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Spider-Man is now available for the PS4. For many, this will probably be their first superhero game experience on the consoles of the current generation since the Batman Arkham series. And although Spider-Man games have existed on all platforms since the Atari 2600 – developed by companies such as Activision from Call of Duty and Capcom, creator of Street Fighter – debuts on the web have begun in India.
The very first Spider-Man game on mobile phones was developed by Indiagames, based in Mumbai. The game, also titled Spider-Man, was directed in less than a month by a team of four and it was almost delivered with Spider-Man elements: Mysterio's Threat for GameBoy Advance. Plot? The 360 gadgets caught up with Indiagames, Hrishi Oberoi, Srinivasan Veeraraghavan and Vishal Gondal alumni to find out what it took to bring Spider-Man to Java and Brew phones exactly fifteen years ago.
At the time, Indiagames was a relatively unknown gaming company that had created 11 games for generic mobile phones, at arcade prices such as Zapper, Chopper Rescue and Tank Attack. That was before the days of iOS and Android, where telecom operators controlled hardware stores and dictated what was available for sale to consumers. These games were moderately successful and the company was ready to expand its reach beyond India and parts of Southeast Asia.
Photo credit: Shelfshock / YouTube
"We were at the E3 2003, when we had the idea that if we could get a certain amount of revenue on unbranded titles, what if a big brand? Maybe it could make us a lot of money. On a piece of paper, I started writing the names of all the great superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman, "recalls Gondal, revealing why the company decided to use a licensed game instead of creating his own IP.
"Coincidentally at E3, we met the guy who represented Marvel Comics," he adds. At this meeting, we stated that we would be interested in a Spider-Man license. They did not know who we were and they had never licensed a company outside the United States. Prior to that, no Spider-Man mobile game was created.
Familiarity or the lack of familiarity with it, there was another party involved – Activision. Marvel had surrendered the game fees to Activision, but as Activision had not created the game, the rights had to come from Activision and not from Marvel. It had to be structured as an agreement involving Marvel Comics, Activision and Indiagames. In addition, the company's ability to pay for the use of Spider-Man's license remained a concern.
"To conclude this agreement, I took one of our investors with me, Vikram Godse," says Gondal. "The reason I took her with me was Marvel asking if we had the money to pay for them, we were a small company."
"I told them," I have my bank with me, I have access to all the money ". Obviously, I bluffed, I did not have all the money. The goal was to convince them that we had the financial support and that we could do it.
After a few round trips, the general conditions have been accepted. Indiagames agreed to give Marvel a high payment – or a minimum guarantee, as is known in the world of industry -. The asking price was almost too high for the company.
"Vishal has emptied the company's bank account of about $ 200,000 to $ 300,000 to guarantee at least the guarantee," Veeraraghavan recalls. "The whole company went to this temple in Chembur, near the office, to pray because we have invested all our money, now God saves us."
This was not the only risk. Work started on the game even before the signing of the contract.
"Even before we got the license, we started playing the game," says Gondal. "Our goal was the day we would get the license, in a few weeks, we should start the game. Typically, what happened before was that you get the license, you create the game, it took three to six months and then you started it all. While we were negotiating the agreement with Marvel, the game was already in production and we were ready.
What's more, the game had to be done in an extremely tight time.
"There was a very specific and non-negotiable demand – the game had to be done in a month," Oberoi recalls. The reason was a license restriction.
"We had a blackout period in which we could only sell the game for six or eight months," says Oberoi. "After that, the movie Spider-Man 2 was going to be launched. In March 2004, they would launch the commercialization of this film. By that time, all Spider-Man licenses had to be commercialized. "
Indiagames, with the exception of one month's delay, had access to the Spider-Man Classic license as it was known, which meant that their sources were limited to the band. comic. One of the areas where the team was not restricted was the type of game they wanted to do. They were inspired by Spider-Man games on Nintendo GameBoy Advance.
"I played a lot of Spider-Man games on GameBoy and Spider-Man: Mysterio's Threat was a point of reference," says Oberoi. "Our take was something you do not see in mobile games today. It was a horizontal scrolling game, like Mario or Mega Man. Green Goblin arrives, kidnaps a gang of civilians. Spider-Man must save them and there were five levels. You have to go from level to level and save the hostages. It was the first real side scroller we had done.
Spider-Man's Japanese Cover: Threat for GBA by Mysterio
It was at a time when engines like Unity and many tools needed to create the game had to be developed from scratch. There were both programmers working on the game – Oberoi, Veeraraghavan – and they worked alongside an artist and a tester.
