Australian Gamer Interview :: Krome Studios Interview

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Krome Studios Interview

An exclusive interview with one of Australia's biggest and most successful game companies, Krome Studios.

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Krome Studios is an award winning, leading worldwide independent game developer who has firmly established itself as the largest games development company in Australia with a team of more than 120 talented employees. The company is a full service game development house. Established in 1999, Krome Studios has a distinguished record of having shipped more than a dozen quality original and licensed titles - all on time and on budget - including the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series, King Arthur, Jimmy Neutron: Jet Fusion, Barbie Sparkling Ice Show, Sunny Garcia Surfing, Extremely Goofy Skateboarding and Barbie Beach Vacation.

As the creator of TY the Tasmanian Tiger, Krome Studios has the number one selling Australian game of all time, having sold over 1.3 million units of the original title alone to date, and has secured a deal with DPS Film Roman, producers of The Simpsons, to develop the TY IP into an animated cartoon.

Krome Studios is currently working on a number of high profile and creative titles, including the third installment in the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series.

Named Queensland's best exporter in the Arts/Entertainment category in 2001, 2002 and 2004, Krome Studios has extensive experience working with several of the leading international publishers including: Electronic Arts, Konami, Disney Interactive, THQ and Vivendi Universal.

We were lucky enough to get an interview with Stuart Mackenzie who was Lead Artist on King Arthur and Steve Stamatiadis - Krome's Creative Director, as well as some exclusive screenshots of the upcoming TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan.

AustralianGamer: You completed development on King Arthur for all the current systems last year. Was it difficult being restricted by a movie licence?

Stuart Mackenzie: We?ve had a lot of experience working with licensed properties so we could rely on our experience to see us through but as this was our first movie license we had a whole lot of new things to consider and to learn. I suppose it is always going to depend on the film base you have to work with; the action, characters and environments that have been portrayed in the film that are required for the game. In the case of King Arthur, our objective was to bring the film to life within the interactive realm. The story of King Arthur as seen through Jerry Bruckheimer?s vision lent itself to an exciting video game adapatation and that?s exactly what we wanted to do. We stayed true to the film but were fortunate enough to be able to elaborate on the film with some added environment sections and gameplay such as the siege weapons. Luckily the film had a variety of environments allowing us to create variations in art and gameplay, keeping the player excited as they battle through forests, the ice lake, burning fields Marius Estate and the dungeon etc.

AustralianGamer: What resources were you provided with, did you get to work closely with the actors themselves?

Stuart Mackenzie: We were privileged to have a great relationship with the Bruckheimer studio which was a great asset. Working with the film crew, the actors and being on set while they were shooting the film allowed us to experience the world of King Arthur first hand, and add more to the game experience. The actors were all happy for us to be able to photograph them and the costumes they used for the film, creating invaluable assets for our character team. We sent a team of people to work closely with the crew, they were able to send back digital photos, videos and even set illustrations from the set designers. We also had architectural plans of the buildings and aerial photographs of the battle fields.

For the CG effects in the film we had help from Cinesite in the UK. They were able to send us daily progression shots of the ice battle scene, allowing us to colour match our environments. Disney and Buena Vista would also send us daily film updates and the latest script making the process of creating a game from a film in progress a lot smoother.

By the end of the game we had a ton of reference from the dirt the actors were standing on to skies above them and everything in between.

AustralianGamer: Are there any plans to work on any other movie licensed games in the future?

Stuart Mackenzie: We?re always open to developing quality games ? and in the case of movie licenses, if there?s one that we love and that we feel is appropriate, then sign us up. I still have the ulcer from King Arthur so before that heals we should be on to our next ........ adventure, I should call it. Seriously though, it is a stressful but highly rewarding process. Having the actors and crew from a major film saying they can?t wait for you to finish the game so they can play it is a great feeling. However there are so many problems you have to factor in that you wouldn't normally have to worry about, and you really are at the mercy of the film studio. The approval process can be drawn out and you find no matter how well you schedule the project, the last few months are a mad dash for the finish line. We have become accustomed to these issues though, and the knowledge we have gained over the years will only make the production process of the next licensed game smoother. How does the old saying go.... "whatever doesn't kill you can only make you stronger!" I say "Bring it on!!!" I'm really looking forward to our next licensed project, whatever it might be.

AustralianGamer: You have officially announced development on the next game in the TY the Tasmanian Tiger series. Can you hint at what to new features to expect?

