Netease’s answer to Stumble/Fall Guys has gone global after gaining huge popularity in China. As we reported last week, it’s already close to grossing $1bn, Niko Partners estimates, and its global launch will help push that figure higher – but only if it can gain a foothold in the west.
The team behind the game is called, appropriately, Eggy Studio, an outfit with around 100 staff. Eggy Party producer and general manager of Eggy Studio Kwan Cheng tells us that the game wasn’t always a party platformer; his team explored several game styles before settling on its current form – though it was always intended to be powered by UGC.
“Other party games typically rely on their own development teams to create most of the levels and gameplay mechanics,” Cheng tells us. “However, we believe in one principle: players are the most creative people with limitless potential. Therefore, Eggy Party places great emphasis on UGC. The core of UGC lies in lowering the barrier of using editors.”
Cheng says his team is focused on simplifying the game’s editor as much as possible, so that making game content is “as intuitive and straightforward as building with blocks.”
That means reducing the number of steps it takes a player to create something playable by integrating templates and even logic statements it calls ‘egg code’. There’s also the addition of ‘AIGC’ tools – AI generated content creation and editing. “So far, more than 10m players have become Eggy Party map creators, with an average output of 10 maps per person,” says Cheng.
First released as a China only title in May 2022, Appmagic suggests Eggy Party has generated over 107m downloads to date, earning Netease ~$341m to date. The game took a couple of months to bed in, with downloads spiking in December 2022, then again in late 2023 as the game opened up in new regions, finally going global in February.
“Actually, Eggy Party hasn’t had a smooth journey in the Chinese market,” says Cheng. “We’ve experienced days of low morale and confusion. However, by adhering to our principles and continuously refining the UGC experience, we gradually earned recognition and support from a vast player base.”
“The key to Eggy Party’s success lies in efficient means of promotion and marketing, instead of resorting to hefty investments in user acquisition,” Cheng continues. “Eggy Party’s promotion relies on players and the community.”
Social media powered most of that organic growth, of course. “Currently, Eggy Party-related content on Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok – has billions of views monthly,” says Cheng, who notes that the studio hosts map creation events and video contests to keep players creating and sharing their levels.
Bringing the game to the west has been “an incredibly challenging task,” says Cheng, who references a heavy lift for the game’s localisation, UI and networking teams.
But now it’s out worldwide, Eggy Studio is now creating region-specific events aligned with local customs and cultures. “We are navigating through this progressively challenging process,” says Cheng, who says it’ll take time to learn the nuances of each market and tailor the game “to better meet the diverse needs of global players”.
He is also keen to add that “Eggy Party is not a pay-to-win game”. Instead, the game’s monetisation is based mostly on cosmetics, with players judged on their ‘Trendiness’ factor before each round and throughout the meta.
“We aim for all players to establish close social connections within the game, become friends and party together,” adds Cheng. “Therefore, our core commercial philosophy is to help players be themselves”.
