Interview: Hipster Whale’s Matt Hall on Pac-Man 256

Stevivor recently sat down for a quick chat with Hipster Whale’s Matt Hall. A Victorian success story, Hall (right), alongside Andy Sum (centre) and Ben Weatherall (left) are the team behind the hugely successful Crossy Road. Most recently, Hipster Whale has just published Pac-Man 256 in partnership with Bandai Namco and fellow Melbourne developer 3 Sprockets.

We used the opportunity to discuss dealing with said newfound success, the Pac-Man brand and the future of both the new game and Hipster Whale.

Steve Wright, Stevivor: Matt, thanks for taking some time out for us. You’re arguably one of Victoria’s biggest development success stories – how has the past year or so been for you, and for Hipster Whale? How have you managed this success?

Matt Hall: I live in regional Victoria and although others have told me that everywhere they go they see people playing Crossy Road on the train, but I’ve actually only seen Crossy Road “in the wild” just once since the game’s release. In that way, the concept of out little game hitting 100,000,000 downloads doesn’t feel quite real.

What does feel real is that this has quite possibly been the busiest year of my life.  I’ve been looking forward to an extended holiday.

Stevivor: Did you ever expect to be working with one of video gaming’s biggest, iconic characters and brand?

Hall: There was a bit of trepidation between Andy, Seon (Rozenblum of 3 Sprockets) and I early on as to whether people would judge us for tinkering with PAC-MAN.  But in a couple of weeks we had put together a little prototype that just felt “right” and that gave us confidence that we could make something worthwhile.

We went into the game with the goal to respect the legacy of PAC-MAN; to make something that felt like a brother to the classic arcade original.

Stevivor: Did you go to Bandai Namco with an idea, or vice versa?

Hall: Bandai Namco reached out to us not long after the release of Crossy Road.

Stevivor: Who came up with the idea to base Pac-Man 256 on that famous glitch? Did gameplay ideas immediately follow or were there some hard yards getting things off the ground?

Hall: That was me! I was driving home from Seon’s after a day of working on PAC-MAN and just suddenly had the idea of theming the entire game around level 256. From the the suggestion just “stuck” and that led to many more interesting game design ideas.

Stevivor: Crossy Road was adorably indie; has everything changed now that you’ve partnered with Bandai Namco for something a little more mainstream?

Hall: I think that Bandai Namco approached us because we were a small shop able to craft a quirky arcade game that managed to reach so many people. Andy and I decided early on that we didn’t want to “scale” Hipster Whale. By staying so small, and partnering with 3 Sprockets (another 2 person studio) that we retain a personal feel to our games.

Stevivor: We’ve started to play the game for review, and have noticed quite a bunch of microtransactions thus far. Was it difficult to balance those in-game? I recall several interviews where Hipster Whale said it was mindful of cost caps and the like within Crossy Road.

Hall: We knew that the audience for PAC-MAN 256 would be very different from the audience of Crossy Road. Those who played the original game in their youth probably wouldn’t be as accepting of the current “monetization” paradigms that are commonly found in games today.  So we set out to make something that felt like a premium title.

For one in-app transaction “Unlimited Credits” you’re essentially buying the premium experience. We also sell a one-off coin doubler to increase the rate of progression through the power ups. And, much like Crossy Road, you can opt-in to watch adverts for extra currency.

Stevivor: I understand you’re probably focused on the mobile release at present, but is there any possibility of a release on consoles?

Hall: We’d really like to bring PAC-MAN 256 to consoles. Our in-app purchase design makes it more than possible to develop PAC-MAN 256 into a premium product. However, we are waiting to see if the game resonates with players to see if people would be interested in a stand-alone version.

Stevivor: With Pac-Man now under your belt, what other beloved characters or franchises would you like to base a game around?

Hall: I play a lot of games and watch a lot of movies. There’s all manner of properties I’ve fallen in love with over the years. But I think — next — I’m most interested in putting together something completely original.

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Thanks to much to Matt for his time.

Pac-Man 256 is now available as a free-to-play titles (with in-app purchases) on Android and iOS.