WGE MAG: 39
Was it a particularly daunting prospect to try and create games out of such well known TV shows as Pawn Stars with such popular characters? Pawn Stars is one of the most popular shows on cable right now, so the project was a bit daunting in that we wanted the game experience to live up to the fans’ expectations. Luckily, many of the shows on History have elements that lend themselves well to creating great games. We worked very closely with Kris Soumas and her team at A+E to get feedback that helped us stay true to the spirit of the show while we made sure to create a great game experience. It’s been a really successful game so far and we are constantly evolving Pawn Stars: The Game to keep our fans happy. As a result, Pawn Stars has been played over 200 million times. Was it necessary to bring in a Caricaturist or did you already have someone on staff that could do this? We do everything in house. We pride ourselves on having a versatile art team and never outsource, something we think is especially important when you’re creating art for such a wellknown brand. How enjoyable an experience has it been working on Pawn Stars: The Game and Top Shot? A+E has been great to work with because they care about the quality of the product and the brand and let this drive the creation of the game. This is the first time I’ve had a publisher tell me to cut something that would make money because it would lower the quality of the game. I’m not sure this holds for all of TV but I really enjoy making products for the History audience. They’re devoted fans and they care about quality. Give them a good game and they’ll play it. Give them a bad game and they won’t. We get to concentrate on making great games. Nobody here wants to spend our days making “lost cow” features, and neither our fans nor our publisher would really go for that. Instead we get to spend time making a sophisticated bartering system and integrating historical facts into game play. It’s a great arrangement.
Is Storage Wars The Next Big Hit? Based on the hit A&E series, Storage Wars lets fans test their bidding savvy as they try to become king of the heap. We’re excited to launch the Storage Wars game in conjunction with the premiere of this season of Storage Wars,” said Kris Soumas, Senior Vice President, Games, A+E Networks. “Storage Wars fans have shown that they are eager to get in on the bidding action themselves and our new game for Facebook lets them do just that. We’ve put the same emphasis on developing a fun and addictive game experience that A&E brings to its program development.” Storage Wars is a high stakes game that lets Facebook players share in the excitement of storage unit auctions. Players join characters from the show as they are guided through treasure-filled storage lockers on a quest to acquire wealth. Upon logging into the game, players choose a character name and appearance and then enter the map which directs them to auctions around the world where they can take on eager bidders on their own turf. Players then bid with game cash in order to win auctions and earn game cash. As on the Storage Wars television show, players risk losing money for the chance to win Wanted Treasures and a huge profit.