Tag: Joe Danger Touch »

With eight billion coins having been collected in-game since Joe Danger Touch's release in January 2013, the adventures of the daredevil stuntman have proved to be quite the hit. We managed to drag Hello Games's managing director, Sean Murray, away from work on the latest game update, in order to learn a little more about the game and its future direction.

148Apps: How hard was it to take such a successful console game (Joe Danger 1 and 2 on PS3 and Xbox 360) and convert it to iOS?
Sean: It was really hard! One of our weird little things we have at Hello Games is to never just port a game to a new platform without doing something special that fits it. We couldn’t just shunt Joe Danger over with virtual controls and the same set of levels because we knew it wouldn’t really work. Joe Danger on PS3 uses every single one of the pad’s buttons and sticks. So we went right back to scratch and thought about how a touchscreen can bring something new. We set ourselves two big goals - it was really important that it would feel like it could only work on iOS because we were building it specifically for iOS devices. And we wanted it to feel like nothing else you can play on iOS. No biggie :) We’ve designed lots of console games in the past, so it was really refreshing to get to think about touchscreens, and that meant the whole process was genuinely inspiring even while it was head-bangingly hard at times.

148Apps: What's been the team's reaction to the huge success on iOS?
Sean: I can’t tell you how excited it’s made us. It’s quite embarrassing, really. We always get really nervous launching a new game, and this one was for a platform we had never worked on before, so we were especially scared. We had good feedback from playtesters, though, so we were sort of confident, but that’s never going to prepare you for what actually happens when the public get their hands on the game. As I said, we were trying to make Joe Danger Touch feel new, so it justified the hard work that went into it, and showed us that we could be at home on iOS as we’ve been on console in the past.

148apps: Are you able to reveal any details regarding the next major update?
Sean: Yes! So, we’re working on more new characters - we’re planning on asking players to help design and choose them on our blog actually - and levels. We’ve got a nice idea coming that we hope will give players a reason to come back and play every day. And, this is probably saying too much, but we’re planning a massive set of cheat modes that are inspired by being obsessed with games like GoldenEye. That’s all coming in just a few weeks. On top of all that, and this is really is saying too much, but we had some ideas for a JDT update that have completely spiralled out of control into something else entirely. It’s super exciting and has got us all deep into learning new things on iOS, but it’s not quite ready yet for us to show off. I’m so excited about it though :D

148Apps: The Joe Danger series has always offered plenty of humour and personality, where does the inspiration for such level design come from?
Sean: That would be the contents of our art director Grant Duncan’s head. To be honest, sometimes it frightens me, but if we give him a bright enough theme it’s usually OK. It all actually came from our very earliest days as a team when we were trying to decide on what game we would make. Grant came in with some toys from when he was a kid and one of them was an Evel Knievel stunt cycle. Mix that with our love for Mario, Sonic, Paperboy and so on, and the style kind of flowed from there.

148Apps: Any more fun statistics gleaned from Joe Danger Touch?
Sean: Sure! So this morning we worked out from the total distance that Joe has ridden that, if we assume he’s 6 feet tall, he’s been the equivalent of to the moon and back three times. And he’s been in 5 million crashes. I think his insurance premiums are pretty high :D

Yes, we'd suggest avoiding ever riding pillion with Joe Danger!

Huge thanks to Sean for answering our questions.

Joe Danger Touch is out now, priced at $2.99.

What started out as a fun pastime for Hello Games has become something extraordinary.

They hadn’t intended to make mobile games. The whole idea of Joe Danger for iOS came about as a portfolio project using previous assets. As it turned out, the ideas came in thick and fast and now the game is in a near-finished state. Joe Danger Touch is not a port. This has been built from the ground up to make the best use of the iOS platform. At Gamescom, I sampled several levels of varying difficulty.

The first thing that struck me was the lack of a virtual stick. Personally, I think that’s for the best. I’m not sure any developer, even Hello Games, would be able to capture the dexterity a console analog provides and Joe Danger requires. Players will use tap and swipe gestures to perform moves and stunts while Joe automatically rides his bike. While some earlier levels merely require players to tap the screen to vault over obstacles, later on, they’ll need to tap obstacles to remove them from their path, as well as duck under obstructions. They’ll also need to change lanes just like the original game.

Each level has an objective, whether it’s beating the time or collecting all coins, and encourages an immense amount of replay value. Of course, it wouldn’t be Joe Danger without stunts. While airborne, players merely need to swipe the screen to perform all manner of death-defying insanity. In my time with the game, the controls were very responsive and accurate on iPad. There were no hiccups and I quickly felt like a natural after only minutes of play.

With Hello Games' incredible attention to detail and high standards, there’s no reason to think Joe Danger Touch won't be one of the year's best on any platform, let alone iOS.