Postmortem of Wind-Up Knight IGDA Japan Chapter Coordinator Kenji Ono 1
Jul 03, 2015
Postmortem ofWind-Up Knight
IGDA JapanChapter Coordinator
Kenji Ono1
Agenda• Introduce of Japan chapter
• What is “Wind-Up Knight”?
• The reason of success in Japan
• Roll-up
• Q&A
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IGDA Japan• It was founded in 2002 and advanced to
Non Profit Organization in 2012
• 8 board members and about 20 core members.
• 9 SIGs
• Chapter or SIGs meeting in a month
• Fukushima Game Jam and scholarship
• CEDEC and TGS surpport
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And who am I?• editor in chief of “Game Critique Magazine”(-2000)
• Game Journalist in independence (-2000)...jobs on the side
• Chapter Coordinator (-2011)...hobby
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What is my occupation?
House husband!
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Wind-Up Knight7
Robot Invader
• game development studio in Silicon Valley(2011-)
• 5 people
• Chris Pruett (Chief Taskmaster), who experienced in game studio and google as an engineer.
• Chris has experienced in working in Japan and speak Japanese very well.
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http://robotinvader.com/
Outline of game• side-scrolling platform action with high-end 3D and over 50
levels
• rescue the Princess from the clutches of the evil Black Knight
• Run, jump, roll, and slash with touch action
• Casual art style, simple game mechanics but hardcore
• You must get spring icons on ground to windup a knight
• 3 people in 5 month
• Android and iOS(2011) and F2P (In-Game purchase)
• Apply Get Award 2011 (http://bit.ly/W4kmmT)
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The Success in Japan10
61%11%
28%
Android4,920,833 users
47%
15%
16%
22%
US China JP Others
iOS1,822,026 users
A number of user based
User ranking① US② Japan③ China④ UK⑤ Korea⑥ Taiwan⑦ German⑧ Russia⑨ France⑩ Spain
Most of revenue is come from US and Japan US:JP = 6:4
Why Jump in ?• English and japanese only
• Japanese used to be In-game purchase
• Creative sense
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Self Analysis • Localization
• Design of Character
• Android
• Old fashion game play
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Localization• Japanese Localization vendor, 8-4
• free translation for buzz marketing
• Localization cost was recouped in 1 day revenue
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Some guys think it was made in Japan...http://8-4.jp/
Design of Character
• Cute character, not only male but also female accepted
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Android• Android (2011 Oct) → iOS (2011 Dec)
• A number of users is important in F2P
• A user behavior of Android and iOS is same in F2P
• You shouldn’t ignore Android in F2P
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Old fashion of gameplay
•Most of Japanese under 40 years old has experienced in playing vintage consoles (NES, SNES, PS)
• Old fashion gameplay brings back their good memory of videogame
• Especially for female
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No marketing in JP•No advertising
• Apple and Google promoted it in AppStore, it was so lucky
• It was buzzed in blog media
• GREE and DeNA is hot but there is a silent market in JP
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Roll Up•Wind-Up Knight succeed in Japan
• There were 4 reasons• Localization
• Character design
• Android
• Old fashion game play
• F2P market in Android is big in JP
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Next game
• Rise of the Blobs(http://bit.ly/SXVehS)
• more localization
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