1983

Toys, Books and Records were very tactile. Customers could fondle these little beauties before deciding to purchase or not. Computer games on the other hand were a different kettle of fish. How could it be possible to stock Cassette Tapes where customers could load them into a computer, wait 5 minutes or so for it to load, then play for 10 minutes before deciding not to purchase? Staff would need training because of the very technical nature of the product and to top it all games publishers, on the most part, were fly by night, one hit wonders. Retailers were suspicious. There’s just no profit in Computer Software.

Screen shot of Mastertronic Logo

Mastertronic to the rescue
Mastertronic persuaded newsagents, sweetshops and garages, video shops and groceries, even motorway service stations to take “dealer packs”, 100 games at a time mounted on cardboard racks. They were asked just to give the products some space. Sale or return agreements meant traders undertook no risk.

One important source for Mastertronic’s games were the brothers David and Richard Darling (name ring any bells?). Setting up a partnership with Mastertronic gave them both a royalty and a share of the profits on the sales of their games. In that hectic first 15 months nearly 750,000 games written by the Darlings were sold, netting them some £85000. Professional programmers would have been glad of such sales. For two boys of school age this was evidence that games were likely to be better than education and as soon as they could the Darlings left school, terminated the deal with Mastertronic and set up a new company, Codemasters. (2 points if you knew already)

Boring bit about maths
In 1983-4 most computer games retailed in the UK at prices between £4.99 and £7.99. Mastertronic games were priced at £1.99. How could they do it?

Well, computer game code fitted onto a short length of tape that could load in about 5 minutes. For a reasonable print run, a tape duplicator could produce copies for about 25 pence each. Mastertronic, aiming for large product runs, bought its tapes at 22 pence. Inlay cards cost about 3 pence each. The artwork cost anything up to £1000; assuming a print run of 20,000 this reduced to 5p per unit. Other distribution costs might add 5 pence in total.

So a game could be duplicated and put out to market for a total cost of some 35 pence. The other main cost was the software itself. Games could be purchased outright but most authors wanted royalties, not wishing to lose out in case of success. The standard deal offered in 1984 was an advance of £2000 and a royalty rate of 10 pence a unit. Many young authors were very happy to take this, especially when Mastertronic went on to sell 50,000 copies or more.

In later years royalty deals moved closer to the standards in book publishing with royalties based on a percentage of receipts, but in 1984 this would have made no difference, all games were sold at the same price anyway.

Press cutting from Your Computer Magazine questioning Mastertronics marketing genius.

A bit more about the math
Having set the costs, the profit depended on the wholesale price. Here the calculations work backwards. From a retail price of £1.99, VAT (15% at the time) took 26p. Retailers expected to make a margin of 30%. They would therefore not buy at prices higher than about £1.30. Between this price and the production cost of 45 pence was a margin wide enough to cover advertising, overheads, the profits of distributors and (provided there were not too many), the costs of failed titles. In practice Mastertronic sold to distributors at about 90 pence a unit, reduced to around 80 pence in the more competitive late 80s, and at about £1.30 when able to distribute directly to retailers.

This pricing structure would generate good profits provided sales were high enough. If the total sales of a title were just 10,000 units then raw material and distribution cost might be £3000, artwork and advance to author a further £2500 and the receipts about £9000. So this would bring a reasonable gross margin of 38%. But in the early days they easily exceeded 10,000 units per title. The 10 C64 titles released at the start of Mastertronic’s life sold on average40,000 in the first year and over 50,000 before being withdrawn from sale. The Vic titles achieved 44,000. Surprisingly the early Spectrum releases did less well but still averaged 28,000.

Budget pricing was proved to be perfectly viable provided that most titles achieved good sales, and in the fast growing market of 1984–6, at the “pocket-money” price point of £1.99, they did. (boring bit over)

M.A.D
In late 1985 Mastertronic launched the M.A.D label ‘Mastertronic’s Added Dimension’ and was the first, deliberate, step away from the “pure budget” game. M.A.D games retailed at £2.99 and were intended to be better quality. The range was launched with a party on a boat on the Thames where the authors demonstrated their first games in the range -The Last V8, Master Of Magic, Spellbound and Hero Of The Golden Talisman.

Programmers like David Jones (Magic Knight series), Clive Brooker (Empire strikes back, One Man & His Droid, Lap of the Gods), Kevin Green (Skyjet, Flash Gordon, Space Hunter), Jim Ferrari (King Tut, Human Race, Hollywood or Bust) became part of Mastertronics regulars. Rob Hubbard would pop in to hand over his latest tune, even the shaggy-haired one, Jeff Minter himself climbed on board. Several programmers worked for the company in-house for a while as technical advisors – Stephen Curtis (Nonterraqueous, Soul of a Robot, Into Oblivion) Richard Aplin (Destructo, Fly Spy, Ultimate Combat Mission) Tony Takoushi (Frenesis, Hyperforce) to name a few.

Mastertronic Inc.
In 1986 Martin Alper set up Mastertronic Inc in the states. This company could only distribute C64 games at the start because all the other 8 bit computers were virtually unknown in the USA. Gradually Martin introduced games for the new 16 bit machines and Mastertronic Inc began to take on a different profile to the UK based business. Links with US software houses provided a new source of games and the label “Entertainment USA” was created to showcase these in Europe. This was balanced by another label, Bulldog (“Best of British”), which Mastertronic acquired when Bulldog were on the verge of going bust. Exclusive distributors in the major European markets thus created the impression of a truly international group. In France and Germany Mastertronic SA and Mastertronic GmbH.

Around the late summer of 1986, Mastertronic recruited Geoff Heath as Director of Marketing. Geoff had run both Activision and latterly Melbourne House. He was a heavyweight in the games industry and his appointment marked a step up in Mastertronic’s internal development. His long term target was to bring Mastertronic into full price software. 16 bit computers became popular and for the first time the quality of games for the home machines such as the Amiga and Atari ST seemed similar to those in arcade machines. The 16 bit range was launched, appropriately enough, on a new label called 16-Blitz although the name was not used for very long.

Mastertronic Inc began to develop a range of new arcade games that would run equally well on home computers. Mastertronic agreed to buy a large number of Amiga chips from Commodore to power the new arcade machines. This venture, called Arcadia, nearly killed the company because the project developed slowly and the games were poor quality and not well suited for arcades. This demonstrated a weakness in Mastertronics setup – any games player could have explained that a home computer game is fundamentally different in design to an arcade game. But nobody asked games players.

The success of the budget range and the growing influence of Mastertronic led to them becoming the main supplier of both budget and full price software to a number of major retailers in the UK, notably Toys’R'Us and Woolworths. Some full price publishers were happy to let Mastertronic re-release their older product at a budget price and of course this was easy business. The “Ricochet” label was born, featuring in particular games from Activision Martech and US Gold. Mastertronic also created a special label, Rackit/Rebound for Hewson.

Melbourne House
Mastertronic bought the famous UK publisher Melbourne House, when that company was struggling with financial problems, from its Australian holding company Beam Software. Melbourne House kept its label identity and a few of the staff joined the Mastertronic team, notably Rachel Davies the marketing manager, and general manager Martin Corrall. Ironically they were reunited with their old boss, Geoff Heath. This move meant that they had first refusal on re-releases of games such as the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and The Way Of The Exploding Fist. However the main justification for the purchase was to provide a vehicle for the sale of full price games, a market from which Mastertronic had previously excluded itself, and in particular as a sales outlet for the home version of arcade games.

