Top Secret Talk

Following his retrospective at the Austin Game Developer's Conference, Dave Perry spoke exclusively to GamesIndustry.biz. In part one of the interview, the founder of Shiny Entertainment offers thoughts on his new Top Secret MMO project, user-generated content, and why Sony should introduce the PSP 3.0.

The concept is quite simple. Imagine you have a beast like in World of Warcraft - that kind of beast. Some of them will be more aggressive-looking, so imagine that blended with a Tyrannosaurus Rex. So you've got beasts, and you're the rider.

If you think about chicken fighting, for example, where it is about the fighter, it's not about the chickens. Sadly, some chickens are going to die here, but ultimately it's about you. Sometimes you'll get the "star chicken" that's killed ten others...you're going to be nervous around it trying to keep it alive, but it's the one that somehow manages to survive. We're expecting that sort of thing.

Imagine that you're riding on this beast in a race, and there are no rules...meaning that if you want to attack me in the middle of a race, feel free, but I'm going to be doing the same back to you. And we're going to use whatever skills we have to take the other people down while we're racing. The idea is that you're the rider and the beast is your vehicle, but you're not vulnerable while you are on the beast.

If people are attacking you, the beast will take a hammering on your behalf. If the beast is knocked out or killed, it will go down, and you are going to be on the ground. You can either run for the finish line or start to use some of your skills to recover your beast. You'll be trying to heal the beast and get back on to finish the race before someone comes along and takes your head off your shoulders or just tramples you. There will be all kinds of interesting stuff.

If they had come up with Mario Kart, I wouldn't have wanted to continue. But they didn't. They came up with a driving game I've never heard of before that I would love to experience. That's why I've decided to keep going.

The [Top Secret] concept is a little different. Its basically disruptive innovation in that you have an industry that works in a certain way. If you are an indie team, it is so hard to break in. It is not easy to come and say 'I need a bunch of money' to make one of these games. Especially for an original title that's not a license. It is very difficult to break in. The cost of the engines and everything else makes it even worse.

What we're effectively doing is disrupting the way things are being done. So much so that, if this works...For my career, this is really something that I just want to do. This is not something that, if it doesn't work out, I'll go bankrupt. For me it is interesting. I'm willing to do it so see what happens. It could change everything.

Imagine if this game becomes a bit of a phenomenon. At every college, everyone is suddenly going to have a new belief in their ability. You'll just see a lot more innovative stuff that people are willing to take huge risks upon. It could disrupt the way games are made today. I definitely want to be someone who tries it and doesn't just talk about it.

It will either work or fail, but at the end of the day I think a lot of [development] teams will come out of it. There's a really good chance we are going to bring some people into the business. I think that's healthy.

I can't really see how it won't happen. It wouldn't have happened easily before. It was a market that didn't change - we're making full-priced games, we're selling full-priced games, if you're not making full-priced games, forget about it.

But then comes Xbox Live Arcade...they seem very open-minded. If you come up with something that people want to play, no matter how odd it is, I think that's going to give it a chance. flOw is a great example on the PlayStation 3. It's actually very addictive when you try it, and it is selling a lot, and it's completely out there.

And that, to me, is very much what this is all about. Giving those kind of people a chance to demonstrate they have something. Xbox Live is the perfect avenue, and XNA Express, the development system...I'm very supportive of that. I'm trying to keep a close eye on that market, because I think that could be our way into the console world.

Maybe if this competition succeeds we'll move on to doing XNA Express or something as the second one to see if we could get a console game built by the community.

Number one, if they want to be seen to be innovating, they will take it seriously. Number two, there's a large community of people who want it and were involved. If I end up with a million downloads of the PC version and we want to do it on Xbox Live and they don't think it's a good idea, then they're just crazy...someone needs to be fired.

Ultimately, they seem to get it. So I don't even think it would take a lot of explanation over there because they [Microsoft] are in the PC world as well. They have massive investments in the space. Look up Photosynth and see what they are thinking about user-generated content. They are innovators in the space.

If the game is good, we'll be alright. If the game is ass, it will be an impossible battle.

