Du wolltest schon immer Rockstar, Politiker oder generell erfolgreich werden? Probier’s doch erst mal virtuell mit einer Managersimulation! Ich bin seit meiner Kindheit großer Fan von Mangersimulationen, war schon Fernseherprogrammdirektorin (MadTV), Fußballmanagerin (DSF’98), Verkehrs- und Stadtplanerin (Verkehrgigant, Mobility, Sim City), Pizzarestaurantkettenbesitzerin (Pizza Syndicate), Hotelmanagerin (Sim Tower) und natürlich Leiterin vieler erfolgreicher kleiner Familienunternehmen (Sims, Sims 2, Sims 3 [natürlich mit allen Erweiterungen...;)]).
Dieses Jahr hab ich eine neue Reihe von Managerspielen entdeckt. Alle sind sie dem Genie von Cliff Harris entsprungen, der davon lebt, Indie-Games zu entwickeln. Seine Spiele Kudos (2), Kudos Rocklegend und Democracy (2) haben es geschafft, mich mitsamt ihrer Schlichtheit zu begeistern.
Was jemandem im Kopf herum geht, der es nicht nur geschafft hat, fast komplett alleine mehrere großartige Spiele zu entwickeln, sondern damit auch noch erfolgreich Geld verdient, hat mich natürlich interessiert. Ich hab ihm deswegen ein paar Fragen gestellt, die er gerne beantwortet hat.
(Diesmal leider nur in englisch, aber vielleicht komme ich ja mal dazu, das Ganze zu übersetzen…)
Interview
Alice Hive: How did you found out that you wanted to become a game programmer?
Cliff Harris: I’d wanted to work on making games forever, since I started learning programming in 1981, aged 11. I had a lot of other different jobs until I eventually found a way to do what I do now. I love the idea that as a programmer, you control everything. There is nothing about any of my games that cannot be changed by me, in any way I like. It’s like being a creator of an entire universe.
Alice Hive: How does your work day look like?
Cliff Harris: It’s very varied, because I do so many different things. The first hour is normally spent replying to email, checking my forums for any tech support issues or suggestions and comments from people who bought or tried my games, and checking various business related forums, and stuff like the website and sales to make sure everything is working as it should do. The rest of the day can be spent programming, testing the games, or doing some design of new ideas. Some of it might be spent laboriously going through the code to find a bug, and sometimes just lots of playing the game to reproduce a bug that someone has found. There is also a lot of business-related things, like contacting game review websites and promoting the games. There is also some artwork related stuff too, and talking to the people who I get to do some of the art and the music.
Alice Hive: What keeps you motivated?
I love games, and I don’t see many games of the kind I like to play these days, and I love finding a game that you consider to be really good, so it motivates me to think that there are some people out there that also like to play exactly the sort of thing I do, and that I’m making a game they will really enjoy. I also see a lot of people run games companies astoundingly badly, and I like trying to do a better job, if only to shame some of those other companies into doing a better job too, especially when it comes to customer service.
Alice Hive: How do you decide which ideas you want to implement into a game and which not?
Cliff Harris: Trial and error. Some ideas sound great on paper, but they just do not work in practice. You can be pretty sure something is fun, but find out that there is some bug or exploit that means that it does not work in practice as a game mechanic. A lot of the time you only really know if something ‘works’ once its mostly done. There is a lot of work, including whole half-finished games, that just get abandoned because they aren’t as good as they need to be. I guess it’s pretty similar to songwriting or painting (I used to be a musician). When you are a designer and programmer too, you can effectively just ‘jam’ with ideas by knocking lots of things up and seeing how they work.
Alice Hive: How long did you work on your career till it became profitable?
Cliff Harris: Ages! I used to write games in my spare time for years, after I got home from work and through the weekends, and it took about 5 games until I made enough money from them to give up my day job. You really need to be a good programmer, designer, and business/marketing person to get everything in alignment to actually make a living wage. Somehow it seems the genes for decent programming don’t often come packaged with the genes for being into promotion and marketing, so it’s unusual to find someone equally at home doing both, although luckily that seems to be me!
Alice Hive: How long do you need to develop a game?
Cliff Harris: My games take roughly a year to make full time.
Alice Hive: What were the challenges you faced on your way to become successful?
Cliff Harris: It’s very hard to get any press coverage, or to have anyone take you seriously as a one-man company. People often assume that I am doing this ‘as a way to get a proper job in the industry’ which is hilarious because I quit a very good job as an AI programmer in the industry to do this. A lot of people in the press or the big publishers just will not return your calls or read your emails, even when its’ clear that your games are good and that they sell, which is very frustrating.
Alice Hive: What do you do to market your games?
Cliff Harris: I do EVERTHING to market them, lots of interviews, lots of sending out press copies and some normal advertising on Google and using banner ads here and there, Plus I write a daily blog which helps drive traffic to my website and games.
Alice Hive: Why should we bother about indie games?
Cliff Harris: Indie games are made with a different motivation and aim, because they tend to be lower budget and done with a genuine passion. Far too many big budget games are designed by a committee of accountants after they pour over demographic statistics, meaning they are profitable, but have lost their soul and their individuality. Indie games are more like the punk/rock music aesthetic, because they are made by people just doing the sort of thing they want to play, rather than being so corporate and business-focused. That means indie games can surprise you and be genuinely innovative and fresh, which the shareholders of big companies are scared to attempt. So in short, you get more variety, more individuality and more passion in an indie game.
Vielen Dank an Cliff für das Interview!
Veröffentlicht am 8.November 2009
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