Frank Herman. hailed as 'the first suit in the gaming industry'

Virgin
In 1987, following negotiations between Herman and Richard Branson, Virgin Group purchased the 45% of shares held by the outside investment group. In that year Mastertronic’s turnover was about £8 million and pre-tax profit £1 million. The deal valued the group at around £10 million. The remaining 55% was held by Alper (25%), Herman (20%) and Sharam (10%) and they sold out in 1988 in a highly complex deal which required their continuing involvement in the business and achievement of profit and cashflow targets. The company was renamed the ‘Mastertronic Group Ltd’, and later was merged with Virgin Games to create ‘Virgin Mastertronic’.

In September 1988 Mastertronic joined forces with the Virgin Games staff in their mews offices in London’s Notting Hill. This signalled the beginning of the end of the key Mastertronic budget business. Virgin were not really interested in it – they wanted Mastertronics Sega franchise…

Sega
Frank Herman, in early 1987, spotted that Sega had no UK distributor for the Master System range. They Were applied and appointed distributor for one year. Martin Corrall, who was somewhat at a loose end after the absorption of Melbourne House, was the ideal manager for this new line of business. They sold all they could get that year, the UK distributorship was renewed and in addition they were appointed as distributors in France and Germany, and thus was born the huge business that was to become Sega Europe.

In 1991 the group turnover was around £100 million, a phenomenal growth. Nearly all of the sales, and certainly all of the profit, came from Sega products. Staff numbers soared but the traditional games publishing side began to be neglected. Full price games such as Golden Axe and Supremacy were achieving significant results and making the budget business seem irrelevant.

In early 1991 Sega expressed interest in taking over the business. Virgin Group was happy to sell (probably to raise cash for the airline). Sega had no interest in the games publishing side. As a result nearly all the staff moved over to Sega when they bought the business that summer and only a handful of Virgin games programmers stayed with the publishing side (quickly renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment). By that time the budget business was dying and nobody cared about it. In any case the competition had become intense as everyone was now recycling their old full price games as budget games. And of course the kids who used to buy C64s and Spectrums were now buying Segas and Nintendos.

After the Sega takeover Frank became deputy Managing Director of Sega Europe and Alan was Managing Director of Sega UK. Martin stayed with Virgin and continued to head up VIE for several years, remaining resident in the US. Anthony Guter moved to Sega where he became European IT Manager.

Sometime around 1992-3 VIE pulled out of budget games altogether and the Mastertronic name disappeared from view. Quantities of unsold games came back from the retailers and some are still being sold today. Somehow the name continues to bring back memories. There must be many thousands of kids who could not afford the more expensive games and who were able to enjoy gaming thanks to Mastertronic. The business really was unique -it could not be replicated today. Games are now developed by teams of programmers and designers and typical retail prices are £30 – £45. The days when a teenager could walk unannounced into an office, load up a tape and instantly be offered a publishing deal have gone. But there was really a time when this happened. It is beginning to feel like a legendary era but it was only twenty five years ago.

Sold Out Logo

Mastertronic Group
After a ten year silence in August 2003 Mastertronic was reborn. The name was used to launch a new range of budget games, all of which had previously done well as full price titles. Frank Herman joined them in March 2004, resuming his old position as Chairman. There is no relation between the new company and the old, other than the name.

The group has also purchased the low-cost software distributor ‘Sold Out’. The label has been retained, and is (as it was previously) being used to sell software at the £5 (frequently “3-for-£10″) price-point. The company is also distributing software under the old ‘M.A.D.’ imprint, as well as another label associated with PC Gamer magazine. Games on these labels are being sold for £10 (or “3-for-£20″). Mastertronic started the Great Indie Games publishing label, to spread independent games only available on the internet.

This Community Content article was created by Wind Junky, a member of our community. Community Content is your way of getting long-form writing and opinion out to the Midlife Gamer audience, an open platform to get something off your chest. For full guidelines on our editorial standards and how to create your own post, click here. The views expressed within are those of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the Midlife Gamer Staff

thatgamecompany are taking these concepts and turning them into some of the most compelling games of our recent console era. Anyone who has played Cloud, flOw or Flower knows how much desire, focus and energy thatgamecompany manage to put into their simple game ideas. But how do they make it look so simple? Marconi decided to find out…

Marconi: First of all can you tell us who you are and what you do at thatgamecompany?

Kellee Santiago: Hi, I’m Kellee Santiago. I’m President and Co-Founder of thatgamecompany. I co-founded the studio with our Creative Director, Jenova Chen in 2006, after we met each other at the University of Southern California Interactive Media MFA program, at the School of Cinematic Arts.  Now our studio is 10 people, and my work focuses on business development and strategic planning, marketing and public relations, and working with Sony, our publisher.

M: We ask the same question to everyone one we speak to here at Midlife Gamer, what your favourite biscuit (cookie) and beverage?

KS: I guess that would be Oreo double-stuff, although it’s not the most attractive cookie to eat! My favourite beverage currently is ginger ale – the real stuff, though.

M: Tell me a little more about thatgamecompany. What were the origins of the company and your main focuses and theories when creating games?

KS: The seed of the company was planted after the release of the USC student game project “Cloud,” on which Jenova was the lead. “Cloud” is free PC downloadable game that attempts to embody the lessons we were getting at USC – to begin your game design with an emotion or theme in mind, and then design towards that as your goal. We wanted to see what would happen if we applied this practice on a theme that isn’t commonly found in video game. Would people still be engaged? Are there limitations to what can be expressed in a video game?

For “Cloud” the idea was to give the player the feeling of remembering what it was like to be a child, staring up at the clouds and daydreaming.  When the game was completed, the team felt satisfied with the experiment, but still had no idea how the public at large was going to react. But, it actually caught on. Within a few months the game had been downloaded 400,000 times, without any promotional work on our part. Jenova and I felt that the game had struck a chord. And it had shown us that there was an audience for these different kinds of games, and we decided to make a company that did just that.

M: Delivering an artistic experience seems to be on the top of your agenda when creating a new title, how do you balance this aspect of pushing boundaries and try new things, whilst ensuring that your title is appealing to a wide enough audience to be a commercial success?

KS: In a way, we think they are one in the same. There are many games, like Wii Sports and Rock Band, that have shown that the people who aren’t playing games aren’t doing so because “they aren’t gamers.” It’s because there aren’t any video games that they like. By making games with themes that anyone can relate to – like the serenity of a field of flowers, or being a rock star – we can appeal to a wider, untapped audience.

M: If you had been releasing games a decade ago, do you think they would have been so appreciated and accepted? Is the notion of what a console is used for changing?

KS: We couldn’t do what we do without digital distribution, which allows us to make games that priority quality over quantity and take them directly to market.

M: How crucial was Sony Computer Entertainment in the creation of thatgamecompany?

KS: Extremely so. Jenova and I were in the second graduating class from the USC program, which was one of only a handful of programs in the world. Publishers didn’t know what to do with us, because we didn’t have experience shipping commercial titles, which was standard at the time. Sony took a huge leap of faith in signing us up for three games. In addition, they were part mentors and part publisher, which is a very rare situation. They helped us figure out the in-and-outs of commercial game development, producing, negotiating, PR – all of these aspects to game development that you have to do well in order to run a successful business. We couldn’t be thatgamecompany without them.

M: You straddle the thin line with Sony between independent and first party. How much say does Sony have when you pitch new titles?

KS: In general, Sony is very supportive of their developers, and they have been extremely supportive with us. Although the idea of a game about being in a flower field raised a lot of eyebrows in meetings, those same people trusted us and allowed us to realize that vision.

