INTERVIEW: Creat Studios

Here, CasualGaming.biz talks to Creat's executive producer Mikhail Glazyrin, who has been at the firm since 1996, about co-existing in both the small-scale DLC and large-scale console market.

CasualGaming.biz: Creat’s software portfolio is very varied. Aside from the scale of production, what are the main differences between working on a large-scale next-gen console game and working on a download-only release?

Mikhail Glazyrin: The approach to the game process is the basic difference between large-scale games and downloadable games. They deliver a different experience to the player. Large-scale games usually mean wholesome game worlds and a sustainable story that players can plunge into for many hours, while downloadable games are similar to game machine sessions, which are rather short and deliver quick amusement.

I would say that classic, large-scale games resemble interactive movies – they are intended to entertain a player, who spends a lot of time playing his home console. Console downloadable games should be played with friends, who drop by to have some fun together. It must be fun to watch people playing these games. Funny, short game sessions are key for success here. All these factors precondition different approaches to game production.

Large-scale game development must focus on planning and creating spacious game worlds and deep gameplay. Development of these games takes a lot of time. In order to decrease the risks, we create a game prototype and then a Vertical Slice, which includes all game features. After that, we launch into full production.

Downloadable games are developed rather quickly by small teams. Our principle objective is to make a small amount of highly detailed and polished features – pure gameplay, so to say.

For this reason, we are implementing an iterative agile production model. First we create a draft of all game elements including a full-fledged menu and statistics, and then we polish everything for a longer time, making lots of iterations on a small set of features to make them exceptional!

CG.biz: What are the difficulties and challenges involved in producing a game for PSN?

MG: Actually, the PS3 is a tremendous platform from which to work, where as the PSN platform has very few limitations, and it compares favorably to its rivals.

Havok is free on PS3, and this means we can implement real physics – even in games with a moderate budget. This really works well – look at Magic Ball. The capacity of the PS3 is enough for small games, so most of the challenges were associated with online components.

As you know, the PS3 architecture is quite different from PC architecture, and this appears to be the toughest cookie to crack for many companies. This is also true for PSN, since it is based on PS3 technologies. Luckily, things went smoothly running PS3 technology with the PSN release, so we tackled the PSN games without a hitch.

When a player downloads a game from the network, they expect the product to support all main network services – online rankings, VOIP, trophies, etc. I would especially like to note the difficulties of premium downloadable content game development. We were among the first to suggest implementation of DLC in our games, so we faced a lot of challenges while working to develop for the online store. And since the PSN is a new rapidly developing service, we invested a lot of time on additional research as to how this service works and what is the best approach to use them.

I would like to mention that we did receive great support from Sony, so we are especially thankful to them.

CG.biz: You’ve worked with many publishers in the past (Activision, THQ, Midway, Konami to name but a few) – in comparison, what’s it like working with a company such as [Cuboid co-publisher] TikGames? What are the differences?

MG: The difference is really huge. Our relationship with big publishers was on a work-for-hire basis. Since we were working with another company’s IP, we were often subject to their marketing decisions. Earlier, we didn’t need our own marketing department; we didn’t need to talk with gamers and we didn’t need to work with our audience. Once we completed development, we were finished with the project. We were isolated from the players.

Now, once the game production is done, this is actually only the beginning – the beginning of marketing and sales. So we faced a huge amount of a new type of work that needed to be done. Starting with release planning and the pricing strategy, as well as other tasks like developing marketing materials of all kinds.

One of the best things about getting closer to the market and being a publisher of our products is to be very close to the players. Working with our audience is a big – honestly – very big advantage, especially for the downloadable games. We can analyze what people like or dislike in our products and can make changes accordingly. PSN is very powerful when it comes to distributing special patches or other DLC.
We had a good experience working with our partner, TikGames, on our recent PSN games. We bring together their XBLA experience with our PlayStation expertise, and this enabled us to jump onto the PSN platform together.

CG.biz: Do you think Creat will continue to exist in both the casual and the core sectors equally, or do you think you will gravitate toward one over the other?

MG: I would rather differentiate between large-scale and small-scale products. We’re interested in working on both markets.

The PSN and XBLA audience is very different from that of PC casual products, where the main part of the audience is casual gamers. Downloadable games for consoles will mostly be played by avid gamers and their friends and families. Thus, we’re basically working with the same audience, but in different ways.

Our core sector allows us to develop and introduce new technologies, to improve our engine, but on the other end, we’re limited to work under external licenses. No one is currently likely to invest a big budget into an unknown IP.

On the other hand, the casual sector allows us to create and test on the real audience some original design ideas based on our own IPs. With each game being relatively inexpensive, we do have some capability to test our ideas quickly. And if something really works out, we get the opportunity to turn it into a game franchise or even into a large-scale product.

CG.biz: What potential do you see in networks such as PSN and Xbox Live Arcade?

MG: I think that console downloadable games open up a brand new niche and a different approach to entertainment.

What are downloadable games for hardcore players? While each big console title is some long anticipated event, a downloadable is a nice distraction between two major titles’ release, a way to share one’s passion in gaming with family members that will not play big games at all. I think we’re looking at a revolution here, similar to the one Wii brought into the market. It’s also a big opening for independent developers to create and bring their products into the market, while the budgets are still low.

CG.biz: Do you have any plans for Xbox Live Arcade or WiiWare?

MG: Indeed. We want our products to be available across all platforms and on all continents.We are working in this direction already. But we also do realize that not all of our games are suited for every platform, due to their audience difference.

CG.biz: Looking ahead five years – how will the games industry be different then to how it is now?

MG: I feel confident that the industry is going to shift heavily towards digital content delivery. Only a few select titles with tons of content will still be distributed using physical media. Even now, data transfer rates allow the delivery of big recent games online.

The games will become more oriented towards a wider audience and will offer entertainment not only to hardcore gamers. Even now, many games that used to be considered as ‘hardcore’ can be completed without too much concentration and pressure, and at an easy difficulty setting, while staying as exciting for the players as they were.

Within the next few years I anticipate extensive experiments with I/O devices, as it has already happened before with dance pads, guitars, karaoke, etc. 3D stereo technologies are the next in line for the market, too. And we’re actively experimenting with 3D monitors support already.