“Odd one out” describes mobile developer Alpha Dog to a tee. The team was snapped up by Zenimax Media for Bethesda Game Studios in 2019. Working out of Canadian province Nova Scotia, famed for its maritime industry, it is safe to say that Alpha Dog is the pride of a relatively small local game development scene. Starting in 2009, founders Shawn Woods and Jeff Cameron decided to bring past game-making experiences onto the mobile screen while building a small indie dev studio in their local area. In 2012, the pair managed to make action-RPG Wraithborne for iOS, Android, and Ouya. This was a full fantasy in your pocket, with runes, magic, big swords, and dungeon crawling. According to NSBI, the game was fairly successful but got mauled by the release of mega-hit Clash of Clans. This led to an extreme downturn for the team, having to downsize into a basement and retool how the team were operating. It became, in part, about breaking down the successes of the mobile game industry with data and analytics. Making MonstroCity: Rampage for mobile using this information buoyed the studio’s fortunes in 2016. MonstroCity: Rampage is a strange combination of city builder and kaiju elements. Using one of a batch of monsters, you must build your city whilst defending it from attacks. It was successful enough to launch a board game of the same name and is still alive with a vibrant community. With this success, it appears the studio outsourced its smart use data and analytics to other studios. Eventually, this shopping around managed to get Alpha Dog an audience with Zenimax, a company that wanted to expand into the mobile space with all of its well-known Bethesda properties. That mix of experience, wily new tactics, and need for financial security led to an acquisition in 2019. During this period, the team made Ninja Golf for iOS and Android, a remake of the original Atari game. The first game out of the studio after the acquisition and a major expansion is Mighty DOOM, an action arcade shoot-’em-up for mobile, which is slated for late 2021.
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