M: Can you tell us a little more about your next title Journey. How far away are we from seeing the game and what can players expect from it?

KS: Journey is our first online experience for PSN, and we want to apply everything there that we’ve learned from Cloud, flOw, and Flower.  The common themes in online experiences today are about empowerment and destruction, so we began with the idea of creating an online game that would generate a sense of awe and wonder – a feeling that we believe is sorely lacking from not only our gaming experiences, but our day-to-day lives.

For more on thatgamecompany, check out their blog at http://thatgamecompany.com, or the thatgamecompany Facebook page.

‘Developer Profiles’ is a series of articles that take a look at some of our favourite companies within the industry, reflecting on past work and looking forward to future titles.

If someone were to ask you; “Who is the most creative studio in the industry at the moment?”, you might well go with some unknown indie developer or foreign proposition full of enthusiastic ‘artistes’, but most of you will oversee one of the most exciting (and relatively new) studios that are currently at work in Media Molecule. Based in our home country of the UK- Guildford, Surrey, to be precise- Media Molecule was formed in 2006 by former Lionhead Studios employees Mark Healey, Alex Evans, Dave Smith and Kareem Ettouney, who, according to their website “love nothing more than making innovative and creative video game doodads for you to play with. Also ice cream”. In the short space of four years, however, the team have overseen and created one of the most entertaining, insanely unique, and impossibly cute games of this generation with LittleBigPlanet. Now one of the most recognisable brands of videogame out there (with enormous compliments to Sackboy) and a flagship title of Sony’s PS3 brand, the developer is currently closing in on a ‘November 2011′ release marker for its sequel, LittleBigPlanet 2.

LittleBigPlanet was a triumph in that it delivered an unreserved uniqueness that we rarely see in modern days of the industry. The stepping stone in creating Sony’s ‘Play, Create, Share’ brand, in which users created their own levels and shared them through the community, LBP’s incredibly complex set of tools allowed any Tom, Dick and Harry to create their very own masterpiece. Often misconstrued as being incredibly difficult to handle, the creation tools were in actuality more practical and simple than it first appears, due in no uncertain terms to the ‘Pop It’ tool and the radically English tones of Stephen Fry voicing LBP’s tutorials. And while the game split opinion publically (otherwise receiving unanimous high scores critically), with many criticising the “floaty” platform mechanics, it actually underlines the game’s key strengths- the real-time physics engine. Each material was given unique properties, each given a typical weight, and different specifications that not only impacted the world it was in, but also sometimes created chain reactions that were identical to real-world counterparts. Making sure the game could be accessed in terms of real-world knowledge when creating levels, the meticulous and complex system allowed for users to create some of the most dexterous and lovingly crafted pieces of platforming we’ve seen. From re-creations of classic Mario games, to working calculators and interpretations of everyday life, LBP has it all, and now hosts over 2 million user-generated levels that are all set to be transferred over to the sequel. Deserving undue appraisal, Media Molecule gave players a platform for ingenuity and creativity, never forgetting to update the game with requested additions (such as water- and all its physical properties, as well as lighting up Sackboy fashionista’s dreams in the number of costumes now available via PSN).

I’m a huge fan of Media Molecule who continue to strive forward in creativity stakes. Apparent in every facet of LittleBigPlanet‘s design, from its ramshackle ‘make-shift’ aesthetic, to the brilliant and undeniably challenging levels that were a part of LBP’s main campaign, Media Molecule have also seemed to match levels of hype, if not exceed them, for LittleBigPlanet 2, that has copious amounts of features that were omissed first time round. LBP2 includes more intelligent uses of AI, the ability to create more than just platformers(!), as well as the ability to create music, input voice and design cut scenes through in-game camera functionality, all delivered with the same love, care and attention that we come to expect from one of the darlings of Surrey- the epicentre of UK videogame development- Media Molecule.

“Once upon a time Midlife Gamer toddled out in the world and stumbled upon many a strange person. In the hope of finding some interesting things out, Midlife Gamer started asking these people question upon question hoping that someone would answer. It turned out that many did answer and thus started a whole bunch of friendships that would last beyond the ages.”

Now my story telling might not be of any fine calibre but I know a man who should know a thing or two about putting a good story into videogames. He is Dave Grossman of Telltale Games.

Marconi: First of all, who are you and what is your involvement with Telltale Games?

Dave Grossman: I’m Dave Grossman, and I’m Telltale’s director of design.  This means I’m responsible for anything relating to game design or to writing, and also that other people do all of the actual work.

M: Now to make sure that the Midlife Gamer community is satisfied I must ask something we ask everyone here at MLG. What is your favourite biscuit (also called a cookie outside of the UK) and beverage?

DG: There are so many delicious cookies/biscuits it’s hard to choose just one.  I’m partial to oatmeal raisin cookies, lemon coolers, and vanilla wafers.  A friend of mine made some lemon sage cookies last week that were amazing.  I really shouldn’t be answering these questions before lunch, it’s making me really hungry.  My favorite beverage is plain old black coffee.

M: Can you tell us a little about Telltale and how it was formed as a company? What were the aims of Telltale in the early years and are these ideas that still remain?

DG: Telltale was formed in 2004 by a small group of people who had mostly been working at LucasArts on the cancelled Sam & Max Freelance Police project.  The studio was started with the specific goal of creating episodic, downloadable, story-centric games, and that is still very much our focus.  We refine the specifics all the time, but the underlying ideas remain.

M: The name of the company says a lot about the kind of games you are making. When creating a game or taking on a franchise, is the development and depth of story your main priority?

DG: Story and characters are the first priority, yes, and they drive everything else that we do.  When we’re designing a bit of gameplay, we’re always thinking, what is it about this piece that is advancing the narrative or exposing something about the characters?  If we can’t come up with a good answer, it’s time to try a different direction for that section.

M: Even though the history of the company is plotted with episodic adventure games your first game was a Texas Hole ‘Em simulation. Was it always your intention to make adventure games and use this as a test? Or did the poker game put you off making sim / arcade games?

DG: Before we were ready to tackle full-on episodic development, we needed to build out our game engine and other core technology, as well as our production pipelines.  The poker game was a way to focus those efforts narrowly on things that mattered most to us: characters and acting.  Sitting the cast at a poker table gave us a lively scenario for them to act and react to each other, without us having to worry about things like navigation, scene tracking and so on until the next project.  (For those who have not seen it, Telltale Texas Hold ‘Em is not so much a poker simulator as it is a scene about people playing poker together.  The interesting part is not the poker but the table talk.  Crude by our current standards, but interesting.)

M: What benefits do the players and developers get when playing / working with a title that is, from a cynical perspective, not complete on release?

DG: Ha!  Your cynicism is impressive.  An episodic game series is a lot like a television series.  If you were one of the eight zillion people watching Lost every week, half of the fun came in between the episodes, when you were speculating with your friends about what various things meant and what would happen next.  It’s the same with Tales of Monkey Island – some of the threads on our forums from while that series was running are just as entertaining as what’s in the games.  And all of the back-and-forth between us and the audience while the series is running makes for a much closer relationship with that audience, which is fun for everybody.  And that’s the main point – building a relationship between the developers and the audience over time, instead of just dropping a game and not calling again for three years.

M: Most recently Telltale has taken on the Monkey Island franchise, adding it to a roster that includes Wallace and Gromit, Sam and Max and CSI. Do you feel it was an obvious choice for Lucas Arts to give Telltale Games the Monkey Island license?