Steve Stamatiadis: We?ve been working on TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan for well over a year now so it?s great to be able to finally share the news with the world. There are a lot of cool new things we?re adding to this year?s game but probably the biggest of the new features we?ve included in the third TY game is a fully upgradeable rang system that allows players to custom build their own rangs. Also, the collectable opal monetary system is back, but this time opals can be used to buy rang chassis which players can add collectable rang stones to which each have different elemental powers, to make thousands of possible rang combinations.

Another cool feature of the game is the addition of flying missions in the new vehicle class; Gunyips. It?s a fun shoot-em-up style series of air combat mission in which the player battles against the Quinkan enemies, or in multiplayer mode; against each other! It was a popular level of our E3 demo ? we got some really positive feedback about it.

AustralianGamer: Steve, what initially lead you to choose a Tasmanian Tiger as a lead game character, and was such an internationally obscure extinct marsupial a difficult sell?

Steve Stamatiadis: I?m a sketchaholic, and I?ve always got a bunch of new characters up my sleeve. We knew we wanted to make a character action platformer, and we knew that we wanted to make it Australian themed. In doing so, I thought that the Tasmanian tiger was such a cool animal that it made sense (to us) to create a character based on it. We spent endless hours brainstorming and came up with more characters to compliment our main hero as well as really investing time and energy in crafting a storyline that was really rich and exciting. The name ?TY? is named after a friend called Tyrone (which we thought was a cool name for a game character) and it hinted the Latin term for the Tassie Tiger; the Thylacine and it stuck. Australia is often thought of as being a bit exotic because we?re so far away from other major cultural centres, so Americans and the rest of the gaming world go nuts for anything with an Australian theme!

AustralianGamer: Does everyone in the office get turned into a character in the TY games, and if so, do you consider that when employing new staff?

Steve Stamatiadis: Only the ones that can take a joke! Truth be told there are a bunch of natural characters walking around the office every day. Sometimes it?s planned to use someone other times it?s just subconscious until someone points it out. Lately its become more planned ? with characters like Bruno or Steve which more closely resemble real people .

AustralianGamer: DPS Film Roman has secured a deal to develop TY IP into an animated cartoon. Will that have any effect on the next TY game?

Steve Stamatiadis: We think that TY the Tasmanian Tiger will have a long life within the gaming realm but we also feel the IP we?ve created is rich enough to extend into other entertainment mediums. There?s a lot of content that we can spin off from the game series into the animated cartoon and at the moment we don?t expect to see the reverse happen but honestly it?s too early to say for sure. As long as any of our future cross media endeavours stay true to the vision we created for the TY the Tasmanian Tiger IP, then we?re open to exploring it. In doing so, we?re working closely with Film Roman and other potential partners to bring the IP to the animation world in 2006.

AustralianGamer: What are your thoughts in regards to the new handheld systems, the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP, and do you plan on developing any games for them?

Steve Stamatiadis: I love the new handhelds. I?ve already I got a DS and a PSP but I think I may need to get another GBA since the micro looks so cute! As for Krome?s future hardware plans ? we still feel there is an audience for the current systems but we are definitely looking into developing games on the new handhelds but haven?t made any official announcements just yet.

AustralianGamer: Do you think Australia is treated reasonably as a market in regards to product releases?

Steve Stamatiadis: The Australian games industry is really flourishing at the moment and I think the wider gaming community can see that. Even judging by the media interest in the Australian Games section at E3 this year, it?s obvious that Australia is respected as sizeable hub of development activity. Of course, we still have a little way to go before we constitute a decent percentage of the global market, but we?re by no means the little guys any more.

AustralianGamer: How many employees currently work at Krome Studios?

Steve Stamatiadis: I think we?ve got more than 130 people working at Krome now! We?re well on our way to reaching plague proportions?.

AustralianGamer: What do you do when you?re NOT working hard on the latest and greatest games? Surely working in the Valley has its perks come 5pm Friday :)

Steve Stamatiadis: There is no rest for the weary! We?re always working hard, whether its hitting alpha in TY the Tasmanian Tiger or pre-production with another game idea.. actually, it?s both! Everyone really loves what they're doing and they believe in the project so though it?s often time consuming and draining, it?s a great feeling to know that you?re creating something you love. And we do try to give people breaks so we don?t burn out. The end is in sight, and when we?re done with TY the Tasmanian Tiger 3: Night of the Quinkan, we?ll most certainly celebrate at one of our local watering holes.

AustralianGamer: And finally, what advice can you offer to people who want to get involved in the industry in Australia.

Steve Stamatiadis: If you?re looking at breaking into the industry as an artist or animator, the most important thing you can do is to love what you?re doing and make sure you show only your best work when you?re submitting it with your applications.

Thank you very much for your time, and your contribution to the Australian game industry.

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