Spil steps up mobile push with biggest girls brand

Social games maker Spil Games has released its most popular game on its online games portal for girls, GirlsgoGames.com, for mobile.

Sara’s Cooking Class encourages girls to ‘cook’ different recipes with the help of the eponymous cartoon chef. The game has received 900 million total desktop game gameplays.

The release of Sara’s Cooking Class on mobile is the first step in the company’s “transition to an entertainment brand” Spil Games head of global PR Scott Johnston told Develop.

“We’ve done an extensive amount of research to understand the audience of tween girls and what it is that motivates the majority of them.

“Trying to create this emotional attachment with girls, and their mums and dads as well. We’re going to be looking at attachment moments, where an actress is dressed up as Sarah and she’s visiting different schools and areas and we can start bring Sarah out of the screen and start interacting and building up a lot more of the environment attachment.”

The game is available now for iOS and Android.
You might not expect the game’s primary target audience of eight-to-12-year-old girls to own compatible devices, Spil argues that its target audience in the US own iPod Touches and that household are increasing “family iPad”.

“The Family computer is literary getting moved further and further into the corner of the room,” adds Johnston.

The app aims to inspire young girls to learn more about recipes and cooking creatively for themselves in real life, instead of than relying on processed and packaged food. It uses role-play to encouraging girls to learn how to cook for themselves. The app provides an environment in which they can experiment with a range of recipes from across the globe.

Spil acquired the Sara’s Cooking Class IP last month from Indian gaming studio, Axis Entertainment.

Rovio and Mind Candy are two games companies that have expanded their products, which started life as video games, to forms of entertainment and media. Moshi Monsters brand is estimated to be worth $200 million and spans toys, music CDs and printed merchandise.

The app is available as free ‘lite’ version and as a premium version (£1.99) with additional features, in the iTunes App Store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.