DG: We probably employ more designers, writers and artists who had already worked on the Monkey Island franchise than any other studio in the world, LucasArts included.  So I do think it was an obvious choice for them to trust us with the license.

M: Are there any other Lucas Arts franchises that you would like to work on? Is this something that the company is likely to pursue?

DG: I always get into some kind of trouble when I answer that question in any way.  So I won’t.

M: With some of the franchises previously mentioned, what steps do you take to make your products not only faithful to the original fans but also make your games stand out from the other franchised products on the market?

DG: Making our games feel true to the franchise is enormously important to us, both as developers and as fans ourselves.  The fact that we are fans ourselves is always a good first step, and we’ve never worked with a franchise for which there weren’t already some loyal devotees in the studio.  We also always do a lot of research to try to identify the elements that are at the heart of the property, and we work with the creators and get feedback wherever possible.  That last has been very good for us over the years.  With Sam & Max, for example, we already had a fair amount of experience with the characters, but we also had a good, established working relationship with Steve Purcell, who helped us get everything pointed in the right direction at the outset.  When we were making Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People, the Chapman Brothers were so involved with the production it was like they had a second job – they were critiquing puzzles, editing all of the scripts, doing all of the voice recording themselves, and so on.  And on Wallace & Gromit we faced the obvious hurdle that we’re not British, so we worked closely with an editor in England who had some experience with the license, and over the course of many iterations he helped us get the language and the humour right.  Aardman also gave us plenty of feedback, and we flew our designers over to do all of the voice recording in England so the characters would sound right.  This all has its own rewards, but I also think that the fact that we care enough to do it right helps our games stand out from some of the other franchised titles out there.

M: To date you have been mostly self-publishing your titles. What freedom does this allow you? What restrictions does this create?

DG: Self-publishing obviously means we have a lot of control over what titles we’re going to do, and what creative decisions we make when we do them.  It also makes it a little easier, or at least more possible, to keep to a strict episodic release schedule – the less we have to worry about the effects of someone else’s pipeline, the better.  On the other hand, it means we’re taking a bigger risk with any title we do, and also we don’t have a publisher to rely on for marketing and other kinds of support – essentially, being a developer AND a publisher doubles our responsibilities.  We think it’s worth it, though.

M: Most of your titles are now delivered through digital methods, do you think your games would do as well if they were released as a physical disc?

DG: We release a first run digitally, but then when the season is over we usually collect the games together and put them out on a physical disc, pretty much how you would with a season of a TV show.  So we get the best of both worlds!

M: Will digital delivery ever replace physical releases?

DG: Sure.  Or mostly, anyway.  The music industry is a good example to look at, with digital delivery rapidly becoming the dominant mode.  It’s not a question of if, but when.

M: Are there any plans to port your titles to handheld platforms?

DG: Our latest title, Puzzle Agent, is coming out for the iPhone and iPad.

M: Finally what is in the pipeline for Telltale? We hear that there are Jurassic Park and Back to the Future titles coming up…

DG: You hear correctly!  So, uh, yeah, speaking of working with franchises that people in our studio are huge fans of, we’re doing a Back to the Future series and a Jurassic Park series.  And they’re in the pipeline.  Look for them this winter!

For more information on Telltale Games, check out their website

Xero: Firstly, can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Mike Amerson: I’m Mike Amerson, I’ve been a game developer for 10 years as a 3D artist/ animator and I’ve worked on top franchises such as Star Wars and Call Of Duty – PC and console games.  My latest (and personal) creation is an iPhone game called: My Virtual Girlfriend. I co-founded a company called WET Productions with my partner William to make this iPhone game.  I live in the US and he lives in the UK. We never have met in real life, all of our collaboration to create this game has been through the internet and using tools like SVN, Google docs and (RIP) Google wave. We developed my virtual girlfriend using Unity 3D, A 3rd party dev engine.

X: Our next question is one we ask every person we speak to here at Midlife Gamer, what is your favourite beverage and what is your favourite biscuit (or cookie outside of the UK)?

MA: My favourite beverage is from Starbucks.  A Venti white mocha with 3 pumps of white mocha and 1 pump of sugar free cinnamon dolce + add a shot of espresso. My favourite cookies are: Mother’s circus animal cookies (Pink and white, with the sprinkles).

X: How did WET Productions start out? Why start an independent game studio?

MA: Good, this allows me to elaborate on the first question.  I met William online in a game developer forum in 2003. He was working on a Tetris like clone and I am an artist. He posted a request for an artist to help him make some simple graphics and I answered the call.  I did it for free and after he finished the game I told him about a game idea I had (a sexy female fighting game for PC called  “Girlfight”)  we worked to develop a prototype with the intent to secure a publisher so we could hire a full development team and create the game for Xbox (at that time) and PC. Since we both work for developers, we would only be able to work on this during after work hours, which is few in game development. Using an in house engine that William created (It used to have it’s own website but we made it available for free here). We made a prototype of the game with 2 girls that could fight in a nightclub level, a bit like rumble roses. After 2 years, in 2007, I was unable to obtain financing and due to constant crunch modes at my regular work – the future was looking bleak for “Girlfight”.  We both had lost a lot of our momentum and things moved at a snails pace or not at all. In 2008, after I posted a Craigslist ad for software developer for hire – another company contacted us and wanted us to write custom software for casino gaming (I live in Las Vegas – it’s a big industry here).  So we made a game for them and that was our first paid assignment.  Because we were cheap and the company that hired us loved what we did they hired us to make a couple more, so a few more paid assignments happened that year… In late 2008, I heard of the iPhone and thought- low barrier to entry, minimal developer cost.  Why not make Girlfight for iPhone?  I contacted William and started drawing up some design docs. After about a month into pre-production and after some research, we anticipated that our game would not be allowed on the iTunes store due to the content being a bit on the “mature” side of things.  At this time my mind is racing – what can we develop that would be fun and entertaining – that there is not much competition for in the app store? Then it came to me: a girlfriend sim game!  I contacted William, he liked the idea and agreed. A year and ¼ (and many low sleep nights) later My Virtual Girlfriend hit the app store in may of 2010.  Although we made this iPhone game we both continue to remain employed by other development studios and work on this in our spare time (that’s why it took a year and a quarter – our schedules are always busy so extra time was very limited). I continue to be employed as a Senior 3D Artist and William a programmer.

X: How big is your team, how is the work divided and what are your industry backgrounds?

MA: The team consists of myself:  Mike Amerson – Art / Animation /design / producer / business manager / PR and marketing. My partner William (last name is kept secret for anonymity) – coding. My wife Angelina – came in on the tail end as an associate producer and marketing. We used a few Mixamo animations and I contracted a friend of mine: John Hutchinson for a couple of animations as well.

X: Your first title My Virtual Girlfriend has been out for a while now, what has the reaction from the public been like and has it been a commercial success?

MA: The biggest thing we’ve run up against is that people take the game way too seriously or think it’s porn.  We’ve been in a few flame wars on forums defending our game and explaining to them that apple doesn’t allow for objectionable adult material.

X: Why did you choose to make a title like MVG as your inaugural effort under the WET banner? Is there a big appeal to this kind of title?

MA: The path that led us to making this game has been a long road, as noted above in an earlier response. As for why this type of game? Well, I have a lot of experience at character modelling, texturing and I wanted to make something that would be a commercial success. My strength lies in art, especially characters, so making something visually appealing was a top priority.  I wanted to make something that there was nothing else close to in the app store, and it had to be manageable in scope due to our schedules (boy I blew that one!).

