Is there anything more vital than being up on your industry? Whether you're an ambitious up-and-coming writer or a mildly curious video game fan, what producers, developers and publishers have to say and pass on is the most raw, immediate, fascinating information circulating in gaming. We offer you a new, more personal way to get to know the top dogs of video games.

This week we have a special treat for you. Three of the founders of Hidden Path, the company behind the recent, genius XBLA title Defense Grid, sit down with us for a friendly chat. They're all great sports and discuss everything from digital distribution to their new title Defense Grid to past lives. The triple threat is enclosed below.

Jeff Pobst (CEO)                                      Michael Austin (CTO)                      Dave McCoy (Art Director)

Loading Reality: Jeff, it looks as though you have had a very lively past, working at many game companies like Sierra, Valve, and Gearbox. What was your favorite project that you worked or assisted on, and why is it your favorite project?

Jeff Pobst: Thanks, I worked at Sierra On Line in the late 90's and early 2000's as Sierra's first external producer.  Prior to that Sierra had always made games internally or acquired companies.  In that role, I had some great opportunities to work with Gearbox on the Half-Life Opposing Force expansion and Valve on the online updates and extensions for Half-Life and Counter-Strike.  I worked on many different games with several different developers and truly enjoyed my time there on all of those projects.

LR: I believe you worked in aerospace prior to transitioning into games. What made you decide to make the transition?  Were you able to apply knowledge from one industry in the other?

JP: Yup, I started in the field of spacecraft propulsion research and also took film classes as well.  I loved technology and entertainment, and when an unusual opportunity opened up for me to jump into the game industry and join Sierra On-Line programming for the King's Quest series, I took a deep breath and left the world of aerospace engineering behind me.  That's one of the cool things about the game industry - for many of us, there was no "going to school to make games" so people come from everywhere in this business and there are many very interesting stories.

LR: What pushed you and those four others to found Hidden Path in '06?

Michael Austin:We were all part of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group.  ATG was a technology and consulting group at Microsoft whose mission was to help other game developers make the best Xbox games possible.  We also did a lot of work on the launches for Xbox and Xbox 360.  Games were in our blood though, and after the launch of Xbox 360 we were restless.  We had learned so much about how great games were made and how they weren’t made, and I think all of us were eager to get back in the trenches.

LR: What pushed each of the founding members of Hidden Path to their assigned position? 

MA: It was pretty straightforward- Dave had been the Art Director for FASA and Microsoft, Mark had been the Lead Designer on Age of Kings.  Jeff had been an external producer at Sierra, Jim had always been a CFO, and I was one of the top Xbox CPU experts and had pretty broad experience with all game and graphics programming.  It’s nice when things distribute so nicely.  All of us were very talented in game design (which is the focus of our studio), and we each brought another discipline to the table.

LR: At its genesis, Hidden Path was 5 guys. How much has your company expanded since the first day you began the company?

MA: We have had as many as 35 in house, although we’re a little below that right now.  I hope that we’ll always stay a relatively small company.  When everyone knows everyone else, and what their strengths and weaknesses are, magic things happen.

LR: The first release from your company was Wits and Wagers, an adaption of the award winning board game that was created a few years back. For your first project, why did you choose to adapt this board game into a video game?

MA: We were looking for a small (several month project) we could invest some of the money we’d earned from other projects on.  There was a big push for more casual games on Xbox at the time, and after playing Wits and Wagers, it felt like it would actually have a pretty natural transition to console.  There weren’t a lot of games that let you play with a set of friends locally against others on Xbox Live, and so we made that a big focus.

JP: Microsoft got very excited at the prospect when we brought it to them and they planned a large family initiative that Wits & Wagers would be a part of, it seemed like it would fit well with the opportunities we had available.

LR: After the release of your first game was Defense Grid: The Awakening already in development or did it come at a later point? How long was the development cycle for that game?

MA: I believe we started about 6 months after.  We spent a little over a year in heavy development on Defense Grid to get it out on PC and Xbox.

LR: During the PC development of Defense Grid, when did the decision to make a port for the 360 come into play? Was that a decision that was made before Hidden Path even started developing the title, or did it come up later?