"We did not have a side-scrolling engine then. We had to create about 20 days of work, create a side-scrolling engine, write an animation system containing all side-scrolling elements, and then work on technologies we had never worked on before. says Veeraraghavan. "Hrishi had already worked on Java before, for me, it was completely new. It was my first mobile game in fact.
"We were basically staying there for those 20 days," he continues. "Because the systems we wrote had to be well done. We did not do a bad job, we could have but we did not do it. Hrishi and I did not want to cut corners.
This meant that the team did not want to compromise by making a generic Mario clone covered with a pixelated facsimile of Spider-Man. Attention to the details of certain specific attributes of the character, such as his ability to hang on to buildings, was of paramount importance.
"Previously, Spider-Man could hang on the balcony, climb and run. All of these are separate collision and animation systems, "says Veeraraghavan of the development process. "And it had to be smooth and neat. This is the first time we have at least six animation images, we have pushed it to six for the first time. Usually, there were two images maximum three. But in some of these cases, like climbing on a ledge, there are six frames.
Without dedicated game designer on the project, all the rules of the game and the gameplay elements were decided by the team. Lack of time meant that power-ups or abilities other than Spider-Man's web shooters were not in the game.
In addition, the game's animations took a lot longer than expected. For most of Spider-Man's brief development cycle, he used artistic resources drawn directly from Spider-Man: Mysterio's Threat.
"What we did, we took the GBA emulator on the PC and cut off the sprites of the GBA game to put it in the mobile game," says Oberoi Gadgets 360. "We have not had the time to make original sprites while coding and designing the game »
Fortunately, this was not the case for the final version as it contained original animations, according to Veeraraghavan.
"It was almost that the final version of the game contained all the GBA animations," he recalls. "We have not prepared the latest animations. We had done it two or three days ago, but until then we were working with GBA animations.
For the most part, Marvel and Activision remained out of the way, allowing Indiagames to play his game as he wished.
"The support we received from them was that they stayed out of the way. Which was a decent support in itself, "says Oberoi. "When we gave it for approval, they did not go back much. Because the mobile was so small and niche, it had to be that, if it was decent, it would be approved. "
However, there was a piece of content that did not make it to the game – a level that was secretly added by Oberoi. It was no longer a secret after it was discovered by Pratik Murarka, a company tester.
"If you stood next to a door of a certain building and you were in a hurry, you would go inside," says Oberoi. "It would teleport you to a hidden level. If you could get through – as it was broken jetties by the sea, this would allow you to fill your web shooters. I built it as an Easter egg and Pratik found it on the first day. I hoped to get there, but that did not happen because a very smart tester found it and we could not add an optional secret level without approval of Marvel.
Nevertheless, the game was finally delivered in September 2003. With so few games in phone shops around the world, it has proven to be one of Indiagames' most successful titles apart from its cricket games IPL. It was a purchase at a higher price, between $ 5 and $ 7, depending on the operator store from which it was purchased.
"From the point of view of the unique brand, IPL has made more money, but other than that, Spider-Man is the unique game that has made more money for us than anything else," says Gondal. "We had only eight months to realize the revenues from this license. We won almost a million dollars at that time. It was probably the biggest turnover ever made. "
As for a sequel? Marvel has opened offers for the use of the license. Indiagames was outbid on another game by Mforma. Then, Gameloft created and developed many portable adventures on the web.
Indiagames' participation in Spider-Man has enabled the company to engage in international distribution around the world. Spurred by the commercial reception of Spider-Man, he also shaped the company's strategy by attempting to get hold of all the Hollywood licenses available.
"What we did – which was a stupid thing with hindsight [as it meant no focus on original IP], we said that Spider-Man was working to buy all Hollywood licenses, "says Gondal. "We literally bought 15 licenses. Name a character and we've had it. Bruce Lee, Godzilla, Scorpio King, The Day After Tomorrow – we went after every possible movie and brand license. Some worked, some did not. Spider-Man's trust has done that.
Although Spider-Man on mobile has been a simple affair, the repercussions have been immense. It happened at a time when India was perceived as a subcontracting center. With Paradox Studios (Battle Dust) and Trine (Street Cricket series), he confirmed that developers in the country could do more than cheap labor.
"We had to explain to some of our investors what we were doing," admits Gondal. "They asked us if we were stupid, asking why we were going to pay a license. It was the moment when everyone said that India was a cheap labor force. The logic of the investor was "go tell Marvel that we are going to make this game for half price and that you are selling it to whomever you want. The model they were used to was playing games for cheap. With Spider-Man, it was literally the most complete developer and editor role.
If you are a video game fan, check out Transition, the Gadgets 360 game podcast. You can listen to it via Apple Podcasts or RSS, or just listen to this week's episode by tapping the button. read below.
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