Hello, everyone! This is gravity, the PR/Brand manager for comcept
We’ve just started our new staff blog, comcept PLAZA!! In this section we’ll showcase all kinds of topics, from information on events and products, development episodes, and stories from the daily lives of our staff.
We hope you take the time to enjoy reading this!
This time we’re going to talk a little bit about Boiling OSSAN Eggs. This title just passed the one year mark, and we’ve asked its developers just how they came up with this idea!
Back then, there wasn’t a single smartphone app centered on boiled eggs. I wanted to make an app where you “peel off a shell and create something”.
Uhhh, what? With that in mind, the staff set off into town to look for clues. In one of the bookstores we dropped into, we found a book called Ossan Zukan (lit. “Old Man Illustrated Encyclopedia”).
The ossan hardened in the turbulent flow of modern society seemed like they’d be a good match for the boiled eggs hardened in the waters of a nabe pot!
Immediately we put together a design document and presented it. The idea passed with flying colors, and the game was greenlit for production.
When it launched in April 2013, it hit #3 on the iOS charts, surprising even the designers themselves!
I think that one of the reasons so many users played the game was the combination of ossan and eggs.
Let me digress for a bit.
The other day, I watched a movie called Neko Zamurai (“Cat Samurai”). I haven’t seen the TV drama it was adapted from, but the movie was hilarious! Before watching it, though, the title Neko Samurai bothered me a little… what exactly does that mean? I thought. I like cats, and I like period films, but…
Is a “samurai keeping a cat”? A “cat-loving samurai”?
I had no idea what to expect going into the film, and in the end it was about a master swordsman called Madara Oni coexisting with a cute cat named Tamanojo.
A samurai passing his days in savagery and tension; the cat living out days of relaxation at his own pace. The combination of these completely dichotomous existences makes something part-“cat”, part-“samurai”… and turns this Neko Samurai into a new type of content greater than the sum of its parts!
Now then, back to the original topic.
As for Boiling OSSAN Eggs, we took two things that were both familiar and completely disconnected, mixing them together to make a “something new”. This may be what caught the attention of all of these users.
I mean, I’m sure there are a bunch of factors involved, but the fact remains that Boiling OSSAN Eggs is a casual, fun app that you don’t need a reason to enjoy!
This brings me to the new approach we’re trying out related to Boiling OSSAN Eggs. We’re actually taking on an industry-university collaboration project with Ritsumeikan University.
The participants in this project are composed mostly of female Ritsumeikan students. Together with comcept development staff, we’re working on a policy to help this app gain more global spread. We’re enjoying their overabundant enthusiasm at the initial planning meeting!
Hopefully we’ll get another chance to talk about this tag-team a little bit down the way.
College students and Boiling OSSAN Eggs; together, we might be able to make something new!!
