Dashing Blade

You probably know Blade Interactive as 'the snooker guys'. They've been developing the World Championship Snooker series for Codemasters, and now Sega, for almost every format on the market.

By their own admission they've focused on that single niche for some time. But with original projects in the works including titles for digital download, mobile game development and a next-gen action game, Blade has been patiently waiting to make a much bigger stamp on the gaming landscape.

GamesIndustry.biz recently visited Blade's Manchester studio and sat down with Peter Jones, joint managing director, and technical director Gary Leach to discuss dominating a niche, keeping next-gen title Hydrophobia under wraps for seven years, and surviving the lean console phase.

Peter Jones: We wanted to set Blade up to work on original product, which distinguishes us from the modus operandi of a majority of developers looking to do work for hire. We like to create our own games and our own intellectual products - if you're going to run a games company you should be creating nice products, that's what we all wanted to do from the very start.

We also set Blade up to work on new technology. As a company we've been one of the few developers to be the first to release a PlayStation 1 game, a PlayStation 2 game, a PSP game and now a PlayStation 3 game. And now mobile gaming is very much an extension of our activities. We regard mobile as cutting edge.

Peter Jones: It was actually very scientific. The holy grail of our industry is a reproducible IP; Electronic Arts has been proving that for years. There was this sports niche out there that didn't really have any representation in terms of an official licensed product. We took the licence of the World Snooker Association and a number of associated licenses like the BBC theme music and the competition details.

Over the years we've expanded our licence set until we've dominated that niche. As well as the licensing we've dominated the niche by making a bloody good game. If you're the best there's no need for consumers to go with any other option.

Gary Leach: There have been occasions where it's been a burden, but we've also been in some fantastic situations were people immediately know the name and know exactly what we do. People do typecast you because it's easy, but we can prove to anyone that we're so much more than one genre or one niche product.

Peter Jones: We're rightly proud of the snooker products but we've always wanted to show that we're a lot more than that. One of the problems in our industry is that people like to typecast. We associate a company with one particular type of game.

We're very much more than that. At the moment we're expanding and doing a lot more things. We've got a big R&D team, we've set up a new mobile company and we've got this big survival adventure game for next-generation consoles which is going to be an absolutely colossal game.

Gary Leach: In terms of spearheading technology, snooker has given us a lot of very good springboards for the next game. When you've got a new prospect on the horizon like PS3 or Xbox 360, we can break into that new market using something that we know and understand - such as snooker - with technology we can produce quite readily, and then take that same technology and apply it to a new project.

Peter Jones: It's a proven brand so the platform holders want it on their new technology. There's a lot of brand loyalty and a good reason why it's number one.

Peter Jones: This is absolutely the right time to establish it on the market. We've been very patient with this. This era of gaming is the new golden era for console games. We believe very strongly that this market is just about to take off. It went through its lean years.

The new technology is great, but there's another change happening as well. A lot of companies are struggling to make the transition from the previous generations to next-gen. We've made that transition by investing in toolsets and art assets. The market is really out there.

We started this investment in Hydrophobia a long time ago. When the first PlayStation 2 development kits were being delivered we were working on a prototype and that was in 2000. For a small company like ourselves we've got an R&D department that has been working on this for a long time. The technology is out there now to do it justice.

What people want - and I don't care whether it's a new console or a new handset - they want a reason and an endorsement of why they have bought that technology. They want to feel the reason why they have spent over GBP 400 on a PlayStation 3 or almost GBP 300 on a Xbox 360. They don't just want another first-person shooter. They want to have a qualitative difference.

It works like this with all sorts of products from cars to consoles. You want to pat yourself on the back for the wise purchase you've made; now it's all about expanding the experience. What we've done through our technology is create something that no other game has ever done.

Peter Jones: The technology now is fully complete, it's fully working, the game is fleshed out and we've started construction of the game. And it's bloody awesome.

We're a bit quirky as a company. A lot of companies start a new project and try to licence it at an early stage when there's nothing to really see. Part of the reason for that is that we can afford to develop it to a later stage, but Hydrophobia is our baby and there are certain things we want to do with it.

Peter Jones: It was our intention originally to use it as middleware because it's a very powerful tool. The honest answer is that ultimately we'd consider licensing it out but we want to exploit it first.

Peter Jones: It's central to our vision of being an independent developer, although we've done work for other people that have been good projects.

Gary Leach: I would say that if that was your core business you do run the risk of running from one project to the next, living hand-to-mouth. We give ourselves a lot more self direction this way but it can also be a lot harder. You've got to believe in your vision enough to see it through the lean times.

What that basically means is that you turn the model around so instead of going towards your next payment you're moving away from your last. It's a slight shift in emphasis but it's an important shift; it gives us our freedom.

Peter Jones: In the lean years of the console market there were so many companies in the Manchester area - Warthog, Software Creations, Acclaim's development studio, Runecraft, Rage - but now we're the only one. We must do something right.

A lot of those companies built up a very big workforce and it's a big overhead to keep that many people on staff. All it takes is to miss out on a few big contacts and you have a very serious problem. We're a very tight team, a cohesive company that works together really well.

Gary Leach: It's not a lot of staff for the quality of work we do, and that defines our approach. We have never been a company to take our tight group of staff and go up against Electronic Arts or whoever on an equal basis. We won't just do the same kind of technology or the same kind of games - we'll always produce technology that leverages the advantages we do have.

We have unique advantages. When you're a company this size you control everything so well. We're very efficient and each one of our people gets so much more done that the equivalent persons in a much bigger team.

Peter Jones: The plan is to grow to around 50 members of staff and even that is quite small. But the number of people on the ground doesn't necessarily equate to success.