Temple Run 2 for Android out January 24

Gamers with devices running Google's Android need not envy their counterparts with iOS devices for long: the Android version of the popular "Temple Run 2" is coming Jan. 24.

Imangi Studios, which developed the hit game, said it wanted to give itself a week to iron out problems for the Android version, UK's The Guardian reported.

"We really wanted to try and do a simultaneous release, but being a small team I feel that the iOS launch is overwhelming enough! Let's give ourselves one more week to iron out any problems we haven't spotted," the Guardian quoted Keith Shepherd, who co-founded Imangi with his partner Natalia Luckyanova, as saying.

The Guardian noted the one-week delay for the Android version is an improvement over the delay in the initial version of the game: four months.

Shepherd said that while iOS had "always been our home and where we're most comfortable," he said Android is important to Temple Run, with downloads from the Google Play store well past the 50-million mark.

"We designed Temple Run 2 from the get-go to be cross-platform, and using the Unity technology and engine really helped us with that. We are excited about launching on Android next week," he said.

He also hinted at making the game run on multiple platforms.

"It's pretty easy to do a desktop build, and that's something we're going to explore a little bit more with Temple Run 2," he said.

"We've also gotten requests for Temple Run to be on any platform you can imagine – some things we haven't even heard of! We'll try to do a little bit more of that this time round," he added.

"Temple Run" and its spinoff "Temple Run: Brave" enjoyed 170 million downloads for iOS and Android, The Guardian reported.

It added the first game was released in August 2011 for iOS, and was downloaded 2.5 million times on Christmas Day 2012 alone.

"We'd been focusing all our company's efforts on Temple Run with updates and new content, but we kinda ran into a barrier," said Shepherd.

He added that while the original was awesome, "we wanted to do some radically different things, and improve the graphics, so we knew we'd have to start afresh."

Unity platform

The sequel, developed on the Unity platform, had a "visual leap forward," The Guardian reported.

But Shepherd said Imangi worked hard to keep the game's familiar swipe-based controls intact.

"If the tilts and touches and swipes are the language of the game, we wanted to expand on the vocabulary: to have more things you can do with those actions, he said.

Also, Imangi put much thought into how to make money from Temple Run 2, and now uses two virtual currencies – coins and gems - gained with play and in-app purchases.

Splitting in-app purchases into gems and coins gives Imangi some flexibility - coins are still dished out and unlock new characters and power-ups, while gems are rarer and used for consumables, like restarting from the point a player died at or augmenting those power-ups.

"Having something a little bit slower-paced helps balance the game out a little bit more," said Shepherd.

Small independent developer

Amid the success of Temple Run, Imangi Studios is still a small, independent developer, developing Temple Run using a three-person team of Shepherd, Luckyanova and artist Kiril Tchangov.

The sequel was the product of five people: the original trio plus Jeff Ruediger and Pete Parisi from FuzzyCube Software.

Shepherd said Imangi has fielded plenty of interest from investors but has so far declined the offers.

"What's important to Natalia and I, and the folks on our team, is that we really enjoy making games and the creative aspect of what we do. If we really tried to blow this up and make it the biggest thing possible, we'd be more removed from that," he said.

"We've been very successful as a small team: we're highly profitable, can fund what we're doing, and we don't have to answer to investors. Our goal isn't to grow this thing as big as possible then sell to someone else. Our goal is to build something that lasts for the long term," he added.

While Shepherd said he would want to work on new things, they have "a real sense of responsibility to all the fans out there."

"They're the reason we've been so successful, and if they want more Temple Run, let's give them more Temple Run! But there is something to be said for also doing something completely new once in a while," he said.

As for licenses for merchandise like shirts and toys, he said he and Luckyanova tried to ignore them for a while.

Imangi eventually partnered with San Francisco firm Dimensional Branding Group to help it venture into the licensing market.

There is now an official online store run by CafePress selling clothing, mugs, wallets, iPad and Kindle sleeves and even shower curtains.

A partnership with Disney saw the release of Temple Run Brave on iOS, based on the animated film Brave.

"We don't know anything about that stuff, so let's focus on what we do best. But it became apparent that it wasn't going away, and everyone's seen how amazingly Angry Birds has merchandised, so we started to think we were being really silly in ignoring this stuff," he said.

As for comics, Ape Entertainment is publishing official Temple Run comics, and has similar deals for mobile games including Pocket God, Fruit Ninja and Cut the Rope.