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feature :: a visit to krome studios melbourne
A Visit to Krome Studios Melbourne
Yug visits the newly acquired Melbourne branch of Krome Studios to talk about their extensive history and their upcoming game - Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Wii
A Visit to Krome Studios Melbourne | Interview with Mark Coombes and Kurt Busch | Interview with Kevin 'Zaph' Burfitt
Melbourne has an amazing history of game development, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to visit the longest running studio in Australia. Originally Beam Software, then Melbourne House, bought by Infogrames in 1999, eventually renamed to Atari Melbourne House, and most recently brought into the Krome Studios fold. Regardless of the name they have been creating video games for well over 20 years.
The first step for me though was to find the place.
I'm not a Melbourne local, but with the benefit of hindsight, where I was staying in St Kilda was pretty much a 10 minute walk from the Atari Melbourne House building where Krome Studios Melbourne was situationed. Not knowing this at the time I hopped in a cab and handed him the piece of paper I had scrawled the address on.
This was my first mistake. If you ever hand the address to a cab driver written on paper, he knows that either:
a) you’re drunk and your friends didn’t feel responsible enough to drive you home, but weren’t such bastards as to not give you the ability to get home, or
b) you’re from out of town.
Either way, similar to any sort of social situation, you should never let on important information like this. Half an hour later, two trips through the city and an extremely dangerous maneuver crossing multiple lanes of aggravated traffic later, I finally arrived almost exactly back where I started. I thanked the cabbie by giving him half the final fare, and then walked two streets further to find the extremely obviously signed building.
Does this mean it will change the building name to 'Krome Melbourne House' soon?
I jumped in an elevator and headed to one of the two top floors where Krome was located, only to find I had reached the wrong level. Luckily at that moment the locked door opened to reveal AustralainGamer forum member funkyJ, now gainfully employed at Krome. He proceeded to take me downstairs and introduce me to the lovely Camille Wall – Executive Assistant at Krome Studios Melbourne and my tour guide for the day.
Amazingly, I was on time.
On first impression, the studio feels oddly familiar to Krome Studios Brisbane, with large windows letting in ample amounts of sunlight. Most studios tend to shy away from such natural aesthetics, but it changes a studio from being a ‘dungeon’ and gives a much healthier and calm vibe.
Sunshine ... plants ... it's practically an outdoor studio
All the staff seemed fairly chilled and laid back, and I don’t know how they do it but I’ve never known any other studio that manages to get such a high proportion of their staff to wear t-shirts and jumpers with the company logo.
The rest of the studio was a mish mash of desks, computers, consoles, couches, posters of previous games, and every so often a lone plant. There were no real cubicles, more like 2 to 3 people sitting next to each other over a long table.
At the very top of the building the view is fantastic, especially being able to pick out the road and construction for the upcoming Melbourne Gran Prix coming up in March. Considering the amount of high quality racing titles the studio had previously worked on, I found the view highly appropriate.
Camille eventually took me back up to the level I had first gone to, heading through the locked door to the testers room, not surprisingly there was much less natural light here. I’ve been told testers get less work done if they are more aware of the world outside, so probably for the best. Also on that level was the sound and music room, featuring a sound proof studio with a full drum kit, guitar and band setup which I thought was extremely cool.
Mark Coombes shows off Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Wii
I eventually got to sit down with Mark Coombes - Producer of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, who gave me a demonstration and some hands on play time with the game.
You can read my preview and impressions here.
Eventually Mark took me to meet Kurt Busch - Studio Director of Krome Studios Melbourne and Krome Studios Adelaide, and I had a sit down with the both of them to talk about the background and mechanics of developing the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
You can read that interview here.
Afterwards I also was able to interview Kevin ‘Zaph’ Burfitt - Executive Producer at Krome Studios Melbourne, who gave some insight into the history of the studio.
You can read that interview here.
My impressions of Krome Studios Melbourne was a positive one, and probably most importantly the vibe I got was that they are dedicated to making fun games, as well as keeping their staff happy. I mean seriously, there are at least 12 people who have worked there for over 10 years, and in this industry that’s a long time to stay committed to one company. Whatever they’re doing, it’s working.
The first step for me though was to find the place.
I'm not a Melbourne local, but with the benefit of hindsight, where I was staying in St Kilda was pretty much a 10 minute walk from the Atari Melbourne House building where Krome Studios Melbourne was situationed. Not knowing this at the time I hopped in a cab and handed him the piece of paper I had scrawled the address on.
This was my first mistake. If you ever hand the address to a cab driver written on paper, he knows that either:
a) you’re drunk and your friends didn’t feel responsible enough to drive you home, but weren’t such bastards as to not give you the ability to get home, or
b) you’re from out of town.
Either way, similar to any sort of social situation, you should never let on important information like this. Half an hour later, two trips through the city and an extremely dangerous maneuver crossing multiple lanes of aggravated traffic later, I finally arrived almost exactly back where I started. I thanked the cabbie by giving him half the final fare, and then walked two streets further to find the extremely obviously signed building.
Does this mean it will change the building name to 'Krome Melbourne House' soon?
I jumped in an elevator and headed to one of the two top floors where Krome was located, only to find I had reached the wrong level. Luckily at that moment the locked door opened to reveal AustralainGamer forum member funkyJ, now gainfully employed at Krome. He proceeded to take me downstairs and introduce me to the lovely Camille Wall – Executive Assistant at Krome Studios Melbourne and my tour guide for the day.
Amazingly, I was on time.
On first impression, the studio feels oddly familiar to Krome Studios Brisbane, with large windows letting in ample amounts of sunlight. Most studios tend to shy away from such natural aesthetics, but it changes a studio from being a ‘dungeon’ and gives a much healthier and calm vibe.
Sunshine ... plants ... it's practically an outdoor studio
All the staff seemed fairly chilled and laid back, and I don’t know how they do it but I’ve never known any other studio that manages to get such a high proportion of their staff to wear t-shirts and jumpers with the company logo.
The rest of the studio was a mish mash of desks, computers, consoles, couches, posters of previous games, and every so often a lone plant. There were no real cubicles, more like 2 to 3 people sitting next to each other over a long table.
At the very top of the building the view is fantastic, especially being able to pick out the road and construction for the upcoming Melbourne Gran Prix coming up in March. Considering the amount of high quality racing titles the studio had previously worked on, I found the view highly appropriate.
Camille eventually took me back up to the level I had first gone to, heading through the locked door to the testers room, not surprisingly there was much less natural light here. I’ve been told testers get less work done if they are more aware of the world outside, so probably for the best. Also on that level was the sound and music room, featuring a sound proof studio with a full drum kit, guitar and band setup which I thought was extremely cool.
Mark Coombes shows off Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on the Wii
I eventually got to sit down with Mark Coombes - Producer of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, who gave me a demonstration and some hands on play time with the game.
You can read my preview and impressions here.
Eventually Mark took me to meet Kurt Busch - Studio Director of Krome Studios Melbourne and Krome Studios Adelaide, and I had a sit down with the both of them to talk about the background and mechanics of developing the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.
You can read that interview here.
Afterwards I also was able to interview Kevin ‘Zaph’ Burfitt - Executive Producer at Krome Studios Melbourne, who gave some insight into the history of the studio.
You can read that interview here.
My impressions of Krome Studios Melbourne was a positive one, and probably most importantly the vibe I got was that they are dedicated to making fun games, as well as keeping their staff happy. I mean seriously, there are at least 12 people who have worked there for over 10 years, and in this industry that’s a long time to stay committed to one company. Whatever they’re doing, it’s working.
