2022 Fire Awards: HypGames Inc. has more new games in the works with planned releases this year

HypGames Inc., an Orlando-based mobile gaming company, was chosen as one of Orlando Business Journal's 2022 Fire Awards honorees, who were featured in OBJ's April 29-May 5, 2022, weekly edition.

The firm, which launched its popular game Ultimate Golf in June 2020, is developing a number of new games and adding high-wage jobs to build out its team. HypGames made a splash last year when it partnered with mobile gaming giant Miniclip to release Ultimate Golf. More than a year after its release, Ultimate Golf still ranks the 25th most popular sports game in the Apple App Store.

Here's more from HypGames CEO and co-founder Mike Taramykin:

Describe your company in three sentences or less: HypGames is a mobile sports game developer that lives at the intersection of sports, media and gaming. Through our games, we provide an innovative platform where sports gamers can compete, socialize and even go head-to-head live against celebrities such as rockstar Alice Cooper, NFL legend Steve Young and actor Rob Riggle, just to name a few.

What was your company’s biggest accomplishment of 2021? It was a breakout year for HypGames as our hit game Ultimate Golf gained market share, we raised a strategic Series B round, secured funding for multiple new products and had the opportunity to partner with major charities — including the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation — along with fabulous celebrities such as Seinfeld’s John O’Hurely to raise over $300,000 through our games to benefit critically important causes.

How did you get it done? Hard work and imagination. Since starting HypGames, we have envisioned a world in which sports gamers are always just seconds away from their next competition and golf fans instantly can be whisked away to a marquee golf course with the tap of a button. So first we built a game that delivered all the graphics and features required to engage and entertain sports fans. Then we set about creating and cultivating a passionate community to keep players actively engaged and entertained for months and even years.

How does your company stay on the cutting-edge? Innovation is our passion. We live in interesting times; technology is evolving so rapidly that it’s enabling completely new experiences to come along on a very regular basis. So we use this cadence of innovation to develop games and features that continue to surprise and delight our players. When we hear about a new technology or digital business model, we immediately start thinking about how it can power our product roadmap and keep HypGames on the cutting edge.

What strategies have you implemented to recruit and/or retain talent in a competitive labor market? Retention is a high priority. In a startup, every single person makes a monumental difference. At HypGames, they know it. We believe that when our employees are excited about our products and our vision, it creates loyalty to the company, pride in their work and confidence that this is a great place to grow their careers and increase their personal marketability. We also strive to create a culture and environment in which employees know they are valued, respected and are treated as professionals.

What is the biggest challenge facing your industry? As in any high-growth industry, there are many dynamic challenges. If I had to pick one, I’d say it’s the growing importance of customer privacy. The digital media business is built on customized experiences tailored to individual users. As digital privacy becomes more important to consumers, our industry needs to find ways to accommodate that while still delivering highly personalized products and services.

What is your company’s top goal for 2022? In a word, growth. In 2021 we grew our revenue and team size and we’re looking to continue that trend. The key to this strategy not only is growing the Ultimate Golf business, but also launching several new products. While we are not ready to announce anything yet, HypGames has multiple new games in development with planned releases at various times in 2022, so stay tuned.

In the past year, what progress have you seen in the growth of Central Florida’s entrepreneurial and tech ecosystems? We raised our first round from Central Florida investors in 2016, and since then we have seen the ecosystem flourish. As a local startup, this is both exciting and also kind of obvious since we realized from our founding that Central Florida represented the ideal confluence of existing talent, university grads and an overall high quality of life. Over the past six years — and especially in the last one to two years — we have seen more people come to the same realization and now we’re starting to see the local ecosystem starting to reach critical mass. This is especially true as early local startups are beginning to have the same level of success you typically see in established areas like the Northeast and the West Coast.

What is the local technology and innovation sector’s biggest obstacle to more growth? Finding the highly specialized technical talent we need to hire as we grow. Hiring from Central Florida is a priority for us. When we post a job, less than 10% of the resumes we receive come from Central Florida, if from Florida at all.

Are you hiring now? Yes. We need to fill about 50 positions by Q1 2023, and we’re hoping to do so at a rate of about five per month, though 10 in the earlier months would be better.

HypGames Inc.

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