X: How difficult is it to balance tongue-in-cheek pastiche with the out-and-out offensive? How well do you feel you achieved this in My Virtual Girlfriend?

MA: I did a LOT of research for MVG. I went on forums for alpha females to MySpace comebacks for the urban girl and searched for interesting dialogue and quotes. There are over 1500 lines of dialogue in the game. Each piece of dialogue can be distilled down to 1 of 6 categories. Average, Urban, Diva, Hippie, Alpha and Prude. Each girl is a mix of Average and one of the other categories. The percentage of each is generated randomly and at the start of the game – which is also based off of player input.

X: We’ve seen plenty of dating sims and girlfriend games released in Japan, yet whenever this type of game has come to home consoles or portable platforms, reaction from press and games has tended to be fairly poor and coverage minimal. Why do you feel we don’t see more of this type of game in the west?

MA: Now you’ve opened up Pandora’s box. This is one of my biggest pet peeve’s with Western culture and gaming, in that it’s absolutely ok to slit someone’s throat in a game but when it comes to anything even mildly sexual (such as seeing breasts) it’s completely taboo, well, until Rockstar did it… But PC and console gaming has come a long way now with allowing for more mature content. Apple however, is very conservative with their views, so we have to push the boundary but not go over the limit with them or risk our game being pulled from the app store.

X: Do you feel that, with digital download platforms, games are more open to explore themes such as sexuality (even if it is within a light hearted context as seen in MVG) or have the restrictions of platform holders meant that this type of game can ONLY be made on iOS?

MA: Yes, by nature of a digital download it is more “private” and therefore one can purchase it without embarrassment and these type of games are usually single player, so its even more so. As for the OS, it’s easier to self publish mature material on a computer than it is a console or the app store. Apple reserves (and exercises) the right to deny games with sexuality, so the developers must work within their rules. I think they should open up a little bit more, but that’s my personal take. However, I do respect that it is their store after all and they can say what goes in it.

X: Where next for WET Productions? Updating MVG? A sequel? Or perhaps a new title altogether?

MA: First thing, we continue to develop MVG with updates that help improve it. Once we get it to a point where we feel we’ve done as much as we can for it (1 more update), then we begin on the iPad version. And a lite version. After that – We’ve been getting a lot of requests lately for the “male” counterpart.  So after the formula for gameplay is solid we will reskin the game for the ladies and create a “MVB” game (My Virtual Boyfriend). It is my hope that one day my partner and I will be able to develop apps /games full time and have the option to be independent from having to work for others, if I should someday choose to go full Indie. I do work with some really awesome people, the long hours can be a grind over time and with the instability of game companies these days, its good to have a backup plan.

For more information on My Virtual Girlfriend and WET Productions, check out their official website.

So to find out more about how and why you would do such a thing, and what life is like in the indie world I settled down to a nice chat with Ichiro Lambe of Dejobaan Games and fell into a conversation…
M: First of all, can you explain a little about who you are and what you do at Dejobaan Games?

IL: Absolutely!

M: The next question is one we ask every person we talk to here at Midlife Gamer, what is your favourite biscuit/cookie and what is your favourite beverage ?

IL: Waaaaaaait a second — I wasn’t finished with the first question! I’m Ichiro Lambe, Founder and President of Dejobaan Games. Since the team’s a small one, I tend to do lots of different things, from prototyping to company strategy to janitorial work. (I’m also the one who gets our interns coffee.)

Aha! You said “biscuit.” And with a “u” in “favourite.” That means that you’re from the other side of the pond, you are. Last time I interviewed with a British journalist, he accused me of being late for World War II. Which was true, since I was born in 1974. But he was a nice guy, so it’s okay.

I like any cookie that was borne of sweat and tears (because a little salt helps bring out the flavor). And my favorite beverage has to be ginger beer.

M: So how did Dejobaan Games start out and why did you choose to go the indie route?

IL: I’ve always worked for smaller studios, and that made sense going forward with Dejobaan. It was manageable, and indies are quick, and can turn on a dime.

M: What are the main benefits of being an independent company and what are the disadvantages of working away from the bigger publishers?

IL: I CAN:
Enjoy an interview with Midlife Gamer: http://www.synthscribe.com/media/enjoying_an_interview.jpg

I CAN’T:
1.) Fall back on a team of two dozen excellent, competent 3D artists if I need to create something awesomely epic. (We have one excellent, competent 3D artist.)

2.) Take a vacation. Ever.

M: You’re currently working on your 14th title, can you tell us a bit more about it and how work is progressing?

IL: In a nutshell, ooo! ooO! oOO! OOO! is a game where you grow worlds from your MP3 library, fly and fight through them, then tweak their genomes and watch them mutate. It’s been both awesome and difficult — I’ve been mired in the whole algorithmic content generation aspect of it, and am slowly working my way out towards supposedly simple things such as aiming bullets at the player. I find that I’m no longer bright enough to solve the system of equations needed to angle enemy fire to lead the player, and fear that, perhaps, someone will rescind my degree.

M: What do you learn from title to title in terms of game creation?

IL: Organization, planning, and retrospection are key! As long as we look back and consider where we’ve been and look at where we’re going on a project, we do well. Sometimes we forget. That’s a disaster.

M: Your most prominent title ..AaaaaAAaaaAAAAAAA! A Reckless Disregard For Gravity, was released last year to critical acclaim. Is there now any extra pressure on you as a studio or is the pressure to gain awareness of your work now off?

IL: We did well with Aaaaa!, and I don’t want to be a one-trick pony. :) People now look at us and expect us to do interesting, ridiculous things. The pressure’s on for that reason, but it’s also nice to point at Aaaaa! and say “Hey, we’ve done that. We can create cool games. Here’s what’s next…”

M: Your main platform at the moment is mainly PC, is this a restrictive option for you? Do you think your titles would suit PSN or XBLA?

IL: Sure; gameplay-wise, I think what we’re doing is appropriate for PSN/XLBA. However, yesterday, I had drinks with a colleague who told me that he can’t use the term “Masturbation” as a menu option in his console game. On the other hand, we could name a game “Express Pedophile Circus Exxxtravaganza” without too much problem. I don’t think we’d actually make that game, but a more relaxed environment means greater creative freedom.

M: The title Dejobaan’s Easiest Video Game Ever, was released for free within the confines of your fan club. Could you explain a little more about the game…

IL: Dejobaan’s Easiest — a midway step between Aaaaa! and Ooo!. It’s a fun experiment that was actually less successful than I’d hoped. One of its purposes was to see if we could make a convincing level procedurally. I think we did, but we basically did that within the framework of Aaaaa!, and that wasn’t enough to excite people. With our next step, we’re going to show how that method of generation makes for truly awesome worlds.

M: …and why is your community so important?

IL: Community’s all we have. Right now, during development, they’re the ones that tell us when we’re doing something right, or when we’re not going far enough. We got a decent enough response on the last Fan Club game, but the folks who played it gave us feedback. The big message for us?

~ We need to go further! We need to do things that are more awesome! We can’t screw Ooo! up by playing it safe! ~

M: What do you want to achieve with your games? DEVGE and AaaaaAAaaAAAAA! are both very affectionate titles, is that something you thought was missing from the gaming scene?

IL: Our mantra is to make people play our games and scream, “HOLY JESUS JUMPBALL! I CAN’T BELIEVE I PLAYED THAT! I HAVE TO TELL MY FRIENDS!”. I think we do that best when our character shows through. In fact, I think all studios do best when that happens. Otherwise, you get these really stodgy, by-the-numbers games.

