| Joe Danger | |
|---|---|
Joe Danger standing in front of the game's logo |
|
| Developer(s) | Hello Games |
| Publisher(s) | Hello Games[1] |
| Distributor(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment (PSN) Microsoft Studios (XBLA)[2] |
| Version | 1.01 |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3 (PSN) Xbox 360 (XBLA) |
| Release date(s) | PS3 (PlayStation Network) Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade) 14 December 2011[2] |
| Genre(s) | Racing, platformer[5][6] |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | |
| Media/distribution | Download |
Joe Danger is the first title published by British independent video game developer Hello Games. It was released on the PlayStation Network in June 2010, after Hello chose to publish it exclusively with Sony Computer Entertainment. A special edition for Xbox Live Arcade was released on 14 December 2011. Joe Danger is a side-scrolling video game incorporating elements of racing and platform games. The player controls the eponymous daredevil and navigates time-limited courses, aiming to complete enough objectives to continue to further rounds. Joe Danger is presented in a light-hearted way, with emphasis on stunts and maintaining speed.
The game was promoted in the media through interviews with the four members of the development team, in particular with Hello Games's managing director, Sean Murray. The team used their official website and Sony's PlayStation Blog to maintain contact with fans and to keep them up to date on the project's progress. Much of the quality assurance process took the form of public beta testing at exhibitions.
On its release, Joe Danger received generally positive reviews; most reviewers praised the accessible gameplay and the ability to edit courses while playing them. Some suggested the game would have benefited from more options, such as sharing and rating user-generated content, and criticised the lack of an online multiplayer mode. Hello Games subsequently released downloadable content to add features that users and reviewers had requested in the months following the game's release. Using leaderboard statistics, Joe Danger was estimated to have sold at least 108,000 units in its first three months on sale. It was nominated for several awards, including the grand prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival.
Contents |
The player controls motorbike stuntman "Joe Danger", and must guide him through ten "trials" to defeat his nemeses, the members of Team Nasty.[7] The game uses elements of both racing and platform genres.[6] As with most side-scrolling platform games, the protagonist can move to the right and, by reversing, to the left. Although the game is based on a two-dimensional plane, some of its courses are designed with three layers; the player can "shift" into different lanes.[8] The bike is controllable in the air, allowing for various tricks to be performed and for manoeuvring onto targets.[9] Some obstacles are designed to be passed by hopping or ducking.[10] Points are awarded for performing tricks; more points are awarded for long sequences of tricks, for example when tricks are linked with a nose or tail wheelie.[10] Executing a stunt will build a "boost meter".[6] Pressing the boost button increases Joe's speed, but drains the meter; the gain lasts until the meter is empty.[8][11][12] Pushing the Select button will teleport Joe back to the last checkpoint passed.[13]
Joe Danger's level design was directly influenced by the game series Sonic the Hedgehog.[13] This is evidenced through the use of avoidable spikes and vertical loops,[12][14] and by springs placed in levels to allow higher jumps.[10][15] Some elements are designed to hinder the player, such as conveyor belts that slow the motorbike;[13] oversized boxing gloves which will propel the player backwards;[9] and barricades which make it necessary to switch to another of the three lanes.[8]
The player's primary goal in each level is to collect as many "stars" as possible. A star is collected for completing an objective, and once enough are collected, the next course is unlocked. Critics compared this process to Super Mario Bros. titles.[16] The player is free to choose which objectives to complete, with the option of replaying a level to earn more stars. The most common objective is to finish a course within a time limit with as many points as possible. Other level-specific objectives include collecting a series of coins, hidden stars or letters spelling "Danger",[8][11] while in others the player is required to land on every target, or to complete a course in one continuous sequence of tricks.[17] Later levels require the player to do more than one objective simultaneously.[6]
Joe Danger contains a sandbox mode, which allows the player to drag-and-drop objects onto the course to customise levels or to alter existing ones.[8] This mode is integrated into some single-player levels; the game may instruct the player to introduce obstacles such as ramps to access later sections.[17] New levels can be shared online with friends over the PlayStation Network.[18] The game has a split screen multiplayer mode for up to four players on a selection of specially-made tracks.[12] There is leaderboard support, initially limited to those on the player's PlayStation Network friend list.[11]
