Joe Danger
Encyclopedia
Joe Danger is the first title published by British independent video game developer Hello Games
. It was released on the PlayStation Network in June 2010, after Hello chose to publish it exclusively with Sony Computer Entertainment
; however, a further release for the Xbox Live Arcade
was confirmed in November 2011. Joe Danger is a side-scrolling video game
incorporating elements of racing and platform
games. The player controls the eponymous
daredevil
and navigates time-limited courses, aiming to complete enough objectives to continue to further rounds. Joe Danger is presented in a light-hearted way, with emphasis on stunts and maintaining speed.
The game was promoted in the media through interviews with the four members of the development team, in particular with Hello Games's managing director
, Sean Murray. The team used their official website and Sony's PlayStation Blog to maintain contact with fans and to keep them up to date on the project's progress. Much of the quality assurance
process took the form of public beta testing at exhibitions.
On its release, Joe Danger received generally positive reviews; most reviewers praised the accessible gameplay and the ability to edit courses while playing them. Some suggested the game would have benefited from more options, such as sharing and rating user-generated content, and criticised the lack of an online multiplayer mode. Hello Games subsequently released downloadable content
to add features that users and reviewers had requested in the months following the game's release. Using leaderboard statistics, Joe Danger was estimated to have sold at least 108,000 units in its first three months on sale. It was nominated for several awards, including the grand prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival
.
genres. As with most side-scrolling platform games, the protagonist can move to the right and, by reversing, to the left. Although the game is based on a two-dimensional plane, some of its courses are designed with three layers; the player can "shift" into different lanes. The bike is controllable in the air, allowing for various tricks to be performed and for manoeuvring onto targets. Some obstacles are designed to be passed by hopping or ducking. Points are awarded for performing tricks; more points are awarded for long sequences of tricks, for example when tricks are linked with a nose or tail wheelie
. Executing a stunt will build a "boost meter". Pressing the boost button increases Joe's speed, but drains the meter; the gain lasts until the meter is empty. Pushing the Select button will teleport Joe back to the last checkpoint passed.
Joe Danger level design was directly influenced by the game series Sonic the Hedgehog. This is evidenced through the use of avoidable spikes and vertical loops, and by springs placed in levels to allow higher jumps. Some elements are designed to hinder the player, such as conveyor belts that slow the motorbike; oversized boxing gloves which will propel the player backwards; and barricades which make it necessary to switch to another of the three lanes.
The player's 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 Super Mario Bros.
titles. 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", while in others the player is required to land on every target, or to complete a course in one continuous sequence of tricks. Later levels require the player to do more than one objective simultaneously.
Joe Danger contains a sandbox mode, which allows the player to drag-and-drop
objects onto the course to customise levels or to alter existing ones. This mode is integrated into some single-player levels; the game may instruct the player to introduce obstacles such as ramps to access later sections. New levels can be shared online with friends over the PlayStation Network. The game has a split screen
multiplayer mode for up to four players on a selection of specially-made tracks. There is leaderboard support, initially limited to those on the player's PlayStation Network friend list.
has been made available. The first patch for the game, dubbed "The People's Patch", was released in August 2010. This added two features, the absence of which which had initially caused critics to mark the game down: the ability to upload video replays to video sharing site YouTube
; and the ability to share customised courses with those not on the player's friends list. Other additional features were custom soundtracks, new levels, and alternative costumes. The announcement of the game's expansion coincided with a level-designing competition in which the top five contestants won T-shirts and artwork. Murray said Hello were trying to respond to all suggestions from users, and that they would release a patch addressing "every concern we could". In November 2010 the team announced four new playable characters, each with a unique appearance and range of moves.
and Electronic Arts
employee Sean Murray together with three friends who collectively had experience with British videogame developers Kuju
, Climax
and Sumo
. Murray had held technical director and lead programmer roles working on PlayStation 2
games Burnout 3: Takedown
and Black
; he took the role of managing director
of Hello Games, while Grant Duncan became art director, Ryan Doyle technical director and David Ream creative director. The team gained their first experiences of creating their own games by making levels for Doom and Unreal
. Doyle expressed the belief that smaller games could be created more cost-effectively by an independent group than by a larger company.
