Free’s a Crowd

Philip Lau is an expert at wrangling cats—for the small screen. A creative director at Animoca Brands, he has helped the Hong Kong-based startup produce several popular mobile games starring famous felines. Among them, Doraemon, a blue robot cat that’s one of the biggest stars of Japanese anime, and Garfield, the overweight tabby that’s a regular in the comics section of U.S. newspapers. Like most kitties, they set their own rules. According to Doraemon’s brand guidelines, for example, games featuring the character cannot have killing or violence. The latest title, like its two predecessors, is carnage-free. Says Lau: “You don’t see any explosions, any blood, so it’s all right.”

With a crew of 70 employees, Animoca releases three to five titles a month. Like the vast majority of games on app stores, Animoca’s are free to download. The company makes money from advertising and from getting customers to make in-game purchases that endow their characters with special powers or outfit them in new clothes. Animoca boasts a string of hits in Asia: Doraemon Gadget Rush, the newest game in the series, surpassed 1.8 million downloads less than two weeks after its release in early February, according to the company; its Garfield titles have been downloaded more than 30 million times.