HiRoads case study: building a community around a game

With the so-called “Web 2.0″ and the “social network era”, just making a game and publishing it on various portals couldn’t be enough.

Some days ago we saw how Bomb Digger allows to play extra levels on its official site, now it’s time to introduce you a more complete project.

Do you remember HiRoads developer Diary?

Now the project is finished and Filippo Bodei is explaining us something about his work:

You can play the game on HiRoads’ official site.

« I published a demo version (something more than just a demo… 18 out of 27 levels) on Kongregate (rated 2.83) and NewGrounds (rated 3.70) with several ads inviting to play it on the official site where you can play more levels, create your own tracks with the level editor and play tracks submitted by users.

During the first hours I noticed 50% of registered users created his own level.

The site is built around phpBB and every page checks if you are a logged user. Having an HiRoads account allows you to join the forum, to save created levels and to play new ones.

There is a database saving tracks completed by each player allowing to rate and review tracks submitted by other users. You can even keep a list of your favorite tracks or search for a specific one with several options such as difficulty, rating and so on.

Moreover, the site uses Facebook Connect to see tracks played by friends, to invite friends to play and to publish on your wall you just completed a track o created a new one.

The full 27 tracks game does not need any account creation to be played. »

Filippo said he will share some results in a month or two, meanwhile I wish him good luck for such a complete project.

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