The concept for Joe Danger arose, according to Doyle, from the team's wish to make "something that puts a smile on people's faces", along the lines of such games from their youth as Mario Kart
and Micro Machines
. 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". 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 through the process of publishing Joe Danger. Because of the "unrealistic" time scales for development, the team often spent more than 60 hours a week working on the project. As there were only four of them, each member of the small team had to fulfil several roles; they had nobody to work on public relations
exclusively, nor did they have a business manager or a designer. No software design document was made throughout the production of Joe Danger, since the team felt they understood each other's ideas.
The game was announced on the developers' website on 23 September 2009, and was given its first public showcase in November 2009 at the Eurogamer
Expo in Earls Court
. The team used this event as an opportunity for extensive playtesting
, taking feedback from those playing the game and creating new software build
s for each day of the expo. Murray cited numerous "happy accidents" during development which led to features being incorporated 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, pruned it back to a double jump and ultimately left it in. A high-definition
trailer of the game debuted at GameTrailers
in February 2010.
Hello Games struggled to find a third-party publisher. A month after release, Murray revealed at the annual Develop
developers' conference in Brighton
some of the reasons publishers gave with their rejections. There were 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". One prospective publisher intimated that they might have published the game if the main character had been a monkey. 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.
After initially being unsure of the best platform on which to release Joe Danger, the developers announced in March 2010 that they would be releasing the game only on Sony's PlayStation 3
. This decision enabled Hello to make use of Sony's "Publishing Fund", a scheme which offered the developers advantageous financila terms in exchange for exclusivity. 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, and branded the Xbox Live Arcade
platform a "slaughterhouse for small developers" due to poor sales figures for independent works.
In October 2011, Eurogamer picked up on an Xbox Live Arcade listing for a Joe Danger: Special Edition on the Korea Media Rating Board
. The project was officially announced on 3 November; a GameSpot
-exclusive trailer was released the same day. 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". The edition is estimated for release before the end of 2011 and will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 system. 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." 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".
, it allows for "five-minute sprints" of gameplay, although more in-depth options take up more time. IGN
's Daemon Hatfield compared the game favourably to Nintendo Entertainment System
launch title Excitebike
, and said that Joe Danger felt like a Nintendo game. Other critics focused on similarities to Super Mario Bros., such as non-linear level progression (the ability to play levels in any order, providing that the player has earned enough stars to "unlock" the level), the encouragement to play through multiple times to complete every objective, and the use of platforms. Another influences noted with favour by critics was the combo system, which some compared with the Tony Hawk's series
of skateboarding
games. Comments were also made on the influence of early Sonic the Hedgehog titles. The cheerful, cartoon-like nature of Joe Danger artwork was well received; Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell said "I've worked on games websites for over a decade and not enough games are happy and colourful. This one is. More of this, please, everyone."
Opinions were less uniformly complimentary about other modes of the game. Scott Alan Marriott of G4 TV
was disappointed with the shortage of options in multiplayer modes, in particular the inability to play against others online. The game's leaderboard feature was another source of criticism, with several reviewers noting severe lag
issues. The Daily Telegraph
Martin Gaston said "it would also have been nice to see the game give dedicated players the opportunity to study from the world's finest by implementing online replays", an option not originally included; the decision not to allow sharing custom courses with users outside the player's friend's list was labelled "questionable" and "obtuse". Minor criticisms related to the lack of variety in sound design and background scenery. Two months after the initial release, Hello Games' first patch for Joe Danger contained features to cover most critics' concerns.
Before its release, Joe Danger was nominated for the "Seumas McNally Grand Prize" and for the "Technical Excellence" award at the 2010 Independent Games Festival
at the Game Developer's Conference, losing to Monaco
and Limbo
respectively. The game was unsuccessfully nominated for the "Best New Download IP" award at the same year's Develop
Industry Excellence Awards in Brighton; however, it won the studio the "Best New Studio" and "Micro Studio" awards. It was nominated in the "Best Downloadable Game" category at GamesMaster
Golden Joystick Awards in September 2011, but missed out to Minecraft
. The same month, Play Magazine placed it top of its "50 Best PSN Games" feature, ahead of titles such as Braid
and The Last Guy
.
in Cologne
in August 2011. Murray said the game is "kind of" a sequel to Joe Danger, but that he envisions it will be big enough to dwarf the original. Joe Danger: The Movie has an estimated release date of early 2012.
