September 2010

Taking Aim

Big Buck Hunter Celebrates Decade of Success in Style



The videogame Big Buck Hunter, which turns 10 this month, has become a signature piece in many locations around the world. But its creators at Play Mechanix are not resting on their laurels. Later this fall they will be releasing Big Buck World, an update that adds three new animals, nine new bonuses and, best of all, combines both Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season and Big Buck Safari into one game.

George Petro, who founded Play Mechanix after working as a game developer at Williams Electronics and Midway Games, says the game has a casual sensibility that has made it popular with a wide universe of players. “It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is what makes it a great game for casual players,” he furthered. “Big Buck Hunter has that classic hit formula of being easy to play but difficult to master. I think we dialed it in just right. It doesn’t command all of your attention all of the time.”

Since it first came to market, debuting at the 2000 AMOA Expo, Big Buck Hunter has evolved substantially, but the core elements of a fun, social hunting game have remained. Petro says there is plenty more to come in terms of game content and even a hardware upgrade in the not-too-distant future. “We’re long from being done,” he said. “What we have in store is going to blow people away.”

Looking back on how the game got started, Petro said it was more by chance than design that his fledging game development firm came to make the most popular arcade hunting game. “We feel very fortunate to have stumbled upon the genre, but now the name Big Buck Hunter has become part of popular culture,” he said.

Play Mechanix was started in November of 1995, but one of its first projects was to complete the development of the videogame War Gods for Midway as a third-party contractor. They also created the Midway game Invasion, a light gun game with a comical twist. Interestingly, the company also embarked on a 3D version of the classic game Joust, but Midway management ultimately killed that project.

“When you are starting a small videogame development, it’s tough to get people to jump on board,” chuckled Petro. “I got more people hooked in here because of that Joust demo.

“We also got involved with John Nicastro Sr., who had started his own gaming machine development company. We created a bunch of casino games, which was great for us. We did a ton of work for IGT,” added Petro, whose company developed several popular gaming titles, including Swing and I Dream of Genie, as well as Game of Life. “To be a third-party developer in gaming, there is a long period between when the game is completed and when the game actually gets through all the approvals and gets sold. Over time, it also began to feel like we were just a contract shop, and that’s not what we wanted to do. We wanted to create titles.”

The Genesis of Big Buck Hunter

In 1999, Petro took a hard look at his company and the market and decided to pursue a hunting game, even though he wasn’t sure how some of his hardcore gamer staff members would respond.

“I knew we were good at guns, but I thought it might be perceived as a step down thematically,” he conceded. But the staff was on board. So they set to work creating the game and then began looking for a manufacturer.

“We had no manufacturing capabilities at the time,” Petro recalled. “We called Midway and gave them the first shot, but they were on their way out of coin-op by then. We also tested the game ourselves, and it did gangbusters.”

During this same period, they scheduled a meeting with executives at Incredible Technologies. Having only one game at the time, they picked up the test piece from its location on their way to the I.T. offices and literally emptied the cash box in their conference room.

“They loved what they saw, and Richard and Elaine (I.T.’s founders) didn’t want us to leave until we had a deal,” Petro said. “I.T. got behind it even though it was not developed in-house. They did very well with the product.”

That original prototype used the gun interface from Midway’s shooter CarnEvil, but Play Mechanix insisted that I.T. ship the game with a full shotgun style peripheral, causing a three-month delay in the initial release. Ultimately, Play Mechanix sold four different versions of Big Buck Hunter and generated millions of dollars in sales through I.T. before the two companies parted ways.

When it came time to develop a new hardware platform, Play Mechanix teamed up with Eugene Jarvis’ game factory, Raw Thrills. Later, Play Mechanix merged its operations with Raw Thrills, making them a one-stop game creation shop. “Once I knew what Eugene was up to, I realized there was a great opportunity for us to partner with them on manufacturing Big Buck Hunter,” said Petro.

Raw Thrills got behind the new game, which ultimately became Big Buck Hunter Pro, with its hardware knowledge and assets. When the game was released in 2006, Raw Thrills was also able to leverage its marketing partnership with Betson to get product into the marketplace.

“Eugene has been doing this so long and made so many great games, it’s refreshing to work with him,” Petro related. “He is ultimately concerned with making a good game. Plus, Betson is willing to get behind a product and really push it into the market by taking risks with lease options and aggressive financing. Also, (Betson VP) Bob Boals always has his eyes on the street, understanding what’s doing well in the marketplace. We know our games are profitable once they get out there. We can see the cashbox is still there, even in bad economic times.”

Since joining forces with Raw Thrills, Play Mechanix has released Big Buck Hunter Pro, Big Buck Hunter Pro Tournament (adding the CoinUp feature), Big Buck Safari and Big Buck Hunter Pro Open Season, which was the upgrade to Big Buck Pro. The games are available in three different configurations: 27” standard, 42” LCD Deluxe and 8’ Project Super Deluxe.

