Powered by LootLocker: Keeping score when influencers and game devs unite

MoonRunner is a German game studio with a difference – they make games in collaboration with social media influencers. Their latest mobile game is MontanaBlack’s Kylo Rescue (also available on iOS). We caught up with the team at MoonRunner to find out how this works and how LootLocker helps.

Harnessing influencer power

Making games with influencers has proved to be a smart idea for MoonRunner. In just four years, they’ve achieved over two million downloads. So what’s it like to work in this way?

From speaking to Hakan Zirek, a project manager at MoonRunner, it sounds like it never gets boring. “We’re creating relationships with influencers directly,” he says. “Because we have a big network in Germany.”

“Communicating with influencers is the toughest part of the job. Some are ambitious and work with us hand-in-hand, some have weird wishes, and some aren’t even reachable. It was great to work with MontanaBlack, because he has his own dedicated management team. They shared fast feedback for the art and gameplay.”

If you’re not familiar with MontanaBlack, here are the key things to know: He’s a German-Turkish live-streamer with 4.5 million Twitch subscribers and 3.3 million Instagram followers. So to build a game around him pretty much guarantees it serious star power.

Shoot and loot at the tax office

Kylo Rescue is a side-scrawling platform shooter with some very quirky elements based on MontanaBlack’s life. The premise is summed up pretty well by the game’s tagline quote:

“Just because I don't want to pay 80% taxes, will you take Kylo away from me?! You will regret that! I will destroy you!"

In case you were wondering: Kylo is MontanaBlack’s precious (and very cute) dog. The game has dialogue lines recorded by the influencer himself, over 30 different clothing items and 100 floors of monster mayhem.

It took a team of six roughly a year to make the game. Hakan is delighted with how it turned out: “I’m proud that we achieved something that looks and feels so great. The look is especially the thing we are very proud of. It’s always satisfying to see your idea coming to life, right in front of your screen.”

Using LootLocker to lighten the load

Kylo Rescue uses leaderboards from LootLocker, and the developers say they’re looking into using our progression and achievements features too.

This is something we love to hear. MoonRunner are using creative new ideas to make games and engage with an audience through influencers. It’s always good to be part of something new and groundbreaking. So why did they choose LootLocker?

“At first we played around with Firebase,” says developer Thomas Waghubinger. “But we wanted to test a few other options.”

“When we worked LootLocker’s functionality into a demo project and played around with it, we quickly realized it was already integrated. In the end the SDK was less hassle and it couldn’t be easier to integrate into an existing project. So there was no reason to use anything else.”

We can help you bring your revolutionary ideas to life

If you’re looking to shake up the gaming industry with a radical new idea, you shouldn’t spend too much time on the complex stuff like databases, player storage, and leaderboards.

LootLocker makes it quick and easy to implement mechanics like leaderboards, in-game stores, progression, achievements and plenty more. It works straight out of the box, for games of all sizes and genres, on any platform. Get in touch and we’d be happy to tell you more.