Hey Hangry Fam,

It’s been manic in the studio these past few weeks, but more than usual this past week, that’s because we’ve had our heads down working on important changes.

We’re in the middle of a brand update, new website, refined visual identity, and most importantly, a sharper focus on our mission: Building games that entertain, educate, and give back. So pull up a chair, pour that brew and read on…

We’re in the thick of our R&D journey - and so far, it’s been better than we could’ve hoped for.

Within just two days of launching our survey, we had more responses than expected. (We’re genuinely chuffed - thank you to everyone who’s taken part already!) But we’re not stopping there - this stage is crucial for shaping the direction of what we build next, and we’re still gathering insights from parents and young gamers.

Due to the number of queries and interest we’ve had from parents and teens – we’ve changed the age range, so now its up to the age of 16. If you didn’t fit the criteria before, maybe you do now, so make sure to complete our survey (link below).

It’s not just been online either.

The events, workshops, talks and networking sessions we’ve attended lately have been hugely influential - not only from a gameplay and audience perspective, but from a commercialisation and brand-building angle too. Hearing from indie developers, founders, community leads, and experts within the industry has helped us reflect on what we’re building and how we talk about it.

All of this is feeding into our ongoing research on how games can encourage empathy, connection and real-world action - while still being, well… fun.

We’ll be sharing more insights next month, but for now just know: things are moving. And we’re learning a lot.

Planet Play
We also connected with Felix Bradshaw from Planet Play this week to discuss their mission and approach to integration of social impact mechanics into new and existing games, exciting to hear and validate where we’re heading with Hangry, has synergies with platforms such as Planet Play. Their platform supports Green Projects through exclusive green items within established game titles, where the item has a revenue split for the studio and charitable cause they support. Felix and the team have surveyed over 1m gamers, with an 80% responding to wanting to help good causes.

The data that Planet Play helps feed back into the UN and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) framework to inform and drive policy change. We’ve always believed gaming has an important role to play in driving change and educating society on ways to affect change, and Planet Play is one of the platforms quietly spearheading that movement. Go check them out: https://planetplay.com. They have a wealth of knowledge, and have built relationships with studios aligned to sustainability and social impact, so naturally we got on well from the first hello. I’m sure there’s a collaboration in the future with a platform like Planet Play, as they bring the experience, relationships and volume of players to the table, that are already aligned to good causes and green projects globally. Watch this space for future developments. 

As a new(ish) brand, we’re constantly evolving. What we’re doing, how we talk about it, and who we’re trying to reach - it’s all shifting as we grow. So this wasn’t just about changing colours or swapping a few pics. We’ve rethought everything.

It started with a deep dive from Ceri, who took a hard look at what was working (and what wasn’t), researched what others in our space were doing, mapped out what was needed and how we were going to show it. From post-its to planning sessions, she led the whole restructure - writing new copy, clearer page structure and content flow. We still have two pages to add, but this version already feels more aligned to where we’re going.

Meanwhile, Hangry Andy gave the 2D characters a refresh and applying this style across the board for synergy with the digital collections, planned game style, comics and the outlook for the animated series that’s still being tweaked from a look development perspective.

Brighter colours, cleaner text, with calls to action for Newsletter and Surveys where we need more insights. We’re happy with the direction this is taking, and will inform a clearer brand identity across all touch points.

Speaking of surveys… 

To all the parents and guardians out there, we need your voice.

We’ve just launched a quick survey to help us understand what matters to you most when it comes to your child (16 and under) in your household playing games:

What features are most important to you?
What do you look for in a game for you and your child?
What would make you comfortable spending on a game that gives back? And importantly what would put you off too!

Take the survey here

Please share it with friends, family, or anyone raising young players in today’s gaming world. It’ll take less than 5 minutes and will directly help shape the next stage of Hangry Animals development and our mission to help the voiceless out there.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing further website updates that better reflect our values and where we’re headed. We'll also be analysing our research data to see how it will inform the next stage of development.

We’re building this thing crumb by crumb (haha chuckles), but it’s already feeling more aligned than ever with what we believe in: fun, creativity, and meaningful impact.

Thanks for being with us as we take this next leap.
Let’s make games worth playing, and worth playing for good.

Team Hangry

NOTE: If you have ideas or suggestions on what you'd like us to include in future newsletters, from coming up with ideas to developing characters all the way through to brand strategy and project planning, drop a message in the #ideas-vault channel on our Discord or email us via hello@hangryanimals.com with your feedback.

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