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In our common Cell Masterworks function we take an in-depth have a look at the story behind the largest cellular franchises and apps round. What led to their creation? What made them so successful? And the way may these enduring hits encourage immediately’s creators to make their very own cellular megagames?
Final month we lined decade-long mega-hit Subway Surfers, and this time we’re bearing on one other enduring traditional of the cellular style. Jetpack Joyride is an easy, side-scrolling countless runner that nonetheless marked the beginning of many parts we now generally affiliate with cellular gaming, such because the shift from premium to “freemium.” So how did Barry Steakfries, the Jetpack Joyrider himself come to embody the countless runner style? Let’s discover out.
The Builders
Halfbrick studios was based in 2001 and is without doubt one of the oldest studios that we’ve lined to this point. Having at all times had its roots in moveable play, it developed titles for the GameBoy Advance and Sony’s PSP earlier than making the bounce to cellular. Their first main hit was the perennial Fruit Ninja, a easy recreation the place customers swiped on the touchscreen to slash fruit because it bounced throughout the display screen, whereas avoiding slashing bombs. Alongside video games akin to Indignant Birds, Fruit Ninja turned one of many “go-to” video games for bored adults, hyperactive children and proved to be the proper showcase for the larger display screen of the newly launched Apple iPad.
Nonetheless, though Fruit Ninja itself has remained a robust model, with the final entry for VR in 2016, the sport was considerably of a one-trick pony. Halfbrick Studios’ subsequent recreation would come to outline the form of addictive and long-lasting gameplay expertise you may get from cellular.. If Fruit Ninja propelled them to cellular stardom, then Jetpack Joyride can be the sport that cemented it.
Halfbrick Studios can be an ideal product of the colourful state of the Australian recreation market on the time, and the heights many are hoping to match once more. As we reported again in 2019 after a big droop, the Australian video games trade has begun to bounce again in recent times.
Growth and launch
Jetpack Joyride’s growth cycle isn’t as nicely documented as different smash hits akin to Indignant Birds. However the vital reception of the sport is most actually nicely documented. One of many earliest mentions from PocketGamer.biz was the sport hitting excessive on our High quality Index, a function which racked up the preferred video games. Jetpack Joyride adopted on from different video games printed by Halfbrick Studios akin to Age of Monsters and Zombie Sprint by that includes their – now iconic – Barry Steakfries, a stereotypical brunette motion hero sort.
Jetpack Joyride additionally marked a delicate however main change for Halfbrick Studios and maybe for cellular gaming as a complete, being the primary of Halbrick’s video games to include IAP’s, whereas Fruit Ninja had been a paid upfront recreation, albeit for a really low cost value. Though different titles akin to Indignant Birds which was launched a yr later continued to make use of the premium pricing, albeit briefly, Jetpack Joyride confirmed {that a} recreation which included this methodology of monetisation may show to be a monetary success.
No matter your ideas on in-game monetisation, and whether or not it has gone too far, the arrival, and success of Jetpack Joyride did give hope to many smaller studios that they might observe go well with, create a well-liked recreation, have the boldness to cost it as a ‘steal’ and nonetheless obtain a constant revenue stream.
The Success
Inside half a yr, Jetpack joyride would go 500k downloads on cellular, nevertheless it was when the sport went free-to-play – on the time a an unproven and – to many – loopy means of delivering a cellular recreation – that it actually shot into the stratosphere. Receiving 13 million downloads by 2012 as the sport switched to a zero value for entry with cash solely being constituted of in-app purchases for continues and sure upgrades to let gamers accrue a better rating.
Jetpack Joyride would go on to obtain a number of awards, together with recreation of the yr, finest iPhone recreation and finest motion/arcade launch from the Pocket Gamer Awards in 2012. Jetpack Joyride cemented its place as being one of many greatest cellular video games of the previous decade and nonetheless a significant fan favorite, thanks partially to a slew of fixed updates. These fixed updates themselves have been a brand new innovation to constantly construct up a recreation, which has now grow to be de facto customary apply in cellular gaming.
So why was it profitable?
From a gameplay standpoint, Jetpack Joyride embodies one of many purest examples of how an countless runner ought to work. Easy mechanics, assorted places to sprint by and a wide range of obstacles positioned in your path. In comparison with video games akin to Temple Run – which invented the countless runner however has aged considerably poorly within the graphical and gameplay division division – Jetpack Joyride’s pixel-art aesthetic and easy gameplay stays impressively evergreen.
From a monetisation standpoint, Jetpack Joyride actually started to popularise the countless runner style, in addition to using free-to-play video games with in-app purchases (then known as “freemium”) as a possible various to upfront funds. This was a mannequin that many different video games, akin to Indignant Birds and different countless runners like Minion Rush would observe.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that this was a mannequin that Halfbrick Studios would dump practically ten years later when the sport made the bounce to the Apple Arcade. If historical past is something to go by, does that imply subscription fashions would be the means of the long run for cellular video games. Or at the least after a wholesome ten years doing nice enterprise? Possibly in one other 10 years time we’ll be wanting again on Jetpack Joyride 2 as one other shift within the gaming panorama similar to its predecessor. However proper now, it’s a bit too early to inform.
Key Dates
- 2001: Halfbrick Studios based
- 2010: Fruit Ninja launched, Age of Zombies – first recreation to function Barry Steakfries – launched.
- 2011: Jetpack Joyride launched
- 2021: Jetpack Joyride 2
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