POST MORTEM

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POST MORTEM
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Ethan Einhorn - History
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Ethan Einhorn - History

• SEGA Producer, Digital Content
• Sonic The Hedgehog iPod
• Super Monkey Ball iPhone
• Sonics Ultimate Genesis Collection X360/PS3
• Future Premium iPhone games

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Chris Sharpley - History
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Chris Sharpley - History

• Consultant Art Director at Other Ocean
  Interactive, Learning Manager at Holland
  College, Prince Edward Island.
• 15 years working as a digital artist and designer
  in the video game industry.
• Recent credits include "Ultimate Mortal Kombat"
  on DS and "Super Monkey Ball" on iPhone.

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Chris Sharpley - History
Previously worked on "Archer Maclean's Mercury"
for PSP and "Mercury Meltdown" on PSP, PS2 and
Wii.   Similar art production pipeline to Super
Monkey Ball. Games made use of a prototype tilt
controller for the PSP.
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Along Comes iPhone

• Pitch to Apple - easy to imagine mechanics
• Gameplay tied to the strengths of the device
• Can Other Ocean stay for a few weeks?

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Crunch Time

• Work begins on the stage demo
• Game up and running in three days
• Two programmers, and one artist.

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Apple Town Hall The Debut

• Four stages
• Photo-realistic backgrounds (not in final
  version)?
• Place-holder UI

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Quick to Alpha, Quick to Beta

• Twelve weeks to have a full-featured product
  ready
• No specific release schedule
• Surprise request to show the near final product
  to the public

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LAUNCH!

• In Apple we Trust
• Internal excitement
• Hitting on day one
• A high profile opportunity for Other Ocean.

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Level Design
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Level Design
Initial SMB game design required at least 100
levels. Rough ideas were modeled in 3D and
explained on annotated design sheets.
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Level Design
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Level Design
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Level Design
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Level Design
Design meetings allowed the team to explore their
designs.   Many of the rough ideas were thrown
out. All were modified. Some levels were
combined with others.
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Level Design
Eventually 150 levels were chosen to be properly
modelled and tested. All levels were intended to
be completed by players in less than 4
attempts. This would have meant that the entire
game could have been completed in just 2 or 3
hours.
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Level Design
Each level was given a secondary objective
Collect the bananas! Many levels were adjusted
to make banana collection more challenging. An
extra 10 unlockable levels were added as a reward
for collecting bananas.
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Level Design
After testing gameplay, we decided our bonus
levels would use 25 bananas instead of the usual
50. At one stage, we used apples instead of
bananas.
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Level Design
Final game used 110 levels. Levels were tested
and assigned a difficulty rating.   10 "Classic"
levels were imported from other Monkey Ball
titles. The final order was intended to evenly
distribute levels based on dexterity, fun, speed
and difficulty.
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Art Production
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Art Production
Art style for Super Monkey Ball on the iPhone
inspired by "Banana Blitz" for the Wii. No Wii
assets were actually used - everything was
recreated for the iPhone. (...apart from 4
monkey sprites from "Touch Roll" on the DS)?
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Art Production
5 unique sets of level textures. Each world used
one checkerboard texture, and one abstract
texture. Checkerboard textures were used for
rectangular sections. Abstract textures were
used for non-geometric sections.
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Art Production
Level animations were kept simple. Mostly slow
rotations and horizontal movement. Large
vertical movements caused camera motion that
would confuse the player.    
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Art Production
Tutorial was planned for the game, but not
included in final release. Our ability to
release updates via the Appstore allowed us to
add a tutorial to the game.
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10 THINGS WE LEARNED
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1. LISTEN TO FEEDBACK, RESPOND QUICKLY

• Understand the value of user reviews
• Read the needs of the audience
• Learn to better target your audience through
  product updates

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1. USE AN INTERNAL TEST TEAMIF POSSIBLE.

• Instant feedback.
• Less confusion.
• Speeds up the development process.

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2. DONT PLAY PRICE WARS

• Dont under-charge for your Apps
• Keep the highest price you can while staying in
  the top 50
• A good brand is evergreen, and every week brings
  new users

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2. STRETCH A NEW DEVICETO ITS LIMITS.

• If a cell phone has console power, create
  console content.
• Casual gamers want high production values.

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3. CONSIDER THE PROs AND CONsOF LITE VERSIONS.

• Good for New IP and complex games
• Less helpful for well-reviewed games that are
  already easy for consumers to understand.

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3. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE CHALLENGE OF BRINGING
A HARDCORE GAME TO A CASUAL MARKET.

• Casual games aren't simple games.
• Sometimes, content has to be added to make a game
  suitable for a casual audience.

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4. MANY OF YOUR USERS WILL BE NEW THE PROPERTY

• A high number of consumers state that their first
  exposure to Super Monkey Ball is on iPhone
• Do not assume that your customers will buy your
  game based on brand awareness alone.

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4. MAKE EFFICIENT USE OF COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN
PUBLISHER AND DEVELOPER.

• Tight deadlines require quick responses.
• Spanning three timezones can be challenging.

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5. USER REVIEWS ARE KING

• This product is not tracked on Gamerankings or
  Metacritic.
• User reviews begin to act as a massive forum,
  both for owners of the game and curious customers
• Thousands of reviews for SMB

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5. WHEN CREATING 100'S OF LEVELS, START SIMPLE,
THEN ADD REFINEMENTS.

• Dealing with 100's of assets can be confusing.
• Start with basic ideas, then add complexity.

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6. DONT MAKE IT TOO HARD

• Customers do not want a steep learning curve
• There is a need for players to feel success for
  every two minutes of gameplay
• Getting to the end of a game should be foolproof

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6. AGGRESSIVE DEADLINES FOCUSTHE DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS.

• Only the most important features of the game
  could be addressed.
• Time wasn't wasted on superfluous features.

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7. BUILD TO THE DEVICE

• Super Monkey Ball succeeded in good part because
  only the iPhone was capable of delivering on the
  tilt gameplay
• The mechanics are very easy to describe and
  demonstrate

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7. NEW OPPORTUNITIES CAN BE RISKY.

• Super Monkey Ball for the iPhone was initially a
  risky venture.
• Its success opened us up to a wide range of
  iPhone opportunities.

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8. MAKE SURE CONSUMERS GET IT IN 10 SECONDS

• If an iPhone game does not look fun right away,
  players will move on
• Over the shoulder impressions are important
• Keep tutorials interactive

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8. AN SMALL, EXPERIENCED TEAM CAN BE MORE AGILE.

• Expanding the team was an option.
• Adding less experienced members would probably
  have slowed-down production.

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9. KEEP THINGS SIMPLE

• SMB Monkeys all control the same
• No jumping
• No pressing / touching
• Just tilting

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9. BE OPEN TO WORKING WITH LICENSED I.P.

• Use licensed I.P. and recognizable brands to your
  advantage.
• This strategy can provide resources that enable
  you to develop your own I.P.

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10. CONSIDER THE PLAY ENVIRONMENT

• Bite-sized gameplay
• Make saving your progress frequent and invisible
  to the user
• Avoid dark backgrounds

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10. IF POSSIBLE, USE A TEAM THAT UNDERSTANDS A
BRAND.

• Team were already fans of Apple, SEGA and Super
  Monkey Ball.
• SEGA of Japan places a high value on developers
  who appreciate their I.P.

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THANKS FOR YOUR TIME...
ethan.einhorn_at_sega.com www.sega.com chris.shar
pley_at_otherocean.com www.otherocean.com