What a difference a game can make.
Earlier this year we interviewed Ace Team, creators of unusual FPS – or rather first-person-melee – Zeno Clash. Let us be honest: games are rearly made with no desire of any recognition at all. Be it an award, fame or prospering business. Ace Team has achieved some of their goals so far. This is a follow-up Q&A session with the self-confident team, a company in transition. What has not changed is their ambitious nature.
: We interviewed you guys a few months ago (in March), we feel that since then the net exploded with coverage on Zeno Clash. There have been articles in EDGE, Kotaku, EnGadget, even WIRED magazine has a good cover story on the game. What has changed since the last time we spoke?
Andres Bordeu: To tell you the truth, we worked hard to be presented in such way. From the beginning we knew that the game’s fortune depends on how much it can be exposed through different kinds of digital media. We extensively advertised the game through viral marketing, a comic, tried to participate on forums as actively as possible, and for a time we had the support of an American public relations company called Clever Communications which was the one that got us close to well known magazines. But above all we believe Zeno Clash was well received because the product is attractive, something that had not been seen before: an FPS with surrealistic esthetics, developed with the Source engine which has not been used so widely. At the end, the game was a risky attempt that met our own quality standards. In addition, it was nominated in the category of Excellence in Visual Arts at the IGF along with other recognitions. For example being IGN game of the month, the same month when Riddick’s Chronicles was launched. All these generated enough buzz to make us known. Now people are aware of Ace Team and they are waiting for what we can release in the coming months.
: Exactly what we wanted to ask: do you feel pressure after Zeno Clash’s success?
AB: Actually it has been a success with the critics; we are still waiting for the game to perform well in terms of sales too. For example, we are just checking the retail situation in “hard box” format to distribute it in big markets such as Russia, and some European countries besides the North-American. We are happy with the success with the critics, but we do not feel an overwhelming pressure for releasing something new as soon as possible. We believe the game magazines and the fans can understand this stage we are in now. That is to say, it may seem that we are “sleeping” but in reality we are in a transition while new things are being underway, and during this time we do not want to reveal any of the upcoming releases.
: But…aren’t you afraid of being just a “one hit wonder” (using the music industry term)?
AB: To be honest we are not. What we have achieved until now is the result of hard and well planned work, it wasn’t a fortuitous thing. We were anticipating positive reaction from the public so it wasn’t such a surprise. We knew from the beginning we had a good product crafted with Ace Team special style and “flavor”. We want that tomorrow when people hear the word Zeno Clash, they immediately think about Ace Team’s high standards. We believe we are walking the right path toward that.
: Do you feel more mainstream now? Last year, Ace Team and especially Zeno Clash were considered more indie, and as we said before, this year you generated media presence that blasted you into mainstream. Do you feel like that?
AB: Yes, a little bit. However the same indie world in the last 2 years also had media explosion and we were just part of that. We planned high quality graphics from the start, we wanted to make a good impression. We have been walking with our feet in both worlds, but we believe that people who played ZC immediately realize that we were aiming at high quality. It is a part of our evolution as an enterprise. We started with small projects based in Chile, but with the objective of releasing ambitious products. In any case, we do not want to leave the indie scene, in fact we are working on a new line of games of the like. Maybe when ZC 2 is released it won’t be nominated at the IGF, but one of the games from that new line will.
: ZC has many attractive elements: graphics, gameplay just to name a few. What has Ace Team done to reach its current position what other studios haven’t? Some of them release a video game and quickly disappear but Ace Team is here to stay. What have you done well, not only with the game but also in terms of marketing, distribution, contacts…effort?
AB: It is hard to think about it that way. I believe that all the people who develop a video game, at some moment have similar concerns (commercial product depending on sales), unless they do very experimental things that fall under the classification of art. But in that case we don’t know what could be their motivations, objectives, how could they survive. I believe a matter of principles is related to the indie teams’ own motivations: at certain point they have to consider the mainstream issue, because there is always the feeling that one as a former indie is betraying certain values thereof. We never made the game thinking we have to be 100% indie and everything mainstream was bad. To the contrary, many elements were considered because of their mass appeal, we developed an addictive product that had to be viable outside the indie scene.
