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Alexander Seropian is a video game visionary who co-founded Bungie Software from his tiny apartment in Chicago and grew it into one of the most respected facilities in the game development industry.
In 2000, Microsoft announced the development of their own video game console to compete with the Sony Playstation 2 and Nintendo GameCube. They realized that they needed a potential blockbuster game at the console's launch to get consumers interested in their Xbox. At the time, Bungie was only producing Halo for the Mac and PC but the interest in this game was too strong for Microsoft to ignore. In 2000, Microsoft acquired Bungie Software and the rights to their upcoming game Halo. Their bold manuever paid off as Halo became an instant success for Microsoft and the subsequent releases for Mac and the PC have also sold extremely well.
Alex left Bungie Software to move back to Chicago and spend more time with his family but has recently announced his next business venture in Wideload Games. The company's unique business model will enable the company to work in a variety of development strategies.
Alex had the time to answer a few questions regarding his new company, old company and the business strategy behind Wideload Games.
Digital Media Net (DMN): With your success and experience from Bungie Studios, why start over again?
Alex Seropian (AS): I started Wideload, because we?re at a unique point in the history of the game industry. Games are getting more accessible and more sophisticated, but also more complex and therefore more expensive to make. With the next round of consoles, game development costs will increase substantially. The old studio model is having trouble keeping up with the pace of the rising complexity of games and the costs that go along with it.
This is where Wideload comes in. With our model, we can maintain a small internal team that stays focused on the creative side. Because the internal team is small, we have a great culture and environment to be inventive and idea rich. Our model also allows us to build the right-size production team with the right makeup every time, without having to carry an enormous overhead, which in turn decreases overall game development costs.
DMN: Your development model of prototyping and pre-production is an interesting concept, would you elaborate on how this would benefit Wideload Games as well as the industry? Would there be any type of public testing program available to gauge interest?
AS: With our model, a small internal team can focus on developing creative game ideas, intellectual property and prototyping. This allows us to really concentrate on making our games innovative and gives them a great chance at success before we put it into production. Additionally, since our internal team is small and flexible we have an excellent work environment and culture for the creative process. We can work together on ideas quickly and informally and go through many ideas/prototypes before committing to put one into production, none of which you can do in a large organization.
DMN: Which platforms does Wideload Games intend to develop for?
AS: We are platform agnostic.
DMN: Your official press release says that Wideload will use independent talent to complete the game?s production, don?t you worry about projects straying off course or maybe having too many projects in the pipeline without enough supervision?
AS: The opposite has proven true for us. It?s easy to be lazy about pre-production, documentation and conceptualization when everyone is co-working in the same studio. When you are working with outside talent, you need to be able to clearly articulate your vision. That process alone makes us define and understand our games extremely well.
DMN: How do you intend to keep outside talent in line with the game?s agenda?
AS: Beyond working with the best independent talent in the industry, we have developed processes and tools to keep the time between implementation and iteration as short as possible. We also have director level team members that manage our contractors.
DMN: Why not have the development done strictly by Wideload?
AS: There is two core benefits with our model: First, my team can focus on preproduction. With a small crew we have the creative atmosphere of a small company. We focus on being creative and avoid being distracted by the politics of a large organization.
Second, we can efficiently and easily staff projects up and down, avoiding the burn rate of a large shop. We can also bring the relevant talent we need onto each project ? so if we need lots of animators, for instance, it is easy for us to scale quickly to meet that need. This scalability reduces development cost. In fact, with our first project we worked out the production budget with both our new model and the old model (i.e. staffing up our internal team). Our model realizes us a 40% cost savings. Even more important than that is the reduction of risk and efficiencies we gain by focusing on the pre-production phase and keeping our internal team small.
DMN: You mention that the Halo game engine is used for Wideload?s debut game, could you please describe the type of game and its elements?
AS: We are working on an action game for the PC and the Xbox. We?re not releasing details yet.
DMN: Why did you decide to leave Bungie Studios?
AS: I left Bungie to move back home to Chicago with my family.
DMN: Recently, there seems to be a stronger push for wireless gaming, do you see this as the next step in the video game evolution? Why?
AS: I look at wireless gaming as a platform. There are a lot of interesting things that can be done with it. However, we are still waiting to see the killer-app that will take wireless gaming to the next step.
DMN: You?ve had many wildly successful games in your career. What?s your secret? What are some of the things you look for before going into full production on a game? Fun? Playability? Storyline? How do you determine a game?s final design?
AS: Our secret has always been to make the games that we want to play ourselves.
DMN: In spite of the economic downturn over the past few years, the video game industry has expanded tremendously. Do you think a slowdown is inevitable or can it sustain its growth? Why?
AS: We?ve only scratched the surface. Games are getting more and more mainstream, but there is still plenty of ground to cover. As games become better looking, more sophisticated and more accessible, the gaming audience is going to grow substantially. There are still amazing opportunities yet to come.
DMN: You?ve come a long ways from packaging Minotaur personally to now starting your second company. What advice would you give someone who?s desperately trying to find their way into the video game industry?
AS: Be persistent.
It'll be interesting to see how Wideload Games' unique game development strategy pans out. With the industry becoming more integrated with pop culture and technology continuing to rapidly develop, companies like Wideload Games should benefit from the changing times and tastes.
About Wideload Games
Alexander Seropian previously co-founded Bungie Software back in the early 1990's and helped build them into one of the most respected game development studios with hit titles such as Halo, Myth: The Fallen Lords, Oni and the classic Marathon game.
You can visit Alex's new company on the internet at http://www.wideload.com and his previous company Bungie Software at http://www.bungie.net.
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