We'll give them access to the tools. That's the sad part. If you look at a competition on XNA right now, the last one I saw had a USD 10,000 prize....it's not any help to anybody. It's not making anyone's life change. They would much rather prefer a Microsoft publishing contract. Give them a real prize and you'll be able to do what we're doing, which is much more exciting.

We've been approached by engine companies and by tool manufacturers, because they want their tools to be used by the community, but we don't want to be forcing anything on anyone. The only reason we make them go to ModCenter is because we want everyone in one place so we can monitor things. I want to get a feel for where we are at, and how many games are being done.

The fact that they are still supporting the PSP and giving it updates is fantastic. So give them a pat on the back for that. The fact that the new PSP isn't download-only is a head in the sand move.

I'm watching the new iPod, with Wi-Fi, allowing you to download your music right into it. I mean, do we have to draw [Sony] a picture or something? It is so obvious where you have to go, and they don't seem to be able to grasp the concept.

No, what I would do is have some piece of software inside the PSP that would validate you have a certain game, sends off the code, and unlocks it for storage. It's a bit like when you get a new Mac and you go to the store and say 'I honestly did buy all those songs' and they say 'Yes, you did. You're good to go.' It should be like that. There should be some authentication system, and then I can download them on the fly.

I'd much rather carry in my PSP a collection of games. Even if I have them on UMD, I would rather not bring the UMDs with me. I think that is trivial to solve.

It would be possible to have an OS update that authenticates the discs you pop in and unlocks them on an iTunes-type server. If you lost or broke your old PSP before buying the new PSP Digital, you could throw your old UMD discs in an envelope and Sony could unlock the digital version of those games on your account (and then give them to a game playing charity like getwellgamers.org).

The new PSP Digital would not require a memory stick--it would come in 4GB & 8GB models. Unlike iPods, however, it would offer an expansion slot for memory sticks. All your game data is safe--If your PC dies, you can always download the library again; if you drop the PSP in the bathtub, you have the games on PC.

As with iTunes, before going on a trip, you can choose the songs, games, movies, podcasts, and photos to take with you. It syncs and it's simple. If you forgot to grab something from your library, you can even do that later on the road with Wifi.

Whoever is in charge of that department just needs to take a look at what is going on in the real world. The UMD is a dead format. It's a waste of money, time, and investment. It's battery-sucking, pocket-filling...it's also scratchable, which is even more dumb. For technology you encase in plastic, but then leave open a little hole to get scratched? Digital seems to me the way to go.

I'll tell you the reason why I think it is the way it is. The honest truth, because I'm not censored. The truth is, the stores will not carry PSPs unless they feel they are going to get a piece of the action on the back end. And Sony has not come up with an innovative business model that can support that concept. Meaning, go ahead and sell our hardware, and we'll cut you in on the digital sales. Right now, no one seems to have a plan there. So the answer is we have to keep selling stupid UMD disks to keep the retailers happy to keep the PSPs in the store. That's my opinion.

The day that Sony comes up with a shared revenue system for PSP...it will have to be PSP 3.0 now...keep selling them, and we will do an automatic cut of all sales to the stores based upon the units they purchased. Maybe its an even slightly better deal because there is no cost of goods, and shipping, insurance, and warehousing is all out the window...so maybe the store gets a little bit more. And they get more of their shelf space back, which is their most valuable asset.

Maybe someone at Sony can put together a PowerPoint to convince retailers that this is a good idea. If I was at Sony, I'd be working on that PowerPoint - how to get all the stores excited about this idea. They're going to have to sell this anyway for digital distribution in the future.

Right now, retailers are allowing them to do these little game downloads, and that's why they have to lock memory limits and everything else. They can't be seen to be selling full-priced games without retailer involvement, because they are trying to sell their machines as cheaply as possible at retail.

Someone's going to innovate and be the first to do it. If I worked at any of these companies, I would be all over that like a rash. That's going to cause everyone else to have follow suit.

Is iTunes successful? Seems to be to me. It is much harder to be the first. But you aren't the first any more. It's already been proven.