Lego Indiana Jones

Overview

LEGO Indiana Jones was developed to combine the beloved Indiana Jones franchise with the engaging LEGO gameplay experience all in time for the new Indiana Jones Movie coming out the following year.

The case study presents extensive market research, rigorous testing, and strategically coordinated development efforts. The development project ran for nine months with a simultaneous launch of eight different versions of the game launching day and date with the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull movie.

The game surpassed all expectations, selling over 11 million copies worldwide and generating over $500 million in revenue. This success served as a template for future product releases at LucasArts.

Note: The case study is broken down into several sections. If any part of the case study is of particular interest, use the menu on the right to go directly to that section of the page. Thank you!

My Role

I directly led the releases for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. I also managed the collaboration with the marketing team to conduct customer interviews, focus groups and feedback, provide them with assets and reports.

I also partnered with the rest of the publishing team and development team to incorporate as much of the high value customer feedback as we could get into the product roadmap given our tight launch window for the game.

Lastly due to my previous experience leading QA teams, I oversaw the QA testing efforts between LucasArts and Traveller's Tales QA teams to help ensure a smooth and successful product launch across all game versions.

Market and Customer Analysis

We conducted numerous outreach campaigns to speak with customers including multiple focus groups to determine the size of our potential market based on Indiana Jones, LEGO, gaming and other factors to determine those most likely to become customers.

The end result was a market size of as many as 10 million units of the game that can be sold across 8 different gaming platforms at full value before any discounts, updates and or other releases that could further increase sales.

Market Research

Market research involved customer interviews, focus groups, and surveys to understand the needs and preferences of potential players. Key findings highlighted the demand for a family-friendly, cooperative game with immersive storylines from the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Feedback also suggested improving gameplay mechanics from previous games and adding new features to enhance the experience over the original Lego Star Wars titles.

Customer Interviews

Research Conducted

Conducted to understand customer pain points, needs, and desires.
Sample Size: 50 participants across various demographics.

Methodology

One-on-one interviews conducted in person and via video calls.
Focus on identifying key pain points such as game difficulty and lack of family-friendly content.
Highlighting desires for cooperative gameplay and recognizable characters.

Results

Identified pain points included game difficulty and the desire for more family-friendly content.
Customers appreciated the humorous and accessible nature of the game.

Research Conducted

Organized to gather in-depth feedback on gameplay and overall experience.
Group Count and Size: 5 groups, each with 8-10 participants.
Activities: Participants played the game and answered structured questions.

Methodology

Participants provided feedback on the combination of Lego and Star Wars themes, user interface, and new feature suggestions.
Positive reception noted for the game's humor and accessibility.

Results

Positive reception for the Lego and Star Wars combination.
Suggestions for UI improvements and additional fun features to surpass the original LEGO Star Wars titles.
Feedback demonstrated some risk with our younger audience due to this specific comment we received multiple times: "Indiana Jones... That's my dad's hero"

Focus Groups

Surveys

Research Conducted

Distributed to a larger audience for quantitative data.
Distribution: Online surveys sent to 500 potential customers.

Methodology

75% interest in a family-friendly Indiana Jones game.
60% preference for multiplayer modes.
High interest in storylines mirroring the original Indiana Jones trilogy.

Results

75% of respondents expressed interest in a family-friendly Indiana Jones game.
60% preferred multiplayer modes.
High interest in storylines that mirror the original trilogy.

Supporting Data Points

Customer Pain Points: Difficulty levels, lack of family-friendly options.
Customer Needs and Wants: Cooperative gameplay, storylines from all three Indiana Jones movies, new fun features to enhance the experience.
Focus Group Reports: Detailed feedback on gameplay experience and feature suggestions.
Survey Statistics: Quantitative data supporting the qualitative findings from interviews and focus groups.

Additional Feedback from LEGO Star Wars 1,2 and the Complete Saga games

Positive Aspects

Engaging cooperative gameplay and charming humor.
Appeal of destructible environments and creative puzzle solutions.

