GameAxis: So what’s the state of Gas Powered Games so far?

Chris Taylor: So far, we’re surviving this economic crisis. And yes, my colon is still healthy. Seriously, we’re doing good, we’ve got great partners like Square Enix (for Supreme Commander 2), we have another unannounced partner. Demigod is continuing to sell at a steady rate. I wish it was going faster in this economic climate, but you know, you can’t ask for too much.

GAX: When you’re getting ideas here and there for your games, are there any other genres you look at apart from the one most familiar to you (RPGs and RTSs)?

CT: You know, I really, really loved Battlefield 1942. In terms of companies being typecasted with a genre or two; as a business, you can’t split the company’s focus. For instance, when doing RTSs and RPGs, it’s hard to maintain that core competancy and core expertise, even across two genres. Going to encapsulate more from that is really hard; even big companies stick to one area and get really good on it; go deep on it. That’s the one thing I learned the hard way: something shiny is in my way that I want to crack, I can’t chase it. I kinda have to stay in an area (of genre expertise), and if I do otherwise, I have to understand the consequences, right?

There’s a risk of retraining the whole company in an area. Usually, when you build a company, you see the team’s interest because they would like a particular genre. They like RPGs, they like RTSs, so what I’m trying to do is to bring RPGs and RTSs together. There’s some RPG elements in Supreme Commander 2 with the skill tree and the tech tree. And yes, the lessons we learned from Demigod, we’re bringing it into Supreme Commander 2. So, it’s interesting to bring those together and carve out something new, but at the same time get good at it.

GAX: How do you come about selecting these genres, or come about reshaping them into “something new” like you stated?

CT: There’s a phenomenon that happens when you set up a studio: when you set up a genre, you’re branded with that genre. There was a man at the D.I.C.E who has a Gameboy and DS game developing studio; if he were to go and pitch an idea for a Xbox 360 or PS3 title, publishers would go, “But you’re a Gameboy /DS studio, what are you thinking?” So you can get branded to a platform or a genre.

You have to be very careful, but when we founded Gas Powered Games, when we created Dungeon Siege, that’s what created the branding DNA for the company. To change it mid-stream would be possible, but it’ll come at a really high cost. You have to have hindsight for these sort of things before you start a company. If I knew about what Gas Powered Games have become 11 years from now, I would have approached the idea a little bit different then. But because my true love was RTSs and RPGs, I did okay, but I did do things that were off-target.

GAX: Does it take a while to come up with a new game that meshes in different components from other genres?

CT: Yes. When you create a hybrid, you’re gonna have to spend a lot more time prototyping. You have to see if that model/hybrid would work. But it doesn’t mean it’s going to be expensive, it just means that it’ll take more time. When you have four or five people working on a prototype, it’s inexpensive when compared to doing such things during production. If you’re going to experiment, do it early.

If you talk to Sid Meier, he’s all about the prototyping. He’s been doing it for 20+ years. He knows how to design, code, the works, and also throws away ideas constantly. Blizzard does it, but we don’t hear about it, and they can spend a whole lot of money. They can spend millions on a concept and throw it way; thus not hearing about it. I like to do it, but inexpensively. I’m an independent developer and times are a-changing, so we gotta be a lot more careful.

GAX: After Supreme Commander 2 is said and done, would you go for the XBLA and PSN model?

CT: Not if I can keep making proposals for games in the genre, or if I keep getting good publishing partners on said genre. However, I would love to see Demigod on XBLA; that would work. There’s also some other possibilities in doing it there, but staying within the genre, you know? Also, I would love to see Total Annihilation remade for XBLA.

I have a concept I haven’t announced that takes RPG elements and RTS elements, and it mixes it in a way that turns into a casual massively single-player game. I’ve got a prototype of it on my Macbook. I tried the prototype on Java but it was too slow, so I switched to OpenGl C++ based. That’s what I mean earlier on about sticking to your genre while switching target market and switching to a brand new platform.

GAX: Do you think the PC business is still viable even with the steep competition with console gaming?

CT: No. We have to change the economic picture here. PC games like World of Warcraft, it’s one of those rare instances where you can spend a hundred million dollars on and make money. I see it flowing back and forth over the years. I have a hunch that the next generation of consoles or machines, say a PS4, is gonna be a lot more like the kind of architecture we can draw on a whiteboard, because Sony’s learned that the byzantine era of game development is hard for those who just want to make a game. We’re probably going to see a more homogenous or simpler architecture. Fifty years from now, it might be a simpler and cleaner picture. But that could be just fantasy, you know?

When you get to the end of a console’s life, the PC is extraordinarily powerful and capable. We’ll see all the 64-bit OSs all penetrated; new things being introduced here and there while consoles also do the same. I admit that the consoles have been taking people out of the PC gaming market, but with Facebook and iPhone, there are other players in the game now. I mean, look at FarmVille: 11 million people playing it. This business is getting wild, because it’s changing faster and faster.

If you were to go back 20 years and measure each cycle by 5-year increments, it hasn’t really changed that much. You had Wing Commander 1, and then you have Strike Commander. Now, it’s flying all over the place, with people coming in and making games with the tools and technology in place. Where was this 20 years ago when I was in the business when I had to write the code to program the sound and music by hand?

Again, let’s go back to 50 years from now. The scale of technology to game design will tip over to game design’s favor, meaning there’s less emphasis over tech and more on making good game ideas.

GAX: So in the end, it’s safe to assume that you would rather see more original I.P in the works.

CT: Well, I love doing original I.P, but from a realistic standpoint, it’s not that hard doing sequels since the groundwork’s established and give your brain a bit of a break. In a perfect world, you would much rather do two to three originals, then a sequel. Look at Hollywood and Steven Spielberg. He’s done Goonies, Jaws, Close Encounters of The Third Kind, E.T. Would you rather he went the other way and did Jaws XVII? No, because he’s gonna run off and make Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List. Sure, he did all the Indiana Jones, but in the end he enjoys doing that (both original I.Ps and sequels). Variety is indeed the spice of life.