MA: We actually planned on the Xbox version first, from the beginning.  Xbox Live Arcade slots are very valuable, though, so we had to wait our turn to release.  It’s kind of funny; we get asked a lot how well the controls work ported from PC to Xbox, when really we ported them from Xbox to PC.  If you look at it, the PC controls are basically first person shooter controls in an action-puzzle-strategy game.

LR: What’s your take on pure digital distribution replacing distribution on disc-based media?  Is such a transition imminent? Is it inevitable?

MA: The publishing model for games can be tricky.  As a small independent studio, we’re always looking for new ways to distribute and get the game out there.  The pure digital distribution outlets like Steam, Greenhouse, Direct2Drive, and Xbox Live allow us to get our game out there, while still having a chance of making back the money we invested.

I think that in general, though, retail will live side by side with digital distribution for the foreseeable future.  I can see some balance shifting to digital distribution, but it’s still nice to hold a box in your hand.

LR: Is there any possibility that Xbox 360 owners will get any DLC for Defense Grid?

MA: We haven’t announced anything yet, but I would love to make some Defense Grid DLC.

LR: Will there be any chance of seeing Defense Grid releasing on the Playstation 3, or will Sony’s fans have to cry, knowing they will never have such a well-received title on their platform? Will they even ever get the chance to play any of your titles?

MA :I wouldn’t rule out a PS3 version, but it’s a much harder task to port a game to PS3 than between Xbox and PC.  It mostly depends on how many people love the game.

LR: All the games that have been developed by Hidden Path thusfar have been downloadable stuff (or the recent retail release of Defense Grid at 20 dollars). Are any of your future titles going to be big retail releases or stay in the downloadable range priced around the 20 dollars range?

MA: We haven’t announced anything, but it’s never been our goal to do only downloadable titles.  We have a ton of ideas that we’re floating around right now, and I’m sure you’ll be hearing from us again.

LR: Speaking of new titles, now that the company has just finished the porting of Defense Grid with no announcements of any other titles officially in development, could you divulge any information of any upcoming titles that are being talked about? What's the scuttlebutt?

MA :Unfortunately, nothing I can talk about today.  We’re working with a publisher on our next big project, and it’s more up to them than us to talk about it.

JP: Part of the life of an indie developer is that we've actually worked on several larger projects up to this point.  Projects get put on hold, stopped, restarted, new ones come because of others that didn't get made, etc.  A lot happens before announcements come out.  So, I can tell you that there is a lot going on at Hidden Path, but unfortunately, nothing we can talk about right now.

LR: What distinguishes a “premium casual” game, as you like to call your titles, from a regular casual game? Would you consider a game like Defense Grid to be in the “premium casual” category?

MA: Premium casual means dressing up and putting in higher production values to the gameplay that makes regular casual games so fun.  Easy to pick up, fun and relaxing to play, but allow you to go deeper or have a more intense challenge if you want it.  I would definitely consider Defense Grid to be one; in fact, it was exactly what we tried to do with it.  We have voice acting, high end graphics using Gamebryo, and we spent  time on the balance and flow of the game.

LR: What advice, if any, do you have for those aspiring to enter the games industry?  Are there more facets of the industry, and therefore more opportunities, than most people realize?

MA: The games industry is probably similar to the film industry in that it can be hard to get in, but is easy to stay in.  I think the biggest thing that people look for is the passion to go along with the talent.  I want to work with someone who loves games so much they do it in their spare time- their weekends and evenings spent playing around with concepts, writing flash games, working on art, studying and not just playing games.

LR: What’s your opinion of Microsoft’s XNA framework?  Can you see Nintendo or Sony ever opening up development in such a significant way, or is Microsoft uniquely situated with the C# programming language, Visual Studio, and game making experience all under one tent?

MA: I love it, personally- I do hope Sony or Nintendo do something similar some day.  I’m still surprised sometimes that Microsoft did, but I think it only brings good to the industry.

