How GungHo launched its bubblegum fighting game Ninjala in the pandemic

I interviewed Kazuki Morishita, president of GungHo Entertainment, for the duration of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2018 in Los Angeles. That appears like ages ago, and GungHo was receiving prepared to launch its bubblegum fighting game Ninjala.

It was a light-hearted title that was aimed at a broad audience, exactly where you could play as a kid with funny weapons that you could use to whack other kids in the game. It’s a bit like Nintendo’s Splatoon hit, but rather of shooting with paint, you hit every other with bats and craft new weapons from bubblegum.

But the project had some delays and GungHo had to delay its original launch for the duration of the commence of the pandemic. But it managed to launch it in June 2020. A year later, the game has more than seven million downloads, and GungHo is now kicking its marketing and advertising into greater gear as it tries to attain that broader audience in markets such as the U.S. So far, the North American marketplace has been increasing more quickly than any other area, and GungHo has some partnerships that will aid bring more consideration to the game.

Morishita has had massive hits like Puzzle &amp Dragons in Japan, but he’s hoping GungHo will develop into greater identified in areas like the U.S. thanks to games like Ninjala. I talked to Morishita about his plans for Ninjala and how it feels to launch a game that tends to make men and women really feel content in the midst of a pandemic.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

GamesBeat: How a lot progress have you made with Ninjala more than time right here?

Kazuki Morishita: When we last talked in 2018, we had been arranging to release the game a lot earlier, but since of COVID the circumstance changed, particularly due to building remotely. It was like a complete new development. But we had been capable to release the game in June 2020. We just reached our one-year anniversary last month.

GamesBeat: How has it met your expectations? What progress do you nevertheless want to make?

Morishita: The download numbers grew a lot more quickly than we anticipated. That’s one issue we had been shocked and content about. It’s a progressing title, so the work is ongoing. We’re seeking to meet the expectations of our customers and preserve the game increasing as a lot as probable. In June of this year, we reached 7 million downloads, and the North American side has been increasing the quickest of any area.

GamesBeat: What do you assume the standard appeal of the game is? Why do players come back to it?

Morishita: One of the most significant points is that it is a close combat action game. There are a lot of shooter-variety games out there, PvP games, and there are some close combat experiences, but Ninjala has a sort of close combat encounter that you cannot encounter in shooting games. Another massive point is that the game is not a win or shed encounter. Win or shed, you will develop as a player. It tends to make you want to play more and more, gaining more encounter and receiving greater at the game.

GamesBeat: Who did you want to target with the art style for the game? Was there a certain sort of player you had in thoughts when you had been designing the characters and environments?

Morishita: The art style was aimed at a worldwide, worldwide audience. We didn’t want to make it look just Japanese. We had a thing like Pixar or Disney in thoughts, but with our personal originality. It wasn’t truly targeted to a precise nation. We wanted absolutely everyone to be capable to accept the art style.

GamesBeat: You pointed out North America getting the majority of downloads. Has it confirmed to be well-known in any certain nations?

Morishita: If we had been to place it in order, the United States would be the 1st, then Japan, then France, then Spain. Actually, Spain was surprising to us, that it was taken so effectively there.

GamesBeat: How did you strategy generating the game into a bigger franchise? It’s difficult to develop a new IP. How did you attempt to develop more consideration about it as you launched?

Morishita: The game is totally free to play, so it is quick for everyone to set up and play. But even so, when we had been constructing the story and the background of the characters, we believed that it would be greater to inform the story outdoors of the game, by means of animation, so it would be less complicated for men and women to attain. We believed that animation would be a excellent promotional tool to attain out and develop awareness because everyone can watch it on YouTube.

GamesBeat: Do you view this as a transmedia house, a thing that can develop into more than just a game?

Morishita: We had that in thoughts from the starting, yes, when we began constructing the game.

GamesBeat: Were there any examples you followed, other properties exactly where you wanted to do a thing equivalent?

Morishita: There wasn’t any precise approach like that when it comes to the transmedia strategy. There’s a lot of back-finish story to the game. It’s a quite extended story, in my thoughts, which is why we’re interested in performing more across various media. A lot of that circumstance has changed since of COVID. If you evaluate prior to and following, more men and women are watching streaming video on points like Netflix or Amazon Prime. That bigger atmosphere has changed. Our future work in animation will almost certainly be influenced by these modifications.

GamesBeat: What has changed about the game as you have updated and enhanced it more than the previous year?

Morishita: It’s challenging to go into precise facts as far as how a lot it is changed, but compared to the commence, I’d say it could possibly be at least 1.5 occasions as a lot enjoyable as it was when we began. We’ve place in a lot of new modes like Ninja Striker, which is nevertheless 4-on-4 battle, but you are playing soccer against every other. We’re continuing to add more new content like that. We’ve currently place in as a lot new content as we would with a new game.

GamesBeat: For this sort of game, how do you develop the audience at this point, a year following launch? How do you get more men and women interested in playing for a longer time?

