Australian Gamer Feature :: A visit to Krome Studios

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A visit to Krome Studios

We take a trip to Krome Studios and check out their offices, their upcoming Spyro game, and interview the Creative Director Steve Stamatidis

PAGE 1 (Welcome) : PAGE 2 (Spyro: A New Beginning) : PAGE 3 (Interview with Steve Stamatiadis)

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A visit to Krome Studios

News from Yug - July 19th @ 12:00am

Yug: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you started work with Krome Studios?

Steve: was about 7 years ago now, in November 1999 that Krome Studios began.

Yug: How did it come about?

Steve: Originally, there was Gee Whiz and that was not doing all that well, but we were fortunate enough to meet Robert Walsh, CEO of Krome Studios. Basically, Robert was the business side and I the Creative one and we thought we should combine the two aspects and see if it works and it has. That's where Krome comes from. We wanted to achieve things the right way and be business wise, but still be creative. So we have the creative types and the business types all working together. Funny thing is Robert is actually a surfing photographer.

Yug: What is the kind of atmosphere at Krome, how would you describe it?

Steve: It's really laid back, we used to joke about, naughty schoolboys kinda feel, just a lot of fun sort of like ...

Yug: A school camp?

Steve: Yeah haha, basically everyone has work to do, but we all have fun at the same time because, well, we're making games. People work pretty hard, because they WANT to. A lot of the time you have to tell the guys not to work back late and to go home. This especially occurs when we start a new project. You get guys who invest themselves in it so much because they just love what they're doing, and we have over 200 people with that same kind of attitude. Just a bunch of geeks making games and having fun.

Yug: So Krome employees 200 people?

Steve: 190 in the Brisbane office, and 20 in Adelaide. It's big but it's not a 'big company'.

Yug: Do people know each other and socialise much?

Steve: Yes, people socialise, but it gets kind of hard when you have numbers that big. I mean honestly I don't know everyone here anymore. It was scary when we had 40 people here; we used to think "how are we going to handle beyond that?" Then we got there and were like "god, we don't want to hit 70, its all going to change when we hit 70." It always grows as the work comes in.

Yug: How much artistic input do you have directly into the design process these days compared to your earlier days at Krome?

Steve: Across the board on all the projects, I come in at the start with the guys, on the art side of things. I talk with the teams as they start up, basically pushing them in certain directions. Not necessarily the direction I want to go. Say with Spyro, the guys say "what do you think about this for the Spyro game" and I'll go "that's really cool I like that, do that" or "you might have a problem with this". So a lot of it is helping them out just from experience more than anything else.

I also always have one project that I'm working on, doing design and concept stuff as well. I can't tell you what I'm working on now though.

Matt: No, you can, we won't tell.

Yug: It's still recording, right?

Steve: No no, it costs a lot if we do, seriously. But when it does come out, it'll be really cool. It's going to be a big game next year, but yeah, I still do work on games.

Yug: From an artistic point though, how often do you get to draw your own stuff compared to when you first started out?

Steve: I still get my hands dirty with concepts for games.

Matt: You get them dirty?

Steve: I have, especially doing the texturey stuff, big splats and stuff, or if the keyboard is really grimy. Pizza makes it dirty.

Matt: Or chicken.

Steve: Chicken and bbq sauce?

Yug: How much more resources (time, people) does it take to do character design for the next gen consoles when compared to the older systems?

Steve: It's not any more people doing it, it's more time. Lets take the Hellboy character for next gen; you have to factor in normal maps, spectral maps, shaders, and all the detail. Compared to Spyro, we had already worked on the last two TY the Tasmanian Tiger games on the PS2, so we had things pretty much worked out and when we got Spyro, we knew what we're doing, so we could do some really cool looking stuff.

Yug: With the next gen stuff, do you get much help from Microsoft and Sony?

Matt: Or do they just throw you a dev kit and leave you too it.

Steve: No, they have developer forums that you can ask questions on, so you tend to get help from other developers. We don't hide stuff from each other. Both Sony and Microsoft check in regularly to see how Hellboy is going, as they're very keen on next gen stuff of course.

Matt: Yeah, they need the titles.

Yug: So, is there much difference in your opinion between the PS3 and Xbox360?

Steve: Well, they have their little idiosyncrasies tech wise, but not really, they are both pretty cool. I'm not being diplomatic either, I've got my 360 and I'll be getting a PS3 as soon as I can.

Yug: What about the Nintendo Wii?

Steve: Well were looking at that, and well ... its going to be great for doing GameCube ports. For what it is, and the price they're pushing it, don't expect to go out and have the same stuff as you get on the 360, and you'll be happy with your console. For kids it's going to be awesome. It would be the perfect place for a TY the Tasmanian Tiger game, even though we're not doing that yet.

Matt: I noticed that the DS version of Spyro is being done by Amaze and not Krome, is there any reason for that?

Steve: Well they've already worked with Amaze on the previous one, and for us we didn't have our DS stuff up to speed, so it was just easier.

Matt: What sort of relationship do you have with people doing different versions of your games?

Steve: For Spyro the story is done by Vivendi, but we sent graphics and stuff to them so the games look similar across the board.

Yug: How much creative control do you have over the Spyro game?

Steve: The key is to work closely with the publisher, that's how we keep things running smoothly. With the Spyro games especially, it's their I.P., and we talk to the producers about what they want to do and what we want to do.

