When Harebrained Schemes launched Crimson: Steam Pirates earlier this month on the App Store, we were blown away by its great turn-based gameplay and alternate history storytelling. And it seems like we weren’t the only ones – the game hit the #1 spot for free iPad downloads on its first day, and managed to hold on to that position for nearly a week. We recently had a chance to talk with Mitch Gitelman, Director of the Studio’s Projects Teams, about Steam Pirates success. Here’s what he had to say;
In less than 24 hours from the time of its launch, Crimson Steam Pirates shot to #1 overall spot for iPad. How does it feel to know you have such an instant success on your hands?
It’s very gratifying to be #1, but the player response is what’s truly rewarding. Crimson’s average player review score is 4.5 out of 5, with nearly 5,000 people taking the time to let us know what they think of our game. We make games to entertain people, so it’s really satisfying to hear they’re enjoying it.
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Crimson Steam Pirates takes place in an alternate 1888. Crimson Skies, a game Jordan had previously developed, takes place in an alternate 1930’s. Is it safe to assume these two games exist in the same alternate universe?
I can’t say they exist in the same universe, but I can definitely say that they sprung from the same world view–one in which romance, villains,daring-do,and two-fisted-adventure can exist.Of all the wonderful game worlds out there, we want to live in ours.
Were there any particular games that Crimson drew inspiration from? I sensed a touch of Sid Meier’s Pirates in there…
Genius is never admitting your sources. Or Deniability. One of those.
The freemium business model is still in its infancy, and Harebrained Schemes seems to have taken a unique approach to it – offering the first chapter of Crimson: Steam Pirates for free and charging for additional chapters. In essence, you’re giving half of the content that’s available at launch away for free. Can you tell us a little about why you settled on this pricing structure?
The business model of Crimson: Steam Pirates was heavily influenced by our relationship with Bungie Aerospace. Bungie products represent more than just high quality fun to gamers. They are also known for the high value of their games– there’s a TON of game modes, challenges and replayability in Halo Reach, for example.
We took the same approach with our iPad game. We believe in our gameplay, our story, and the polish we put into the game, and we wanted as many people as possible to experience it before we started asking them for their hard-earned $.
Are you seeing good conversion numbers on installs vs in-app purchases?
We’re all excited about how the game is doing. 🙂
The game is teasing a third chapter that will be available at some point. Will that be the end of the story? Or are there more chapters in the works beyond that?
The third chapter will conclude this Saga in the Tales of Thomas Blood, but the word “Tales” is plural for a reason. Throughwriting this story, we’ve come to really enjoy travelling with Captain Blood and we’d love to spend more time together, if possible.
The multiplayer modes included at launch are terrific, but the lack of online play sticks out like a sore thumb. Was there a reason you decided to keep Crimson local multiplayer only? And can we expect to see it go online in the future?
You have to stop somewhere and online gameplay done right takes time. We’d love to add online multiplayer in the future.
You seem to have a real knack for alternate history storytelling. Other than your own, are there any particular alternate history stories out there that you really enjoy?
Since we’re Hornblower fans, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire holds a special place for us. It takes place during Napoleonic era, where dragons are used like flying ships.The Lord Darcy series by Randall Garrett is also favorite.The hero of the stories is Lord Darcy, a Sherlock Holmes type, who is assisted by a forensic sorcerer/Watson.Fun stuff. And finally,Orson Scott Card’s Seventh Son series is worth checking out. It’s about magic during colonial times. Fun.
What’s next from Harebrained Schemes? Tynon images of.
Just like our website says, we’ll make whatever cool thing inspires us next. In the immediate future, we’ll be announcing our young children’s title soon.
It's a lot like Crimson Skies. Probably not as good as Crimson Skies, especially compared to the awesome PC game, but so far it's been very, very good. The flight model is quite similar, arcadey but not like flying a spaceship, they have a good amount of mass and weighty feel to them, they don't turn on a dime, it's very good - and it's set up like a 'real plane', left stick rolls left, and vice-versa, not turns left, like HRTR was. AI seems OK for it's part, they don't do too well at low altitude, but that seems to actually help the game, zipping about at treetop level is a good way to loose a stubborn enemy on your six.
Graphics look great, the trailer doesn't lie. Story seems to be pretty good so far, with some good humor. Marcel is no Nathan Zachary, I can tell you that - but he's about as good a pilot as ol' Nate.With the sale on now, I recommend it.
This isn't one of those 'early access' titles that are little more than buggy tech demo's and empty promises, the game is very playable and fun right now; worth it even if the dev's get hit by a bus tomorrow and what you see is what you get. Many games - Blazing Angels, AirConflicts and now Bomb - have tried to emulate Crimson Skies' success and failed miserably! Why?Because it isn't simply enough to take an arcade aircombat shooter and combine it with a more or less interesting story. Yes, Crimson Skies backstory is pretty interesting, as are the characters and the dialogues are witty. But this is just the glue that holds it all together.The secret of Crimson Skies success is, it gives you the illusion to be this daredevil fighter pilot who not only kicks his opponent's ♥♥♥ like an ace but who is also a skillful stunt pilot.The environments in Crimson Skies are interesting and challenging, while in the above mentioned games they are only beautiful window dressing. What a wasted opportunity!The only game I can think of that uses the environments the same way Crimson Skies did, is DogFighter. But this game is only a multiplayer platform.
One moment you fly through the Great Canyon - the next through an Egyptian pyramid. You are shooting at areoplanes! Why?Everything in this games feels complete arbitrary!Who knows? If the developers had invested in an interesting story driven campaign. This just might have been the next Crimson Skies!And finally - Crimson Skies only fault was. It came at least 10 years too early!
What an amazing game it would be with today's graphics! I wonder why nobody thought about remastering it!? It would be the license to print money!Unfortunately Bomb is falling short towards those expectations: the dogfights are tedious and repetitive (one basically cycles endlessly until an enemy plane comes in view and then tries to shoot it down). Worst of all: the saving points are too far apart. One has to fight off wave after wave of opponents (like swarms of mosquitos) and when one fails at the end of the mission one is forced to replay the last 20 minutes of tedious gameplay! This kills the game for me! I loved Crimson Skies PC.
When I first saw this game a few years ago I got that vibe from it. I think the game was made in the spirit of but its no where near Crimson Skies level. Admittedly I have not reinstalled the game since early access. So I imagine its better than what I first saw but Crimson Skies is the champ! I read somewhere several years ago, if I'm not mistaken, that either two guys who had worked on the original or some other small group actually got the rights to and/or was intending to make a sequel to Crimson Skies.
I hope that come's to fruition! I also really loved Codename Eagle back in the day!