M: The indie scene overall is seeing a great boost in exposure thanks to Steam, XBLA and PSN. Is now the time to take risks with titles? Or is the market still a little closed in terms of getting your product on to these platforms?

IL: I’d say it’s always time to take risks. But I fall into the category of developers who believe that a calculated risk isn’t really a risk at all. If you write out a phenomenal, weird, wonderful design for your next game, and you can explain to someone else how all the strange, unusual pieces will delight gamers, I’d say that’s actually just playing things insanely smart. And publishers such as Steam and OnLive have been really supportive of those efforts.

M: Finally, what can we expect next from Dejobaan Games?

IL: My personal goal with Ooo! is to delight gamers the same way arcades did in the early-to-mid ’80s. Gamers back then would step into an arcade, be completely wowed by everything new, and spend hours exploring it.

For more information on Dejobaan Games‘ titles, check out dejobaan.com

So I took some time out to speak to Mark Morris and found out what it is like to hack, destroy and create a world of flat!

M: First of all can you tell us who you are and what you do at Introversion software?

MM: My name is Mark Morris and I’m the managing Director of Introversion. It sounds very grandiose, but basically I end up doing all the little jobs that slip through the net (like making the tea). I have responsibility for making sure that our game projects complete on time and ultimately I decide on which platforms we’ll work on. It’s a highly collaborative environment so I tend to only have to make firm decisions if there are major disagreements on the way forward.

M: We ask the same question to everyone one we speak to here at Midlife Gamer, what your favourite biscuit (cookie) and beverage?

MM: I’m a big Tea fan – I like coffee, but if I had to go for a favourite then a decent cup of builder’s Tea is my drink of choice. Biscuit wise it’s tough – not a big fan – probably one of those giant chocolate cookies they sell in Starbucks.

M: Tell us a little more about Introversion. When and how did you start out and what was the main idea behind beginning the company?

MM: In my final year of University there was a competition to write the best business plan – winner takes £10k. Chris had been working on a game (Uplink) for the last 18 months, and another friend of mine (Tom) had shown an real interest in being an entrepreneur and he knew about stocks and shares and things like that. I suggested to the guys that the three of us should write a business plan to start a games company. We didn’t win the prize, but we did start Introversion. We invested £200 each at the time, and the other day I realised that we have generated about £1m now. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not rich – we’ve spent it all on staff and offices and stuff, but I’m just proud of that achievement. When we started we didn’t really have much of a plan post-Uplink. Chris was very clear that he didn’t want to work on a sequel and when he started work on Darwinia we just let him get on with it. Then, three years later we realised that Darwinia was a masterpiece, we won a lot of awards for that game and I think we have a lot to thank it for.

M: You once labelled yourselves as the “last of the bedroom programmers” is this statement still true for yourselves as a company and the game creation landscape in general?

MM: Nah. When we were growing up games were massively creative – different ideas were regularly explored and there was a huge diversity of titles. As production values increased the risk associated with making something new increased and the landscape got a bit bleak – multiple sequels, 400 WWII shooters etc. We wanted to go back to the old creative days and so we coined the term “last of the bedroom programmers”. We dropped that a few years back when we realised that we were part of a hugely creative (and growing) community of small teams making great, creative games. I think the creative outlook for the industry is much brighter now then it was back then.

M: Games like Uplink and Darwinia share themes of control and networking. Looking specifically at Uplink was this based on real experiences?

MM: Chris and I were both studying computer science at Uni so we immersed in a world of 1s and 0s and of course networking was a big part of that. If you’re asking if we did any hacking then of course we did. We were young and rebellious and we were testing the limits of our knowledge. We only ever poked around the Imperial network and we never actually got anywhere (primarily because real hacking is incredibly boring) . Uplink is designed to be realistic, and if you are hacker you’ll recognise a lot of the stuff in that game. The difference is that it’s abstracted away from reality to make it fun. I think that’s why Uplink is so popular. Taking realistic techniques and pimping them to make them faster and more tense.

M: It was once reported that Introversion started, like many Indie companies, with money troubles and you were once on the edge of bankruptcy. What was the feeling within the company at the time and how did you get to be the success that you are today?

MM: Once! Ha! Try once a year. Running a games company is incredibly challenging, you have to invest a lot in a game before you sell it, and even then you may miss the mark and not see a return. You have to be very flexible, very nimble and very aware of all the additional sources of income that are available. There’s a lot of “verys” in there, but it is a real skill required in a running a game developer. We’re not rich at the moment, but we do have enough to get through to the launch of Subversion, and that’s all we need – enough to get to the next game then we’ll take it from there!

M: Is it easier now for studios to make a name for themselves now that the indie scene has become more mainstream?

MM: Personally I think it’s harder. When we started we were a story in ourselves. The fact that three guys from Uni were making a splash in the business got us tonnes of coverage and probably encouraged a lot of fans to try our games. Now the games were also good, we would have been ignored if they had been rubbish, but the novelty of our approach really helped to get the awareness out. The indie community is so large now that you’re not going to make a splash by being another two man team making a game. It’s all down to the quality of the product again.

M: Darwinia is probably your most successfull title, where players grow and evolve the world around them. Where did the idea come from in Multiwinia to essentially let players destroy a world they had helped create previously?

MM: Multiwinia was a strange beast. When Chris originally conceived of Darwinia it was a multiplayer game, but that idea was eventually abandoned. Later during our negotiation with Microsoft to get Darwinia onto Xbox Live Arcade they said that we needed to do multiplayer.

“No problem” I said, we’ve got most of the code under the bonnet. That wasn’t quite true and it took Chris and the team about 18 months to conceive of and deliver multiwinia. It was started as an add-on to Darwinia and we wanted to do something irreverent and fun. Darwinia was quite serious, but we had a lot of fun mowing down Darwinians. We wanted to turn that up to 100 and hence Multiwinia was born.

M: Multiwinia is quite an unflinchingly violent title. Is the violence in your game gratuitous or do you think it serves a valid purpose?

MM: Yeah it’s totally gratuitous. The whole point of Multiwinia is that it is a complete, vacuous, gratuitous visual feat of destruction. If I wanted to BS you I’d say that it was our commentary on the futility of war (the idea for assault mode came from Saving Private Ryan), but the reality is that we just wanted it to be fun. I think we achieved that goal with Multiwinia, but it’s our worst selling game. One of the words that I like to use to describe our games is “cerebral”. That’s not applicable to Multiwinia which is why I think fans of other IV games were turned away.

M: Multiwinia also has its own forum based around the gameplay, strategies and even the future of the title. Is this something that grew organically or that you had an eye to developing while creating the game?

MM: Our fans are really important to us (although I accept that we did neglect them for a while during the creation of Darwinia+) and we try to ensure that there is plenty of opportunity for them to get involved. We’ve made the source code for Uplink, Darwinia and Multiwinia available for modding, and we run discussion forums where we try to engage with the fan base. When we wrote Multiwinia we didn’t necessarily envisage strategic discussion amongst the player base, but we did know that the key to giving the game longevity is to balance a game so that multiple strategies can be used and no single strategy wins all the time. I think it was our commitment to engaging with the fans and good game design that resulted in the phenomenon you mention.

M: Is digital delivery the future of games and is porting any more of your titles to console something you’re interested in?

