Having established themselves in the mobile gaming market through their children-friendly titles, game developer Mighty Kingdom (ASX: MKL) has commenced their diversification strategy to expand beyond their profile into more lucrative gaming markets. 

The move comes with today’s worldwide launch of Conan Chop Chop, an online multiplayer party game where players must collect loot and hack’n’slash through a vast range of adventure levels. 

Offering endless hours of entertainment, the game is underpinned by a large amount of optionality throughout the levels where there are trillions of combinations between weapons, armour and magic charms. By offering this high level of optionality, it effectively means that no two run throughs will be the same, encouraging repeat playing by its players. 

Now available for purchase, Conan Chop Chop is available on PC for $21.99 while console versions are available on Xbox for $29.99 and PlayStation or Nintendo Switch for $27.99. 

“Our team set out to create a vision of Conan unlike any before it, and today we’re so excited to share it with the world,” said Mighty Kingdom Creative Lead, Kim Forrest. 

“Working alongside Funcom has been an incredible experience, and we’re grateful for their support throughout the process.” 

The launch of Conan Chop Chop marks the first successful collaboration between Mighty Kingdom and Funcom, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Limited. With that backing, Funcom has successfully commercialised more than 25 titles across multiple platforms dating back to the SNES and are the owners of the Conan the Barbarian franchise for which Conan Chop Chop is based on. 

Having their name alongside Funcom is expected to improve Mighty Kingdom’s profile in the gaming industry where they would otherwise be pegged as ‘the guys that just develop kids games’ on mobile for brands such as Lego, Disney, and Mattel – a very limited market in terms of monetisation. 

Revenue generated from Conan Chop Chop sales will be shared between both Mighty Kingdom and Funcom once the development costs have been recouped. 

Online reviews from the gaming community have already started appearing online across various websites and forums. 

“Conan Chop Chop transforms a bloodthirsty brutal barbarian into a hilarious cartoon character that couldn’t be more family-friendly. The simplicity of the roguelite from developer Mighty Kingdom becomes the core element of the entire game – which is good for the beginning, but rather a disadvantage for long-term motivation,” said Katie Omkar for GamingSym. 

Elsewhere, Mark Steighnef for Cog Connected said,  “Chop Chop is a combination of challenging combat and rogue-lite mechanics that reward repeated runs and never leave you feeling defeated, even when you die. This is a game with much more depth than its colorful and cartoony style suggests. It’s also much more fun with others. Played solo or with a group, though, Conan Chop Chop’s gameplay loop and enjoyable combat are addictive and compel you to try just one run, over and over again.”

For the half year ended 31 December 2021, Mighty Kingdom reported a 42% pcp increase in revenue to $2.1 million but was not enough to offset a $5.2 million net loss after tax attributed to investment in their teams for portfolio expansion. The Company however remains in a strong financial position with $9.4m available in cash.