Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming December 2016 18 Industry profile IAG: When you talk about serving the market, are you referring to the themes and concepts you used in your games? TP: It was really, for us, about themes that resonated with players on a deeper level. We didn’t want to go the way of panda bears and bamboo, we wanted to have something that was meaningful. Our approach is the same today. We couldn’t compete with the big guys on buying licenses and things like that, so we wanted to have something else. For example, we have a game called “Backyard Gold.” It’s a story about a guy who finds 300 pieces of gold and, not knowing what to do with it, digs a hole in his backyard, buries the gold and then puts a sign there saying “There are not 300 pieces of gold buried here.” It’s a story that is known universally through China so when we did that game, what we observed was players seeing the game and recognizing it. It has borrowed brand equity and it puts a smile on people’s faces which is nice. By doing that, our small company made some games that worked pretty well. IAG: It seems to me that there is now a lot of similarity between gambling games, computer games and even films in regards to not only telling a real story but also the production values required to stand out from the crowd? “When I started working for this company, I said, ‘Wow, this is everything that I thought about entertainment.’ For me, entertainment doesn’t have to be an art movie and have so much gravity, be so self-important.”