How Highrise is cultivating a UGC platform driving $250m in marketplace sales

• Highrise’s primary demographic is females across the age of 20, which units it other than many different UGC platforms
• Highrise lately launched the ‘earn program’ which supplies customers new methods to monetise creations

Keep Knowledgeable

Get Trade Information In Your Inbox…

Signal Up Immediately

Person-generated content material has develop into a rising pattern over time within the video games trade, powered by the success of titles like Fortnite and Roblox.

Highrise is one other user-generated content material recreation to emerge, which has now surpassed 45 million customers amd $250m in market transactions. It options social parts, the power to create and construct content material, and the exploration of different customers’ creations.

On this interview, we communicate with Pocket Worlds’ CEO Anton Bernstein, who tells us all in regards to the evolution of the Highrise platform, why UGC is rising in popularity, and what the way forward for the market could appear like. 

PocketGamer.biz: Are you able to inform us just a little about Highrise and the way issues have been going over the previous few years? 

Anton Bernstein: Positive! Highrise is a mobile-first, artistic metaverse that’s the best place to create rooms, cosmetics, video games, and worlds, whether or not you’ve by no means created one thing earlier than or have been creating for years.

Our customers are just a little surprising for a UGC gaming platform; on common, they’re about 20 years previous and feminine. We’ve cultivated a tradition that we’re extraordinarily happy with, the place gamers could be their genuine selves with customisable outfits and decor, make true friendships with our social options, and have thrilling experiences reminiscent of attending a e book membership, performing karaoke, racing in marathons, and extra.

It’s truly essentially the most thrilling time ever at Highrise. In the previous few years, we’ve reached over 40 million registered customers worldwide and surpassed $250 million in market transactions.

So, issues have been going nicely, however we consider Highrise could be the biggest and most impactful social video games platform on the planet, so we now have way more work to do.

Person-generated content material has seen a large improve in recognition from platforms reminiscent of Roblox; why do you assume that is? 

We’re at a degree the place folks know what they need and are sensible sufficient to create it fairly than look forward to another person to. This is applicable to all the pieces from cosmetics to video games.

We’re long gone the purpose the place studios, as proficient as they might be, can completely inform customers what they need to put on to have fun a vacation or essentially the most enjoyable methods to play collectively.

Our customers change outfits greater than 5 instances a day, they usually understand how they need to costume higher than we do, so our job is to create the instruments for them to specific themselves. That’s the concept behind Highrise Concepts, which lets anybody submit a photograph of one thing they doodled. If it will get sufficient group consideration, our inside crew will create it as an in-game merchandise.

It took some time, however social media has lastly reached a degree the place persons are turning into sillier, extra clear, and unfiltered. I believe gaming has lastly reached that time, too.

Creators need instruments to make a humorous marathon recreation based mostly on the latest hit present or a complicated karaoke match that really pays out the most effective performer with actual money. They don’t need studios to spend two to 5 years creating one thing that displays the tradition on the time the undertaking was greenlit internally.

They need to expertise issues that replicate their tradition’s present state, and their tradition’s present state, and doing so collectively brings them nearer collectively. I believe that is all pushed by human connection and the tempo at which individuals wish to join with others these days.

And what developments are you seeing in Highrise by way of UGC? 

It’s humorous as a result of we pay attention actually carefully to what our customers need and satisfaction ourselves on consistently delivering new instruments, monetisation fashions, and contest packages. Each time I believe we’ve caught up with our group, they shock me and use our instruments to construct one thing that I by no means may have guessed.

We lately launched the Highrise earn program, which supplies customers new methods to monetise creations to allow them to break the mildew of how they earn revenue and make extra various video games and experiences. They’re creating trend exhibits the place you purchase in to compete, and the winner of the runway will get to money out actual forex in order that there’s actual reward and pores and skin within the recreation.

We’ve seen a very standard speakeasy the place customers be part of to play card video games, however we’ve additionally noticed loads of gardening, impediment course competitions, and open mic nights the place you may inform jokes, sing songs, learn poems, and present folks what you’re all about.

What’s fascinating is that in these experiences, they’ve completed issues like construct their very own cameras that assist you to make subtle 3D areas whereas utilizing your entire cosmetics as a 2D avatar. We’re engaged on a brand new avatar system, however they’ve already constructed this actually cool resolution, so we’re truly making an official model of that digicam so everybody can use it simply.

So proper now, displaying off your skills and competing in races, impediment programs, or marathons is what’s scorching in Highrise.

On the finish of the day, our group is actually supportive, and proper now, they’re constructing issues which are, on the one hand, a bit deeper and, on the opposite, just a little aggressive however sillier. And I really like that because it displays friendships in actual life the place we’re susceptible with our closest mates, however we even have essentially the most thrilling and enjoyable experiences with them. 

You’re creating an app known as Model Snap. Are you able to inform us just a little about how this happened?

Half the enjoyable of Highrise comes from model and expression, so we all know our customers like to design wigs, shirts, and footwear and showcase these outfits wherever they will.

We’ve loads of enjoyable with our customers on social media websites like TikTok, so we needed to offer a means for them to be within the Highrise world, design, create, and showcase in numerous methods.

We then created a number of variations of trend filters, and one actually took off, so we took these mechanics and momentum and used it as a foundation for our subsequent app. And it got here from testing concepts with filters. So now, within the new standalone Stylesnap app, customers have this final dress-up expertise that takes place instantly by way of the digicam.

There are tens of millions of combos with greater than 100,000 gadgets that may be customised, recorded, and shared throughout platforms, and it’s impressed by the expertise our customers beloved from a filter.

What are you able to inform us in regards to the cross-over we’re seeing between recreation growth and social platforms? And the way can these platforms assist with elements reminiscent of UA? 

Social networking, video games, and media are converging. Fortnite, Roblox, and World of Warcraft are deeply social video games, and in some ways, they’re social platforms.

Nonetheless, social platforms actually aren’t that social. They’re single-player experiences the place you watch what different folks do and get affirmation. Video games are way more deeply social – they’re interactive, create spontaneous play, and facilitate deeper connection.

That’s why video games are more and more turning into social areas, and builders are investing extra in social options and tooling round recreation experiences.

How do you assume UGC and social elements will form the following technology of the video games trade? 

The members of communities know finest what folks in communities need. UGC instruments are getting extra democratised and simpler, particularly with AI assist.

Solo builders can now make tremendous characteristic wealthy worlds and experiences, whereas that required groups earlier than. Even the idea of UGC will change – there might be fewer janky mini-games and extra total open worlds constructed by groups of 1 aided by AI and open-source instruments.

It does imply distribution might be increasingly necessary. If content material is infinite, then distribution and curation matter lots, so platforms will seemingly dominate much more. So, there might be many extra UGC creators, however they’ll even be extra beholden to platforms that may distribute their content material.

Lastly, is there the rest we must always learn about or one thing we needs to be looking out for?

Look out for extra distinctive experiences that extra creators earn an revenue by constructing stuff you haven’t seen earlier than, on your subsequent favorite expertise to be the very first thing somebody has ever constructed and experiences that more and more prioritise social connections.

In case you have an thought, attempt it out in Highrise. We’ve made it really easy to design cosmetics, video games, and worlds.

You would possibly discover it simpler than you assume, and who is aware of, you could possibly go from somebody who’s by no means constructed one thing earlier than to an incomes creator in a month or two. We’re seeing it occur. It surprises me day-after-day. The way forward for UGC belongs to us all, so be looking out for the following thrilling thought to return from anybody on any platform! Together with TikTok.