: We do not think that everything has been a “bed of roses” until now, what things have not worked or you are not satisfied with?
AB: It is difficult to talk about that in general, but if we have to bring up a negative aspect that would be piracy, which has affected us in some way. We have made a public relations campaign contacting torrent websites and we have had a good reception. We have been tracking the direct downloads and P2P websites but the truth is the success has been marginal.
: Have you accomplished everything you wanted so far? Less? More?
AB: The game has been on sale for 4 months and we are in an observation period. The truth is that we have evolved in a way that does not fit pre-established patterns one could compare to. I always say we have to wait at least one year to know with certainty how we are doing. If we talk only about the commercial aspect we cannot be precise either because we have info on digital distribution only. The retail distribution is about to begin, in addition we might port the game to Xbox 360, and those outcomes have to be analyzed. The only certain thing right now is that the critics have been excellent and we are happy about it. Many more months are necessary to make a complete analysis.
: Let’s change the topic, let’s put Zeno Clash aside for a while. Recently the “Pretty Lady” of the game industry has been full motion control. What does Ace Team think about it?
AB: Well, indeed it is a topic that everybody is talking about. What Nintendo has done with Wii is pretty interesting and Microsoft with its Project Natal stole the show at the last SIGGRAPH. We have considered it but we are not venturing into it yet because of the requirements. Our second line of video games is for PlayStation Network, Live Arcade, and the WiiWare channel is something that we might “look into”, but Nintendo and Microsoft first have to evolve more the technology, so small companies like us could have access to the level of peripheral technology that right now only big companies have access to.
: Something that has had an undeniable success but does not require a huge investment in terms of technology: the iPhone. It has allowed people who have never developed a game or even programmed before to start a small business. Even initial detractors such as Capcom or Konami have got into related projects. What does ACE TEAM think about it? ZC lite?
AB: We are not considering developing a ZC port for the iPhone because we use the Source engine and they are not compatible. We are developing a port for 360 Live Arcade. We have a second line of video games that might have an iPhone port. But we are still thinking about it because the platform is complicated, and I do not mean the technology but the fact that investing in development does not grant success in commercial terms too. There are people who have made huge investments in technology and work-hours with excellent results. However, they are eclipsed by very simple games with a low level of development which are “something of the moment”. We are not so sure about the investment-return ratio to get 100% involved with iPhone.
: What about portable platforms?
AB: At the moment we have multi-platform titles on our minds that allow us to expand the business. That is to say, if the product with minor modifications can be ported and played through Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, then it is ok. But in the case of iPhone, if the development has to be exclusive then other platforms are killed so we are not convinced about that. We are not totally closed to the idea, but one has to see where other doors are opened. As a small company we feel more attracted to where we feel welcomed and in that sense Microsoft Xbox has worked out fine.
: From technological point of view, you have favorite development tools, for example you mentioned the Source engine before. Why that one?
AB: We use Source because its connection to Steam. When we wanted to take the big step from Mods developer to become more professional and we started talks with Valve, the community around Steam was large and helpful. For a while we considered the id Tech 4 engine (Doom 3 Engine) but we realized that the community was smaller.
AB: We are analyzing some alternatives for our second line of video games, we are not sure that ZC 2 will be distributed through Valve. We are testing Unreal Engine 3 and for other games we are more interested in Torque, which will be for a more casual line of games. They are producing a new iteration which seems very robust and because it is multi-platform we believe it was the best option we could have chosen.
: Your favorite modeling tool is…?
AB: Autodesk 3ds Max. There are people who are very skilful with other modeling tools such as Maya or Cinema 4D here, but it is important to have a consistent work pipeline. In that sense 3ds is the one that has served us the best. Regarding Bitmaps, we use the already established “universal working horse”, Photoshop. For sound editing we use Adobe Audition, however most of the audio is outsourced to a different company, except for certain essential sound effects that we have to produce here.
