Blue52 - Developer Profile Feature

Blue 52, the UK, London based developer, which appears to have the right blend of experience and forward thinking, has a number of titles in development, one especially - Stolen - which over the last year has become a game receiving media acclaim. We spoke with members of the team to find out more.

TVG: How long has Blue 52 been together and what is your mission statement?

[Jason Perkins â?“ Managing Director]

The company was formed in March 1999, prior to this I was Acquisitions Manager for GT Interactive, and although there were many developers in business I saw an opportunity to set-up a well managed, professional development company. Although there were some technically strong and creative companies about, they were not necessarily strong on the commercial, managerial and financial side. Even then with a development advance in the £500K region, it was often this lack of management which would (at least for GT) ultimately result in titles not being signed. There were always considerable concerns about how these advances would be managed and whether or not the company would still be in business as the title neared completion.

In terms of our mission statement, the company's aim and purpose is to create fun, original and playable games for the console markets; and have fun doing it. We go to great lengths to look after our staff (our greatest asset) to ensure that they have good surroundings to work in, good equipment to work with and organise a number of fun company sponsored events, (usually including alcohol) in which everyone can participate. Testament to this is the fact that only 4 people have actually left the company (by their own choice) in the past 5 years.

TVG: There is a number of â??veteransâ?? working at Blue 52. Can you tell us some of the games you all have individually worked on and how many staff is there?

The company is currently 50 strong, and yes, a few of us â??old codgersâ?? have worked on a number of classic titles. I originally started in the business as a coder 22 years ago and wrote such classics as Thing On A Spring (C64), Monty on the Run (C64), Daley Thompsonsâ?? Decathlon (C16, 1week dev time), Ruff & Tumble (Amiga) and about 25 other games which werenâ??t quite as well known. Joe Myers, Lead Artist on Stolen, and Jaid Mindang , Project Director on Stolen, both worked on Markoâ??s Magic Football and a number of other titles for Domark.

TVG: What do you see as your core expertise?

As commented later, I think our technology and tools are great assets, particularly now that there are major publishing concerns about using the EA owned RenderWare solution. I also think that we are strongly creative and have plenty of original games still in us, including Deadlight and Rocktroll.

TVG: Stolen was originally being created for Sony but it is now with Hip. Can you divulge the reason why Sony let this title go?

Blue52 did have a relationship with Sony and secured some funding to develop our technology and some early pre-production work on Stolen. But now I believe we have found the ideal publishing partner in Hip interactive. Although relatively new to the business, the company is run by very experienced and enthusiastic staff, and we can be assured of 100% focus on marketing and publishing Stolen in the world-wide market place.

TVG: Your technology is regarded as one of the teamâ??s fortes. Would you agree, and do you feel you have equal expertise on all formats â?“ PS2, XBOX and PC?

[Allan Murphy Techniocal Director]

Our technology on PS2 is strong, but our engine group's experience is strongly rooted in DirectX and PC style. PS2 is a completely different architecture to PC style graphics cards and the Xbox; it can also sometimes be slow and painful to develop for. Most of the rendering techniques and effects we have on PS2 are prototyped quickly on PC with vertex or pixel shaders, before we do the necessary changes to make them work on PS2. So I would say that we do have equal strength on all three platforms. Our engine runs on PSP and GameCube, too, though we haven't shown any titles on those platforms yet.

TVG: What is the basic premise for creating a game concept like Stolen or your other title Deadlight?

[Jaid Mindang â?“ Art Director]

Each title is different, but in very general terms we like to strike the right balance between making the games challenging but also rewarding to the players. Too much either way is either frustrating or boring respectively. This is a fine balance and I wish we had a secret formula that could guarantee this result every time. We have a good proportion of â??veteransâ??, as already mentioned, and we rely upon our in-house talent to achieve the correct balance. This has been the overriding focus for the stealth in Stolen, hence Anyaâ??s lack of lethal capabilities.

TVG: Can you tell us a little about Deadlight, along with formats it may appear on?

'Deadlight' is a first person survival/horror game, where you play a oil-rig engineer, accidentally marooned on a derelict ocean liner, which has been missing for 20 years, and has suddenly resurfaced in the North Sea. Without giving too much away, your adversaries come from somewhere where there isnâ??t much light, so light itself is also a weapon in your arsenal. Itâ??s not going to be a slaughter fest 1st person shooter; the enemy encounters are going to be unpredictable and frantic. Just like a good horror movie, the pacing is going to be carefully measured.

TVG: Britsoft developers appear to be on the decline in terms of numbers. Would you agree that the UK still has lots to offer?

[Jason Perkins â?“ Managing Director]

For reasons I outlined in question 1 itâ??s not surprising that there has been a considerable amount of developers go out of business. However, I do believe that UK developers are still very strong on the creative and technical side and have not been left behind by our US or Japanese counterparts. Right now though, the big issue for UK developers is funding, and that sadly the number of UK publishers has also diminished and with the recent increase in the dollar exchange rate, UK companies are now more expensive, and so less appealing to US publishers. Also weâ??re now seeing more US publishers placing more products in their own backyard, where they can also keep a closer eye on their investment.

TVG: Is Blue 52 excited about the next generation of machines â?“ PS3, XBOX2 and how important is it for the PC to be central to gaming and gamers?

[Allan Murphy - Technical Director]

A new generation of platforms is always a huge challenge for developers, but one we relish; we have strong back end tool support, and connecting that stuff to a proper engine on a new platform can be very rewarding, if hard work. Console technology tends to advance in discrete steps with each new generation, while PC technology tends to be a continuous process of improvement and application of new techniques as cards and processors grow in power. Often the cutting edge techniques on PC are directly applicable on console, either immediately with some invention, or come the next generation, and so PC is an integral part of gaming technology advancement.

TVG: In what areas do you believe Stolen is innovative?

[Jaid Mindang â?“ Art Director]

Stolen has been placed in the Stealth Action genre, but where it differs from other titles in the genre is in the emphasis on stealth and the use of cunning gadgets. Where a bullet may be the default get-out response to tricky situations in the other titles in this genre, Anya can only stun or knock out opponents in a direct confrontation, which then has consequences of its own when they regain consciousness. All guards have a 2-way radio link to their control booth, so news spreads fast if any of the guards thinks somethingâ??s afoot. By making stealth an imperative, rather than merely an option, we have had to elevate the gameplay mechanisms of stealth to be more sophisticated than merely passively waiting in a shadow until a guard passes. Stolen requires active evasion and misdirection, and Anya has a suite of high tech gadgets to help her in that objective.

TVG will have more from Blue52 and a close look at Stolen soon.