(This interview is also published in Finnish language - Haastattelu löytyy suomeksi täältä)
1988 Games is an American indie game developer studio, which (despite the retro feel name) is producing games for different platforms - from handhelds to arcade. When it comes to video game consoles, Wii is the one getting the small studio's attention, at the moment. 1988 Games is developing a title that should help Nintendo's console to shake off some of its family brand. The game is called Zombie Massacre. Recently, KonsoliFIN had a unique opportunity to exclusively interview Ben Krotin, the president of 1998 Games.
(The logo of the game hasn't been published anywhere before this interview, so our kudos to Ben & other at 1988 Games!)
First of all, let me give a BIG hello from 1988 Games to all of the gamers and readers in Finland! We are always very excited to see and hear about everyone's reaction to our projects, so this is a wonderful honor. As for me, I am the president and lead designer at 1988 Games, where our only goal is to pursue the most fun and unique game ideas and concepts that we can. I am a huge fan of videogaming, and as the leader here at 1988 games, my ultimate goal is to bring back our industry's focus on great gameplay and fun stories.
Your studio's name, "1988 Games", gives an impression of a retro-oriented dev studio. How did you come up with this name, and does it have something to do with the games you develop? (By the way, 1988 is a very important year for me, because I got my Atari ST that year.)
1988 is indeed an important year! I myself played a lot of NES back then. :^) We chose the name 1988 Games because to us it symbolized a period in gaming where anything could be done. If you wanted to make a game about an octopus with laser tentacles, you could do that! Not anymore. Nowadays there
are a lot of companies, but most have no identity at all, or they exist simply to copy popular genres. In 1988 you just had people making games - whatever they wanted to make - and they were having fun! That's where we come in. We are sort of retro in that our thinking and mindset is from 1988, but that doesn't mean that everything that we do is retro-80s. We just make games fun, and that's all that we do. Plus, 1988 Games was better sounding than "Hollywood Upstairs Videogame Company!" ;^)
How long have you (1988 Games and yourself) been working on games & consoles?
1988 Games has been around since early 2005. Most of our work has been focused on designing original ideas and IPs for various consoles, but we have also worked very closely with various clients (such as AppAbove Games and Flarb) for mobile phone projects.
How many people are working for 1988 Games?
We have about 10 people on staff. 1988 Games is a very unique company in that we try to keep the team as small as possible. When you have a smaller team, you can develop a better and more personalized experience.
Indie dev studios are struggling when big companies try to buy smaller studios and each other out of their way. Can you tell us some pros and cons of running an indie development studio like yours?
Absolutely, it is definitely difficult to make moves when you're independent. However, I think now is a great time for many studios, as never before has it been easier to create content for such a wide assortment of platforms. The tools and the paths for getting your game out are definitely present, so this is a wonderful resource. I think that the best thing about remaining independent is that you actually can do whatever it is that you want to do. The pursuit of originality is always the key to success. When you are working for a big company (either internally or at a satellite studio), your creativity and freedom becomes limited. Of course, it is nice to know that your expenses are taken care of, but that is the price you pay as an independent studio. I think that the real trick is to do something new, and then do it a lot. This way, if/when an offer comes along from a big publisher, they will remember that your studio's real strength is in originality and creativity.
Zombie Massacre has been described as the hybrid of Crazy Taxi and The House of the Dead. What can you tell the Finnish gamers about the game, and the whole concept?
The number-one point that we want all players to know is that in Zombie Massacre, you are thrown into a game scenario that is absolutely crazy! By combining driving with attacking and by limiting the player's time, we want to create a sense of thrill and action that hasn't yet been done in gaming!
The fact that in our game, you can actually reach out with your controller and drive the car or hit zombies is amazing. Another really interesting point about Zombie Massacre is that for the first time ever in a zombie game (if you're not cheating), you're very powerful right from the beginning. You have four characters, a fast-moving car, and tons of weapons of all kinds. The real challenge in the game comes from a combination of things instead of just from enemies alone.