Hello Games
Hello Games was formed in 2009 by former employees from video game companies like Criterion Games, Electronic Arts, and Kuju Entertainment. Their first title was the critically acclaimed Joe Danger. At the 2010 Develop Awards, Hello Games won two awards; Best New Studio and Best Micro Studio...
. It was released on the PlayStation Network in June 2010, after Hello chose to publish it exclusively with Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment
Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. is a major video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry, and is a wholly owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products & Services Group of Sony...
; however, a further release for the Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
was confirmed in November 2011. Joe Danger is a side-scrolling video game
Side-scrolling video game
A side-scrolling game or side-scroller is a video game in which the gameplay action is viewed from a side-view camera angle, and the onscreen characters generally move from the left side of the screen to the right. These games make use of scrolling computer display technology...
incorporating elements of racing and platform
Platform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
games. The player controls the eponymous
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
daredevil
Stunt performer
A stuntman, or daredevil is someone who performs dangerous stunts, often as a career.These stunts are sometimes rigged so that they look dangerous while still having safety mechanisms, but often they are as dangerous as they appear to be...
and navigates time-limited courses, aiming to complete enough objectives to continue to further rounds. Joe Danger is presented in a light-hearted way, with emphasis on stunts and maintaining speed.
The game was promoted in the media through interviews with the four members of the development team, in particular with Hello Games's managing director
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
, Sean Murray. The team used their official website and Sony's PlayStation Blog to maintain contact with fans and to keep them up to date on the project's progress. Much of the quality assurance
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...
process took the form of public beta testing at exhibitions.
On its release, Joe Danger received generally positive reviews; most reviewers praised the accessible gameplay and the ability to edit courses while playing them. Some suggested the game would have benefited from more options, such as sharing and rating user-generated content, and criticised the lack of an online multiplayer mode. Hello Games subsequently released downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
to add features that users and reviewers had requested in the months following the game's release. Using leaderboard statistics, Joe Danger was estimated to have sold at least 108,000 units in its first three months on sale. It was nominated for several awards, including the grand prize at the 2010 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
.
Gameplay
The player controls motorbike stuntman "Joe Danger", and must guide him through ten "trials" to defeat his nemeses, the members of Team Nasty. The game uses elements of both racing and platformPlatform game
A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...
genres. As with most side-scrolling platform games, the protagonist can move to the right and, by reversing, to the left. Although the game is based on a two-dimensional plane, some of its courses are designed with three layers; the player can "shift" into different lanes. The bike is controllable in the air, allowing for various tricks to be performed and for manoeuvring onto targets. Some obstacles are designed to be passed by hopping or ducking. Points are awarded for performing tricks; more points are awarded for long sequences of tricks, for example when tricks are linked with a nose or tail wheelie
Wheelie
In vehicle acrobatics, a wheelie is a vehicle maneuver in which the front wheel or wheels come off the ground due to extreme torque being applied to the rear wheel or wheels. Wheelies are usually associated with bicycles and motorcycles, but can be done with other vehicles such as cars, especially...
. Executing a stunt will build a "boost meter". Pressing the boost button increases Joe's speed, but drains the meter; the gain lasts until the meter is empty. Pushing the Select button will teleport Joe back to the last checkpoint passed.
Joe Danger level design was directly influenced by the game series Sonic the Hedgehog. This is evidenced through the use of avoidable spikes and vertical loops, and by springs placed in levels to allow higher jumps. Some elements are designed to hinder the player, such as conveyor belts that slow the motorbike; oversized boxing gloves which will propel the player backwards; and barricades which make it necessary to switch to another of the three lanes.
The player's 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 Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros.
is a 1985 platform video game developed by Nintendo, published for the Nintendo Entertainment System as a sequel to the 1983 game Mario Bros. In Super Mario Bros., the player controls Mario as he travels through the Mushroom Kingdom in order to rescue Princess Toadstool from the antagonist...
titles. 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", while in others the player is required to land on every target, or to complete a course in one continuous sequence of tricks. Later levels require the player to do more than one objective simultaneously.
