If you're one of those who missed the fact that S2 Games is in town, growing its business and its staff at a brisk pace, be aware the company is currently making itself impossible to ignore.
With
billboards that feature the silver back gorilla of its logo breaking through the sign, some in 3-D displays that are de rigueur for a company that makes online games,
S2 Games aims to let people know in a big way that it's here.
And in keeping with the classic image of geeks -- those who like to blow things up -- the company will be co-sponsoring the 4th of July fireworks in Oshtemo Township this year. Since the holiday comes in midweek the display will be launched from The Prairies Golf Club on June 29.
S2 Games, along with Oshtemo Charter Township and The Oshtemo Rotary Club is bringing the firework show to the community for the first time this year. (If it rains the fireworks show will take place June 30. Fireworks can be
viewed from a wide range of locations along West Main Street between U.S. 131 and Drake Road.)
The company also is making noise in the competitive gaming world as it turns on the lights in its newly designed studio built to create an ESPN type live coverage of Heroes of Newerth competitions. "We're the first ones to have our own broadcast studio," says Shawn Tooley, chief operating officer for the company. "You don't see anyone else doing this -- yet."
That's the kind of change the company likes to be known for.
S2 Games has its roots in a series of companies started by Chief Executive Officer Marc DeForest. The successful serial entrepreneur owned six restaurants, an ice rink and a number of real estate ventures before he got into the game development business. The other businesses were spun off when he decided video games was the one he most wanted to pursue. Why the switch?
"You have to pick what want to be good at," says Tooley. "And none of the others were as fun as the video gaming business."
S2 Games got its start in 2003 and had grown to 22 employees by 2010 when things blew up.
Today, staff for the game company is primarily in Michigan, but its art team works out of California. S2 Games has 69 employees -- 55 in Kalamazoo (more than 20 of those from Michigan) and 14 in Rohnert Park, Calif. (a community Tooley describes as Kalamazoo with Palm trees). S2 looks for developers with a diverse backgrounds including film, fine art, computer science and business.
Tooley says considering the moderate cost of living, the price of housing in Kalamazoo area and the company's reputation for a laid back working environment it has been easy to recruit top employees from across the country.
Recently, the company brought its California contingent to Michigan for some quality time to celebrate the company's successes.
S2 Games has been experiencing rapid growth since it introduced its third and most popular game, Heroes of Newerth. The company knew it had a winner when early on its numbers took off. In "very closed beta" the game almost immediately had 20,000 players, says Tooley. Its previous games had started at around 2,000 at the same point in their development.
Popularity of the game has grown from 3 million accounts in 2010 to more than 6.75 million accounts across the globe today. The company reports that 820 million matches have been played and it recently recorded 115,000 users playing the game at the same time.
The game is free to play and the company gets its revenues from charging for the virtual currency -- the gold -- players use to boost the skills of their heroes in the game.
Globally, players are taking up the game in North America, Europe, Korea, Latin America and South East Asia. And Tooley is eagerly anticipating breaking into the market in China where he says there are more video gamers than there are people in the United States.
Heroes of Newerth pits two teams of players against each other -- the Legion and the Hellbourne -- and it keeps things interesting for players by continuously adding to the number of heroes players can choose from, a move necessary to maintain the depth of gameplay and strategies that make it more than a multi-player online battle arena game. Tooley says there are patches each week to keep the game ever-changing.
The constant addition of new heroes makes it virtually impossible to play the game the same way twice in a row, he says. Other changes introduced in recent weeks and months to keep players engaged have been the introduction of Mid Wars, a new mode on a new map that puts the focus squarely on intense team battles and Lock Pick, a new way of picking teams that promotes scrimmaging and competitiveness.
The company also demonstrates a thoroughness that drives it to seek out talent like Don Morrow, spokesman for more than 20,000 national and international commercials and motion picture campaigns such as the one for "Titanic." The game's music would fit as movie soundtrack and artwork colorful and detailed.
Another way the company works to maintain loyal fans is its Friday afternoon opportunity for players to pit their skills against S2 Games developers and other staffers for three hours each week. "We get feedback from the community that we might not otherwise have gotten," Tooley says. "When a change happens in the game 'because I (a player) told them to' -- that's very exciting."
A quick online scan of reviews of the game shows that although it is highly regarded, it's not exactly easy for beginners to get the hang of. Tooley says they are working to address that. Overall, he says S2 Games views HoN, as it's called, as a service and responsiveness to its community is important.
"We do what we say we're going to do," Tooley says.
Kathy Jennings is Managing Editor of Southwest Michigan's Second Wave. She is a
freelance editor and writer.
Photo by
Erik Holladay.