Q&A with Digital Leisure
by SealWyf, HSM Editor
Digital Leisure holds a unique position among Home developers with its quirky, innovative, and extremely successful offerings. These have included the cartoonish golden excess of the Dragon’s Lair personal space and the game-packed Old West Saloon. But their most prominent project is the Paradise Springs Casino, which (like a real casino) is incredibly efficient at separating players from their money. It is also still a work in progress, with constant improvements and promotions.
Paul Gold from Digital Leisure graciously agreed to answer our many questions.
HSM: Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by HomeStation Magazine. As a real-life casino player, I enjoy comparing Paradise Springs with what I see in Vegas and Atlantic City. And, although the Casino already provides a good cross-section of real-life casino games, from the potentially profitable to the statistically ugly, there are some obvious gaps. So I’ll simply list a few possible additions, and let you respond. Are we going to see craps tables? Asian table games such as Pai Gow and Sic Bo? Baccarat? A race and sports book? A more diverse slot inventory, possibly including machines with huge progressive jackpots?
PG: First off, thanks for having me. All of us at Digital Leisure are regular readers of HSM, and we enjoy all of your writers’ and editors’ insight to all things PS Home. It’s great to hear that true gamblers are enjoying our take of a gaming establishment. As for new games, yes, we will be adding Craps tables to the Casino floor this Fall. We don’t have a specific date yet, but the plan is to have the ultimate dice game ready this year. As for Pai Gow, Baccarat or even more slots, there plans to add more games and broaden out the selection as we look ahead to 2013. Building a gaming establishment takes time and we want the best games and rewards for all our patrons. HSM readers will certainly know of any upcoming releases when they are launching.
The Casino has already had several innovative promotions, such as the lucky fountain (soon to offer its third prize), the daily free pull on a giant slot machine, and frequent free chips and promotional items for visitors, including most recently a flag hand item honoring the Olympic Games. Can you tell us about other promotions in the works? Or are you just going to surprise us?
Everyone loves a giveaway and there have already been a few 50,000 chip winners from the Daily Free Slots. We have plenty of promos in the works for the Home community, and what fun would it be to ruin the surprise?! But there ‘may’ be something around Thanksgiving…only time will tell!
Some of the most prominent features of real casinos probably can’t be ported to a virtual property — or can they? I’ll just throw some ideas out there and let you respond: buffets, nightclubs, headline entertainers, hourly drawings, cocktail hostesses, spas, players’ cards and comp dollar accounts.
I think with the right twist, anything can find its way in to a virtual space. We’ve certainly been tossing around many of the ideas you’ve mentioned, and many from the community have said we should have Host/Hostess Minigames where people can serve drinks…etc. I think having a completely non-gaming way to earn rewards and chips would be a great addition to the space. I know NorseGamer has also commented on the idea in previous posts and I think it is something we really want to have in place in future update.
Speaking of comps, the changes in the Comped Room personal space have been hilarious. The fact that it’s a free apartment makes the continued investment in developer time even more amazing. So far the room has been flooded, mildewed, burglarized, and turned into a crime scene. Along the way, it has acquired a ceiling fan and curtains that open to reveal a grafitti-sprayed brick wall. Sooner or later you will run out of things that can be done to the space — or will you? Can you give us any hints of what’s in store for our accident-prone hotel room?
We’re glad you’ve enjoyed them, cause we’ve loved updating it! Yes, the space is free and that’s what makes it fun. There are no barriers to be in on the joke with us. Simply come the main Casino Concourse, be awarded the room and check out the craziness. Home is a live environment and there is no reason for things to remain static. Technically, we could run out of things that can be done – but I doubt we will. As for what’s in store…you’ll just have to wait – you can’t predict what might happen next!
So far, the VIP Suite has remained free of disaster. Do you foresee any changes for that space and its adjacent hallway?
I don’t foresee any major structural changes to the VIP Suite at this point. However, as requested, we will be updating some of the quirks causing some decorating issues.
The rewards in the Casino have been getting better as the tiers expand. I have to admit that the earlier prizes were appealing only in their hilarious tackiness. Now there are some genuinely desirable items on offer. Was this planned from the beginning, or did the rewards evolve as the Casino developed?
There are so many rewards available across all of the games, plus the tier rewards for each and then there are the Global Tiers as well. We definitely wanted there to be a whole slew of rewards across the board for all gamer types right from the start. But yes, as players got higher up the rankings and started pulling some serious earnings we wanted to reward them with something unique and special for achieving that status. So we looked at our plans for new rewards and we constantly adjust and tweak things to better satisfy the audience. However, the true status items come at the end of each season (twice a year) where we reward our top earners with prestigious Paradise Springs Jackets. Our first jacket ceremony took place just this month (August 2012) with our next planned for January 2013. This is a very exclusive club and the community has been very kind to us and we simply want to offer that same thanks back with as many limited items as possible.