Morishita: One issue is common updates, new strategies of playing the game and providing players a new encounter with the world of Ninjala. We’re also collaborating with other IP, which we assume will aid expand the audience.

GamesBeat: One game that I’ve seen do quite effectively beyond its initial launch period was Dauntless, the monster-fighting game. They expanded to new platforms and enabled cross-play and points like that. Is that a approach you’d like to stick to? Do you want to go beyond the Switch to other platforms and allow cross-communication in between these platforms?

Morishita: We do not want to restrict the game to one platform, but to be truthful, Ninjala goes truly effectively with the Nintendo Switch. I do not assume that expanding to other platforms is a terrible concept, but presently Ninjala has a lot of drive from Nintendo behind it, and we assume the Switch is the most appropriate platform at the moment.

GamesBeat: Do you assume the new Switch that is on the way will aid develop the game’s audience?

Morishita: One of the most significant points that I assume will aid is the larger screen. Ninjala is a quite colorful game, and with the new screen I assume it’ll be closer to what we had been hoping to show when we had been initially conceiving the game.

GamesBeat: As far as monetizing the game, do you really feel that is working effectively, or do you strategy to attempt something new as far as monetization?

Morishita: We didn’t want to make this a spend-to-win game, which is why we wanted to focus on points like avatars, skins, and the season pass for monetization. That’s nevertheless our principal focus. But in future updates, we do not necessarily want to just do the identical issue more than and more than. We’re arranging to implement some new concepts so players can attempt a thing new.

GamesBeat: I wonder if collectibles can be an exciting path for monetization. Are you interested in points like NFTs, blockchain-based collectibles?

Morishita: I’d like to focus more on the game itself. Merchandising will be a separate theme for the game. But I do assume there are possibilities about merchandising and other spin-offs like manga. We do not have any plans about NFTs at the moment. I do not know if now is the time, offered that it is challenging to standardize that sort of issue proper now. But in the future we could possibly look into it.

GamesBeat: When you focus on what gamers are saying as far as feedback, what do your players want more of as far as modifications or updates to the game?

Morishita: The most significant issue we hear from customers is they want voice chat, more strategies to communicate with other men and women playing the game. Currently we do not have in-game chat, but that is one of the most significant pieces of feedback from the neighborhood. They’re also asking for more various types of character costumes.

GamesBeat: What do you strategy to do in the future with the Demon Slayer collaboration?

Morishita: The collaboration will commence on July 20 in Japan. A lot of men and women are quite excited. It’s not just in Japan and America, but a lot of other nations as effectively. We’re also seeing a lot of returning players thanks to the collaboration with Demon Slayer.

GamesBeat: What do you attempt to do to make sure this sort of IP tie-in has the most influence and draws the most players?

Morishita: One of the most significant points is implementing it quite closely to the original IP, the original animation. That was one issue we had been quite cautious about. We had been capable to make the costumes, the emotes, and the abilities as a lot like the original material as probable.

GamesBeat: How quite a few personnel does GungHo have, and how quite a few work on Ninjala?

Morishita: GungHo altogether, with all of our groups, is about 1,300 men and women. For Ninjala itself, there are a lot of strategies various men and women interact with the game, but if you add absolutely everyone involved in promotions and points like that it would be about one hundred men and women.

GamesBeat: What else is GungHo arranging to do for fans in the coming year?

Morishita: We’ll continue working on new projects and challenge generating new games that are not like anything else on the marketplace.

GamesBeat: Are you considering about sequels to Ninjala however, or other directions the franchise could go?

Morishita: That’s a hard query. In the future there will be a lot of modifications with the arrival of new platforms and new generations of hardware. But we’re considering about performing more spin-offs of Ninjala in the future.

GamesBeat: How did the group adapt to remote work and working for the duration of the pandemic?

Morishita: Our firm chose to shift to remote work and moved all our work meetings on line prior to the State of Emergency was declared in Tokyo. There had been some developmental delays that occured due to this adjust in atmosphere, but we’ve made positive modifications in our work style and our systems to resolve these complications. We think that our experiences in this in no way-prior to-seen game development atmosphere, such as operating the beta test from home, will aid us discover options to unprecedented crises in the future.

GamesBeat: Is the group capable to meet in individual however?

Morishita: Our employees continues to work remotely, as we are nevertheless beneath a State of Emergency, as we do not want to move our gear about. We are also operating a workplace vaccination system and supplying vaccines to applicants.

GamesBeat: Was it satisfying to provide men and women with a enjoyable game for the duration of a time when they could not go out?

Morishita: Generally we want to provide a enjoyable game for players regardless of the circumstance. During these occasions, getting capable to provide entertainment that can be enjoyed when staying home was excellent, as it felt like we had been fulfilling our duty. However, there are points we are disappointed about, such as not getting capable to host in-individual events for our players and interact with them as effectively. We hope the COVID-19 circumstance improves as quickly as probable, as we want to meet our players from all more than the world.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz