Business
TutoTOONS
2021 08 17
Lithuanian creators recognized among the world-leading game studios

TutoTOONS is a well-recognized name among children and parents; however, not many Lithuanians know this kids’ mobile game studio has been established and successfully growing its team of professionals locally in Lithuania. Founded over a decade ago by Mantas Radvila and Mantas Kavaliauskas, the game studio integrates entertainment and education in their exciting children’s mobile apps that keep escalating the TutoTOONS name worldwide.

The company has already developed and published over 300 mobile games for kids and is counting over 65 million active users each month, while the majority of TutoTOONS games exceed 5-10 million downloads. “We are soon to reach the 1 billion app download milestone, which is a huge achievement for our team. We are tremendously happy to be able to do our work right here in Lithuania,” explained M. Radvila and M. Kavaliauskas, the founders of TutoTOONS.

 

The starting point of the business – incorporating education into the virtual world

 

According to the TutoTOONS studio creators, the idea to put together a team of mobile game developers emerged when they realized the importance of learning through play. Years ago when they started, there were only a handful of games that taught the Lithuanian language, maths, or other academic disciplines. After gathering up all of their courage and programming knowledge, M. Kavaliauskas and M. Radvila released their first educational game that became the beginning of school collaborations and a solid foundation of their successful business model.

 

After about five years of working closely with the Lithuanian educational system and developing mobile games based on the textbooks and teaching materials at schools, TutoTOONS started growing and stepped outside the borders of the Lithuanian gaming industry. “Ever since we launched the company, we’ve had a huge desire to create a global product and be responsible for its launch, so when the right time came, we entered the global mobile games market,” said Mantas Radvila.

 

 

Teaching in the form of games – a constant challenge for mobile game creators

 

Entertainment and education still go hand in hand in the games TutoTOONS creates – as the studio gradually detached itself from the teaching of academic disciplines, the creators began using games to develop such universal skills as caring for others, sharing, communication or tidiness in children. “Maintaining the balance between entertainment and education isn’t that simple, but we are always striving to create games that carry a valuable lesson or message to kids,” – explained Mantas Kavaliauskas.

 

One of the latest company’s achievements – a collaboration with the children’s toy industry giant MGA Entertainment (L.O.L. Surprise!, Bratz, etc.), creating a brand new game called L.O.L. Surprise! Disco House. Not every Lithuanian company gets an opportunity to work with such inspiring industry leaders – achieving such collaborations require years of hard work and continuous effort. The mobile app was received incredibly well – it hit the #1 spot in the game charts in the Family and Education categories (App Store and Google Play) in the United States, Canada and Australia, and received over 1M downloads in the first ten days after official launch!

 

In the game, kids can collect dolls, unlock new rooms, search for hidden clues and discover the exciting world of L.O.L. Surprise! The game’s creators also took the situation children were placed in by the pandemic into consideration – millions of kids worldwide were spending time at home with smartphones as their primary source of entertainment. TutoTOONS wanted to present children with a game that ensures their safety, develops imagination and encourages logical thinking needed to interpret the dolls’ dialogues and discover all the activities hidden in the L.O.L. Surprise! Disco House.

 

“We want to be everywhere children consume content, and the mobile app vertical is a great extension to our brand. This is just another way for our L.O.L. fans to stay connected to the L.O.L. lifestyle,” says Isaac Larian, the CEO & Founder of MGA Entertainment.

 

 

TutoTOONS studio – a unique example in the world’s gaming industry

 

It is usual in the gaming market for game developers and publishers to operate separately, but TutoTOONS is doing it differently – following a business model of both developing and publishing games in-house. According to the founders of the studio, the biggest challenge is to market and sell their apps in the rapidly growing industry – with thousands of new apps hitting the app stores each day, securing the game’s success requires immense effort, investments and team resources. “We develop about ten games a year, so it’s not hard to imagine the risk we face to get lost among such a huge stream of applications. At the moment, we are vigorously growing our publishing team that effectively markets our games in a way that allows them to hit the tops of the game charts worldwide,” – M. Kavaliauskas emphasized the importance of high-quality communication.

 

The gaming industry is steadily becoming one of the most successful business areas, attracting ever-increasing numbers of talented industry professionals, and TutoTOONS is no exception. “When we are talking about the gaming industry, it is principal for us to emphasize the significance of work that’s being carried out in Lithuania – we create and develop successful games, and young people, considering a career in the gaming industry, can pursue it right here. We will always find a place on our team for a motivated person while the need for area professionals in the industry is only going to continue growing,” concluded the founders of TutoTOONS.

 

Source: TutoTOONS.

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