What We Do
Dogmelon makes games. It's what we love to do.
We are best-known for our Solitaire and Mahjong games on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and Apple TV. But we enjoy (and admire) a wide range of games from many genres and platforms.
Connect
Personal tastes and circumstances tend to change over time.
We were raised on wide range of games from the 8-bit Commodore 64 days, desktop computers, and through most consoles and handheld devices.
Arrival of children meant first-person shooters gave way to games involving puppies, ponies or minecraft-ing.
These days we've realised that the a large part of the fun comes from the connected-ness that games bring. Think back to when you were growing up, playing board games or card games with family. For us it was especially true during vacations, where we had less access to TV, and maybe only a deck of cards or a beaten-up old board game to see us through.
In today's world, we have friends and family all over the place, but we're still connected online. Dogmelon are bringing games that will help us stay connected with loved ones.
The first game in this direction is 'Daily Solitaire'. Currently it's part of our '27 Solitaire Games' on iOS, but a standalone version is in the works.
Our People
Anthony Wiese
Designs Frustrating Games
Ant went bald at age 13, give or take.
When not working, Ant enjoys fermenting things.
Ant is currently the number 2-ranked Balants player at Dogmelon HQ. This makes him the lowest-ranked active player, worldwide.
Daniel Fletcher
Makes Fun Things
Shipwrecked at the age of 6 months, sole survivor Daniel was raised by wolves, and had no human contact until he was 11 years old.
Dan knows how to survive in the wild eating only natural weeds.
Dan is currently the number 1 Balants player at Dogmelon HQ, making him the most fearsome player in the entire history of the world.
Some History
Ant and Dan met in a bathroom when working as programmers at an IT company, in the late 1990s. Somehow -- probably to avoid an awkward silence -- the topic of making games came up.
They put together a small group of friends who started making a game in their spare time.
Where did the name 'Dogmelon' come from?
The name Dogmelon came from a doodle on a whiteboard of a dog taking a bite out of a slice of watermelon. The words 'Dog' and 'Melon' were written underneath the sketch. When a logo was required, this was deemed suitable.
We wish there was a better story behind the name, but that's it.
Ant and Dan worked together again at another company, working on a surfing game for EASports on the Playstation 2.
When EA cancelled that game, it was time to branch out on their own.
In those days, it was difficult to get a licence to develop on a console with no track record. Dogmelon decided to take its prototypes to hardware that was in need of developers.
The first platform Dogmelon was licensed to develop on was the VM Labs NUON. This was a DVD player which was 'souped up' to allow basic games. This was pre- iPad or iAnything, and at the time games consoles or indeed any device for playing games were still a niche mainly for teenage boys. The clever idea behind the NUON was that everyone needed a DVD player, and if you bought the NUON, then *boom* you've also got a games console in your home. Almost like a trojan horse.
On the basis of signing an agreement with VM Labs, Ant and Dan left their jobs and started a new company, Dogmelon. Within a week or so, VM Labs filed for Chapter 11, and Dogmelon never wrote a single line of code for NUON.
Our next hardware platform of choice was the Franklin eBookman. The fact that you are not reading this article on an eBookman is reflective of the fact that the eBookman did not appeal to, well, anyone. But it did give us our first experience of people around the world playing our games, which was extremely satisfying, if not lucrative.
The Palm Pilot market was Dogmelon's next foray, and this was a big step up from the eBookman. But still the Palm was rare enough that you didn't see them in the hands of the general person on the street.
Moving products onto Windows, and then particularly Mac OSX, was much more successful. Today we are back on handhelds with Apple's range of handheld devices.