It was with very little fanfare that Australian gamers were presented with an unexpected treat last week, as one of the most anticipated new games received a soft launch on iOS well ahead of schedule. Melbourne-based Studio Folly’s new word game, Gubbins, has been one of the industry’s hot topics over the past few weeks, so rather than keep us all in suspense, they have released the full version of the game, but only on iOS and region-locked to Australia and New Zealand.

From poker to word games, Australia is the go-to testing ground

Game developers from across the globe love to use Australia and New Zealand for soft launches before wider rollouts. We see it across multiple genres. Naturally, iGaming companies tend to let the Australian market have the first go before wider release; as with eight out of 10 Australians being gamblers, there is nowhere with a higher population density of gamblers. That’s a diplomatic way of saying they enjoy placing a bet. Dozens of poker games have gone on to make the grade after an initial soft launch – the Casino Aus website has a long list of examples at https://www.casinoaus.net/online-poker/. Despite rumors to the contrary, casino and poker games do not entirely dominate the mobile gaming market. A couple of other games that were soft-launched in the same geography were California-based Second Dinner’s Marvel Snap; a free card game that has nothing to do with gambling, and Niantic’s Peridot, a virtual pet-keeping game. Soft-launching in a smaller market provides developers with an opportunity to learn about player engagement and to identify any tweaks, iron out bugs and so on before unleashing the game on the wider world.

Gubbins – what’s all the hype about?

Ever since it was first mooted, Gubbins has generated a sense of excitement and anticipation. Word games can become seriously big seriously fast – you need only look at Words With Friends and most recently, Wordle, to see that. Gubbins, at least from what we have heard so far; could have just the right twist of its own to be right up there with the best of them. Funky psychedelic artwork and Scrabble-style challenges certainly sounds like a good basis for a game. But the real differentiating factors are the eponymous Gubbins, which are strange little creatures that carry out different tasks.  Some help you by completing words or adding wilds. Others hinder by removing letters or locking out part of the screen. It adds an extra dimension, and those who have been first to play on their iPhones in Australia have been enthusiastic, to say the least. Ruby Innes, a journalist at Kotaku Australia must have been at the front of the line; as she was the first to report back to cyberspace on her initial experiences playing Gubbins. Her initial verdict? “A sweet game but also an enjoyable pain in the arse.”

Monetization? What monetization?

At present, players in Australia or New Zealand with iPhones or iPads can play the game free; and without ads or any other form of monetization to spoil the fun or slow them down. This, of course, will not continue indefinitely. Much as the people at Studio Folly love us and want us to be happy; they also need to pay the mortgage and put food on the table. One of those people is co-founder Darcy Smith. He is passionate about the status of gaming as an art form that will make money on its own merit if it is of sufficient quality. He explained that the game received funding from VicScreen, and praised the attention and support that the Australian government is devoting to arts funding for games. Also, He explained that funding from government entities “means that small studios like us can exist;” He went on to say that they “recognise that our contribution is more than monetary. It’s cultural, it’s interpersonal, it’s artistic” and added that this is at odds with most of the mobile industry; which is only interested in profit, not cultural contribution. Smith said the government funding means small studios can compete on something approaching level ground with the large-scale gaming companies that can throw tens of thousands of dollars into promotion. He said that Studio Folly prefers to generate a “rugged indie swell” with players trying out the game so that communities naturally evolve on social media and so on to discuss the game. These are early days, but that swell appears to already be gathering momentum.