We think that this sort of presentation is just what players want to have in a game. The feeling that they're not just alone in some dark city is something that we think players will appreciate. Also, we have a really cool control setup for both the driving and attacking, so this will really bring players deeper into the game.
When we started this idea, or goal was to figure out a way to take a fun driving game (like Crazy Taxi), and then combine it with a really easy-to-understand shooting/action system like the one in House of the Dead. What we realized is that by doing this, we opened up a whole new world of gameplay possibilities that we didn't know we had. So we began to design the game around these new options, and hence you get Zombie Massacre. Ultimately, when you're playing the game, we want you to feel three things: Speed, Action, and Power! It's not just a battle against zombies; it's a race against the clock.
According to GameDaily, you have teamed up with Papaya Studios to develop Zombie Massacre for Wii. Papaya has been involved with lots of games with a cartoonish look and few "serious-looking" games like Medal of Honor: Airborne. Can you tell me where Zombie Massacre's looks stand at?
At the moment, we are working on the game independently of Papaya Studio, so the look of the game has always been our style choice. The game will of course have a more serious look to it; however our goal is to make a game that also looks colorful and fun. Not like a game for kids, but more like a
good arcade came. In our minds, a vivid and exciting look is always better than something that is too real or too dark. I think the best comparison for the art style in Zombie Massacre would be to look at games like House of the Dead 3 & 4.
Originally, our intentions for Zombie Massacre were to turn it into an arcade game. Years later, when we learned about the Wii and what it had to offer from a game controls standpoint, we realized that our design was a perfect fit for Nintendo's new machine. So we went ahead and modified the design to make it even better and more original, and we ended up with the Zombie Massacre that you know today. We feel that the Wii is the best platform for our game because it offers us the most originality in the area of game controls. If you want to hit a zombie you don't press a button, you actually swing your Wii-mote at them! This is the sort of fun that the Wii allows us to bring to the player, and it's nice that it comes right out of the box. Players don't have to buy any accessories to get their full
enjoyment from our gameplay.
Is there a chance that Zombie Massacre will be censored in Europe, like No More Heroes?
Of course anything is possible, but we just don't think that it will. In our game, the player can never kill an innocent person, let alone anyone that is "living." Because the depiction of violence against the undead is so unrealistic and is in such a highly implausible scenario, it almost becomes comical instead of something more serious like it is in games such as Resident Evil, for example.
Does Zombie Massacre feature any online modes?
We intend to have an online community as well as a leader board for Zombie Massacre players around the world. Additionally, we would like to feature at least some downloadable content. We are currently discussing more plans for online, so this will become a topic that we should have more to say about in the coming months.
When are you planning to release the game?
Unfortunately, we cannot comment on this at the moment. ;^)
With a title like that, I would bet there is a number of publishers waiting behind your door. Is there, or do you think that Wii's family console brand makes it tougher to get more "adult" titles out?
Thank you for the kind words! You are absolutely right with your thinking... Working with the Wii definitely makes it more difficult to sell publishers on more mature-oriented games. However, we are confident that there is in fact a strong demand for new and original titles that have a more hardcore
appeal, and we are excited to be a frontrunner in this group.
In addition to Zombie Massacre, are there any other games in development within 1988 Games (for Wii or other game consoles)?
We are currently in the design stages of two unannounced titles for the Wii, one of which we really feel will take the Wii to a whole new artistic level in terms of gameplay and presentation. We are hoping to really shake the industry's opinion on what can be done with the Wii!
Uwe Boll has the movie rights for Zombie Massacre. This is interesting because Zombie Massacre hasn't been published yet. How did you get involved with Mr. Boll?
We contacted Uwe because we always felt that Zombie Massacre would make an exciting movie. We knew that Uwe was the #1 person to talk to when it came to making videogame movies, and so we reached out to his company. Fortunately for us, Uwe really liked our idea and decided to grab the rights to the film version of the game. We can't wait for the movie; it is going to be excellent!!
