The reason HypGames Inc. wanted to get celebrities like pro golfer Lee Westwood, rock star Alice Cooper and “Seinfeld” actor John O’Hurley on its mobile golf game was simple.
HypGames created that game, Ultimate Golf, so users could play rounds of virtual golf in interesting places with interesting people, co-founder and CEO Mike Taramykin told Orlando Inno. What’s more interesting than competing against the singer of “School’s Out” or one of the world’s top golfers?
Last year, HypGames worked with a nonprofit to host a charity virtual golf tournament with celebrities. That blossomed into a series of competitions and video interviews with celebrities and professional athletes, which has turned into a major engagement driver for the Longwood-based mobile game developer.
Here’s more from Taramykin on the firm's series of video interviews with celebrities playing its popular mobile game:
How did HypGames start getting connected with these celebrities? We started doing that in August 2021. We had an opportunity to work with the Childhelp charity that’s for preventing child abuse. Actor John O’Hurley got involved, and he called people. He wrangled NFL Hall-of-Famer Steve Young, Alice Cooper, Fox News anchor Bret Baier and actor Patrick Warburton. One thing we did in the game, you can play against these people for an entry fee, like $1. The tournaments sponsored by celebs raised $220,000-ish. They said that’s more than they usually make hosting a tournament in person.
How are these celebrity challenges structured now? We were always thinking of it like a podcast-style game play. We get someone interesting and talk to them while playing a golf video game. You’ve got Bret Baier talking about interviewing presidents, and Alice Cooper talking about almost shooting Elvis.
What other kinds of people have you brought on? We’ll have local celebrities from the app. We use this as an opportunity to introduce them to everyone else. Everyone thought we had bots because no one could be that good. We throw in some influencers. We worked with PGA Memes founder Travis Miller. It’s about keeping it interesting.
Does this have an opportunity to drive direct revenue for the company? If we keep people in the game, that’s driving revenue. As long as we keep people coming back with something new, we’ll continue to clear revenue. When we have special events, there are opportunities to do special merchandising.
Besides Ultimate Golf, what else is HypGames working on? We have projects in various stages of development. There are different staffing needs. Hiring becomes more specialized. Our goal still is to hire quite a few by the end of the year. we have other things not announced yet. One is in a soft launch, and one is soft launching by the end of the year.
HypGames Inc.
- Founded: 2016
- Central Florida employees: 42
- Employees companywide: 70
- Capital raised since founding: $8.5 million
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