Just 17 - Part One

Team 17's Martyn Brown talks Worms, Alien Breed, and living the online self-publishing dream

Feature by Phil Elliott Contributor

Published on July 15, 2009

GamesIndustry.biz Why is it all coming together now? Is it the maturity of the downloadable platforms? Is it that the technology is right?

Martyn Brown

I think it's pretty much everything. You look at the speed of broadband, you look at the amount of users on Live Arcade, iPhone, PSN, you look at the cultural acceptance of people buying things digitally with the App Store and things like that - not so long ago people were reluctant to spend over the internet, but now they're used to it.

Technology-wise things like Unreal is around, the next-gen platforms and all the rest of it, so we can make very attractive things much, much quicker than we probably could before.

So it's an amalgamation of everything - plus our own experience, our own IP - it's kind of like the stars are aligned. We're in quite a good, dare I say, a unique spot almost as an indie - particularly looking around at the moment there's not a lot of others in this position. But it's taken twenty years for it to happen... it's a nice place to be right now.

GamesIndustry.biz Digital distribution is a huge buzz phrase right now, as evidenced by the popularity of the recent BAFTA/GamesIndustry.biz event - although I get the impression that while there's a lot of interest, there aren't that many people that are in a position to take advantage of it, at least on the Xbox and PlayStation platforms.

Martyn Brown

I was pleased to see that event at BAFTA, and obviously there is a buzz about it - but my perception of it is that everybody thinks it's a great place to be and should do something about it. As somebody who's been involved with it for three or four years, I know the momentum needed to actually get involved, so unless it's people who are into it now... I think a lot of these gates are closing. The quality bars are rising, and people really have to put up or shut up.

It is all going that way - I think the tipping point was mentioned at GameHorizon this year, but for us that's already happened. But for other people there are different tipping points. There's no looking back for us, we've left retail behind.

GamesIndustry.biz I remember talking to people shortly after Live Arcade launched and it was feasible to put out a reasonble game with a team of about five or so, and a development period of about nine months. How does that compare with the forthcoming Alien Breed title?

Martyn Brown

Alien Breed's probably 30 people, and probably by the time it's finished about 16 months of development time. I think the title looks a lot bigger than that in its final form, it's surprised a lot of people, but at the end of the day that's a three-part episodic title across three platforms as well, so for us it makes a lot of sense to build it that way.

However, for a small start-up, to get funding of perhaps GBP 1.5-2 million by the time we've finished... that's big money in digital download right now, but it's something we started a while ago. That's the point we're at now, while other people are still talking about small download games, and that's really the wrong thinking - the larger sort of PlayStation 2 budgets at the back-end of that transition is where we're at now for digital download.

Yes, it's a different market, serving a different audience, but there's certainly room for it.

GamesIndustry.biz Ultimately people will still appreciate quality.

Martyn Brown

Yeah, and we're not competing with the Gears of Wars, or Halos - it's a different market place.