Uwe Boll has been in headlines recently, and many of them are not exactly praising him. Since you are collaborating with him, I guess he can't be as bad as the media depicts him?
I would like to say for the record that Uwe Boll is one of the most genuinely entertaining people that I have ever met. He is a genius because he knows exactly what to do or say in order to make people either angry at him, or to laugh with him. That to us rare, and we truly enjoy working with someone who understands how to do this. He is also a very motivated and intelligent businessman, and as a person who also likes to make things happen, I can respect exactly where he is coming from. We feel that most of the treatment that he's been getting in some of the media has been unfair.
What are the personal highlights of your gaming history, both as a gamer and in business so far?
Wow, this is a great question! There are many different things that I can list, but I think that one of my biggest highlights both as a gamer and inbusiness has been working on Zombie Massacre. This has been a project that sort of came out of nowhere, but it has still managed to gather such a huge following all around the world. This is amazing, and I can't wait to take it even further! If we can deliver on what my expectations are for the game, then it will be one of the best things that I will personally ever accomplish.
Also, I think meeting Yuji Naka, Takashi Iizuka, and Ken Kutaragi at previous E3 events here in Los Angeles were also pretty incredible. When I was a boy, one of my biggest highlights as a gamer was when I first played Sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Genesis (MegaDrive). To meet the people who designed that game was a real pleasure. It also wasn't bad to shake the hand of the man who invented the PlayStation!
Your personal favorite video game console of all time, and why?
You know, there have been so many amazing consoles with so many really amazing games, that it's hard to pick one. So many. No matter what, there will always be a special place in my heart for all of these great machines. However, if I had to pick one, that console would have to be the Sega Dreamcast. The Dreamcast rules! It was by far the best videogame machine ever made, and it was in my mind (and I think in the hearts of many) the last real videogame console.
After Dreamcast, on the PlayStation2 and XBOX, the definition of the "hardcore" gamer really changed, and this is not something that I have ever been happy with. "Hardcore" gamers are not people who play Splinter Cell or Halo; they are people who can kick you ass 10 different ways with Dhalsim or Zangief in a game of Street Fighter. That is a "hardcore" gamer, and to me, those people all played on the Dreamcast.
In some ways, I feel that every console since then has sort of been boring. With PlayStation2, games became too big and too expensive to make, but on the Dreamcast you could still have a simple game, but one that looked gorgeous! Plus, the Dreamcast was the first home console that brought graphics to the home that were equal or superior to those of the arcade, and it did it at a ridiculously low price. When you bought a Dreamcast and a copy of Power Stone, you were literally playing the arcade game. That was cool!
Plus, there were so many amazing and innovative games for the Dreamcast. Every arcade fighting game that you can think of, every top-down shooter that you can think of, amazing sports games, fun driving games, tons of light-gun shooters, incredible action-adventure games, online-enabled games,
and even Shenmue!!
If the Dreamcast were still a console that 1988 Games could make games for, every new game that we would make would be for it. This includes Zombie Massacre! :^)
If we have to wait for Zombie Massacre a little longer, could you suggest some European Virtual Console titles to get into the right mood before your game comes out:
Sure! The only real mood that any player needs is good gameplay. Here are some excellent selections that should help:
Air Zonk
Bloody Wolf
Contra 3: The Alien Wars
Cybernator
Eternal Champions
F-Zero
Fatal Fury
Golden Axe
Mario Kart 64 (The Best Mario Kart Ever!)
Metal Slug
Ninja Spirit
JJ & Jeff (This Game Is Hilariously Weird!)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to The Past
Lords of Thunder
Punch Out
Sin & Punishment
Splatterhouse
Star Fox 64
Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Streets of Rage 1, 2, & 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2, & 3
Super Castlevania IV
Super Mario 1, 2, 3, & World
Super Metroid
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (This Is The Worst Game That You'll Ever Love)
Even though most of these have nothing to do with zombies, these were all great games that should be played over and over again until your thumbs are bleeding and you can't see!
