S01 E03 Mark Ettle of Cobra on the importance of good game mechanics

Greetings and salutations, people. Welcome to episode three of the PocketGamer.biz podcast, the premier audio periodical for the global mobile games market. In this episode, the PocketGamer.biz team discuss the winners of the recent Mobile Games Awards, the news that two major ‘media’ companies are moving into games, and the troubling news that one of the world’s largest games publishers still can’t treat all of its staff equally, fairly or respectfully. (02:50) Our guest in this episode of the podcast is Mark Ettle, the founder and managing director of Cobra, a game development studio based in Dundee, Scotland. Mark is a pioneer of mobile gaming and a veteran of the games sector, starting his career with the legendary DMA Design, the studio behind Lemmings, Hired Guns, Body Harvest and that car theft game everyone seems to like. Mark discusses the studio’s pioneering work in the App Store, it’s approach to development and why Cobra has gone from a mobile only, to a mobile first studio. We round up with all of the forthcoming events, from the Steel Media network, including LaunchPad, the Big Indie Pitch, and the first sighting of the ever epic Pocket Gamer Connects Digital (#8 fact fans). (33:00) Show Notes Mobile Games Awards Netflix and Zoom move into games Activision Blizzard faces lawsuit and strike action as over 3,000 staff complain about discrimination and harrassment. Special guest: interview with Cobra Mobile’s Mark Ettle Pocket Gamer Launchpad (12-13/08/2021) The Big Indie Pitch (26/08/2021) Pocket Gamer Connects Digital #8 (27/09 - 01/10/2021) Sit back, relax, prepare to be fascinated. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts and ideas. Email us: [email protected] or get in touch via our @PGBiz handle on Twitter.  If you’re enjoying the podcast, do please leave us a review or rating. We’d appreciate it. Until next time - Listen, love, learn. The PG.biz team