Areas for Improvement

Desire for deeper and more varied gameplay mechanics.
Enhanced user interface and additional engaging features to make the game more fun than its predecessor.

Market Segmentation

Based on this research the marketing team broke down our marketing into 4 primary market segments as follows:

Customers in each of our four market segments require distinct approaches

Brand Loyalists are the easiest to target, as they consistently purchase anything related to Star Wars, Indiana Jones or LEGO with minimal effort needed.

Casual Gamers and Family-Friendly Consumers are likely to buy but need to see clear benefits and how the product adds enjoyment to their lives.

Selective Consumers are the most challenging to reach, needing extensive positive feedback and support in their decision-making process. Despite the effort, this segment represents nearly 40% of our potential market and is significant for our strategy.

Customer Journey and Personas

Based on our market research and the 4 groups we identified as most likely to buy in our market segmentation, we created 4 representative customer persona's along with their journeys for each market segment to help guide our approach.

Product Strategy

Our goal was to maximize market penetration and engagement by releasing eight versions of our game across all major gaming platforms on the same day as the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull movie release. This synchronized release ensured wide accessibility and tapped into diverse user bases simultaneously. The strategy focused on leveraging the strengths of the Indiana Jones and Lego brands to create a unique, high-quality gaming experience for various customer segments, including enthusiastic fans, casual gamers, families, and selective consumers.

Partners

This product required partnerships and coordination with several 3rd parties for a successful launch.

Brand & IP Licensing: Lucas Licensing, LEGO

Development Partners: Traveller's Tales and TT Games

Platform Releases: SONY, Nintendo, Microsoft

Business Model

Value Proposition

Lego Indiana Jones combines LEGO and Indiana Jones trilogy for a family-friendly, immersive game on all major gaming platforms.

Iconic Brands Synergy

By merging the Lego brand with the beloved Star Wars trilogy, the game appeals to fans of both franchises, offering a nostalgic yet fresh experience.

All-Ages Appeal

Designed for enjoyment across age groups, the game promotes family engagement and cooperative play.

Broad Accessibility

Available on major gaming platforms, the game ensures easy access for a wide audience, enhancing its reach and convenience.

Immersive Gameplay

Players can relive iconic Star Wars moments within a fun, interactive Lego environment, making the game both engaging and entertaining.

User Stories and Acceptance Criteria

To validate our research and assumptions the team went through an ideation process resulting in hundreds of user stories and acceptance criteria represented here:

Feature Prioritization

From there the team prioritized the game's features using the MoSCoW method.

Product Roadmap

The team was tasked with developing the game on a short timeline of only 15 months from start to finish. We partnered with our development team in England to draft the plan:

Enhance the game engine used to create LEGO Star Wars game that launched on some of the platforms
Work out a multi-threaded development roadmap for enhancing the game's engine, adding new features and generating platform specific versions for testing, feedback, and submission for launch
Work with our partners to schedule the submissions and get buy in for a shortened approval timeline from LEGO, SONY, Nintendo and Microsoft to reduce launch risk
1. LucasArts already had a direct line into Lucas Licensing for fast Indiana Jones approvals
Developed an asset generation plan with Marketing and all of our partners for the co-marketing opportunities and coordinated marketing efforts

An abridged version of the product roadmap is as follows:

Testing and Launch

The development project had several teams of quality assurance testers helping validate various aspects of the game including general gameplay and functionality, design, engine and system, 1st party submission testing, licensing, art, audio, text and grammar, Windows PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii, DS, and Mac specific versions of the game, Language Localization, and more.

Most of the QA effort was handled by LucasArts with a large team of test engineers covering every aspect of testing and validating the product and all versions for release. Additional QA support was provided by Travelers Tales, SONY, Nintendo, Microsoft and LEGO.

Testing Strategy

I oversaw the testing strategy between LucasArts and Travelers Tales with the other partners providing QA for their respective licensing and platform approvals. I partnered directly with the QA leads to coordinate build testing, feedback loops, bug fixing with the development team, retesting and approvals through each stage of the development project.

