The mobile gaming industry is booming worldwide, and with it has come a whole host of new gaming companies, indie games developers and app developers. Today, we would like to introduce you to GameBench
“We’re aiming to be the first company in the world to provide a single tool for analysis performance of Android and iOS apps”
GameBench, a startup based at the tech incubator Bristol and Bath Science Park, is revolutionising the way developers test their mobile apps by providing a unique tool that monitors how well iOS or Android games and apps run on a particular device.
Keen to find out more, we caught up with GameBench’s Co-founder and CTO, Karthik Hariharakrishnan (pictured above).
TechSPARK: Karthik, what is GameBench and why did you create it?
Karthik: GameBench provides tools for analysing the performance of apps and games in mobile devices and was created out of a need to assess the true performance of a device using content that consumers use the most.
Traditionally, a mobile device’s performance was measured using synthetic benchmarks that ran a piece of software and reported a score. It was assumed that the higher the score, the better the device’s performance. Yet, more often that not, the benchmarks contained use cases that were not representative of real-world apps.
“We have been able to slowly shift the industry’s perspective towards using real world content for judging mobile device performance”
When we founded GameBench we wanted to create a tool that would allow us to benchmark devices based on games that were the most popular. Hence the name GameBench – using games to benchmark your device. We then created the world’s first android app that can be used for measuring the performance of games from Android Play.
Check out GameBench’s tools in action with its preview video:
TS: How does GameBench help developers?
GameBench provides an easy-to-use tool that helps developers during the beta-testing phase as it allows them to quickly understand if their app meets the minimum performance threshold on various Android devices.
“When indie developers request access to our tool, we provide it to them for free in exchange for feedback”
Since GameBench works across all mobile devices, developers have to use only one tool instead of using several vendor specific tools. As a result, we have had enormous adoption with testing firms where the need for such a tool is massive. In the future, we will have built the first tool that can help developers profile their Android and iOS apps instantaneously using a unified tool.
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TS: What have been your biggest successes with GameBench?
We have been able to slowly shift the industry’s perspective towards using real world content for judging mobile device performance and several journalists have started using GameBench on a regular basis when reviewing games.
In addition we have given phone makers a unique tool that helps them analyse the strengths of their competition.
Improving mobile gaming: As well as running GameBench, the team
has also co-organised Open(London) – a unique gathering of
developers, publishers, chip designers and device makers sharing
the goal of improving mobile gaming
TS: GameBench is free for indie developers – how does that work?
We are aware that indie developers are already stretched when it comes to money. So when indie developers request access to our tool, we provide it to them for free in exchange for feedback on the usability of the tool and additional features that they think could be useful.
In the future, if this approach is not sustainable, we might charge them a small but nominal fee (in the range of few dollars a month).
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TS: You’ve also already collaborated with various universities, what did that involve?
We have collaborated with Bristol’s UWE as well as a university from Naples, Italy. Our involvement with universities is always for recruiting bright people who can become permanent employees in the future. In return we provide a fun work environment where they learn several aspects of software development in a short period of time.
TS: How else can people get involved with GameBench?
We are always looking for users to try out our app and give us feedback on usability. We are also looking for people to beta test our next products, so if you think you can help in return for some free performance analysis tools, we would like to chat!
Desktop preview: GameBench can profile and test your game on multiple levels
from its impact on mobile battery life to its GPU usage
TS: What’s next for GameBench?
The next big thing in our roadmap is the unified desktop profiler. We are aiming to be the first company in the world to provide a single tool for analysis performance of Android and iOS apps.
“It always feels good to be surrounded by very smart people innovating in their own way”
Traditionally only Apple has provided any performance analysis for iOS. With the unified profiler, a developer can compare the performance of their Android and iOS apps using one tool. We expect this tool to be widely used among companies that have both Android and iOS apps.
TS: You’re located at the Bristol & Bath Science Park – how helpful has this been for your company?
It has been immensely helpful that we are based in the Bristol and Bath Science Park. Some of the advantages of being based there include getting to know about various funding opportunities, getting invites to pitching events and having a brilliant office space to work at in a quiet and peaceful location. Plus, it always feels good to be surrounded by very smart people innovating in their own way.
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TS: Which other tech companies impress you in the Bristol and Bath region?
We have come across several smart ideas in the Bristol and Bath region. Some companies we haven’t interacted with like ClusterHQ are impressive because of the amount of funding they have been able to raise. In addition, companies like JustOneDB and Piptook who have some great ideas.
Thanks to Karthik for taking the time to chat to us about GameBench. You can follow GameBench on Twitter @GameBench or find out more about getting hold of their tools via the GameBench website.