Joe Danger contains a sandbox mode, which allows the player to drag-and-drop
Drag-and-drop
In computer graphical user interfaces, drag-and-drop is the action of selecting a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object...
objects onto the course to customise levels or to alter existing ones. This mode is integrated into some single-player levels; the game may instruct the player to introduce obstacles such as ramps to access later sections. New levels can be shared online with friends over the PlayStation Network. The game has a split screen
Split screen (computer graphics)
Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into non-movable adjacent parts, typically two or four rectangular areas. This is done in order to allow the simultaneous presentation of related graphical and textual information on a computer...
multiplayer mode for up to four players on a selection of specially-made tracks. There is leaderboard support, initially limited to those on the player's PlayStation Network friend list.
Downloadable content
Since the game's initial release, additional downloadable contentDownloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
has been made available. The first patch for the game, dubbed "The People's Patch", was released in August 2010. This added two features, the absence of which which had initially caused critics to mark the game down: the ability to upload video replays to video sharing site YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
; and the ability to share customised courses with those not on the player's friends list. Other additional features were custom soundtracks, new levels, and alternative costumes. The announcement of the game's expansion coincided with a level-designing competition in which the top five contestants won T-shirts and artwork. Murray said Hello were trying to respond to all suggestions from users, and that they would release a patch addressing "every concern we could". In November 2010 the team announced four new playable characters, each with a unique appearance and range of moves.
Development and release
Hello Games was formed in July 2009, by former CriterionCriterion Games
Criterion Games is a Guildford, England based British video game developer. It is best known for its work on the award-winning, multi-platform Burnout series, the PS2, Gamecube and Xbox first-person shooter Black.Criterion Software Ltd was created in 1993 to commercialise 3D...
and Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
employee Sean Murray together with three friends who collectively had experience with British videogame developers Kuju
Kuju Entertainment
Kuju Entertainment is an English computer and video game corporation consisting of three studios, two of which are located in the UK: Zoë Mode , Headstrong Games , and one in the Czech Republic: Vatra games...
, Climax
Climax Group
Climax Group is a British independent video game development company. It was founded by Karl Jeffery in 1988 and is based in Portsmouth, Hampshire....
and Sumo
Sumo Digital
Sumo Digital Ltd. is an independent game development studio based in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Set up in 2003 following the closure of Infogrames Studios Sheffield/Gremlin Interactive...
. Murray had held technical director and lead programmer roles working on PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
games Burnout 3: Takedown
Burnout 3: Takedown
Burnout 3: Takedown is the third game in the Burnout series of video games. Released on September 7, 2004, developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts , the game drew critical acclaim and a large fanbase.A GameCube version was planned but was scrapped during development...
and Black
Black (video game)
Black is a first-person shooter video game, developed by Criterion Games and published by EA. It was released on February 24, 2006 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2 video game consoles...
; he took the role of managing director
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Hello Games, while Grant Duncan became art director, Ryan Doyle technical director and David Ream creative director. The team gained their first experiences of creating their own games by making levels for Doom and Unreal
Unreal
Unreal is a first-person shooter video game developed by Epic MegaGames and Digital Extremes and published by GT Interactive in May 1998...
. Doyle expressed the belief that smaller games could be created more cost-effectively by an independent group than by a larger company.
The concept for Joe Danger arose, according to Doyle, from the team's wish to make "something that puts a smile on people's faces", along the lines of such games from their youth as Mario Kart
Mario Kart
is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...
and Micro Machines
Micro Machines
Micro Machines: The Original Scale Miniatures were a line of toys originally made by Galoob in the mid 1980s and throughout the 1990s. Galoob licensed the idea behind Micro Machines from Clem Heeden, a toy inventor from Wisconsin...
. An Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel , born Robert Craig Knievel, was an American daredevil and entertainer. In his career he attempted over 75 ramp-to-ramp motorcycle jumps between 1965 and 1980, and in 1974, a failed jump across Snake River Canyon in the Skycycle X-2, a steam-powered rocket...
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". 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 through the process of publishing Joe Danger. Because of the "unrealistic" time scales for development, the team often spent more than 60 hours a week working on the project. As there were only four of them, each member of the small team had to fulfil several roles; they had nobody to work on public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
exclusively, nor did they have a business manager or a designer. No software design document was made throughout the production of Joe Danger, since the team felt they understood each other's ideas.
