Saying Hello to Hello
The MD of indie outfit Hello Games, Sean Murray, talks about the experience of starting out from scratch
A few weeks ago a new game was announced called Joe Danger - a quirky motorbike title described in a Eurogamer preview as a "stunt-'em-up" - from a small team in Guildford called Hello Games.
They've only existed for about a year, and this is their first title - but with a lot riding on its success, they'll be hoping it can appeal to a strong digital audience. Here the company's MD, Sean Murray, explains why the team left the relative comfort of good jobs elsewhere to strike out on their own, and outlines some of the challenges they've come across in their journey so far.
[smiles] We thought we'd get in at the bottom and ride the wave to the top... There was a basic need, I'd describe it as. We'd all gone into game because we loved them, starting in our various jobs at Criterion, Climax, Sumo and those places - for me, and the guys as well, it was our dream job and we were in awe of people who made games growing up.
So when we met, and as we were friends, there was almost an assumption that this is what we were going to do. I'd meet people in the industry and without saying anything about it to them they'd ask when we were going to set up on our own - because all we did was talk about games and the things we want to do.
But it wasn't the case we were terribly unhappy where we were or anything, we just wanted to steer our own ship... though it's more than that, it's the exposure to everything that is the industry. Getting to do all of that for yourself is an amazing thing.
We don't have a designer, we don't have a business manager - we do all of that, wear all the different hats. We've got one artist, so he does everything, as well as animation, and that's a brilliant feeling to be able to do. I think the type of games we wanted to make were a driving factor as well.
Absolutely - I'd describe our feelings on starting up as giddiness, really. We were back rediscovering a love of games and the industry, and you go back to the basics. You start thinking about your friends playing games, rather than the end consumer and that's brilliant - but it's also terrifying, because if the game is bad it's all you... there's no one else to blame.
I think we were lucky before in that we had relatively senior roles, and we could impact the games we were working on, but when you're doing that you become a lead and you stop coding, for instance. So we have now that feeling of when we first started - learning a lot. You're not trying to direct a team, just yourself, and it's all about what you put in - every hour you work on the game makes it an hour better.
There's no barrier to changing things either - you have complete control over that... but again, going back to the rocket launcher example, you can absolutely destroy yourself with that... an infinite ability to f*** it all up.