Joe Danger

The player controls motorbike stuntman "Joe Danger" and guides him through ten "trials" to defeat his nemeses, the members of Team Nasty.[9] The game uses elements of both racing and side-scrolling platform genres,[7] in which the protagonist can move to the right and, by reversing, to the left as well as hopping over and ducking under various obstacles.[10] Although the game is based on a two-dimensional plane, some of its courses are designed with three layers accessible by changing lanes.[11] The bike is controllable in the air, allowing various tricks to be performed, for which points are awarded with higher scores awarded for long trick sequences,[10] and for manoeuvring onto targets.[12] Executing a stunt will build a "boost meter",[7] which is used to increases Joe's speed, but drains the meter.[11][13][14] The Select button is used to teleport Joe back to the last checkpoint passed.[15]

The boxing glove obstacle is representative of art director Grant Duncan's artwork and comic level design, the inspiration for which came from past jobs with Sega.[16]

Joe Danger's level design was directly influenced by the Sonic the Hedgehog game series,[15] as evidenced by the use of avoidable spikes, vertical loops,[14][17] and springs placed in levels to allow higher jumps.[10][16] Some elements are designed to hinder the player, such as conveyor belts, which slow the motorbike,[15] oversized boxing gloves, which will propel the player backwards[12] and barricades, which make it necessary to switch to an alternative lane.[11]

The primary goal in each level is to collect as many "stars" as possible. A star is collected for completing an objective, and once enough are collected, the next course is unlocked. Critics compared this process to that used in the Super Mario Bros. titles.[18] The player is free to choose which objectives to complete, with the option of replaying a level to earn more stars. The most common objective is to finish a course within a time limit with as many points as possible. Other level-specific objectives include collecting a series of coins, hidden stars or letters spelling "Danger",[11][13] while in others the player is required to land on every target, or to complete a course in one continuous sequence of tricks.[19] Later levels require the player to do more than one objective simultaneously.[7]

Joe Danger contains a sandbox mode, which allows the player to drag and drop objects onto the course to customise levels.[11] This mode is integrated into some single-player levels where the game may instruct the player to introduce obstacles such as ramps to access later sections.[19] New levels can be shared online with friends via the PlayStation Network.[20] The game has a split screen multiplayer mode for up to four players on a selection of specially-made tracks.[14] There is leaderboard support, initially limited to those on the player's PlayStation Network friend list.[13]

Joe Danger arose from the team's wish to make "something that puts a smile on people's faces" similar to games such as Mario Kart and Micro Machines.[22] An Evel Knievel toy was a main source of inspiration for the "Joe" character; the team had fun "firing that stunt cycle out of windows and down halls".[16] Nevertheless, Murray likened work as an independent developer to "the reality of eating ice cream every day for every meal" as the novelty of working for themselves wore off.[23] The team often spent more than 60 hours a week working on the project because of the "unrealistic" time scales for development and with only four team members, each had to fulfil several roles; they had no public relations representative nor did they have a business manager or a designer.[21][23] No software design document was made throughout the production of Joe Danger, since the team felt they understood each other's ideas.[24]

The staff of Hello Games in their office in Guildford. From left: David Ream, Sean Murray, Grant Duncan, and Ryan Doyle.[22]

The game was announced on the developers' website on 23 September 2009 and given its first public showcase in November 2009 at the Eurogamer Expo in Earls Court.[25] The team used this event as an opportunity for extensive playtesting, receiving feedback from those playing the game and creating new software builds for each day of the expo. Murray cited numerous "happy accidents" during development, which led to incorporation of various features into the end product. An example of this was a bug in the programming which enabled players to jump as often as they liked in mid-air; the team decided this was fun and incorporated it as a double jump.[24]

Hello Games struggled to find a third-party publisher for the game. Some of the reasons include worries about the lack of potential for porting it to other platforms, and comments such as "collecting giant coins feels unrealistic to me", and "we want games that are less about fun right now".[26][27][28] One prospective publisher intimated that they might have published the game if the main character had been a monkey.[26] When players were invited to make suggestions for additional characters, there was popular support for the monkey idea; this led to the introduction of a downloadable bonus character, Chuckles the Chimp.[29] After nine months looking for a publisher, the team ran out of money. Murray later came up with the idea of selling his home to help fund development.[30][31] He explained to Jessica Conditt of Engadget that he considered the house "like a blood diamond", since it was paid for with money earned at his job with Electronic Arts.[32]

After initially being unsure of the best platform on which to release Joe Danger,[33] the developers announced in March 2010 that they would be releasing the game only on Sony's PlayStation 3.[34] This decision enabled Hello to make use of Sony's "Publishing Fund", a scheme which offered advantageous financial terms in exchange for exclusivity.[34][35] Murray said that the PlayStation Network was the ideal place to release the game because it was the only way they could publish by themselves[36] and branded the Xbox Live Arcade platform a "slaughterhouse for small developers" due to poor sales figures for independent works.[37][38] Joe Danger was released on 8 June 2010 in the North American PlayStation Store, with a European release the following day.[2][3]

In October 2011, Eurogamer picked up on an Xbox Live Arcade listing for a Joe Danger: Special Edition on the Korea Media Rating Board.[39] The project was officially announced on 3 November;[40] a GameSpot-exclusive trailer was released the same day.[41] Murray said that the Special Edition will include new gameplay modes and characters; another new addition is the "Laboratory" mode, in which the player must complete unique "developer challenges".[4][42] The edition was released on 14 December 2011 and was exclusive to the Xbox 360.[4][43] Murray stood by his earlier statements criticising Microsoft's platform; he said, "Obviously a comment like that isn't meant exactly how it sounds. For probably a few years XBLA was basically the only show in town. If you managed to get your game on there it was almost a guarantee of success. I don't think that's the case now. That isn't Microsoft's fault, and it isn't developers' fault. It's just that a hundred games come out there a year, and of those maybe ten break through and make an impact. The rest don't."[44][45] He stressed the decision to port the game "made business sense", and that the team "jumped at the chance without even thinking about the economics of it".[46]

Since the release of Special Edition, a spin-off version for iOS and Android devices has been in development. The team decided not to directly adapt the original game for the new device; Murray told Mike Rose of Gamasutra that "simply porting a game is never something I could get excited about, it's soulless work". He explained that the team's aim is to create a game with similar graphics to a console game, while also keeping the frame rate at 60 frames per second.[47] The game is being co-developed by Steven Burgess, who previously worked on WiiWare game LostWinds with Frontier Developments.[48] It was given its first public showcase at the Penny Arcade Expo in Boston, Massachusetts, on 7 April.[49] The iOS version, titled Joe Danger Touch, was listed on the iTunes Store on 10 January 2013.[5][50]

A version of the game for the PlayStation Vita was announced on 27 August 2014, containing both levels from the original game and levels exclusive to the PlayStation Vita. It was made available for free on the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection service in September 2014. There are 25 playable characters available in the game, as well as a modified level editor.[51]

Several months after Joe Danger's release, Hello Games began to advertise positions on their website, indicating that work was proceeding on a new project.[72] New staff were added and towards the end of the year the organisation moved its offices.[73][74] After an announcement on Hello Games' website a week prior, Joe Danger: The Movie was presented for the first time at Gamescom in Cologne in August 2011.[75][76] Murray said the game is "kind of" a sequel to Joe Danger, but that he envisioned it big enough to dwarf the original.[77] Renamed Joe Danger 2: The Movie, the game was released 14 September 2012,[78] and was the last of Hello Games' projects to be based around the character.[79][80]

• Official website