In our common Cellular Masterworks function we take an in-depth take a look at the story behind the most important cell franchises and apps round. What led to their creation? What made them so successful? And the way would possibly these enduring hits encourage immediately’s creators to make their very own cell megagames?
Final month we coated decade-long mega-hit Subway Surfers, and this time we’re relating one other enduring basic of the cell style. Jetpack Joyride is an easy, side-scrolling infinite runner that nonetheless marked the delivery of many components 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 infinite runner style? Let’s discover out.
The Builders
Halfbrick studios was based in 2001 and is among the oldest studios that we’ve coated to this point. Having all the time had its roots in moveable play, it developed titles for the GameBoy Advance and Sony’s PSP earlier than making the soar to cell. 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, whereas avoiding slashing bombs. Alongside video games resembling Offended Birds, Fruit Ninja turned one of many “go-to” video games for bored adults, hyperactive youngsters and proved to be the proper showcase for the larger display of the newly launched Apple iPad.
Nonetheless, 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 recreation would come to outline the sort of addictive and long-lasting gameplay expertise you will get from cell.. If Fruit Ninja propelled them to cell stardom, then Jetpack Joyride can be the sport that cemented it.
Halfbrick Studios can also 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 major hunch, the Australian video games business has begun to bounce again in recent times.
Growth and launch
Jetpack Joyride’s improvement cycle is just not as effectively documented as different smash hits resembling Offended Birds. However the crucial reception of the sport is most actually effectively 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 most well-liked video games. Jetpack Joyride adopted on from different video games revealed by Halfbrick Studios resembling Age of Monsters and Zombie Sprint by that includes their – now iconic – Barry Steakfries, a stereotypical brunette motion hero kind.
Jetpack Joyride additionally marked a refined however main change for Halfbrick Studios and maybe for cell 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 resembling Offended Birds which was launched a 12 months later continued to make use of the premium pricing, albeit briefly, Jetpack Joyride confirmed {that a} recreation which integrated this methodology 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 might comply with swimsuit, create a preferred recreation, have the arrogance to cost it as a ‘steal’ and nonetheless obtain a constant revenue stream.
The Success
Inside half a 12 months, Jetpack joyride would move 500k downloads on cell, nonetheless it was when the sport went free-to-play – on the time a an unproven and – to many – loopy method of delivering a cell 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 the next rating.
Jetpack Joyride would go on to obtain a number of awards, together with recreation of the 12 months, greatest iPhone recreation and greatest motion/arcade launch from the Pocket Gamer Awards in 2012. Jetpack Joyride cemented its place as being one of many greatest 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 had been a brand new innovation to constantly construct up a recreation, which has now grow to be de facto customary follow in cell gaming.
So why was it profitable?
From a gameplay standpoint, Jetpack Joyride embodies one of many purest examples of how an infinite runner ought to work. Easy mechanics, diversified places to sprint via and quite a lot of obstacles positioned in your path. In comparison with video games resembling Temple Run – which invented the infinite 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 infinite runner style, in addition to using free-to-play video games with in-app purchases (then known as “freemium”) as a possible different to upfront funds. This was a mannequin that many different video games, resembling Offended Birds and different infinite 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 soar to the Apple Arcade. If historical past is something to go by, does that imply subscription fashions would be the method of the long run for cell video games. Or not 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 identical to its predecessor. However proper now, it’s a bit of 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
