Pulse
High 5 Games: High risk – High reward
By William - 18 February 2020
High 5 Games has experienced strong commercial growth in the RMG online and mobile market in the previous 12 months, with its games now live with a host of operators across the globe. In this exclusive interview with G3, the company’s Vice President Creative, Thom Ang, talks us through the design and development process of its games and why they’re making a big impact in the European market.
What’s your background in game design and how did you become involved in the industry?
My background was rooted in early interactive video game production. During the 16-Bit console era of SNES and Sega Genesis, I was a Production Artist, then Lead Artist, followed by Art Director. Over two decades later, I’ve been involved in various platforms and game types (side-scroller, FPS, RPG, MMORPG). Seven years ago, I joined High 5 Games (H5G) and became involved in the gaming industry, bringing over my wide and varied experience from AAA and handheld game production, and dove into RMG designs.
How do you prepare for the concept meetings? What research do you undertake before you discuss potential concepts?
Our Innovation team keeps an eye on the top performers and trends. We try to identify underserved areas or open opportunities to deliver on new designs. Projects can originate from a math concept or from a particular feature/mechanic or even from a narrative theme.
At the concept stage, who is in the room? Does everybody involved in game design, from the artistic team through to sound design, have an input and what are their roles in the meeting?
At the concept stage, involvement and contribution can come from a small core group or the entire innovation group at H5G. A key factor is that during the prototype phase, the project is visible and accessible to the innovation group as a whole, and individuals can and are encouraged to comment. Roles become concrete when a prototype transitions into production mode.
How is the style and subject of a game determined? Is it a case of working to a particular brief or letting the team’s creative juices flow?
During the prototype phase, the intent is for the features, mechanics, and presentation of the design to come through with a generic set of assets; agnostic to style and subject. But sometimes style and subject become unavoidably enmeshed because of a natural fit to the design. In some cases, style and subject can motivate and propel design direction. The core team collectively brainstorms styles and subjects per prototype. Individuals come with ideas, but riffing on the collective contributions pushes ideas into unexpected directions. A cursory brief is created for the top handful of ideas (via vote with core group). The briefs are then presented to the various company-wide stakeholders. The winning theme goes into production.
How many concepts progress beyond the drawing board and how are these whittled down? How much do ideas that don’t make it out of the door influence the final game?
We usually cap the ideas at around 20. Those get edited down to about five per math design. There are themes that seem to be a universal fit for multiple game designs, but once a subject/theme is committed to production, ideas naturally flow in support of that theme so we rarely return to older ideas.
Concepts go through multiple rounds of consideration. Each is developed to the point wherein it can effectively demonstrate the core gameplay experience. They’re thrown into an arena with past concepts to determine the top three that emerge as winners. Usually, the newer concepts garner greater support, but that’s not a set rule.
At what point do you know you have hit upon the concept you want to take forward? And who makes the decision to press ahead with an idea?
The concept we take forward is usually a clear winner based on the support it earns from the stakeholders. In some cases, the group is torn between two strong concepts. Our CEO, Anthony Singer always has tie- breaking and veto privileges.
How lengthy or brief is the conceptualisation stage? And what are the key stages in the process?
Game concepts go weeks and months before they’re in a demonstrable state. Usually the Math/Design Team considers whether a concept is ready to progress to a wider team evaluation. The determination is then made to move to production, kill, or continue with additional tweaks.
The general flow is Concept > Prototype> Preproduction> Production> Release. But our process is not strictly linear. We’re not afraid to reset on concepts that feel lacklustre even at a mature stage of production.
What is the balance between new and existing assets? Does going in a totally new direction, such as bringing in a new math model or targeting a niche market, present too great a margin of risk?
Of late, we’ve been more open to more drastically new ideas. We certainly pursue permutations of existing concepts, but the whole team has been invigorated by our mandate to discover the new as part of our new tentpole games strategy. It goes in waves and is contextual to performance results we track in the market.
We try to follow a programme blended of drastically new concepts and variations on known strong models. Sometimes, the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
Are there certain genre boxes you need to tick? There is a huge volume of games in the marketplace centring around particular themes, such as Egyptian tombs and leprechauns. Are there Zeitgeist concepts you have to follow which guarantee a certain level of popularity and can you break from these norms?
There’s always a natural inclination to gravitate towards and consider the latest and greatest in the market. But speed to market usually negates the effectiveness of this particular strategy. And at the core of design- ANY design- the “new” is usually where you achieve the greatest “delight” response in an audience/market. The “familiar” works, but effectiveness will naturally degrade.
You recently launched with a new operator partner, Sky Betting & Gaming, as High 5 Games expands its European presence. What do you identify as the key elements for a game to be successful in Europe?
The online European market is one of the most mature in the industry and players are accustomed to different game themes and math models. The trick is to have a games portfolio which will appeal to a wide audience. That’s why we look to include varying volatility and mechanics in our games to help them stand out. It’s been a key driver behind our recent commercial success, with more operators than ever before taking our content.