Moving on from the Casino, some of Digital Leisure’s projects seem like one-off offerings, with no further development planned. But we can’t be sure of that. So, can we expect any changes in the Old West Saloon or Dragon’s Lair apartments?
We do plan on making updates to the Old West Saloon, as many from the Home community has emailed all sorts of suggestions and comments. We’ve put together our final list and we plan to update not only some of the items you’ve already seen, but there will even be all new rewards! As for the Dragon’s Lair apartment, that will stay as is for now.
One of the signature qualities of the Digital Leisure offerings is their distinctively wry, ironic sense of humor. Your spaces often feel like parodies of our expectations — the over-the-top gold of the Dragon’s Lair, and the quirky details in the Old West Saloon come to mind. Is this an official design policy, or do you just have some very funny developers?
It is official Digital Leisure hiring policy that every developer be funny. A sense of humour (notice the Canadian spelling) is priority one.
Paradise Springs Casino, in particular, feels like a wicked parody of a real casino property. I find this an interesting design decision for your most prominent Home creation. Again, was the humorous element part of the plan from the beginning? Or did it evolve as the space was created?
I think it stems from our general view of PlayStation Home. It’s a fun, social place to hang out, meet new friends and forget about life around you for a while. Sometimes you just need to unwind and you’re not looking for anything serious or too involved. We set out to provide a fun social space to game, win rewards for your avatar and hang out with friends. I think we’ve accomplished that.
I know I was astonished to see a realistic casino in Home, a platform where the environment is supposed to be suitable for young teens. How do you address those who feel that gambling, and things that feel like it, should be adult activities? Did Sony express any misgivings about the project? If so, how did you allay them?
If anyone thinks the approval for The Casino was simply ‘rubber stamped’ and released, you’d be crazy. That being said, the space has no more ‘gambling’ than some of the other games currently available to play in Home. We’ve been incredibly transparent early on and made it quite clear that this is strictly a simulated gambling experience – nothing more. Though Home may be geared toward young teens, I think the audience is wide ranging and as such deserves to have games within the environment tailored to them. The only winnings you take home are for your avatar. The space is also Parental Controlled to Level 5 and Sony provides many systems to ensure that children are prevented from viewing games if the system has been setup correctly.
Digital Leisure doesn’t seem to be the sort of company that rests on its laurels. I’m reasonably sure you have other Home projects in the works. Is there anything you can tell us about them? And are you currently working on projects for other platforms, such as the Vita or the anticipated PS4?
We do have other Home projects in the works, both small and large scale! ‘The Space Station’ will be releasing the first week of September – this all-new private apartment was announced a few weeks back and comes jammed with rewards and games for both the owner and his or her guests! We’ll have the official announcement in just over a weeks time. Soon after that, we’ll have something that will be a ‘must’ for any private space before year’s end!
Thanks HSM!
And thank you, Digital Leisure!
August 29th, 2012 by SealWyf_ | 4 comments
SealWyf is a museum database programmer, who has been active in online communities since before the Internet, and in console gaming since the PS1. In games, she prefers the beautiful and quirky, and anything with a strong storyline. She is obsessed with creating new aesthetic experiences in PlayStation Home.
Digital Leisure ROCKS!! and they should get a award for the BEST customer service! Btw don`t i look good in that jacket with my wings ^.- Can`t wait for that space apt i won at the meeting. Loved reading the article.
Won a Space Apartment??? How so?
I don’t want to sound like a broken record, I done enough of that on the Home Forums, but DL totally swept the VIP Suite under the rug.
The minor changes they made and any minor changes they plan to do isn’t customer service.
If you follow the forums and all posts related to the VIP Suite, you can clearly see how they totally ignored us.
Good interview Seal. I am glad to hear they will be updating the saloon, I like that space. I am not a casino nut but I do like the new video poker and I wish I had more time in my day to go there more often.
I hope the fountain is a bit easier to get rewards from this time as I have seen many frustrated people trying and using hundreds of chips trying for them. I found it fairly easy to get my fountain, but the sparkler was impossible for me, so I gave up as I am sure many have.
I do like the way that Digital Leisure has continually updated and upgraded their content in Home, and the room is a hoot!
I would of loved to see a sticker price for the fountain. It took me forever to get it and I would of probably just paid a flat price, but it was frustrating to sit and flick coins into the fountain. Remember, some of us aint that lucky.