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> Press Releases 2003
January 9th, 2004 - Montreal, Canada
Flashbang Studios uses Virtools' technology for downloadable games. Have a look at one of the first downloadable game developped with the Virtools technology. This game is finalist of the Independant Game Festival . Interview of the CEO of Flashbang Studios : Matthew Wegner. Matthew Wegner bio : Matthew Wegner is co-founder and CEO of Flashbang Studios, LLC. Flashbang is currently finishing development on their 2 nd and 3 rd casual games, as well as providing contract prototyping services to the game industry at large. Flashbang's first casual game, Beesly's Buzzwords, has been commercially well-received since its launch in fall 2003 as well as selected as a finalist for the Independent Games Festival 2004. Matthew is also a frequent speaker and coordinator for the IGDA Phoenix chapter. Q: How did you get into the game industry? (& bio) Beesly's Buzzwords is actually my first commercial game project. I've been involved in a number of large-scale hobby projects prior to Buzzwords, and have always maintained a close proximity to the game industry. I started going to the Game Developer's Conference when I was 18, which has always been a big inspiration (this year will be my fifth conference). Q: Would you like to tell us about Flashbang studios? There's a lot of advice out there against starting a company with friends or family. Flashbang's founding members are my brother and two close friends from college, and we've been fairly successful so far. It's been a lot of hard work, and our relationship outside of work can make things awkward when someone is putting in less effort than everyone else, but it is possible. I'd just like to say that if you're considering starting a company with some friends after college—or quitting your day job to do it—definitely go for it. It's worth it in the end. Q: What is the purpose of Buzzword? Beesly's Buzzwords is a word spelling game for the casual market. Developing for the casual market is an interesting challenge. All design decisions need to take the market's mentality and reasoning into consideration. The casual market is primarily non-gamers; people who don't play consoles or other mainstream games. We tried to imagine the perspective of a 35 year-old soccer mom in judging our decisions. Our agenda for creating a casual game as our first title was one of practicality. We identified the casual market as a viable target for our skills, funding (none), and timeline. We simply felt it was something that was feasible and potentially profitable, which seemed like a really good way to start a company. Q: How did you decide to publish it? Our focus is on 3 rd -party distribution channels. A lot of independent game developers prefer to handle all sales and marketing themselves. While we are running our own sales at www.playbuzzwords.com , we believed that maturing our own storefront to the point of profitability would be an overextension of our skills and capabilities. There are distribution channels out there that do a very good job of targeting the casual gamer, and as a result that have tremendously large customer bases. These channels—RealOne Arcade, Big Fish Games, etc—are our primary targets for distribution. Q: How long did it take to develop? What was the composition of your team? It's hard to say exactly how long it took to develop, since Flashbang started out with no funding in our free time. Everyone on the team had other part- or full-time jobs at some point in the project. The total project time span was six months, out of which three were probably full-time work for the two primary developers. The team is as follows: programmer, primary artist, secondary artist, and music composer. Audio production was contracted to a second company, who had two engineers work on the project under the guidance of our composer. Three people worked locally (myself and the artists) and three remotely (all audio). Q: What led to the decision to use Virtools? We were actually using Virtools before Flashbang for hobby work, including a 4-month project entered into the Independent Games Festival 2003. We started using Virtools because it enabled rapid and complex development with no system-level programming. The visual schematic-based scripting is very appealing to us. I'm the only programmer in the company, yet I'd be hard-pressed to create a spinning cube DirectX demo with C++. In contrast, I can create very complex projects with Virtools. Q: Can you compare the procedure for preparing Buzzword with Dev to a traditional production process? Honestly, I can't, simply because we don't have the capabilities to create a traditionally-produced game. I consider myself more of a scripter than a programmer; we don't have anyone capable of engine programming. Q: Could you tell me more about your next project? We're currently developing two casual titles, both of which are 2D games. While it may seem strange to use an engine as powerful as Virtools for 2D games, our long-term goal is to introduce 3D games to the casual market. Using Virtools allows us to scale our games' technology from 2D all the way up to cutting-edge 3D without changing our development process or pipeline. About Virtools™ Founded in 1993, Virtools™ enables Global 2000 companies and their integrators, as well as game studios, to develop and deploy 3D applications with game-like interactivity. Costs and timeframes are kept under control through a scalable set of software and server-based solutions that reduce the risks associated with developing interactive applications. France Telecom, EDF, EADS, American Department of Energy, Intel
and the CEA are among the growing number of companies which have
benefited from Virtools technology. Using Virtools, clients reduce
development costs and increase interactivity. Virtools software
is used by online and offline game development studios including:
Electronic Arts, Dreamcatcher, Microïds, Microsoft Ensemble
Studios, Warner Bros Online, Blue Fang Games and Ubisoft.
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