INTERVIEW: Denki’s David Thompson

The Evolve series of events will focus on how to develop games for new platforms including mobile, iPhone and XBLA, new technologies such as Facebook and YouTube, and new markets like social and casual gaming.

One of the sessions on Evolve’s packed schedule is titled ‘A Game is a Game is a Game’. David Thomson, who has the rather unusual job title of Denki’s ‘number one fan’ is to host the presentation, which looks over the worth of casual games and the criticsms they face when compared to traditional games.

For our second interview with Evolve speakers in the build up to the conference, CasualGaming.biz sat down with Thomson to discuss Denki’s innovative approach to game design, and its plans for the future.

CG.biz: Part of Denki’s philosophy is about making toys rather than games. What is the distinction between your toys and what most people would call games?

DT: Our philosophy is that a game is really a collection of toys, starting from the front end of the game. If you’re approaching designing something from the point of view of thinking of it as a toy, you’ll be far more likely to find the fun. It puts you in the right frame of mind for creating, because if you’re thinking about toys, you’re thinking about play. And if you’re thinking about play, you’re not thinking about rest or work – you’re thinking about what’s fun, without necessarily thinking directly about ‘making something fun’.

CG.biz: You’ve created a huge number of titles in a relatively short time. Has a rapid turnover of releases been an intentional decision, and what are the advantages it offers?

DT: That came out of the nature of the platform – interactive TV – where we could turn round games very quickly. It helped us hone our development process, and we’ve ended up with some useful tools to help us judge whether we’re making a Denki Game or not.

CG.biz: Denki has suggested a move to the iPhone soon. Is that something that is going to be a continued focus, and what do you have underway?

DT: It’s something we’ve spent some time with, but there are no imminent plans. Suffice to say that, as nice an ecosystem as it is, it hasn’t changed things as much as people like to think it has.

CG.biz: Denki has been very proactive at recruiting recently. Is your drive ongoing, and do you have any plans to cap your expansion?

DT: We’re always recruiting – we have to be, because real talent doesn’t become available all that often and we need to be able to react to that. We wanted to make sure that people knew we were still around, and that we’re working on original new games, so the campaign has certainly helped with that.

CG.biz: Early in the year Colin Anderson defended the worth of Android. Do you still see it as a valuable platform?

DT: We see all platforms as valuable – we clearly have platforms we prefer to work on, but that doesn’t mean we see others as not being valuable. Specifically though, Colin was talking about the returns policy of the Android Market – and we still don’t have an issue with it.

CG.biz: Does interactive TV continue to offer Denki potential to develop great titles?

DT: Not really, because we’re not developing any more interactive TV games! It was very good to us, we were very good to it, and it led us to the opportunities we have in front of us now. We won’t say we’ll never go back to it, but right now our focus is on Quarrel for Xbox Live Arcade and our Wii game.

CG.biz: What issues do you hope to address in your Develop Conference session?

DT: It seems to me that a lot of industry energy is expended in thinking about the wrong things, and sometimes that leads to the wrong lessons being learned. In my honest opinion, of course.