CoinUp is Play Mechanix online tournament and management system, allowing for both operator audits and tournaments and promotions as well as the game maker’s regular online game tournaments, all of which ultimately lead to the annual World Championship in Chicago.

An Online Future

Looking ahead, Petro sees online capability playing an increasingly crucial role in the success of both Big Buck Hunter and othervideo games created by Play Mechanix and Raw Thrills. At present, the regular monthly online qualifying tournaments are generating considerable buzz among players and helping promote the live regional events. The winners of those events converge at the world championship, which will take place this year at Chicago’s famed Cubby Bear sports bar across the street from Wrigley Field.

“Watching these guys play is really incredible,” said Petro of the top competitors on Big Buck. “They are so good. Our first world championship two years ago, the two guys playing head to head in the last round were separated by five points going into the final bonus round. We invite all operators to join us at this year’s event.”

Play Mechanix has also developed a special online feature through CoinUp that allows players to post their high score on a national leaderboard in connection with the factory’s adventure-based shooting game, Terminator Salvation. The original version of the game with a 42” LCD monitor was released this spring, and the new street version with a fixed gun interface and a 32” monitor was just debuted at last month’s AAMA Distributor Gala.

Petro also envisions a future for CoinUp with upcoming redemption games. Play Mechanix has found success with a number of video-style redemption pieces in recent years, particularly through partnership with Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (ICE). They are responsible for games such as the extremely popular Deal or No Deal, as well as the more recent Tippin’ Bloks.

“We never planned Deal or No Deal,” said Petro. “It just happened, and that’s such a great experience and part of the reason why I wanted to start my own company, to be a part of that ride. If there is opportunity, we are going to act on that, Deal or No Deal and Big Buck Hunter are examples of that.”

More recently, Play Mechanix released its own redemption piece, Wheel of Fortune, the licensed skill stop that mimics the famous TV show. “It’s a complex game that tested our engineering abilities, but it’s a great piece that adults love to play,” said Petro.

In looking back at the company’s success with Big Buck Hunter and other games, Petro acknowledged Will Carlin and Mark Macy, company veterans since the early days. Not only are they the designers of the Big Buck series, but they also oversee development of all Play Mechanix projects. Petro also tipped his hat to the many talented people who make up the company and all that they have done to make its products successful.

To learn more about Play Mechanix or Big Buck Hunter, log on to the factory’s website at www.rawthrills.com or www.big buckhunter.com.

Sidebar: Big Buck Bonanza

Big Buck Hunter is a social game that can easily generate a following at any location. To celebrate this aspect of the game and to promote its attraction to new players, Play Mechanix has been persistent in fostering a culture of promotion among its players.

Of late, the firm has been hosting Big Buck Parties at crucial locations, bringing in the Big Buck Girls, offering prizes for a mini live tournament (sometimes a $50 bar tab) and raffling off Big Buck Hunter merchandise. “It’s a great opportunity to get in front of the players and thank them for being regular online competitors,” said Play Mechanix marketing whiz Dave Snipes when we caught up with him last month setting up an event in Seattle.

Play Mechanix founder George Petro said the Big Buck Parties also help solidify their operator relations because they are hosted under the local route’s auspices, usually at one of its best locations.

“It makes the operator look like a star and makes our industry look like we are really doing something fun and exciting,” Petro explained. “That’s crucial to our and the industry’s future success. People are starting to hear about these parties, and there is a tremendous amount of energy and excitement on the social networking sites like Facebook.”

Over the last year, the number of players who have registered for the CoinUp network has more than doubled. “Not every player is hardcore, but people are realizing what online play offers,” said Snipes, noting that aggressive operators are also running their own local and in-house tournament promotions using the system. “The operators that are promotion minded are definitely using the tournament system to their benefit. It’s ultimately a free system because any fees collected are paid by the players at the cash box.”

Additionally, operators are using the CoinUp system to their advantage to monitor game play and other features and functions of the games. “All of our games at Play Mechanix are moving forward with some form of online component,” said Snipes. “With Terminator, we don’t have a tournament, but we have developed a national online leaderboard, as well as all the back-end operator audit and adjustment features.”

At the end of summer, Snipes will turn his attention to the Big Buck World Championship slated for October 1-2 in Chicago. Tournaments will be held for both Big Buck Hunter Pro and Big Buck Safari with 64 of the top players across the country competing in each tournament for a top prize of $10,000 while a total of $65,000 will be given away during the championship event.

For ongoing details about the championship goto www.bigbuck hunter.com and www.coinup.com.

(c) All contents of this page and the entire RePlay Magazine website at http://www.replaymag.com and http://replaymagazine.com. Copyright 2010 RePlay Magazine. All rights reserved.

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