Jyri Kilpeläinen is a 35-year-old game developer and founder of Kiemura, a game company based in Kotka, Finland. He started developing games as a hobby and within 3 years founded his own game company. Some key events included developing the game Mystic Marbles in his spare time, releasing it on Android to modest success, developing additional games like Super Line Rush, and eventually partnering with a publisher to release Tiltagon, which became a commercial success featured in app stores. Jyri emphasizes that being an independent game developer takes perseverance through failures and experimentation over time to achieve success.

1. Jyri Kilpeläinen
@JyriKilpelainen

2. From hobby developer to
game company founder
in 36 months

3. ● 35 year old dude from Kotka
● Software Engineer (KyAMK, 2004)
● Web & Game Developer
● Husband and a father of two girls (5 & 3)
● Co-founder & CEO at Kiemura
Jyri Kilpeläinen is...

5. ● Game company from Kotka, Finland
● 62 days old
● Making games for digital platforms (duh)
● Available for hire for game / app / web
projects!
Kiemura is...

6. Dynamic Duo

7. October 2012

10. ● Got laid off from previous job
● Continued working on Mystic Marbles
Also in October 2012

12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPTCCDPoPew

13. 71
Views
Pitch video results
21
TestFlight
testers
3
Interested
publishers
5
Skype
meetings

14. ● Going one month at a time
● Got UI help from Finnish game company
● New gameplay video + publisher
contacting (again)
January – May 2013

16. ● Applied to Microsoft AppCampus
● Publishing deal draft on paper (Yay!)
● But we decided to self-publish (Doh!)
June – August 2013

17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXMZIxwXSwI

19. October 2013

21. ● Got a job as web developer
● Making final touches to Mystic Marbles
October – December 2013

22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuy9xZizzBs

23. 6500
Downloads
Mystic Marbles lifetime stats
100€
Revenue

24. ● Released Mystic Marbles on Android
● Made a few updates
● Released Super Line Rush (game made &
released in 5 hours)
February – May 2014

26. ● Pitched at PG Connects Helsinki (June)
● Updated Super Line Rush and released in
3rd party Android stores
● AppTurbo campaign
● Prototyped a tilt maze game
June-September 2014

27. AppTurbo effect

28. Android markets

29. 280.000
Downloads
Super Line Rush lifetime stats
5000€
Revenue

30. October 2014

32. ● Continued tilt game prototype
● Pitched at PocketGamer Big Indie Pitch
before Slush
--> Got media attention
October-November 2014

34. ● NoodleCake contacted (Dec)
● Publishing deal (Jan)
● Trailer released (Feb)
● NoodleCake demoed game in GDC (Mar)
● Made two meme games
December 2014 – March 2015

35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIQQPKAaShI

40. ● Released on April 9th on App Store,
Google Play and Amazon Appstore
● Featured on App Store 'Best New Games'
and Google Play 'Editor's Choice'
Tiltagon Launch

42. Tiltagon lifetime stats

43. Tiltagon lifetime stats

45. ● Working on Tiltagon update
● Established Kiemura with Piia (Aug)
● Became full-time entrepreneur (Sep)
● Gave talk at PG Connects Helsinki (Sep)
May – September 2015

46. October 2015

47. ● Release Tiltagon update 2.0
● Tiltagon Apple TV version
● Prototyping
● Work-for-hire projects
What's next?

48. Takeaways

49. ● ”It's a marathon, not a sprint”
● Things ARE going to fail so be prepared
● Experiment different things
● Play it safe
● Anything is possible!
Takeaways

50. Thank you!
@JyriKilpelainen