The game was announced on the developers' website on 23 September 2009, and was given its first public showcase in November 2009 at the Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
Expo in Earls Court
Earls Court
Earls Court is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It is an inner-city district centred on Earl's Court Road and surrounding streets, located 3.1 miles west south-west of Charing Cross. It borders the sub-districts of South Kensington to the East, West...
. The team used this event as an opportunity for extensive playtesting
Playtest
A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and flaws before bringing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise....
, taking feedback from those playing the game and creating new software build
Software build
In the field of computer software, the term software build refers either to the process of converting source code files into standalone software artifact that can be run on a computer, or the result of doing so...
s for each day of the expo. Murray cited numerous "happy accidents" during development which led to features being incorporated 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, pruned it back to a double jump and ultimately left it in. A high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
trailer of the game debuted at GameTrailers
GameTrailers
GameTrailers is a media website that specializes in video game related content. It provides free access to original programming , game trailers and recorded game play. Along with standard definition , many of the video clips are offered in a higher resolution .Users can upload videos, create...
in February 2010.
Hello Games struggled to find a third-party publisher. A month after release, Murray revealed at the annual Develop
Develop (magazine)
Develop is a monthly trade magazine for the video games industry. Based in Hertford, Hertfordshire, the magazine allows participation by anyone working in the video game industry. Develop is the only European-based website and print magazine aimed exclusively at the development community...
developers' conference in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
some of the reasons publishers gave with their rejections. There were worries about the lack of potential for porting
Game port
The game port is a device port found on IBM PC compatible systems throughout the 1980s and 1990s. It was the traditional connector for joystick input devices until superseded by USB in the 21st century....
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". One prospective publisher intimated that they might have published the game if the main character had been a monkey. 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.
After initially being unsure of the best platform on which to release Joe Danger, the developers announced in March 2010 that they would be releasing the game only on Sony's PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
. This decision enabled Hello to make use of Sony's "Publishing Fund", a scheme which offered the developers advantageous financila terms in exchange for exclusivity. 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, and branded the Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
platform a "slaughterhouse for small developers" due to poor sales figures for independent works.
In October 2011, Eurogamer picked up on an Xbox Live Arcade listing for a Joe Danger: Special Edition on the Korea Media Rating Board
Korea Media Rating Board
The Korea Media Rating Board ' is a ratings organization in South Korea. They rate movies, videos, stage performances, and phonogrames. The current chairperson is Kyung-Soon Lee...
. The project was officially announced on 3 November; a GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
-exclusive trailer was released the same day. 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". The edition is estimated for release before the end of 2011 and will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 system. Murray stood by his earlier statements criticising Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
'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." 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".
Reception
Critical
The single-player gameplay mode of Joe Danger was generally well received by critics. The game's accessibility was a source of praise; according to Eric Neigher of 1UP.com1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
, it allows for "five-minute sprints" of gameplay, although more in-depth options take up more time. IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Daemon Hatfield compared the game favourably to Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
launch title Excitebike
Excitebike
is a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It first debuted as a game for the Famicom in Japan in 1984 and as a launch title for the NES in 1985. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its direct sequel Excitebike 64, its spiritual successors Excite Truck and...
, and said that Joe Danger felt like a Nintendo game. Other critics focused on similarities to Super Mario Bros., such as non-linear level progression (the ability to play levels in any order, providing that the player has earned enough stars to "unlock" the level), the encouragement to play through multiple times to complete every objective, and the use of platforms. Another influences noted with favour by critics was the combo system, which some compared with the Tony Hawk's series
Tony Hawk's Series
The Tony Hawk's series is a computer and video game series endorsed by professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and developed by Neversoft up until Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, and published by Activision. The series began with the 1999 release of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.-History:The first game was...
of skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
games. Comments were also made on the influence of early Sonic the Hedgehog titles. The cheerful, cartoon-like nature of Joe Danger artwork was well received; Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell said "I've worked on games websites for over a decade and not enough games are happy and colourful. This one is. More of this, please, everyone."