LR: At GDC 2008 when Microsoft revealed and implemented the XNA (now the indie section of the XBLA) one of your games was in the spotlight: Culture. Your homesite ignores its existence, and is not available in the indie section of the XBLA marketplace. What happened to it?

Dave McCoy: We created culture under contract for Microsoft to demonstrate how XNA could be used to create games. Microsoft wanted something that would appeal to casual players and stand out as playing and looking very different from the typical game. I think it did that quite well. It may resurface in some form some day when we have more free time.

JP: Microsoft had us build Culture as an initial demo, and then a free download trial when they announced the indie game channel.  Because it isn't something you can get and play today we don't promote it on our site, but sure, it could be fun to go back and update Culture someday.

LR: Are there any indie companies that truly drop your jaw, and help inspire you to better your games? 

JP: Sure, some of my favorite indie companies are Valve, Epic, and Bungie.  These days when people talk "indie" they often mean small, but really it's about the developer having the opportunity to build the kind and quality of game they feel is right for the product.  Sometimes that opportunity is available, sometimes it isn't.  I think highly of the big indies as well as the great little ones that everyone is impressed with these days such as the Introversion guys, 2D Boy, Jonathan Blow, etc.

LR: What's your favorite game of all time, if such a beast exists?

MA: I have so many favorites it’d be hard to list them all, so I’ll just list some of them: Bethesda’s open world games (Oblivion, Morrowind), World of Warcraft, the original Legend of Zelda (8-year-old-me’s favorite game), Castlevania (Symphony of the Night).  I like games that pull me into and immerse me in a world.

DM: I don’t have a single favorite game, movie, food, city, etc. Maybe a top 10 list, but no single favorite.

MA: I’m still looking for one at the moment.  I’m getting tired of World of Warcraft a bit.  I’ve been trying to beat everyone at the office’s scores in Defense Grid, but unfortunately it’s not going so well!

LR: When you are not spending all of your waking hours to develop your titles, what do you do when not working?

MA: I’m a gamer, I admit it (and my fiancée is not such a big fan always J).  I also like to read, and, strangely, started making pottery.  I love being able to work on something physical with my hands.

DM: My number one passion is my family. Individually I love architecture and woodworking and am constantly re-designing and working on my house and it’s furnishings.

JP: Yup, I play games as well, but when you're an independent developer, there aren't as many "not working" hours as one might like. :)

LR: And finally, what is your dream project, the one that you would just love to work on if ever given the chance?

MA: I would love to make toy games to try out various ideas- new interfaces, new ways of interacting, new ways of producing compelling content.  There is so much space to explore and so little time!

DM: I used to work for Virtual World Entertainment. We made location based entertainment where the player was immersed into a physical environment, but only for a half-hour or so. I’d love to build a facility like a hotel where players could check in for a few days and be totally immersed in a fictional game world.

JP: I like both of those too.  For me, I enjoy entertaining people with solid high-quality work that holds up well together.  I love it when you can see people's eyes light up, and discover new things about a game or themselves as they play in a world you've help create for them.

Know Your Industry is a special series of exclusive interviews conducted by Loading Reality designed to highlight all corners of the games industry. Look for the next installment soon.

Written by :

Aaron

 

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Necrovex

Re:Know Your Industry: Exclusive Interview With Defense Grid Developers Hidden Path Sep 21 2009 21:03:59 This was a good read indeed. The person who wrote those questions should be praised.

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Vespasian

Know Your Industry: Exclusive Interview With Defense Grid Developers Hidden Path Sep 22 2009 15:24:24 Agreed and agreed. Those questions touched on important topics gamers everywhere will appreciate.

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Aaron

Re: Know Your Industry: Exclusive Interview With D Sep 22 2009 20:08:00 Austin wrote that more as a self congratulations since he wrote a majority of the questions. That said, this is a great interview. Good job, everyone.

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Necrovex

Re:Know Your Industry: Exclusive Interview With Defense Grid Developers Hidden Path Sep 22 2009 22:58:09 Vespasian wrote: Agreed and agreed. Those questions touched on important topics gamers everywhere will appreciate. I'm glad you think that. It took several days researching and thinking of those questions. I'm glad it paid off in the end.

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