German mobile social game company Wooga is unveiling June’s Journey, a new hidden-object game with an ambitious weekly update schedule.
Berlin-based Wooga has become known for hidden-object games such as Pearl’s Peril, which has been downloaded more than 50 million times and frequently shows up in the top-20 grossing iPad rankings. The game is available today on iOS, Android, and Facebook.
June’s Journey is a mystery game that is targeted at females who love the genre, where you have to spot certain items in a crowded picture. In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Wooga CEO Jens Begemann said, “We will start with 20 chapters of content, and we will launch a new chapter every single week. We have invested very heavily to make this happen. This is very ambitious.”
Above: June’s Journey was made by a team of 60 people.
Begemann said the team has more than 60 people. Each new chapter is free, and it has six locations, a new piece of the story, 10 major clues, and 500 or so hidden objects. Players can purchase virtual items for real money in the free-to-play game. The story is set in the 1920s, and the protagonist June returns home to her family’s estate, only to find her sister murdered. She has to travel the globe to solve the crime.
“On average, it will take a week for one player to go through the content, and with this update schedule, we’re ensuring the average player will never run out of content,” Begemann said.
Above: June’s Journey has dense scenes where you have to find objects.
“With June’s Journey, we have taken everything we learned from our experience developing Pearl’s Peril and aimed to create a new hidden-object experience that is
better in every way,” said Georg Baumgarte, product lead on June’s Journey, in a statement. “We hope new players and our loyal fanbase will love their new adventure.”
Funded in 2009, Wooga has become one of Germany’s well-known game companies, focused on puzzle and hidden-object games. Pearl’s Peril is most popular on the iPad, and its revenues have grown every year since it launched in 2013. The team still has two dozen people working on it, and it still has regular updates. Wooga has 250 employees.
Above: June’s Journey is targeted at women.
Begemann said the marketing budget for June’s Journey will be bigger than most of the games it has launched in the past.
“We are growing the total Wooga marketing budget by 60 percent,” Begemann said. “These games are about long-term success and growth.”
