Sybo Games' Subway Surfers is one of the biggest games in the mobile space.
GameSpot: Subway Surfers Tag is different than I expected.
Why the departure from the core endless runner idea of Subway Surfers?
They liked the idea of creating compelling characters, deep universes, and trying things out.
When they did their graduation movie, they weren’t thinking about games.
They thought about the story and the universe.
Then when the iPhone came out, they thought, “This is our platform.
We can actually do something here that looks way nicer than what was available at the time.”
This actually fits the IP.
We took a lot of those building blocks as kind of a baseline.
We got inspired by a bunch of different games.
Paper Boy was one of the first games we threw around.
Picking up things and delivering them.
We also looked at games like Tony Hawk[’s Pro Skater] and Jet Set Radio.
Coming into this, we felt like, this is the IP.
And that led us to, “Hey, why don’t we focus more on the hoverboard?”
We thought a lot about targeting.
A lot of this came together in an organic, kind of iterative manner over multiple playtest and months.
Did it start as an Apple Arcade game from the beginning?
Or was it something you were already working on, and then the partnership came together with Apple?
So let’s have that conversation."
Was it a relief to make a game without having to think about monetization?
O’Doherty: It is very different.
It feels very premium.
We started from that baseline.
It’s not quite a relief, but it makes you think about things very differently.
Like, you have to double-check the other tenets of gameplay really stand up.
Nrvig: I think it also speaks to the quality of the teams.
Can you explain the thought behind having that fake out in the beginning?
O’Doherty: We wouldn’t call it a fake out.
We’d call it familiar, but fresh.
We wanted to verify you knew the gameplay was different.
We felt it was more of a natural way to say, “Okay, you know this game.
But actually, we’re moving it.”
That is when the camera pans up and it all moves into this kind of arena zone.
That intro was a good way to teach the game.
Different types of grid systems that come from the classic game are represented in this, as well.
So, that was the reason for that intro.
I haven’t played enough to answer this question myself, but is there an ending?
O’Doherty: There are goals you’re able to complete.
And so we have four of them at launch and more potentially to come.
Was it weird to make a game with at least some kind of conclusion?
O’Doherty: I don’t think we thought about it that way.
Subway Surfers is an endless runner, right?
It just has a kind of structure to the game that’s very clear and conditional.
We wanted to preserve some of that.
How do we explain all these locations in the city?
Subway Surfers Tag’s art style is different from Subway Surfers.
We’ve tried different things for various licensing efforts.
What can it look like?
What would they look like in this setting?
What would the whole crew look like in this setting?
In an arena game with an overhead view, you need different readability.
The team was actually really enjoying getting to know the IP.
It also came with some a-ha!
Speaking of taking the IP in different directions, what is happening with theSubway Surfers animated show?
Nrvig: We have 11 episodes live on YouTube and we know that our fans love them.
I think we’ve seen a lot of questions coming about the 12th episode.
O’Doherty: To comment on that as well, the animated series is something we draw from internally.
It’s a great way to think of the worlds that we already have and we’re building.
We draw from that series quite a lot and venture to round it out in a games experience.
That sort of game seems to exist less in the mobile market.
Is that a mistake?
Do you think that kind of games could come back?
But if you look at the premium market, I actually don’t think it shrunk.
It just represents a smaller fraction of the overall market size.
And then if you want to, you’re free to dive deeper.
I came from the original premium side of mobile’s early days.
Mostly that free-to-play games are accessible and help for getting your name out there.
But like a pendulum, I think things go back and forth.
We’ve seen games like that in the past, right?
Fall Guys, for example.
Is it possible as a full trend?
I don’t know.
Was there a switch that happened at Sybo when that happened?
I started about nine months after.
But basically it was right at launch.
The fact that everyone downloaded Subway Surfers became the kickstart for everything Sybo became since.
And I think they can see that we also love them.
I am sure this is something Sybo sits around and ponders a lot, but why did that happen?
Nrvig: I’m an economist by trade, so I can explain half.
The other half is serendipity, right?
A lot of Subway Surfers' appeal comes from the completely self-explanatory pick up and play niceness of it.
Before you would tilt the screen.
I think those two elements are definitely part of it.
Even early in development, we were always over-invested in making things look really nice.
Our moment to moment gameplay is second-to-none.
Subway Surfers Tagis available now exclusively onApple Arcade.
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