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

3

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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Q&A

•Thank you so much

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ono@igda.jp