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How did the project start?
Mere Mortals was approached as a possible partner by Blitz Games Studios to bring to life a paper design on the Xbox 360. This project was to be entirely for digital distribution on Microsoft’s Live service.
Blitz recognised that Mere Mortals’ experience across web flash and console games would allow the team to sympathetically develop this heavily stylised game concept. Blitz also found many similarities between its rigorous approach to design and development and that of Mere Mortals’ North East England and New Zealand studios. Due to these parallels, a very strong partnership was quickly established with the combined goal of providing a unique and fun experience for Microsoft’s flagship platform.
What options did you consider?
Within the very competitive international games market it was important to provide a unique experience to ensure success with Microsoft. It was decided that appealing to the established market of family based games in the 'brain training' arena would create a strong family experience for young and old, and the highly-stylised approach would be the best way to establish a unique identity on the console platform. Various approaches were visited but by taking reference from the strong style of 50s and 60s cartoon artwork, the design team were able to work up a very robust and clear prototype quickly.
What help and expertise did you receive?
With decades of experience as one of the world’s leading independent developers of game content, Blitz was ideally situated to guide Mere Mortals during the project. The team were also advised by Microsoft as to how best maximise the effect of the highly-stylised concept while remaining clear and concise on content. The project was tested extensively by Mere Mortals’ in-house QA team from the first week of production to the end of the project.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
A key issue to address was how to make Encleverment Experiment appeal to families on a console traditionally thought of as a 'hardcore gamers’ platform. Mere Mortals and Blitz worked together on looking at how people – particularly ‘non-gamers’ – from younger, older and female demographics naturally approached a device like a games console. Together they established that the way 'non-gamers' expected to interact with the device had more in common with how people experience the Internet and, as such, Mere Mortals was able to use its web design team to develop the navigation and menu system in the same way as a website.
Mere Mortals also investigated alternative control systems, as research showed the traditional joystick/joypad interface associated with consoles sometimes proved a barrier to the target demographic. Mere Mortals was also encouraged to provide support for Microsoft's Big Button controller. This is designed more like a television remote control and is therefore more familiar to the player. It actively draws the player into the game with its very sophisticated control and simplicity of design. Thanks to the guidance of both Blitz and Microsoft, Mere Mortals did not hit any major obstacles, although when working in the international arena, localisation means considerable planning has to be undertaken upfront.
As Mere Mortals have long worked with all regions in Europe and America, and have learned from experience how other languages - particularly the length of words in translation - mean this must be accommodated when the interface and layout is designed, this came in useful for Encleverment Experiment. The game is the first Japanese title for Mere Mortals and they were able to learn from their experience with other languages, and were also helped by its exceptional QA teams, which minimised the risk to the project when dealing with unique character sets.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Encleverment Experiment is Mere Mortals’ first foray into a purely digital distribution model for the console market – a model which sees greater profits for studios and direct returns when compared with more traditional models, which include distributors, wholesalers and retail costs.
Mere Mortals found this a fascinating process which allowed them to get direct feedback from the platform holder, whereas the traditional process stops with the publisher. Thanks to the relationship with Blitz, Mere Mortals has benefited from a transparent sharing of ideas while receiving clear and concise instructions and guidance where necessary.
This has opened an entirely new revenue stream to Mere Mortals and has cemented its relationship with both Blitz and Microsoft for the future. Discussions for products future platforms are ongoing.
What are your plans for the future?
Mere Mortals is currently looking forward to working on further projects, and strengthening its partnership with Blitz into 2009 and beyond. As well as continuing to produce content across traditional media, games, web, radio, TV and Film, Mere Mortals is in the process of expanding its digitally distributed games development team based on the success of our partnership on this project.
