Click through for the last part of our in-depth discussion with Relentless Software’s David Amor!
The Buzz Schools was an interesting release – is that something you’ll do again?
DA: I think what we’d like to do is produce question packs - I’d love to put one out for every school year or every subject then put it on the PlayStation Store for people to download. People like it, it’s a good game, but for Nintendo, in order to get people to play Brain Training, they ran an absolutely enormous marketing campaign. I think it’s quite hard to let a really, non-standard set of people know about those games… so I think we’ll end up doing schools content, educational content, as question packs for people to download.
I was playing the philosophy quiz this morning, which is user-generated, so there are some more cerebral things going on, and I’d love to think that a teacher somewhere is using their end of term week to create quizzes and bringing them all together for an end of year face-off, that would be awesome.
Do you see Buzz dominating your immediate future? I saw from your website that there’s a ’secret project’ on the go…
Yes, it’s not just Buzz that we’re working on. Buzz eats everything in its path sometimes, because there’s a lot of demand for Buzz games, but I want to demonstrate that we can do something other than Buzz, which we can, I’m quite sure. Also, the people who’ve been here since 2003 are saying ‘erm… is there anything after Buzz?’. We have creative people in the office and it’s important we give them something fresh to work on. I’ve got friends at EA who’ve been drawing the inside of Hogwarts for many years, so you don’t always get to do new stuff, but, yeah, it’s important to us to have something new going on in the background.
Is it still in the casual genre?
There are two reasons why it will be in the social or casual genre as you call it. One is, it’s what we know how to do – I think if I was to try and do a driving game, I’d find it difficult to compete against Gran Turismo, Forza and the Bizarre Creations games – I’m smart enough to know what we’re good at. The second thing is, FPS games, driving games… those genres have been around for ages, so it’s quite hard to come up with something innovative that no one has seen before. But with social games, well, we’re still in the first three years… there are loads and loads of really incredible ideas that haven’t happened yet. Our brainstorm meetings are amazing, we come up with some really off the wall things . It’s difficult to know quite how popular they’re going to be, because it’s an unproven market – that’s the flipside. But it’s really interesting, to come up with a really whacky idea and ask, ‘will people really like that?’. Well, they liked the quiz game…
How do you see casual games evolving then? Do you see overall trends developing?
Somebody asked me once, what you think will be the next big genre. If you look at the pattern between all of the successful casual titles, whether its Buzz, or Guitar Hero or SingStar, they all do things that people are familiar with in the first place. So I said, I thought the next big peripheral might be a knife and fork. I’m not really saying it will be, but the point is, you don’t have to tell people what to do with them, it’s immediately clear. So if you can find something with a real-world counterpart – playing the guitar, being a quiz show contestant – you don’t have to explain anything, people are already thinking, ‘hey, I’d like a go at that’.
Is your secret project based around a specific peripheral?
I can’t say. But it’s not a knife and fork.
That’s a shame, it sounds quite interesting. Cooking games are big at the moment, maybe Eating games are the next step?
Yeah, I said it as a joke, but perhaps I should have kept quiet about that one…
Well, if you don’t do it, we will…
Life with Playstation that has launched today has seemed to broken automatic shutdown in folding@home…
Before I could select a minimum of 10 mins, now it is 1 hour. I dont mind as normally set it for 1 or 2 hours…
(when downloading/ charging my joypad)
But what I do mind that there is no countdown clock now. So I have no idea if automatic shutdown is in fact “on”, and since now I can’t “test” with 10 mins now…
I have to leave it for an hour now to see if it does in fact turn off…
Also no zoom when viewing the news renders Life useless…
Got a 50″ HD tv and 20:20 vision, I can just about read the news… God knows what it will be on other peoples set-up…
Yes its a freebie, but messing with folding@home for no real benefit is a big NO NO!
*end rant*
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Oh, and sorry if I come of as a rich git, I’m not…
Just I’m 27 a still don’t drive yet have saved a fortune not paying: car payments/ insurance, petrol, road-tax all these years, so have invested what I have saved, back into my hobbies
(gaming being a major one)
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
What the heck has this got to do with Buzz?!
Anyhow, you’re complaining with a 50” HDTV? Do you want to know what (news) I can read on my 28” Sony CRT? Ziltch, ZERO, nothing! For the rest though, it’s looking good. Just add more cities please (Oporto and Lisbonwould be great
Comment by Ricardo — Sep 18, 2008 @ 2:22 pm
@richardo
Yes its got nothing to do with buzz, but as Threespeech and “latest breaking news” tend to be distance relatives, posting my comments here is the best I could do…
And yes think “god knows what it will be *like* on other peoples setup” my rant covers you too
(I missed like out)
But my biggest moan is the one thing that made me use folding@home on a regular basis, auto shutdown, now appears to be broken…
We’ll find out in bit tho, testing now…
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 2:59 pm
*update*
logged back in, CAN set timer to 10 mins…
But still no countdown clock,
least I can test if it turns off, ten mins to go….
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 3:25 pm
Yes it does, just as before, but now without a countdown…
(sorry for rant)
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 3:47 pm
Are we freaking serious??? Why don’t you post on an appropriate thread???
Other than that…what else do people know to do….rubber dolls woman size are out of question I hope
Comment by TopGunZ — Sep 18, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
@7 [TopGunZ]:
Is that dolls that are not midgets or dolls that are sized for women?
Either way, posting random information in unrelated blog entries is part of the fun of the Three Speech experience.
@1/@2 [Mr M.]:
Ah, yes, 20 quid a week to your Mum for “the house”, and eating 100+ notes worth of food… if only we all knew how ‘reasonable’ living with your parents was before we moved out
I have two cars to support.
Could you denote to my gaming hobby too, please?
Back to the topic, mind…
“I was playing the philosophy quiz this morning, which is user-generated, so there are some more cerebral things going on, and I’d love to think that a teacher somewhere is using their end of term week to create quizzes and bringing them all together for an end of year face-off, that would be awesome.”
I don’t think some students (and teachers?) need trouble getting off their face towards the end of term.
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Sep 18, 2008 @ 8:44 pm
@TopGunz
Can you see a Threespeech post about Life with Playstation?
Er no…. You might tomorrow…
(knowing threespeechs finger on pulse - update habits)
But I do apologise, poor David Amor, he might look at the comments here and die a little inside at the fact nobody has really talked about the game or about the final part of the interview…
Maybe the next commentator can make a far more relevant statement than I have in this post
(not thread - its not a forum!)
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
OK, I’ll repeat myself from the first part of the interview…
Magenta Software are credited with “Buzz! Junior: Jungle Party”.
A quick ‘google’ & it transpires that in November 2007, Magenta Software won a British Academy Children’s BAFTA for that title:
[ bafta.org/awards/childrens/previous-nominations-and-winners,53,BA.html ]
The title won against “Crash of the Titans” [Wii], “Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix” [Xbox 360], & “LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga” [DS].
(”Buzz! The Schools Quiz” was nominated, but lost out to some educational software thing)
I did once ask my kids if they wanted the “Buzz! The Schools Quiz” title, and I was met with responses that if repeated here would be kept in the moderation queue for life!
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Sep 18, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
@fp
I will donate to your DVD collection, if you send me your address
(via PSN of course)
Yes I remember the days when I used to go out every night too, once a month if I am lucky these days…
If only I knew then what I knew now…
*sigh*
anyway let the “on topic” discussion commence….
Comment by Mr. Monkey — Sep 18, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
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