Since the game's initial release, additional downloadable content has been made available. The first patch for the game, dubbed "The People's Patch", was released in August 2010.[19] This added two features, the absence of which which had initially caused critics to mark the game down: the ability to upload video replays to video sharing site YouTube; and the ability to share customised courses with those not on the player's friends list.[20] Other additional features were custom soundtracks, new levels, and alternative costumes.[21] The announcement of the game's expansion coincided with a level-designing competition in which the top five contestants won T-shirts and artwork.[20] Murray said Hello were trying to respond to all suggestions from users, and that they would release a patch addressing "every concern we could".[22] In November 2010 the team announced four new playable characters, each with a unique appearance and range of moves.[23]
"Grant [Duncan, artist] had a box of toys he brought down from his attic. Something kind of beautiful happened when he brought those in. There was an instant power to demonstrating your latest game idea with Optimus Prime in your hands. I like to think we designed our next five games that first week, just setting up toys on the office floor."[24]
Hello Games was formed in July 2009, by former Criterion and Electronic Arts employee Sean Murray together with three friends who collectively had experience with British videogame developers Kuju, Climax and Sumo.[15][25][26] Murray had held technical director and lead programmer roles working on PlayStation 2 games Burnout 3: Takedown and Black;[24] he took the role of managing director of Hello Games, while Grant Duncan became art director, Ryan Doyle technical director and David Ream creative director.[27] The team gained their first experiences of creating their own games by making levels for Doom and Unreal.[27] Doyle expressed the belief that smaller games could be created more cost-effectively by an independent group than by a larger company.[27]
The concept for Joe Danger arose, according to Doyle, from the team's wish to make "something that puts a smile on people's faces", along the lines of such games from their youth as Mario Kart and Micro Machines.[27] An Evel Knievel toy was a main source of inspiration for the "Joe" character; the team had fun "firing that stunt cycle out of windows and down halls".[15] Nevertheless, Murray likened work as an independent developer to "the reality of eating ice cream every day for every meal", as the novelty of working for themselves wore off through the process of publishing Joe Danger.[28] Because of the "unrealistic" time scales for development, the team often spent more than 60 hours a week working on the project.[28] As there were only four of them, each member of the small team had to fulfil several roles; they had nobody to work on public relations exclusively, nor did they have a business manager or a designer.[24] No software design document was made throughout the production of Joe Danger, since the team felt they understood each other's ideas.[29]
The game was announced on the developers' website on 23 September 2009,[30][31] and was given its first public showcase in November 2009 at the Eurogamer Expo in Earls Court.[29] The team used this event as an opportunity for extensive playtesting, taking feedback from those playing the game and creating new software builds for each day of the expo.[29] Murray cited numerous "happy accidents" during development which led to features being incorporated into the end product. An example of this was a bug in the programming which enabled players to jump as often as they liked in mid-air; the team decided this was fun, pruned it back to a double jump and ultimately left it in.[29] A high-definition trailer of the game debuted at GameTrailers in February 2010.[32]
Hello Games struggled to find a third-party publisher. A month after release, Murray revealed at the annual Develop developers' conference in Brighton some of the reasons publishers gave with their rejections.[33] There were worries about the lack of potential for porting it to other platforms, and comments such as "collecting giant coins feels unrealistic to me", and: "we want games that are less about fun right now".[34][35] One prospective publisher intimated that they might have published the game if the main character had been a monkey.[34] When players were invited to make suggestions for additional characters, there was popular support for the monkey idea; this led to the introduction of a downloadable bonus character, Chuckles the Chimp.[23]
After initially being unsure of the best platform on which to release Joe Danger,[30] the developers announced in March 2010 that they would be releasing the game only on Sony's PlayStation 3.[36] This decision enabled Hello to make use of Sony's "Publishing Fund", a scheme which offered the developers advantageous financial terms in exchange for exclusivity.[36][37] Murray said that the PlayStation Network was the ideal place to release the game because it was the only way they could publish by themselves,[33] and branded the Xbox Live Arcade platform a "slaughterhouse for small developers" due to poor sales figures for independent works.[38][39]