MM: Yes – digital delivery is the future of games. We launched Darwinia+ (Darwinia and Multiwinia) on Xbox Live Arcade in February of this year and we are currently in talks with Sony about bringing DEFCON to the PSN.

M: Your new title Subversion is now in development, can you talk to us about the game, what players can expect and why they should be getting excited for the game?

MM: We’re being pretty tight lipped at the moment. You can find the latest information from our blog at introversion.co.uk/subversion. But for the completely uninitiated Subversion is going to be set in a modern High Tech environment, with you taking “mission control” over a team of skilled operatives in a hostile High Security building. You will be using Sabotage, Social Engineering and Grifting, custom Electrical and Mechanical devices, Distractions, Hacking, Stealth, Acrobatics, Precision demolitions, Trickery, whatever gets the job done. In the best case scenarios your enemies will never know you were even there. When things go wrong, a well prepared escape plan and well timed precision violence will get you out of a tight spot – or maybe not.

For more information on Introversion and their range of titles, check out their website

Xero: Could you introduce yourselves to the Midlife Gamer community, who are you and what do you do?

Matt Small: My name is Matt Small. I’m the Creative Director at Vector Unit, which at our company is kind of a hybrid between a Lead Designer and an Art Director.  For Hydro Thunder Hurricane, I designed all the tracks, built the 3D models for several tracks and boats, and art directed the game.

X: The next question is one we always ask everyone we interview here at Midlife Gamer, what is your favourite beverage and what is your favourite biscuit (also called cookies outside the UK)?

MS: Favorite beverage is unquestionably beer.  (Do you ever get any answers other than that?)  Specifically IPA – although I’m partial to smooth frothy cask ales like Boddington’s too.  Favorite cookie is either peanut butter or ginger snaps – I can’t decide!

X: Your latest project was Hydro Thunder Hurricane, can you tell us a bit more about the title?

MS: Hydro Thunder Hurricane just shipped on Xbox Live Arcade this last week. It’s a return to the classic arcade racers of yore – colorful, fun, fast with crazy shortcuts and ridiculous set pieces like dinosaurs and giant Norse gods that attack the track. The kind of racing games they don’t make enough of any more, IMHO. HTH is an accessible game – it’s not a realistic simulation like Gran Turismo – but there’s a hard core racing mechanic there for players who want to try and shave tenths of seconds off their best time.

X: Are you treating this title as more of a sequel or a remake to the first Hydro Thunder? In addition, which elements from the original did you feel were essential when first designing the title?

MS: It’s a proper sequel. Our goal was to create a game which captures the spirit of the original while providing the depth, controls, and graphics you would expect from a modern console title. To do that, we had to rewrite everything from scratch, and then play test the hell out of it to make sure we kept the stuff that made the original game great.

One of the first things we did was to make a list of what people remembered most favorably from the original. Obviously this included the crazy fast transforming rocket boats, the giant drops off cliffs and waterfalls, the over-the-top “theme park” environments, the secret shortcuts, the announcer, etc. The list is actually pretty long, but we were able to include just about all of these elements that made the original game what it was.

But we didn’t want the game to be just a graphic upgrade of the original. All of the tracks in Hurricane are new, for instance.  We also added a few new game modes as well, such as the Ring Master slalom game and the Gauntlet event, which is a time trial with exploding barrels. The most important new thing is the water physics engine. It’s completely interactive, and constantly changing as boats drive through it, or giant avalanches splash into it. The water is really the star of the show – every race feels a little bit unpredictable.

X: Can you tell us a little more about the multiplayer?

MS: Multiplayer is a very important feature for us.  We support up to 8 players over Xbox LIVE, and the implementation is silky-smooth, if I do say so myself. You won’t see boats jumping all over the place. I think we got that part really right. We also support 4 player split screen, and you can play split screen online, so you can have 2 friends playing locally against 6 other people online.

I think the Multiplayer is really one of the most fun features in the game. We spent a lot of time balancing the boats, and tuning the boost system so that races always feel close and competitive. Plus the tracks are designed to be played quickly – maybe 2-3 minutes per race – so if you lose one, no big deal, you can just jump back in and try to win the next.

X: Are there plans for supporting the title long-term with DLC?

MS: Yes. I can’t say too much about it yet, but there definitely will be new tracks and new boats.

X: Have you had much input from the original Midway team on the project?

MS: Not a ton. Midway gave us their assets from the original game to look at, and we studied them closely but didn’t directly use any of it. Also one of the producers from the original game was able to play it and give us the thumbs-up. He really liked it, which was great for us to hear.

X: We’ve seen a recent resurgence in interest in racing games, racing games with an action heavy edge especially (Blur, Split/Second Velocity, Modnation Racers etc). Why do you feel this is?

MS: Racing games will never go away – they’re like the essence of competition. That said, you can only go so far with a sim, in my opinion. All you can do is make it more and more realistic, and pile on tons of options. If racing games are going to attract new fans from outside the hard core racing gamer base, they need to make the games accessible and add some kind of flashy hook. The trick is balancing that so you don’t lose sight of the pure racing principles, or you’ll make it too casual and lose the core audience.

X: What’s next for Vector Unit after the release of Hydro Thunder Hurricane? Are there any plans to take on other Thunder properties in the near future?

MS: We don’t currently have plans for any more Thunder properties, although we’ve had a lot of requests for a revamped Arctic Thunder. We’re just focused on creating and tuning the DLC, and pitching new ideas to publishers.

For more information on Vector Unit and Hydro Thunder, visit their website.

Anyone else suddenly thirsty? Weird……

With games now costing between 20-30 million to develop on major gaming systems like the PS3 and Xbox 360, in-game ads can significantly reduce the risk to the developer and as this cost rises with the next generation of consoles, in-game advertising is likely to become a necessity. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all when I play a game like Gran Turizmo 5 or Forza 3, seeing the advertisements for Brembo or Bridgestone seems natural and adds to the realism of the game. Would it feel the same if your Bugatti had Tono Tires rather than Toyo? But can it be taken to far?. What if in a future big IP title for a next gen system, the production price was so high that, like with most movies today, outside brands held a significant sway, and they subtly put a brand’s logo in the corner of an in-game menu like the pause screen, or have an ad in the loading screen. Would you still buy your favorite game if you had to see an advertisement every ten or fifteen minutes? What if you had to put up with an ad running on the bottom of the screen during cut scenes? Or a scrolling ticker in the start screen, similar to the start screen of halo wars, except instead of tips, its\’s an advertisement? It may seem unlikely now, but like any tv series that becomes popular, the show tme quickly gets smaller and smaller as more advertisers push to get their commercials shown while it’s airing, until eventually it seems what you originally liked about the show is outweighed by the constant irritation of ads.

"Too much?" "Nah, they'll barely notice!"

With games like Modern Warfare 2 selling over 7 million copies on day one, you can bet advertisers will push to get their products involved.

My view is that for the most part, in game ads are relatively harmless and generally don’t have an adverse effect on the experience. As a gamer I have no problem with seeing a Pepsi vending machine or a billboard advertising an up-coming TV show as I play through the world.  Between school, studying and my social life, I rarely get time to browse the marketplace when I get online, so I’m grateful to see ads for the latest Xbox-Live Arcade games like Deathspank when I sign in.  And when I play a great game by a developer I haven’t heard of, I wouldn’t mind seeing an ad for their upcoming title in a loading screen.   In fact there is a great potential for advertising to enhance the experience of a game, by making the environment seem more relatable or realistic.

Go Sony!

So really, advertising can be awesome!

