The key question was how to keep a game alive (and making money) once it falls out of a portal’s Top 10 list.
Speaking at a panel at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, Kenny Shea Dinkin, VP and Creative Director at PlayFirst, said that the innovations behind Diner Dash: Hometown Hero were an attempt to address some alarming trends in the industry: namely, rising development costs and a more crowded market combined with the fact that only about 2% of customers download the full version of a game after finishing the demo. The result, Diner Dash: Hometown Hero, introduced micro-transactions, user-generated content and multiplayer modes to the series. Not content to rest on its laurels, PlayFirst looked closely at websites like Gaia Online, Maple Story, Pogo and Puzzle Pirates for inspiration for the next Diner Dash game. However, after 200 million downloads, two successful sequels, portable versions for the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP and mobile phones, and a SpongeBob Squarepants-themed spin-off, the big question for PlayFirst heading into 2007 was “what next?” With its challenging click management gameplay and spunky hero Flo, the Diner Dash series is the crown jewel in PlayFirst’s game catalogue.
0 kommentar(er)