Yug: What about with your own I.P, with TY the Tasmanian Tiger?

Steve: Yup, even with TY the Tasmanian Tiger, even though we own it. Like we wanted to do this and this, but our publishers said "Well, Americans aren't going to understand this". Occasionally they'll say that a certain feature doesn't work, and there's a bit of back and forth, but it's the best way to be and it always works out well.

Yug: How much creative input have you had on the TY the Tasmanian Tiger TV series?

Steve: We actually put the bible together ...

Matt: You'll have to explain the term bible, I have a feeling the context I'm thinking of it in is not the same.

Steve: Like for the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series bible, it's what all the characters are about, all the story arcs, and we did 30 episode plotter. Initially they had their own character designers, who were Disney guys, and they were really cool, but they had some pretty weird ways of drawing characters, which we talked to them about. Frankly, and this is the same in regards to Hellboy, the way I see it, the game is the fun part. In the TY the Tasmanian Tiger game series we can do whatever we want. In the TY the Tasmanian Tiger TV series they've got to talk to the network and get all these other bits and pieces, so they're really limited.

The same deal with Hellboy. The comic isn't to be touched, plus they're also doing a TV series which is different to the movie, which is different to the game. They're all different, yet they all are based in the same Hellboy universe. It's not like Star Wars where you have the official cannon that can't be changed even a little bit.

Yug: So basically everyone just gets to work on the medium that they find the most fun really.

Steve: Yeah, and the best part about the TY the Tasmanian Tiger games is the games ARE the official cannon, but we don't mind letting the TV show be different.

Yug: What about with Hellboy, that's kind of the completely opposite situation isn't it?

Steve: Yes, the guys who created the comics and Guillermo del Toro (Director of the Hellboy movies) are really supportive. We've crafted a new Hellboy story, and there are elements that they told us not to use because they are in the new movie.

Yug: So the game is completely separate from either movie?

Steve: Yes, it's a brand new story, it's not the movies, comic or TV series, BUT it had got elements from the comic in regards to the look and feel. Ultimately, we'd like to mix the feel of the comic with the themes from the movie.

Yug: Is there any one other medium that you're following closer than the others?

Steve: Well, it started off with movie/comic feel story wise, although it's probably the movie more than anything else. Even though our designs are a slight variation.

Matt: I did notice that the Hellboy models you've done so far look fairly different.

Steve: I think there's like 5 Hellboy models.

Matt: Do they look very different?

Steve: No, not really!!

Matt: You cant change him all that much really.

Steve: No, we did stuff, like we used the rooms from the movie and the body with a normal map obviously, he has the right hand of doom and that's pretty much all he needs to have.

Yug: Do you spend much time playing games yourself?

Steve: Well, I spent a couple of days off a few weeks age, because I had some friends from America over and we spent the days playing games. We bought a whole bunch of cheap games, bizarre stuff. Obviously PS2, Xbox stuff, console titles mainly. Although, I have played Warcraft.

Yug: World of Warcraft?

Steve: , I put it away because I wanted to play other games.

Yug: I know what you mean, I've quit.

Steve: You have to, otherwise it's a hobby that takes up all your time and leaves you no room to play games.

Yug: I had to uninstall the whole thing, whereas matt is the opposite.

Steve: I hear they've brought out patches for the addicts.

Matt: I can quit anytime I want.

Yug: Will the Spyro games have any online features?

Steve: Nope. I'm sure in the future we will do online features, but not right now.

Yug: Do you have a lot of interaction with the other local game development studios?

Steve: Well, when you go out to lunch here, we basically pass the other two studios. Yes, people know each other because there are guys who go from one company to the other. I bumped into George from Creative Assembly and Steve from THQ, just having lunch in the mall down the road. Everyone knows everyone, and we're not really competing against each other, the titles are all fairly different from each other, and they're all AAA titles.

Yug: Brisbane especially has a huge game developer community.

Steve: Well when we used to work at Gee Whiz we used to joke about how we were the third largest developer in Australia, with just 3 people. And now with 200 people we ARE the biggest in Australia.

Yug: You just opened up a studio in Adelaide, how difficult is it to communicate directly with the team down there?

Steve: We've actually got a direct internet link with them where they connect to our servers and share the same data. They are just an extension of Krome Studios they aren't a separate entity at all.

Yug: When did you make the decision to open Adelaide studios?

Steve: It was after the shutting down of Ratbag, there were so many guys there, some of them could come to Brisbane or we could setup a studio down there. We didn't think long and hard or agonise much about it, it just made sense.

Matt: Has it been a good decision so far?

Steve: Yes, and we'll probably grow that studio out. They're really good guys and they're good to work with.

Matt: And they certainly deserved more than they got.

Steve: Yeah, but that happens all the time in the industry, I'm sure Midway didn't do it with any malice; it's just something they had to do.

Matt: they could have waited until after Christmas though.

Steve: True.

Yug: How successful are the Ty games in Australia?

Matt: Considering the Australiana aspect of the game isn't as big a sell for Australians.

Steve: It still does better than you think. I know if you look at the fan base we have a lot of Australians who like it BECAUSE it's Australian. They're really proud of the fact that that there's a lot of humour in there that Americans might not get.

Yug: Steve thanks heaps for your time.

Matt: Good talking to you.

Steve: Cheers guys.

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