What if in something like World of Warcraft, you could have a variation of pizza-hut, that was actually sponsored by Pizza Hut? It would be modeled after the style of WoW in its design and naming, but on top of buying an in game item, you could place an actual order to your local pizza hut using the credit card assigned to your WoW account? Now instead of having to leave your game, you can stay immersed in it while you order dinner in real life.

Best burgers in Azeroth!

Advertising can also be used as a way of expression. On Xbox live where your avatar is an expression of who you are and what you like, they are often walking advertisements.  From an obi-wan costume, to a Journeyman’s Hat from Fable 2, the clothing and accessories available for your avatar all have the dual purpose of letting you express yourself while potentially peaking a gamers interest in these products in a non-intrusive way.

It’s when developers begin to ignore gamers for money that I think in-game advertising gets out of hand. If I’m paying for a game, I don’t want to be forced to view an ad every time a game has to load, especially if it has nothing to do with gaming. And if I had to go through that while playing a game, I’d be so upset at whatever company the ads were for, there’s a good chance I might just boycott them on principle! The scary part is some major companies are already doing exactly that… sort of. In games like Red Dead Redemption, Halo 3, and other popular IP‘s, its common to see messages in the loading screens. These are often game tips, or subtle ads for the company who created the game and are meant to provide you with a distraction while the game loads. So it would be extremely easy in the future, with gamers already used to seeing this, to replace them with actual advertisements for other companies.

This game is brought to you by....

I don’t think marketing will ever be as prevalent in gaming as in television, because unlike television, people have gotten used to their games advertising being largely subtle, and I don’t see gamers allowing that to change. In the end as long as in-game advertising stays subliminal to the point that you can choose to ignore it, I don’t think there will be any issues. It’s when it becomes apparent, when you are taken out of the game experience and forced to view something that, at that moment you have no interest in, that I see problems developing

But the reality is that, with games providing companies an almost guaranteed way of getting consumers to see their products, advertisement in games is almost certainly going to get stronger as the industry grows, and I believe that ultimately, it will be the gaming community that determines how big of a part it plays. So I want to know what other gamers think about this issue. How far are you willing to tolerate advertising in games? Should paying for a game guarantee an ad-free experience or does the developer still have the right to protect themselves against a production cost that might otherwise bankrupt them? In a future where downloadable content is becoming a staple of any great game, would you prefer it be free with ad’s or would you rather pay for it to keep it ad-free? Would you buy an ad-filled version of a game if it meant you could save fifteen or twenty dollars? more? How much would you have to save to buy an ad-filled version of Halo: Reach or Gears of War 3? Or is it even an issue? Let me know what you think! And if there is any aspect of this topic I didn’t cover and you would like to discuss, please let me know!

This Community Content article was created by Enzo, a member of our community. Community Content is your way of getting long-form writing and opinion out to the Midlife Gamer audience, an open platform to get something off your chest. For full guidelines on our editorial standards and how to create your own post, click here. The views expressed within are those of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the Midlife Gamer Staff.

Richard Birkett: Could you tell us here at MLG who you are and what you do?

Sean Conway: My name is Sean Conway. I am a video game designer for Twisted Pixel Games.

RB: Next, a question we ask everyone we speak to here at Midlife Gamer, what is your favourite
beverage and biscuit (also called cookies outside the UK)?

SC: My favourite beverage is beer. Cookies?  I don’t eat those things. The only Cookie I know charges $20 for a lap dance!

RB: How would you sum up Twisted Pixel as a studio? What makes you tick and what do your games
aim to deliver?

SC: We just try to make games that get us excited. Our goal is to make games that we would want to play even if we didn’t make them. If we wouldn’t want to play them why would anyone else? We want to provide gamers with as much fun and high quality content as we can.

RB: Your games feature rich and colourful art styles. In terms of game development, at what point is a decision made as to its art direction?

SC: Dave Leung and Brandon Ford are responsible for our animations and pretty colours respectively.  Josh Bear (our CCO) is in charge of tracing. They have worked as an unstoppable force on our past titles. Recently we have hired some fresh meat whose art is about to be unleashed upon the world.

RB: Your latest game, Comic Jumper, is currently in development. How far along are you in the development schedule and when should we be expecting a release?

SC: A release date has not been announced for Comic Jumper as of yet. Something will be announced very soon though. It isn’t safe to tell you over the computer. If you meet me in the bathroom stall in ‘Torchy’s Tacos’ at 9:31PM and tap your foot 3 times I may be able to tell you.

RB: Could you tell us a bit more about the game, what stands out and why gamers should be excited?

SC: Comic Jumper is a game about a failure of a superhero who gets his comic canceled. To pay off his bills he jumps into other comics to fix them while trying to earn enough money to get his own comic back. What drives the humor is that the comics that he jumps into are actually worse than his own.

The gameplay itself is influenced by games like Contra, Sin and Punishment, Double Dragon, Gradius, Metal Slug, Gun Star Heroes, Forgotten Worlds etc. It is fast paced, packed with humour, tonnes of unlockables, and many humorous characters. Why should you be excited?  MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!! You get to see John Bodek (our IT guy) topless in the game. That makes me excited and should make you excited too.

RB: What have you learnt from previous games that has gone into making Comic Jumper?

SC: I have learned never to trust Alex Jones (our former intern and newly hired designer) alone with a computer and a keyboard. Never trust the guy with a microwave either. He almost burned our office down. For some reason he thought 3:00 to cook a TV Dinner meant 300 minutes! Good thing I saved him from the fire. Now he follows me around and copies me.  He even bought the same car as me the other week.

RB: The comic book vibe of the title comes across exceptionally well through the use of cel-shaded graphics. How does the comic book influence otherwise come across within the game?

SC: The comic book vibe comes across through the art, dialogue, and characters. The comics in the game were based upon specific and distinct comic genres. We have comics based on the Conan comics (Frazetta art style), The Silver Age (Jack Kirby art style), Modern (based off of Image Comics), and Manga (based off of LSD).

The characters themselves have a wide range of influences. Our CCO and Lead Tracer Josh Bear created characters such as ‘Captain Smiley’, ‘Gerda’, ‘Psycho Golf Player’ etc. I am not 100% sure what influenced those particular characters. He is a huge ‘Twilight’ fan so maybe some of his characters were based off of that?

I can tell you what influenced some of the characters that I created though.

‘Paper Lad’ was based off of the nerdy, wimpy, goodie two shoes- Jimmy Olsen. ‘Mistress Ropes’ was based off of a YouTube video involving a MMA fighter fighting a Kiai Master.  The Kiai master looked like he had incredible powers and was throwing his students around the dojo with what appeared to be invisible ropes. We named him ‘Master Ropes’.  Since we needed a female villain we just gave Master Ropes a quick sex change and he became ‘Mistress Ropes’.

‘Cutie Cutie Cupids’ were based off some cursed anime named “Bottle Fairies”.  After watching it (research for the game, I promise!) and pulling the gun out of my mouth, I realized that the world must know of something this powerful.  The spirit of Bottle Fairies lives on in Cutie Cutie Cupids. Other characters have their own influences but that is enough because I type slow.

RB: Finally, your games have – by and large – been exclusive to XBLA. Are there any plans to bring them to a wider audience on more platforms in the not-too-distant future? If not, why not?

SC: Unfortunately I am not involved in that aspect of business so I can’t answer that question.  All that I know is that we have a good relationship with Microsoft.  They treat us well and we are very happy together.  Can’t you just respect our love and leave us be!?

For more information on Twisted Pixel, check out their website twistedpixelgames.com.