1.    1www.stackmob.com
Case Study: Flying Monkey Interactive
Q:
A: We’re an indie game studio. Many of us came from Linden Lab—
A: Strangelings is our first game and it allows users to raise interactive fantasy pets, Strangelings,
in lush, imaginative environments. It’s built on the idea of these little creatures, all of whom have
a lot of recessive genes and traits such as hair and body color. Strangelings can look very different
from each other, but they all have dominant and recessive genes, which they pass along to their
offspring. As you begin breeding Strangelings, you can create your ideal pet. There are millions of
combinations that can be bred and we think that provides a lot of fun for players.
A: We need a backend that is front end agnostic to support the web, iOS and Android. We’re using
Unity 3D for its rich modeling environment. All these platforms are talking across RESTful web
service API’s to our backend platform. The players’ data isn’t saved locally, so you can start playing
a game on your iPad and pick it up again on your Android device. We’ve built Strangelings so that
players can interact with multiple players in real time and pets can interact together. We even have
an auction where players can sell the unique animals they create for cash.
A: The key to success is being able to focus energy on the areas we add the most value. You’re not
differentiating yourself by building your own backend. Where we have the opportunity to stand out in the
app store, is with an amazing end user experience. We wanted to find a technology stack that supported
this philosophy. (Continued)
Q:
Q:
Tell us about Flying Monkey Interactive.
What is Strangelings?
What technology is powering Strangelings?
Flying Monkey Interactive is building the next generation of games for mobile. Their
premiere game, Strangelings, uses a custom built genetics gaming engine to create
unique characters for users to interact with. We talked with Hamilton Hitchings, CTO
of Flying Monkey Interactive about how he’s using StackMob to power Strangelings.
Q: Why did you choose StackMob?
we loved building Second Life, and we wanted to take that experience, build our own game and create
something more broadly accessible to mobile and web users. With that in mind, we created Strangelings.
“The key to success is being able to focus energy on the areas we add the most
value. We have the opportunity to stand out with an amazing user experience”

2.    2www.stackmob.com
Q:
Q:
Q:
How much money has StackMob saved you?
Tell us about your security measures?
How has StackMob support been?
If you’d like to play Strangelings, visit them online at Strangelings.com.
And if you’re new to StackMob, sign up for free and start building your mobile app today.
A: Human costs are by far the most expensive for any company. Using StackMob, we’ve cut our costs by
50%, since we no longer have to hire an engineer to do the backend work. Not having to deal the software
infrastructure has been great. We can rely on StackMob for that—after all, it’s what they specialize in.
A: The data on the client is not secure, and in trying to build a virtual economy it’s very important you
have good security. We never wanted to send any data to the client that the user isn’t supposed to see.
We assume from day one that the client is hacked. That’s why we keep our logic stored with StackMob.
A: We were really impressed with StackMob support. I’ve
never seen a company take support so seriously and really
go the extra mile. StackMob was always willing to go the
distance to make us successful, even if it wasn’t obvious to their core
product. That was amazing and one of the reasons we felt confident
betting our company on StackMob.
“StackMob’s custom code has been one of the most important features for us
in Strangelings. They could support the custom logic we were building into our
app with custom code. StackMob adds a ton of productivity.”
“StackMob was always willing to go the distance to make us successful. That
was one of the reasons we felt confident betting our company on StackMob.”
There’s a recent class of services targeted more towards mobile backends and the web. StackMob
supports the paradigm of RESTful web services and backend storage, where you as an app dev don’t have
to spend a lot of money and develop expertise to do it. While I have the expertise in building backends, I
didn’t think it was the best use of our resources to build it ourselves.
StackMob’s custom code has been one of the most important features for us in Strangelings. StackMob
has a lot of expertise and experience in custom code and that gave us confidence that they could support
the custom logic we were building into our app with custom code. We write a lot of custom code that sits
on the backend and does the breeding and transfers the animals among players. From a game developer
perspective it’s great because the backend is taken care of except for the game logic we’re writing and the
schema we’re defining. StackMob adds a ton of productivity.