9gag is moving into gaming. This is what you need to know

9gag recently launched its first game, Redhead Redemption, under the brand new 9gag Game banner. Just as exciting as the Hong Kong-based humor website moving into gaming is that Redhead Redemption is a rehash of an Indonesia-made game titled Cute Kill by Touchten Games.

Until this month, the closest 9gag has ever come to mobile games has been through its ever-famous memes. So just how did Touchten and 9gag cross paths and align their futures?

Becoming the first 9gag game

Touchten CEO Anton Soeharyo is a big 9gag fan. He says the collaboration is a dream come true for him, adding that an item on his bucket list has always been to make the “Hot” section of the website. So when he met 9gag co-founder Ray Chan at an event in Jakarta, he wasted no time in making friends with him.

From there, Soeharyo says all it took was a Facebook chat for the first 9gag game to take seed.

I couldn’t believe what I saw before my eyes in that little chat box in Facebook, told me that he liked our work, and he wants to schedule a Skype call soon, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep for days […]

And a Skype call later, Touchten games “immediately” executed the idea. Chan acknowledges that the partnership sprang up very quickly, adding that it was because both Soeharyo and him trusted each other.

“That’s what I love about Ray and his team,” Soeharyo says. Touchten’s CEO says he finally understands what 9gag’s secret sauce is: they waste no time, and they execute quickly with perfection in mind. “No time for talk,” he says. “Just do it.”

The unique 9gag game

Launching a game is a new initiative for 9gag, and Chan says it decided to rebrand a good game rather than spend months developing from the ground up as it wanted to get feedback from the community fast.

To become Redhead Redemption, Cute Kill was customized, given a new character in helpful NPC Gaggy the cat, and had weapons and levels added. Games in Asia also noticed that the game’s point of view was now wider, making it easier to handle.

Still, 9gag references are scarce in the first 9gag game. Gaggy the cat, with the 9gag pattern on its fur, is an obvious one, but references to rage faces and other 9gag famous memes are few. The focus is definitely on the redheaded sister and her kid sibling.

Chan says that a 9gagger and gamer would care more about the quality of the game, and not necessarily how much internet culture it includes. “9gag’s slogan is ‘Alone No More’ so as long as we play a game to compete with friends and strangers and have fun, it’s already very 9gag.” He adds that the company also wants people who aren’t yet involved in the rich online community that is 9gag and the internet culture to enjoy the game.

The 9gag game vertical

So what’s in store for 9gag and games come 2015? Reception of Redhead Redemption has been positive, with the game averaging a score of 4.6 from 30,000 reviews on Google Play (it will release for the iOS early in January 2015). It also has more than 250,000 installs as of December 29, 2014.

Chan says the community has been asking for more games, but that he cannot announce anything specific for now.

He adds that he thinks the traditional game publishing and distribution model is broken, as it requires lots of resources to promote a game and relies heavily on marketing to get on top of the charts. As a result, many small to medium-sized studios find surviving in the industry tough despite the good games they make.

“What 9gag wants to do is to help our community discover more great games as well as helping these good studios get more users and feedback,” Chan says. 9gag will continue to work with Touchten, as affirmed by Soeharyo who says that the studio is looking forward to creating more games for it. But 9gag is also keen to work with other studios to “develop more great games” for its community. So yes, if you’re a developer, please reach out to it.

Given both 9gag and Touchten’s plans for 2015, it’s likely that the partnership will progress to include the online-to-offline platform Touchten Games announced earlier in 2014. It’s a feature built into select Touchten Games which will allow users to accumulate points they can then exchange for real-world rewards. Designed for gamers in emerging markets, this unnamed platform from Touchten already has 500,000 registered users and its first title, the Bahasa Indonesia game app TekaTekiSaku.

9gag wants to help studios get more users and feedback; the platform has users who can give that feedback. But as for whether it will soon have a 9gag game on it? We’ll see in 2015.

See: GREE wants midcore games for the Japanese market

This post 9gag is moving into gaming. This is what you need to know appeared first on Tech in Asia.

9gag is moving into gaming. This is what you need to know