Launch Strategy

Due to the tight deadlines between the overall launch date for the game and the day and date timing of each version we had to build out a launch schedule that accommodated each partner's testing and approval processes along with any lead times for manufacturing they required for physical game sales in addition to digital versions of the game.

Financial Analysis and Viability

The development project's budget was structured to be mostly self funded by the development team with contributions from LucasArts,, Lucasfilm, LEGO and other partners.

Budget

Total Budget: $10 million
- Marketing: $4 million (internal funding)
- Marketing: *$100 million (studio funding tied to movie release with LIJ tie in support)
- Co-Marketing: $6 million (partner contributions)
- Development and Testing: $2 million (internal funding)

Key Points:

The game development budget was self-funded by Traveller's Tales, with undisclosed total development costs.
LucasArts did not need fund the game's development lowering our publishing costs
The marketing budget was also lower than usual due to the co-marketing efforts we established with our partners and studio movie marketing budget.

Sales Forecasts

Sales Target:

Minimum Success: 2 million copies sold across platforms.
Forecast: 3.5 million copies sold.
Moonshot: 10 million copies sold.

Analysis:

Aggressive Target: Setting the forecast at 3.5 million showed confidence in the game's market appeal and the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.
Break-Even Point: Achieving the minimum success target of 2 million copies ensures the development project is financially viable.
Market Penetration: The higher forecast aimed to capitalize on the game's broad platform availability and strong franchise ties.

Viability Analysis

Key Factors for Achieving Sales Target

Strong Franchise Appeal:
- Leveraging the popularity of the Indiana Jones and Lego brands provides a solid foundation for high demand.
Wide Platform Availability:
- Releasing the game across multiple platforms (PC, Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP, DS, Mac) increases accessibility and market reach.
Effective Marketing Campaigns:
- Significant investment in marketing ($10 million combined budget) enhances visibility and consumer awareness.
- Partner contributions and co-marketing efforts amplify promotional reach.
Quality and Content:
- High desire from market feedback to play the game with the classic trilogy characters and, universe, and storylines
  Positive reception of the game’s immersive storylines and family-friendly content can drive strong word-of-mouth and repeat purchases.
- Incorporation of feedback from previous titles (Lego Star Wars games) ensures improvements and new features that appeal to consumers.
Market Demand and Timing:
- Release timing and consumer interest in Indiana Jones-related content (e.g., movies, series) can boost sales.

Risk Mitigation

Monitoring Sales Data: Regular analysis of sales performance post-launch to adjust strategies as needed.
Community Engagement: Active engagement with the gaming community to sustain interest and address issues promptly.

Conclusion

The game’s strong brand appeal, broad platform release, significant marketing efforts, and quality content collectively enhance the viability of achieving the sales forecast target of 3.5 million copies. Monitoring and adaptability post-launch was key to ensuring continued success.

Pricing Strategy

This was relatively straight forward in that the pricing was full price on each platform until our 1st party partners decided the price point was no longer supported. This is a fairly standard process in the industry.

MVP

As this product release quite some time ago, screenshots, images and video links of the product have been included rather than an MVP

Outcome

The game sales surpassed our target forecast and our moonshot goals by selling over 11 million copies worldwide and generating over $500 million in revenue.

Awards Won

Spike Video Game Awards 2008 - Best Adapted Video Game

Impact and Benefits

With our product success launching this game in a record 9 months from start to finish and launching simultaneously on all 8 platforms on the same day served as a template for future product releases at LucasArts.

Lego Indiana Jones is the 3rd highest grossing LEGO branded game to date.

LEGO Indiana Jones 2 that included new gameplay features, levels and the inclusion of the characters and story from the Crystal Skull movie was released the following year along with other LEGO Indiana Jones releases and remasters after.

LucasArts, Lucasfilm and later Disney (post sale of LucasFilm) Have continued a long standing partnership with Traveller's Tales, TT Games and LEGO to produce many more games over the years based on TV and Film Properties including new Star Wars Titles that continue to be developed to this day.