Interview: NGD Talks Bunch of Heroes, Chorizo
By Kyle Mann | September 18, 2011 | Interviews | 2 comments | Share
In a few short days, 4-player co-op shooter Bunch of Heroes will drop on Steam. We’ve done a hands-on with the game, and it’s shaping up nicely. We thought it’d be a good time to check in with the developer, NGD Studios based out of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to see what it’s like making games in South America. We also scoped out the best meat in Argentina.
Can you tell us what the Argentinean game development scene is like?
Argentina’s first video game studios were born out of passionate people that gathered around the same interest: working as videogame developers. The problem back then was that there was no industry at all, so they had to create it.
By that time the country was coming out of the big crisis, so there were some opportunities in terms of cost competitiveness due to the massive devaluation (the U$D moved from 1 to 1 to 1 to 3 AR$). The first studios combined self-funded PC indie projects with work-for-hire. Years went by and some critical mass was achieved in terms of the number of SME and the professionals that approached from different disciplines (Programming, Art). The most difficult part was training Game Designers. But since there’s a big gaming culture due to early days piracy, people had the chance to play many games and learn about many different genres out of that experience.
Fast forward a couple of years and you get a varied ecosystem, with big companies like Gameloft opening a studio for J2ME games and the first Argentinean IPs in the market. Keep fast forwarding and you get new studios created by former employees of the first companies betting on the Social and iOS niches, some big ones and well funded like Vostu, some acquisitions like Three Melons (bought by Playdom then by Disney) and some software factories that started to move from work-for-hire for EA and the likes to own IPs. And companies like NGD Studios, living out of their own IPs, still sometimes doing interesting work-for-hire projects to complement.
Do you find you’re more successful in the competitive MMO scene or the iOS market?
We prefer the MMO scene. The iOS market has a serious visibility problem despite the large audience. Since it’s so easy to do an iOS game that the place became crowded in no time.
What was the inspiration behind Bunch of Heroes and its bright, cartoon look and feel?
Bunch of Heroes started as an idea brought by some of the people that work in NGD, prototyped in their spare time. They came to us, pitched it and we decided to bet for it, even though we had no previous experience doing a “self-contained” game. They were playing lots of games of that genre by the time and they wanted to create something that could fit that niche but with a personal touch. The whole concept started from the inception of the main characters and the premise of capitalists and communists fighting together to protect the earth. The political satire required a cartoony look and feel.
What are some challenges you faced during development?
Well, creating a new engine at the same time that you are making a game is always a pain. But we managed to pull it off (again.) I think that the most difficult aspect was to tweak and balance the gameplay and the levels. At the beginning we had very linear environments but we wanted to offer something new. It was quite difficult to come up with interesting things to do and different challenges that work in such an open space. Also, balancing the game for both single player and all the way to 4 player co-op proved very difficult too.
What’s the pricing strategy for Bunch of Heroes?
It’s going to be available for Download in Steam and GamersGate for U$ 10 and we have a retail agreement with the nice people of CD Projekt for Eastern Europe.
What distribution paths have you looked at other than Steam? Are there plans for the game to hit other platforms as well?
We’ve been approached by different distributors and we’re open to evaluate the possibilities that they might bring. We even have a version of the game running on a PS3. But there is nothing that we can announce right now.
We gotta ask: what’s NGD’s stance on the controversial issues of DRM and piracy, and how it affects the indie PC game developer?
We think that DRM is not the right way to fight against piracy. The only way to fight against piracy is to lower all access barriers. I’m talking about price (related to the purchasing power of each territory), availability (worldwide simultaneous releases) and accessibility (how long it takes to from the moment you pay to the moment you play) Digital download platforms are helping a lot.
What other projects can we look forward to out of NGD Studios after Bunch of Heroes is released?
Well, we have a megalomaniac idea for our next MMO and some “downloadable games” too, but it’s too early to talk about them.
If any of our readers visit Buenos Aires, what’s the best place to eat, and what should we order?
Argentina is famous for its meat. So, if you are up for a great “Parrilla” (AKA BBQ) go to “La Cabrera” in Palermo, just ask for a “Bife de Chorizo / Chorizo Steak” and you’ll be in heaven. Argentina is the second largest community of Italian immigrants in the world (after the US) so we have very good Pizza and pasta joints. To me, the best Pizzeria is “El Cuartito”, in Recoleta. At “El Cuartito”, you should also try their Empanadas, a traditional Argentinean stuffed pastry.
Bunch of Heroes hits September 21 on Steam and GamersGate.
ingles?? daaa se supone k en argentina se habla español :(
Caretas pongan la entrevista en ESPAÑOL !!!!!