DadLabs paid Kingsisle a visit and got an awesome sneak preview of Kingsisle’s latest upcoming game, Pirate101. The video includes interviews with J Todd Coleman himself, among other important Kingisle employees who talk about the game.
“Pirate101 is an adventure game where the player makes a pirate and you’re going from place to place to all these different worlds. You’re on a big adventure to find the pieces of this big treasure map that will unlock an entire island that is made of gold.”
“One of the things I think that Pirate [101] does very, very well” says Sam Johnson, creative lead for Pirate101 at Kingisle, “is that it is accessible. It is very inviting. It is very warm and friendly and funny.”
“Pirate101 really has taken all the great learnings that we’ve had from Wizard101 and rolled them into a new, exciting game.” said Fred Howard, Vice President – Marketing, “It has wonderful family appeal, so it really plays to all ages from the young to the very old, it has great strategy, we’ve really focused on storyline, and of course we’ve put the same focus on safety in Pirate101 as we have in Wizard101.”
J Todd Coleman even made an appearance adding, “What we want to do in creating this game is find a balance point – and I think we just about nailed it – where players that are familiar with Wizard [101] could come in and it would immediately feem familiar to them but be a completely different and new game experience.”
“On the other side of the coin, players who have never experienced Wizard could come in and immediately find the world approachable and engaging. It’s not a kids game it’s really more of a family game.”
J Todd Coleman also describes Pirate101 as the modern day equivalent of what used to be ‘Family Game Night’, as well as acting as another form of activity, and a talking point for families who play together.
“It’s easy to get into and understand, yet the sophistication of gameplay is pretty deep, and so the younger players are able to contribute and really feel like they are a part of something but the older and more mature players actually have a great story and depth of gameplay that keeps them engaged as well.” said Howard.
It would seem Kingsisle support their idea that video games with ‘multigenerational’ appeal are possible with the fact that movies have achieved this with great success whilst appealing to multiple ages. It is quite evident that Kingisle may have already achieved this with Wizard101’s more than 20 million players, many of which are adults, parents or even grandparents playing with their families, and it would seem that they are about to repeat this success with another exciting title.
You can watch the full DadLabs video on Kingsisle’s youtube channel or at http://youtu.be/oyf8gx4RltI. We recommend you watch it since not only does it show some cool peeks at Pirate101, you also get to see some cool parts of Kingsisle’s own studio! Interesting! Thanks DadLabs!