In our common Cellular Masterworks characteristic we take an in-depth have a look at the story behind the largest cell franchises and apps round. What led to their creation? What made them so successful? And the way may these enduring hits encourage in the present day’s creators to make their very own cell megagames?
Final month we lined decade-long mega-hit Subway Surfers, and this time we’re concerning one other enduring traditional of the cell style. Jetpack Joyride is a straightforward, side-scrolling countless runner that nonetheless marked the delivery of many parts we now generally affiliate with cell 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 among the oldest studios that we’ve lined to this point. Having all the time had its roots in transportable play, it developed titles for the GameBoy Advance and Sony’s PSP earlier than making the bounce to cell. Their first main hit was the perennial Fruit Ninja, a easy sport the place customers swiped on the touchscreen to slash fruit because it bounced throughout the display screen, whereas avoiding slashing bombs. Alongside video games reminiscent of Offended Birds, Fruit Ninja turned one of many “go-to” video games for bored adults, hyperactive children and proved to be the right showcase for the larger display screen of the newly launched Apple iPad.
Nevertheless, though Fruit Ninja itself has remained a powerful model, with the final entry for VR in 2016, the sport was considerably of a one-trick pony. Halfbrick Studios’ subsequent sport would come to outline the type of addictive and long-lasting gameplay expertise you may get from cell.. If Fruit Ninja propelled them to cell stardom, then Jetpack Joyride could be the sport that cemented it.
Halfbrick Studios can also be an ideal product of the colourful state of the Australian sport market on the time, and the heights many are hoping to match once more. As we reported again in 2019 after a major droop, the Australian video games business has begun to bounce again in recent times.
Improvement and launch
Jetpack Joyride’s growth cycle shouldn’t be as properly documented as different smash hits reminiscent of Offended Birds. However the crucial reception of the sport is most definitely properly documented. One of many earliest mentions from PocketGamer.biz was the sport hitting excessive on our High quality Index, a characteristic which racked up the preferred video games. Jetpack Joyride adopted on from different video games revealed by Halfbrick Studios reminiscent of 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 refined however main change for Halfbrick Studios and maybe for cell gaming as an entire, being the primary of Halbrick’s video games to include IAP’s, whereas Fruit Ninja had been a paid upfront sport, albeit for a really low-cost value. Though different titles reminiscent of Offended Birds which was launched a yr later continued to make use of the premium pricing, albeit briefly, Jetpack Joyride confirmed {that a} sport which integrated this technique of monetisation might 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 may comply with swimsuit, create a preferred sport, 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 move 500k downloads on cell, nevertheless it was when the sport went free-to-play – on the time a an unproven and – to many – loopy method of delivering a cell sport – 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 produced from in-app purchases for continues and sure upgrades to let gamers accrue the next rating.
Jetpack Joyride would go on to obtain a number of awards, together with sport of the yr, greatest iPhone sport and greatest motion/arcade launch from the Pocket Gamer Awards in 2012. Jetpack Joyride cemented its place as being one of many largest cell 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 repeatedly construct up a sport, which has now change into de facto customary apply in cell 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 areas to sprint by way of and a wide range of obstacles positioned in your path. In comparison with video games reminiscent of 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 really 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, reminiscent of Offended Birds and different countless runners like Minion Rush would comply with.
It’s attention-grabbing to notice that this was a mannequin that Halfbrick Studios would dump almost 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 method of the longer term for cell video games. Or no less than 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 just a little too early to inform.
Key Dates
2001: Halfbrick Studios founded2010: Fruit Ninja launched, Age of Zombies – first sport to characteristic Barry Steakfries – launched.2011: Jetpack Joyride released2021: Jetpack Joyride 2
