The office manager will work 2 hours a day Monday-Friday (overtime may be available) and help everyone by taking care of standard office duties such as:

• Answering the phone
• Recording accounts
• Booking travel and accommodation for external events
• Occasionally organising internal events
• Organising and ordering equipment, books and stationary
• Miscellaneous secretarial and HR duties

In addition, we would like the office manager to take on some more specific tasks surrounding our industry, including:

• Keeping track of Mobile Pie press, game reviews and user reviews
• Entering Mobile Pie games into competitions

Salary will be £8.50 per hour.

If you are interested in the role then please get in touch.

A pre-hovercraft face-off between Dan and Valentin. Can you feel the tension?

First up we’ve been polishing up a little treat with Chillingo and Aardman Digital: The iOS version of the follow up to the BAFTA-nominated Home Sheep Home.

HSH2 is an absolute stonker of a platforming game, following in the foot steps of the original. It’s described on the official website as:

Following the success of the their first BAFTA-nominated online puzzle adventure, Shaun, Shirley and Timmy are back…and their search for home just got a whole lot bigger.

Journey through over 60 levels of underground caverns, negotiate the streets of London and travel to the depths of space, all in search of the green green grass of home…

As if that isn’t enough, Channel 4 also announced last week that we’re working with them.

Although we can’t say too much right now, what we can tell you is that we’re working on game for the BAFTA winning Misfit and an app for reality hit Made in Chelsea. Two great programs and two great apps!

Follow our Twitter feed (@mobilepie) and find out more in the coming weeks!

Mobile Pie’s hit location-based simulation game joins the Tapjoy Android Fund

Bristol, UK – October 7, 2011 – Mobile Pie today announced it has signed a deal with mobile advertising network Tapjoy to bring Mobile Pie’s wholly owned IP My Star from iOS to Android as part of Tapjoy’s Android Fund.

My Star launched to the world on iOS in March 2011 and has gone on to enjoy incredible success, bringing location mechanics to the world of simulation gameplay. The most recent version (v6.0) boasts a 4.2 star user rating on iTunes and an impressive 62% to 38% female-male gender split.

My Star sees players pilot small blocky-headed wannabes to musical mega stars by practicing instruments as well as jamming and recording songs with their friends. They can also personalise their star and home, help their star with mini-games and put up virtual posters at real world spots.

Tapjoy will provide Mobile Pie with development cost and marketing support to bring My Star to Android. It will exclusively leverage Tapjoy’s ad-funded payment option to allow players to earn the game’s in-app currency, Star Cash and Coins, for free. Tapjoy will also distribute My Star through its performance-based ad network to improve discovery of the game and drive new user  acquisition.

Mobile Pieʼs Creative Director, Will Luton, said: “Android owners need My Star in their life and we’re delighted that Tapjoy is working with us to make that happen by backing and promoting it. These guys know their biz when it comes to mobile promotion and acquisition. They’re the big dogs.”

The Tapjoy Android Fund was created in June 2011 in order to provide monetary and development support to app developers looking to port existing content and apps to the Android platform. Selected developers receive full porting and testing services and are given the option to leverage Tapjoy’s virtual currency monetization engine, its game state server for virtual economy management, its mobile analytics platform and other value-added services. Additionally, selected games receive distribution for new user acquisition through Tapjoy’s advertising network.

Tapjoy’s European Manager, Paul Bowen, added: “It’s really exciting to be working with Mobile Pie: They’re young, sharp and very talented. I look forward to being a part of the success of My Star for Android and watching them shape the future of games.

Yet, there is one special set of devices that we work with more than any other, that we have launched more games for and that have allowed us to grow and think as big as we do. They are made by Apple and imagined by Steve Jobs.

The words genius and legend are often flippantly used and rarely are they deserved, but in the case of Jobs they are defined.

Jobs built a company which has revolutionised computing, especially mobile. His thinking was unique and his charm and passion, as can be seen in this video, were unsurpassed.

Waking up to the news of Jobs’ death this morning was saddening, but also gave me the chance to think back on a life of incredible achievement and a man I very much admire. As much as he will be missed, the mark he has left on, not just the technology industry, but the entire world is indelible.

We will continue to support Apple and I am thankful of everything Steve has created. He will always be a huge source of inspiration to me.

We are pleased to announce the arrival the latest version of our Top 5 App Store smash, Top Trumps Collection.

The latest update sees the addition of the ‘Celebs’ pack and taking the pack total within the game to a stat-tastic 5. More choice than you can shake a oneupmanship-hungry stick at.

