Pulse
Narrative in Game Design BLUE GURU GAMES
I’d say Reel Big Fish is more of a common take on the popular fishing theme. However, we do have a bit of a unique delivery mechanic on how the fishing game works in this case and conceptually came across something that looked nice. We also adopted an approach of who tells better stories than the fishermen themself?
Rather than simple animations between base gameplay and bonus features, slots potentially having full movie-like cutscenes is an intriguing prospect. Do you think that could be something in the future?
Hopefully. In the current environment with size limitations comes the obvious need for games to load within a few seconds before people lose interest. With iOS we can't have unlimited loading size if we want to have the game available. When technology improves and we can get smaller compression sizes, the more we can do with cutscenes.
Blue Guru's portfolio also features slot themes one has come to expect in every slot provider's portfolio - Leprechaun Heist, Reel Big Fish, Curse of the Mummies, Book of Thieves. How different are they to the hundreds of other Irish, fishing, and Egyptian themed games?
I’d say Reel Big Fish is more of a common take on the popular fishing theme. However, we do have a bit of a unique delivery mechanic on how the fishing game works in this case and conceptually came across something that looked nice. We also adopted an approach of who tells better stories than the fishermen themself? Whilst it's not the most unique game Blue Guru has put out there, it has ‘more’ to it than many other fishing games.
Te same can be said of Book of Tieves. It’s a Book Of title but with a fantasy team. We also don’t have any other Book Of titles, so the game was also about expanding our portfolio variety.
When it comes to Curse of the Mummies, yes, it’s an Egyptian themed game, but it has an alternative twist. Chronologically it’s more modern and we have a soundtrack that's unique as far as Egyptian games are concerned. Curse of the Mummies was in the early days of Blue
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Guru where we sought to produce games with more advanced mechanics. If you compare Curse of the Mummies with previous games we’d released, it was a noticeable mechanical leap.
Leprechaun Heist is a unique theme because you don't have the stereotypical chasing golden pots across green fields. It's based around an Irish American gang doing a bank heist during St. Patrick's Day with a punk rock soundtrack. Te slot has the feel of a rough street in Boston than the games we are used to seeing around St. Patrick's Day.
Leprechaun Heist is inspired by movies such as Te Town and Te Departed than traditional ‘Irish’ games. It’s a game where the name perhaps misleads people who think it's traditional, while the theme and the take on it is quite unique.
Do you enjoy the challenge of iterating on well-covered ground or prefer creating a game that's completely different to anything else out there?
Te latter is more interesting and nor is it necessarily more challenging to create fun themes because it's more engaging. It's easier to get the entire team on board when it's not a concept we've seen done 10 times before.
We’ve also seen that when we go totally unique with games such as Napoleon vs Rabbits and Otterly Amazing they perform better than when we are trying to stick out as one of 50 fisherman-based games because it's more unique, it stands out and separates us as a developer from other new game releases. Players remember them better.
Is the player mindset starting to shift away from chasing certain themes?
I think there's a mix. Tere are certainly
Leprechaun Heist is a unique theme because you don't have the stereotypical chasing golden pots across green fields. It's based around an Irish American gang doing a bank heist during St. Patrick's Day with a punk
rock soundtrack. The slot has the feel of a rough street in Boston than the games we are used to seeing around St. Patrick's Day.
I think all parts of a game matter, from the general feel of the game through to the art, the tempo and the music. Music can take a good game to being a great game. But it's about a mix. What do you want to convey and what feeling do you want to create? With Otterly Amazing for example, we went more with an early 90s TV series feel - something like the Captain Planet and the Planeteers - rather than going for a dark ‘there's garbage in the ocean’ feel.
In slots, you’ve got limited time to convey the music. We don't want it to be too repetitive but also want to only have two different fields put for base gameplay and Free Spins. As such, it’s more about creating a mini soundtrack that doesn’t get too repetitive where we maintain quality and support the theme. We work closely with our audio partner, ReelTrax, with whom we have a constant ongoing dialogue.
players that prefer the styles of games they were used to in the early days of iGaming when we had a lot of Greek and Egyptian themed games.
Nowadays I’m seeing more of a trend towards players going for the mechanics they like and a greater willingness to try out new stuff - and new studios. Whereas players used to stick to a particular studio because that's the one they trusted.
Does Blue Guru have a house style? Is there a signature concept style across the portfolio or is artistic direction dictated by the theme?
We always try to take the theme of the game into consideration with art. We have some cartoony games such as Otterly Amazing and darker, rougher, more realistic games such as Spring-Heeled Jack. We have a skilled team of designers that can handle different styles.
When Lloyd Roberts, Head of Studio, and I send the game briefs over we have a specific style and concept art drawn up to a simple level. We leave them to come back with a different style if they think something else can work as well then collaboratively pick what we think is best based on the feeling we want the game to present.
Tere are cases where this isn’t the case such as Napoleon vs Rabbits where we knew exactly what we wanted from day one - pixelated and a late 80s/early 90s console- type feel to the sound. It’s about finding a total package that works best. Occasionally there are styles that we didn't expect to like that we end up really liking.
How significant a role does music play in the player experience? How is audio used to enhance a game's story and convey a sense of 'presence' in the gameplay?
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