building separate games and mobile applications for each device (iPhone, iPad Android, Windows Mobile) can be time consuming and expensive. It requires different frameworks, languages and developments skills.

The HTML5 standard is now complete and ratified by the World Wide Web Consortium (the guys who set all key standards for the Web). Using browser technologies, it allows companies to support all consumer platforms with one production process. More importantly, as it is now standardised, it will ensure future compatibility for your HTML5 applications

Fierce Fun uses HTML5 to create media rich highly interactive games and mobile applications.

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If you like more information on our HTML5 cross platform development technology, don’t hesitate to get in contact.

What makes a good trivia game?

Making a good trivia game can be a tricky thing to do. First, you have to actually create a lot of interesting trivia questions, then you have to present them in an interesting way. We have seen many simple trivia games come and go without creating much of a following, while game-shows like Jeopardy and Family Feud are still going strong after decades. Why? well, the answer is two-fold.

First of all, they have a host. The host is a vital part of a game, whether they are making friends, sharing jokes, grilling contestants with tough questions, or just declaring them the “weakest link”, the host brings something unique and fun to the show. Second, each game-show has a theme, and just like the host, they can vary from unforgiving questions, to light-hearted fun. When it came to creating the Big Bad Quiz, we here at Fierce Fun took that information on-board.

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Thus, the Bag Man was born. He is our answer to hosts like Bob Barker or Anne Robinson, and his style of hosting is reminiscent of the “You Don’t Know Jack” series of quiz games. The Bag Man is sarcastic, insulting, but always encourages you to try a bit harder, to get the extra bonus points, or just to wipe the smile off his bag.

When making a game, especially  mobile game, you need to consider the time constraint that people will be under. Consumers can’t devote an entire hour to a single session on a game. You need to be able to make a game that is engaging enough that it can be played during a quick-five minute break, or while commuting to or from the office. At the same time however, there needs to be a facility in place to keep people’s attention span over longer periods of time. Again, we looked at game-shows for the answer.

Rapid fire rounds were the best solution we found. You could quickly fly through a round or two while waiting for the bus, save your progress, answer a few texts, then come back to the game a little while later and pick up where you left off. Each round takes about ninety seconds to complete, which makes it perfect for “burst players”. In a survey of gamers in the United States, 44% of respondents said that they played on their phones for less than 30 minutes a day. Since the rounds are paced so well, and there is no limit on the number of rounds you can complete, the game can last however long or short you want it to. The biggest games these days, like Candy Crush, or Flappy Bird, also subscribe to this idea of rapid-fire gameplay.

 Finally, we added some really tricky questions to the mix to liven things up, especially as you get further and further into the game. The rounds might go by quickly, but they won’t all be easy to finish. Adding that to the fact that there are almost two thousand questions, and they all appear in a random order each time you play, means that the game will be fresh, and tough every time you open it up.

So that’s our opinion, a good trivia game needs to have a unique host, the ability to be played for short or long periods and above all, needs to be fresh every time you play it, in order to keep players interested.

 

Monster Madness: Ireland’s First Commercial Mobile Game?

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When clearing out some old files, I came across this newspaper page. Remember when you were looking for a new ringtone for your Nokia – Mobile Sheriff was one of the many mobile content providers in this area. In 2002, we were given a prototype Nokia 3410 to work on. This was one of the first Java J2ME gaming phones – this was the beginning of the mobile app industry. Unlike the sophisticated mobile developers portals now, we only had a bare bones API and in the great developer tradition “you have to figure out the rest yourself”. One day I will write about the fun we had trying to get the game on the phone – a degree in electronic engineering was required. We also became masters at writing Java in a non OO style – not an easy thing to do but necessary owing to memory restrictions..

After 4 months of blood, sweat and a lot of tears, we finished the game in late 2002. It was all of 37k in size. The game involved destroying the monster Kethlu and his minions, protecting your base and capturing key pieces Even with the memory restrictions, Monster Madness featured:

– huge enemy bosses with 16 levels

– small attack monsters, with varied attack patterns

– 3 different weapon systems: laser beams, atomic fire and sonic shockwaves

The game was published by Trust 5 in February 2003. It was localised into French and distributed by more than 20 mobile publishers. As far as we know, it is Ireland’s first commercial mobile game. Who knows, it may see life again on the iPhone.

See the original ad here