Playing to make a connection

Provided to China Daily

Eventually Mow convinced Nat to relocate to Shanghai. Cong runs operations in Vancouver.

"We see an opportunity to create a really social experience for players, and I think being in China has really influenced us with this," Mow says. "Take WeChat (China's most popular instant messaging app), with its social functionalities where it helps you meet new people. I think games have an opportunity to do all of those things.

"Games can be the context for people to make new connections and that's kind of what we're looking to do."

Their recent game, a mobile game, Gem Wizard was released on iOS, Android and Facebook across the world. Unfortunately because the game was built with Facebook integration, Chinese players lose out on the social elements of the game, as Facebook has been unavailable in China since 2009.

Pixelmatic's games Mow says are built to be "casual-core", meaning that the games are meant to be accessible and appealing to casual gamers while retaining elements that hardcore gamers will enjoy. Gem Wizard, a match-three style game, has many elements of casual-core. The game play is simple and addictive and with its collection and crafting system, it also has a level of depth. The game was first released in Japan, with the reasoning Japan's game market is more mature.