Opinions were less uniformly complimentary about other modes of the game. Scott Alan Marriott of G4 TV
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
was disappointed with the shortage of options in multiplayer modes, in particular the inability to play against others online. The game's leaderboard feature was another source of criticism, with several reviewers noting severe lag
Lag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
issues. The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
Martin Gaston said "it would also have been nice to see the game give dedicated players the opportunity to study from the world's finest by implementing online replays", an option not originally included; the decision not to allow sharing custom courses with users outside the player's friend's list was labelled "questionable" and "obtuse". Minor criticisms related to the lack of variety in sound design and background scenery. Two months after the initial release, Hello Games' first patch for Joe Danger contained features to cover most critics' concerns.
Before its release, Joe Danger was nominated for the "Seumas McNally Grand Prize" and for the "Technical Excellence" award at the 2010 Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in video game development and to recognize the best independent video game developers...
at the Game Developer's Conference, losing to Monaco
Monaco (video game)
Monaco is an upcoming stealth action video game developed by Pocketwatch Games. The game provides a top-down view as players cooperate to perform a heist using a variety of specialized thief characters. Monaco won two awards at the 2010 GDC Independent Games Festival Awards: the Seumas McNally...
and Limbo
Limbo (video game)
Limbo is a puzzle-platform video game and the premiere title of independent Danish game developer Playdead. The game was released in July 2010 as a platform exclusive title on Xbox Live Arcade, and was later re-released as part of a retail game pack along with Trials HD and Splosion Man in April...
respectively. The game was unsuccessfully nominated for the "Best New Download IP" award at the same year's Develop
Develop (magazine)
Develop is a monthly trade magazine for the video games industry. Based in Hertford, Hertfordshire, the magazine allows participation by anyone working in the video game industry. Develop is the only European-based website and print magazine aimed exclusively at the development community...
Industry Excellence Awards in Brighton; however, it won the studio the "Best New Studio" and "Micro Studio" awards. It was nominated in the "Best Downloadable Game" category at GamesMaster
GamesMaster (magazine)
GamesMaster is a monthly multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom.GamesMaster is the biggest selling multi-format video games magazine in the United Kingdom, outselling its sister publication Edge.-History:The magazine was launched in...
Golden Joystick Awards in September 2011, but missed out to Minecraft
Minecraft
Minecraft is a sandbox-building independent video game written in Java originally by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson and now by his company, Mojang, formed from the proceeds of the game. It was released as an alpha on May 17, 2009, with a beta version on December 20, 2010...
. The same month, Play Magazine placed it top of its "50 Best PSN Games" feature, ahead of titles such as Braid
Braid (video game)
Braid is a platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer Jonathan Blow. The game was released on August 6, 2008 for the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. A Microsoft Windows version was released on April 10, 2009. Hothead Games ported and released the game to Mac OS...
and The Last Guy
The Last Guy
The Last Guy is a PlayStation Network title for the PlayStation 3. It is available as a downloadable game on the PlayStation Store. The game is a rescue game in which the eponymous player character must guide civilians to escape from monster-infested cities. On July 31, 2008, it was released in Japan...
.
Commercial
Joe Danger sold over 50,000 units in its first week on sale on the PlayStation Network. The team announced at the Develop Conference 2010 that they broke even on the day of release. Based on Gamerbytes' statistics—which use the number of unique entries on a game's online leaderboard to estimate the number of sales—it sold more than 68,000 units in its first month of release. In July, the same statistics indicated a further 24,000 units had been sold, bringing the two-month total to over 92,000. The next month saw at least 16,000 new players. Exact sales figures are uncertain because only a limited number of scores can be held within a leaderboard for PlayStation Network games, but on the basis of these numbers the game sold at least 108,000 units in its first three months. Murray said that as Joe Danger does not allow scores of zero to make the leaderboards, the true units sold was likely to be substantially higher than indicated.Follow-up
Several months after Joe Danger release, Hello Games began to run job advertisements on their website, indicating that work was proceeding on a new project. New staff were taken on, and towards the end of the year the organisation moved its offices. After an announcement on Hello Games' website the week before, Joe Danger: The Movie was presented for the first time at GamescomGamescom
gamescom is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is organised by the Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware...
in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
in August 2011. Murray said the game is "kind of" a sequel to Joe Danger, but that he envisions it will be big enough to dwarf the original. Joe Danger: The Movie has an estimated release date of early 2012.