In October 2011, Eurogamer picked up on an Xbox Live Arcade listing for a Joe Danger: Special Edition on the Korea Media Rating Board.[40] The project was officially announced on 3 November;[41] a GameSpot-exclusive trailer was released the same day.[42] Murray said that the Special Edition will include new gameplay modes and characters; another new addition is the "Laboratory" mode, in which the player must complete unique "developer challenges".[2][43] The edition is estimated for release before the end of 2011 and will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 system.[44] Murray stood by his earlier statements criticising Microsoft's platform; he said, "Obviously a comment like that isn't meant exactly how it sounds. For probably a few years XBLA was basically the only show in town. If you managed to get your game on there it was almost a guarantee of success. I don't think that's the case now. That isn't Microsoft's fault, and it isn't developers' fault. It's just that a hundred games come out there a year, and of those maybe ten break through and make an impact. The rest don't."[45][46] He stressed the decision to port the game "made business sense", and that the team "jumped at the chance without even thinking about the economics of it".[47]
| Joe Danger | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 86.89%[48] |
| Metacritic | 86/100[49] |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | B+[16] |
| Eurogamer | 8/10[8] |
| Game Informer | 9/10[18] |
| IGN | 9.5/10[17] |
The single-player gameplay mode of Joe Danger was generally well received by critics. The game's accessibility was a source of praise; according to Eric Neigher of 1UP.com, it allows for "five-minute sprints" of gameplay, although more in-depth options take up more time.[16] IGN's Daemon Hatfield compared the game favourably to Nintendo Entertainment System launch title Excitebike, and said that Joe Danger felt like a Nintendo game.[17] Other critics focused on similarities to Super Mario Bros., such as non-linear level progression (the ability to play levels in any order, providing that the player has earned enough stars to "unlock" the level), the encouragement to play through multiple times to complete every objective, and the use of platforms.[16][12] Another influences noted with favour by critics was the combo system, which some compared with the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games.[18] Comments were also made on the influence of early Sonic the Hedgehog titles.[8] The cheerful, cartoon-like nature of Joe Danger's artwork was well received; Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell said "I've worked on games websites for over a decade and not enough games are happy and colourful. This one is. More of this, please, everyone."[14]
Opinions were less uniformly complimentary about other modes of the game. Scott Alan Marriott of G4 TV was disappointed with the shortage of options in multiplayer modes, in particular the inability to play against others online.[11] The game's leaderboard feature was another source of criticism, with several reviewers noting severe lag issues.[8] The Daily Telegraph's Martin Gaston said "it would also have been nice to see the game give dedicated players the opportunity to study from the world's finest by implementing online replays", an option not originally included;[13] the decision not to allow sharing custom courses with users outside the player's friend's list was labelled "questionable"[11] and "obtuse".[13] Minor criticisms related to the lack of variety in sound design and background scenery.[16][6] Two months after the initial release, Hello Games' first patch for Joe Danger contained features to cover most critics' concerns.[20]
Before its release, Joe Danger was nominated for the "Seumas McNally Grand Prize" and for the "Technical Excellence" award at the 2010 Independent Games Festival at the Game Developer's Conference, losing to Monaco and Limbo respectively.[50] The game was unsuccessfully nominated for the "Best New Download IP" award at the same year's Develop Industry Excellence Awards in Brighton;[51] however, it won the studio the "Best New Studio" and "Micro Studio" awards.[52] It was nominated in the "Best Downloadable Game" category at GamesMaster's Golden Joystick Awards in September 2011,[53] but missed out to Minecraft.[54] The same month, Play Magazine placed it top of its "50 Best PSN Games" feature, ahead of titles such as Braid and The Last Guy.[7]
Joe Danger sold over 50,000 units in its first week on sale on the PlayStation Network.[39] The team announced at the Develop Conference 2010 that they broke even on the day of release.[55] Based on Gamerbytes' statistics—which use the number of unique entries on a game's online leaderboard to estimate the number of sales—it sold more than 68,000 units in its first month of release.[56] In July, the same statistics indicated a further 24,000 units had been sold, bringing the two-month total to over 92,000.[57] The next month saw at least 16,000 new players. Exact sales figures are uncertain because only a limited number of scores can be held within a leaderboard for PlayStation Network games,[58] but on the basis of these numbers the game sold at least 108,000 units in its first three months.[58] Murray said that as Joe Danger does not allow scores of zero to make the leaderboards, the true units sold was likely to be substantially higher than indicated.[56]
Several months after Joe Danger's release, Hello Games began to run job advertisements on their website, indicating that work was proceeding on a new project.[59] New staff were taken on, and towards the end of the year the organisation moved its offices.[60][61] After an announcement on Hello Games' website the week before, Joe Danger: The Movie was presented for the first time at Gamescom in Cologne in August 2011.[62][63] Murray said the game is "kind of" a sequel to Joe Danger, but that he envisions it will be big enough to dwarf the original.[64] Joe Danger: The Movie has an estimated release date of early 2012.[65]