makingmusic476 on 13 March 2009
I miss Phil. :(
It is quite amazing that you actually wound up getting funding to do a game, given the sort of process you took. If people didn't know that you were capable of anything, it would just be like, "Here are a bunch of guys kind of screaming ideas at me, and I can kind of get this anywhere."
AE: It was a risk that Phil [Harrison] took. Someone asked me a question just after the talk that I thought was really pertinent, and I didn't really express it. He said, "Sir, how did you get a deal? How did you structure a deal that is so open-ended? Was there a dollar amount on it and stuff?"
Actually, there wasn't a ceiling in the sense that we weren't worrying about budget. We had a really traditionalist structured setup. It's like milestones every six weeks; we set our goals for how long it was gonna take.
The weird thing is that we had this super hand-wavey approach creatively, and then this like super traditional structure which we were working with, a delivery structure to Sony.
That was actually really awesome because it kept me reined in a little bit. It's like "Oh, I've got to master, and I've actually got to do something. I'm not going to fake it, I'm actually going to try to do something good, but I do have to deliver. I have to deliver this month. I have to have that discipline."
AE: It was a risk that Phil [Harrison] took. Someone asked me a question just after the talk that I thought was really pertinent, and I didn't really express it. He said, "Sir, how did you get a deal? How did you structure a deal that is so open-ended? Was there a dollar amount on it and stuff?"
Actually, there wasn't a ceiling in the sense that we weren't worrying about budget. We had a really traditionalist structured setup. It's like milestones every six weeks; we set our goals for how long it was gonna take.
The weird thing is that we had this super hand-wavey approach creatively, and then this like super traditional structure which we were working with, a delivery structure to Sony.
That was actually really awesome because it kept me reined in a little bit. It's like "Oh, I've got to master, and I've actually got to do something. I'm not going to fake it, I'm actually going to try to do something good, but I do have to deliver. I have to deliver this month. I have to have that discipline."
And this is so on the mark, lol:
There's the whole idea of expanding the market with that. Do you feel that being on PlayStation 3 is enough of a place to expand, because obviously the market is limited because it's a single console?
AE: I have absolutely no regrets in going single-platform. A lot of people say, "You've missed out on X million install base if you'd gone here or here or Wii or whatever." To be honest, yes.
However, it's the fact that Sony put us up on a pedestal that we were bigger fish in their kind of messy pod at the time. It meant that we wouldn't have succeeded as well without that nurturing.
So, going forward, the install base becomes an element of what you think about. What's cool is the install base is growing. The core gamers are sold already, they have their PS3. And so, it is Sony's challenge.
They've had all these, you know, SingStars and the EyeToy games. They've had their casual gaming audience on the PS2, and they have to translate that over to PS3 now. As they do that, I'll be very happy with that, because that's how I see PS3 growing. That's why I'm kind of comfortable with it for now... As soon as they drop their price, ho ho ho.
AE: I have absolutely no regrets in going single-platform. A lot of people say, "You've missed out on X million install base if you'd gone here or here or Wii or whatever." To be honest, yes.
However, it's the fact that Sony put us up on a pedestal that we were bigger fish in their kind of messy pod at the time. It meant that we wouldn't have succeeded as well without that nurturing.
So, going forward, the install base becomes an element of what you think about. What's cool is the install base is growing. The core gamers are sold already, they have their PS3. And so, it is Sony's challenge.
They've had all these, you know, SingStars and the EyeToy games. They've had their casual gaming audience on the PS2, and they have to translate that over to PS3 now. As they do that, I'll be very happy with that, because that's how I see PS3 growing. That's why I'm kind of comfortable with it for now... As soon as they drop their price, ho ho ho.
And this is interesting:
So you think that it was a good thing that you were pumped up by Sony? I was sort of speculating that LittleBigPlanet was being made into a system seller, where in my mind, rather than a system seller, it's one of those things that keeps you coming back. It seemed more like a solid userbase retainer than it is a system mover.
AE: I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. There's a really simple appetizing line, which we can do now, which is LittleBigPlanet, the game with half a million levels. That has an obvious sell. And in that sense, that's all about retention, you can keep coming back.
But as they migrate their casual audience from PS2 onto PS3, LBP needs to be out there getting the first round of PS3 converts. I know where you're coming from, but I don't think they're actually mutually exclusive.
I mean, the hype was a double edged-sword, certainly; we were under a lot of pressure, but we used it to our advantage as much as we could, and that's cool.
AE: I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. There's a really simple appetizing line, which we can do now, which is LittleBigPlanet, the game with half a million levels. That has an obvious sell. And in that sense, that's all about retention, you can keep coming back.
But as they migrate their casual audience from PS2 onto PS3, LBP needs to be out there getting the first round of PS3 converts. I know where you're coming from, but I don't think they're actually mutually exclusive.
I mean, the hype was a double edged-sword, certainly; we were under a lot of pressure, but we used it to our advantage as much as we could, and that's cool.
And I can't wait to see what ideas they're coming up with:
And as we're building it, we then start seeing opportunities to go, "Right, let's pull this idea out and actually give it away to the community for free right now because that would really help." And we don't necessarily need to make a call on whether or not that happens that way, or whether or not it carries on and ends up in some future LBP2 or whatever. I really love the idea that we have these threads and we can make a late-breaking call on where they come out.
LBP = best ps3 game, and my favorite game this gen. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next.