In blinging, champagne flavoured celebration of this event, we have decided to get all lavish and to give out some prizes. Those willing to enter a game of chance put themselves in the running to win either:

• 1st prize of an iPad 2 plus Top Trumps Tournament board game
• 2nd prize of an iPod touch 4 plus Top Trumps Tournament board game

Plus, 8 lucky-but-not-as-lucky-as-the-winners runners up will win a Top Trumps Tournament board game and NBA Top Trumps card pack.

Feel like a winner? Enter at the Top Trumps Game website.

Joining the team, alongside myself, Rich, Tom and Matt, are (from left to right):

Nick Dymond (Production Assistant): Nick oversees that projects run on time and not over time, helping to put together Agile backlogs, running daily stand-ups and overseeing QA. No relation to Dustin Diamond.

James Parker (Designer): James is a designer of pedigree, having worked at some top-class UK dev houses. He’s been drafted in for a top secret project which we’re working on here in the Oven. Check him out over at his blog.

Daniel Twomey (Developer): Dan started off life here as a programming intern having graduated from UWE. We set him the challenge of prototyping the Poster feature for My Star. It was so good that not only did we use his code in the game but we hired him.

Thomas Parry aka T-Dog (Artist): Tom studied Computer Games Design alongside me at Huddersfield University, but was always the better artists. So here at the Pie he hooks us up with all that is shiny and nice, creating the visuals for almost all of our games since B-Boy Beats, including the lovely looking My Star and Top Trumps.

Dave Callaghan and Valentin Kalchev (QA Intern): Dave and Valentin join us from Huddersfield University and UWE (respectively) on 12 month placements. They’ll be learning the ropes of making games as good as we make.

A massive welcome to them all.

Specifically we need a new Developer that can hit the ground running, working both individually or as part of the existing development team on games projects that meet client expectation or realise the company’s visions. Taking direction from the project manager, they must be able to rapidly prototype game concepts and be able to produce work for publication to a high level of stability and polish.

Key skills:

• Some or all of the following programming languages: Objective-C, Java, C++
• Experience in the cloud side of cloud computing a bonus
• Ability to produce robust, well documented code
• Research new technologies and libraries for upcoming projects
• A clear, analytical thinker
• Passion for and knowledge of games and the industry

Experience:

We’re going to want to see at least one of the below:

• Bachelors or equivalent Computer Science or programming related degree
• 1 year application development with some or all of the following platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry
• Games development experience (hobby projects / unreleased games are fine – we just want something to see)

If you think you have enough of the above to improve our team then please get in touch!

Salary: DOE

Connect2Media license the classic card game from Winning Moves and have already sucessfully published them on other platforms. In partnering with Mobile Pie the company initially plans to launch three titles on the iPhone, as well as other mobile platforms including Android, Blackberry and Java. The games include ‘Top Trumps 007 Best of Bond’ (which is already available on mobile devices as of last month), ‘Top Trumps Gumball 3000 Supercars’ and ‘Top Trumps NBA’.

Bristol-based Mobile Pie has received such notable accolades as Channel 4′s New Mobile Developer of the Year and the Media Innovation Awards’ trophy.

Well known for their work with high profile partners and brands such as Hewlett-Packard, BBC, Orange and Tate Modern, Mobile Pie are quickly emerging as leaders in licensed, free-to-play and location aware games.

“We are very excited to be extending the reach of the Top Trumps license”, said Greg Robinson, Connect2Media, COO. “ Top Trumps is an excellent property for mobile devices and we want to ensure that the quality we have produced for mobile is even more compelling for the iPhone, which is why we are working with highly acclaimed Mobile Pie, to develop the games for the iPhone.”

Will Luton, Creative Director for Mobile Pie, said “ We’re very excited to get our hands on the Top Trumps brand and to create an app with all the love and polish we’ve become known for. We’re going to take the license beyond expectations.”

‘Top Trumps 007 Best of Bond’ will be the first in the series of Top Trumps titles published on the App Store this summer.

It is with great honour that I can announce that we’ve been nominated for two – yes, two! – prestigious Develop Awards: New Studio and Micro Studio. We’re up against some very successful and regarded developers, including Minecraft creators Mojang Specifications and the amazing Andreas Illiger, the mind behind Tiny Wings.

The awards will be dished out on 20 July and a full list of nominees can be found at Develop Online.

I’m off to iron my cummerbund – hope to see you there.