Supercell: looking back on 10 years of Hay Day – part one | Pocket Gamer.biz

Supercell’s ongoing agricultural hit, Hay Day, was released exactly 10 years ago – June 21, 2012, just two months before the studio’s exploding title, Clash of Clans. However, despite his younger brother consistently overshadowing him, Hay Day remained a solid success for the company.

Stefan Demirjian and Camila Abelard, former lead and game designers at Hay Day, respectively, and artist Sherry LaToula shared their thoughts on the lessons and opportunity of a decade in keeping Hay Day not only alive but also thriving, and the relative simplicity of developing mobile games in the industry. An era in its infancy.

2012–2013

The earliest Hay Days, and creating games without content or a social conduit

Stefan Demirdian: The market was very different – maybe more of a blue ocean than it is now. Nowadays, when we launch games, there are so many more considerations than there were not as required at the time. Like fully mapped social paths and a strong plan of future features in response to what other games have brought to market, which were not so visible to the early mobile audience.

In short, creating games has become a bigger question. As the market and audience matured, so did the complexity and what became possible in mobile gaming. These expectations are now related to the development of new games, and to what you must be prepared for from the start, in order to get the best launch.

Surrey Latwala: In those days, you spent most of your time thinking about creating fun games, and less about the structure of monetization or social interactivity. Nowadays, the various elements to consider have created a lot of pressure when publishing anything; You almost risk leaving the central importance of fun behind, while you think about everything else.

The convenience of creating something in the sector is unknown

Camila Abelard: Looking at some dates ahead of this call, Apple’s app store was launched just four years before Hay Day’s release, in 2008. No one really knew what the future of mobile gaming would be like: so we thought tablets would be the biggest jumble in mobile gaming, and of course it turned out to be the phone . It was such an interesting time with so many unknowns.

To Twala: We had nothing else, right? There were no successes in agriculture games, so-

Demirdijan: Mobile!

To Twala: Yes, of course! A lot of people played farming games on Facebook, but we had to define what our farming game is, without anything worth looking at. But it was a good challenge, every part of it had to be invented.

Demirdijan: The team was very aware of the successes of other Facebook companies. But there was no farming game available on mobile. I still remember the stories the team had – realizing that their spin is the touch controls for simple actions like weeding or sowing crops. That was when the parts came together, the first point the team began to believe it was going to work.

EWLER: Yeah, that was very much related to creating a game that was primarily for mobile.

2014-2015

Hay Day’s backbone creation: his social attraction

Demirdijan: In the first two years, we focused mostly on bringing more content to the game. Because its success surprised the original team – and sometimes it still wasn’t enough, because players were able to quickly complete the content available very quickly – and we started focusing on the later levels, to ensure it was backwards for the game.

But once we advanced them one step, we were in a good place to think about what Hi Day really requires to keep him away. This is the moment when the word social is really pushed as a key component, and as we incorporate alliances – as Hay Day calls them, neighborhoods.

To Twala: Adding the social aspect has always been on the agenda, but 2014 was really when we could make it work.

Demirdijan: Following that, we built the derby feature, which gave the neighborhoods a reason to play together collaboratively but also with the competition in mind. It was one of the biggest changes, and one of the reasons players kept playing Hay Day for years.

Clash of Clans Social Focus Steps

Abelard: Before the derby event, neighborhoods were just a place to talk and maybe do commerce. It was very limited.

Demirdijan: Clash of Clans was launched with alliances from the beginning. But for Hay Day, our first approach was to create something similar to a single player experience. But over the years, we have realized that farming can also be a very social experience. I think this is one of the main lessons over the years Hi-Day.

Establishing Hay Day’s art style, and resisting best practices

To Tuwala: The main idea was funny and weird humor – one element of Hay Day is that nothing bad really happens, which is based on his art style in the 50s.

Demirdijan: You mentioned that nothing bad happens on Hay Day, and that’s really reflected in some of the game’s descriptions – for example, how you collect bacon from pigs through a custom pig sauna.

It was very easy for the team to go full cut. But, rightly so, they opted for an appealing but more unusual art style, which is more unique and less interchangeable as there may have been other styles of mobile games.

Abelard: I remember one of the original artists was determined he did not want to make cute – “I want to draw orcs, and evil!” – So when he was involved with Hay Day, he made sure it was not too cute.

2016-2017

Maintaining monetization and creating an ongoing title

Demirdijan: The absolute priority – our one measure – is retention. So, I do not remember ever thinking seriously about monetization, especially in the early years. If we focused on conservation, we felt that if our players were given enough positive reasons to continue to play and create their own habits and playing styles, they would eventually feel comfortable spending money on areas they felt were worth spending on.

EWLER: Within four years of launch, we already had a strong sense that our player base was very loyal. We knew, more or less, what they wanted to see in the game and we wanted to continue this trend. I feel we have succeeded in this very much.

The impact of Clash of Clans, and alternating support from Hay Day

Demirdijan: Obviously Clash of Clans was an even bigger success, but that’s not to underestimate Hay Day’s success. I think any company would be very happy to succeed in the Hay Day caliber, but of course, Clash of Clans is a completely different star in this regard.

But when it comes to team resources, we tried to live in that order: first supersal, second team, third individuals, even though it’s not always that black-and-white. We had to think what was best for the company.

So if the Clash of Clans team needed support, and Hay Day was the place where we could reallocate resources, Clash of Clans would be a top priority. Sometimes it was painful, but we found ways to balance it.

EWLER: In general, we had the flexibility to ensure that Hay Day would never be lacking in resources. It was never like our group was down.

Latvala: This is done through strong early planning, knowing how many updates we need to make per year, and having a backup plan if the team supports Clash of Clans. Lots of planning ahead.

Demirdijan: Maybe in other companies, in the past, it’s different but, specifically, in my role as team leader, I would never describe Supercell as a political company. I never had to worry about fooling myself – I would sit down with the leader of the Clash of Clans, and we would create a plan together, for the sake of Supercell, without worrying about anything hiding in the background or being aware of keeping mine to be preserved.

It was a case of sitting down for a coffee, discussing our needs, checking out our planner, and doing it as casually as possible. It was always an atmosphere of fun, even when it was challenging.

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In the next chapter, Demirdjian, Avellar, and Latvala discuss the impact of new genres, including the hyper-occasional boom, and Hay Day work during the first years of the plague.