Posted by Ross
Thu, 19th Jul 2012
Hi everyone. I hope you’ve been enjoying the opinion pieces we’ve been doing lately. If you’ve got anything in particular you’d like us to talk about, please feel free to ask in the comments. No promises, but if it sparks something in our heads then we may well cover it in a future blog.
So, to the big news! :) You might recall that we recently said we were approaching one million PSN downloads across all our games. Well, I’ve been watching the figures approach the magic seven digits and a few days back it finally happened so I’m incredibly delighted to say that we have now crossed that milestone! :) So, thanks to everyone who has downloaded/purchased and (more importantly!) played one of our games and to SCEE/SCEA for making it all possible. Knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of you playing our games is just crazy! :)
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, the overwhelming majority of these downloads are for our minis, several of which have received over 100,000 downloads individually. Certainly the minis platform has been very strong for us.
One of the most surprising little facts I found when looking through the data earlier is that about 55% of our downloads have come via Sony Computer Entertainment of America as opposed to about 45% from all the countries covered by Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe. As a European developer that has traditionally received more coverage in Europe, this was definitely something we didn’t expect and I’d be quite interested in hearing if you guys have any theories as to why this might be.
Finally, as some of you may be aware, this August will be the 30th anniversary of Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone’s classic Fighting Fantasy: The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Fans of the series might also already know that to celebrate this milestone Ian Livingstone is set to release a new Fighting Fantasy book entitled “Blood of the Zombies” which you can read more about over at www.fightingfantasy.com. As a long-time tabletop gamer it was the fulfilment of several childhood dreams to work on bringing two of this classic gamebook series to PSN so if you haven’t already, why not head over to the PSN store and check out our double pack of Fighting Fantasy: Talisman of Death and The Warlock of Firetop Mountain.
I’ll be back next week with more from Laughing Jackal. But until then, why not on join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages?
Posted by Ross
Thu, 12th Jul 2012
Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed reading about our thoughts on Minis in last week’s blog. We’re still very hard at work on “Mystery Game X” and in fact, just opposite me as I type, someone is working on the creation of one of the game’s fiendish bosses…
Anyway, this week I wanted to move on to another topic that’s been a huge focus of our recent discussions here at Laughing Jackal and that is “Free to Play.”
As some of you may remember, our upcoming iPhone game Hungry Giraffe and the free to play model were discussed internally before we took the decision to offer the game for free with in-app purchasing. As we mentioned in the previous blog, one of the disadvantages of the App Store compared to something like PSN is that it’s a lot easier for games - regardless of quality - to become lost amongst the vast quantity of games available. As such, we really want to make it as easy as possible for those who do look at our games, to then give them a try.
Whichever way we choose to market and promote our games in this very competitive market, it is of course essential for us to look at the model from a gamer’s perspective too. We don’t want to take advantage of gamers with payment systems that are designed to exploit them, nor do we want people to feel like we are getting them hooked on a game before demanding that they dip into their wallets in order to keep playing.
Aside from advertising, currently the three most common ways of handling free to play are: i) the ‘pay to unlock’ system which works very much like a traditional demo; ii) the in-app purchase system, where you buy cosmetic or gameplay additions to your game and iii) an energy system which Hookshot Inc went into more detail about in a recent post.
In general, like the guys over at Hookshot Inc, I personally have a hard time seeing how an energy system can avoid being exploitative. However, outside of that, as long as the other two methods are applied appropriately and at a fair price then I think they can be fair for both developer and customer.
While paying up front has the advantage of allowing the payment system to completely get out of the way of the gameplay (which is very important in some types of games, particularly those for which immersion in another world is an important factor) it is also useful for games that are not immediately accessible. If the game requires the player to take some real effort to get into the game, then they are more likely to do that if they have already paid money for it than if it is something they have downloaded for free to try out.
However, for other types of games, free to play can provide several advantages; it allows players to see what they are getting before they have to decide whether to buy or not; if the game goes down the in-app purchases route, then it also allows people to only pay for the parts of the game they are interested in; it also allows developers to see exactly what areas of the game people are interested in buying which provides valuable information about gamers’ priorities when playing and will positively influence future game designs.
When it comes to gaming I tend to be fairly greedy. I want to be able to play AAA games, indie games, Japanese games, western games and anything in between. So I’m fairly happy to see free to play as an option for developers because, after all, it means more choice for all of us. However, I do tend to see the predictions of some of the more enthusiastic free to play evangelists about all games becoming free to play as a window into some form of personal hell. I’m not sure many of the types of games I love would necessarily succeed in that type of environment.
That’s all for today. Please feel free to use the comments here to tell us your thoughts on free to play. Are there any ‘free to play’ games you’ve particularly enjoyed or hated? Do you see it as a viable future for some sectors of the industry? Let us know. :-)
I’ll be back next week with all the news from Laughing Jackal. But until then, why not on join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages?
Posted by Ross
Fri, 6th Jul 2012
There’s been lots of interesting media discussion around PlayStation Minis recently which seems to have been kicked off by the guys over at FuturLab. So I thought this would be an opportune time to stick our oar in and talk about our experiences on the Minis platform.
Unlike many developers we actually came to Minis via the world of boxed games. Our first two releases, Road to Vegas (DS) and Mary King’s Riding School (Wii) were released by our sister companies Midas & Ghostlight for whom we have also been involved with several localisations. Details of which can be found on our games page.
From a technical standpoint Minis have been a great route into self publishing as it has given us the opportunity to learn about the complexities of publishing on console, but in a slightly more relaxed atmosphere. Of course making your games available for people to buy is only one part of self publishing. Being on PlayStation Minis has also given us the opportunity to learn about promotion of our games whilst receiving great marketing support from the platform holder itself.
While it’s possible to drop off the radar soon after release on some platforms, the support from Sony combined with their structuring of updates means that all Minis draw attention in the approach to and upon release. This guarantees us an opportunity to build some serious word of mouth marketing.
Furthermore the Minis programme has allowed us to build a stronger relationship with Sony. With help from our account manager (thanks Neil :)) we have been able to make several games part of the PS+ programme leading to many gamers playing our products who might not otherwise have done so. This has then lead to gamers investigating some of our other products which has ultimately pushed our company’s sales further. Minis have also given us the opportunity to have our games published in territories outside of Europe, Australia and New Zealand as we’ve now had games published in both North America & Asia. Lastly, the success of our Minis has paved the way for us to take the next big step in publishing our own full PS3 titles on PSN. Last year we released our first PS3 title on PSN, the mighty Cubixx HD, which was in fact the sequel to one of our earlier Minis, Cubixx. We’re now hard at work on another full priced PSN title, the infamous “Mystery Game X.”
The smaller size of PlayStation minis have given us a chance to experiment creatively which has lead to some of our most critically successful Minis. For example, OMG-Z, which is not only in the top ten PSP games of all time but the highest rated Mini according to Metacritic, and Hungry Giraffe which was the first Mini to get 10 out of 10 in Official PlayStation Magazine UK. Since the projects are relatively small, we’ve been able to create and experiment with games in many different genres which has helped us grow as a company and develop our very own Laughing Jackal style of gaming.
Our Minis have also been successful in terms of raw numbers. At this point in time we are approaching 1 million PSN downloads worldwide. While at this point we are moving away from Minis with a full PSN title in development (among other things), they are certainly not something we regret getting involved in and have given us a great start as a developer.
That’s all for today. I’ll be back next week with all the news from Laughing Jackal. But until then, why not on join us on our Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google+ pages?