: How has been the experience with the Zeno Clash SDK?
AB: Poor (laughs). We actually anticipated it that is why we didn’t publish the development tools directly through Valve. We knew this was not going to have a community like the one Counter Strike has. There are some forum members who are constantly active, but to provide exact results we would have to wait maybe years. We have had success to some extent with the Garry’s Mod which has been used to feature some ZC characters in YouTube videos.
: Is there space for experimentation in Ace Team?
AB: Definitely yes. We are not a rigid company which has defined a document with design guidelines carved in stone from which we cannot depart. We use a lot of iteration in which the video games are ending up in an unexpected way. For example when we started ZC we didn’t know where we were heading, “we made the road as we walked”, with a lot of testing sessions with people who never played the game before and based on that results we took different paths.
: This might sound strange: “Everybody picks on the smartest in the class”. The Chilean developing environment is not big…Haven’t you had frictions with other companies?
AB: If it is about being the “smartest”, here in the local environment there is another company which is bigger than us, Wanako Games, in fact many of the guys who work here at Ace Team are former Wanako staff. Their business model is different, they became a division of an international big company called A2M and Wanako works for them. We make revenue directly from our products. Anyway, to answer your question straight, NO, we don’t have frictions with anyone. The local environment is small, it is good for us that everybody is successful thus we wouldn’t look at others with envy. The benefits of others are benefits for everybody. It is good that the industry grows and new ideas are born, that a small “Silicon Valley” is created in Latin-America and then big companies such as Microsoft or Sony can say: “Chile, there are interesting things being done here, let’s invest here”.
: A few months ago when we asked whether you want to stay in Chile, you said “Yes, from Chile (Made in Chile)”. Now, you are in a better position. Is your answer the same?
AB: Yes, as ever “from Chile”. We have competitive advantages that made us want to stay. We are signing distribution agreements with Japan and other territories, we are producing games, we have talks with big companies…after all, we do not see any reason why couldn’t this company operate here.
: Speaking of Japan: in the Japanese market the distribution is “hard box”, disc. Why the difference? Was it a request?
AB: It wasn’t a request. Mainly it is related to the fact that to justify the disc format there must be several hours of contents delivered. ZC was sold for 20 dollars and before manufacturing a CD for that price first we had to know how the game would be doing through digital distribution. When we started we had a distribution agreement with Valve, we knew the game would be on Steam, so in that sense it was safer. And when we started planning the game we did it with eyes fixed on Valve, knowing that it was a good start.
: How was the contact with Zoo Corporation (Japanese publisher) made?
AB: They contacted us. One day we received a mail from them asking if their territory was free, and the rest followed. We have dealt with publishers of each territory, for example in several Eastern-European countries CD Projekt distributes the game (ZC), from Russia a different company contacted us as soon as we announced that we were going to release something through Steam.
: What do you expect from Japan?
AB: To be honest, we don’t know. When we developed ZC we did it for the North-American market (USA) and it hit hard in Russia, which was totally unexpected. We believe the originality of the game – as it offers a different experience from anything before – captured the attention of many people, and we hope that the same can be achieved in the Japanese market. We are big fans of Shigeru Miyamoto, we believe he has dared to experiment bravely and that is why his games are esteemed. We hope some of the same spirit is present in ZC and the Japanese gamers know how to appreciate that.
: Let’s wrap up the interview. I ask you straight: when could we see a new iteration of ZC? Sometime in the next few months, maybe later?
AB: I can not tell, we have several projects under development and I do not have the freedom to reveal anything. But I can tell you that soon we will release a ZC port for Xbox Live Arcade which will be more than a port because new things will be incorporated. I cannot tell more than this because we have secrecy agreements with a publisher but it definitely will be an improved version of ZC. In addition we are developing a prototype for a new casual line, but it is still in a very early stage. We believe those games will have a development cycle of 7 months, so during that time we may start making announcements on the net, but I do not know definite release dates. But sometime early next year there should be some press releases.
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