Yakub Dvorski is a Czech designer who came up with space dandelions, a gnome in felt boots and a night cap, gums, huts and crumbs, as well as a cute sensitive Joseph robot, swimming in a cane with oil and a mechanical cat – in general, the worlds of Samoost and Motorium. Looking at his games, publishers talk about a special East European style, and university teachers read the course of visual communications according to his quests. Sergei Klimov talked with Yakub for his life and found out why the studio did not drink on the occasion of the release, how the Indie-Igra changed recently and what in common for all Eastern European developers.
Yakub, hello! We went to you on wonderful Czech roads. We had your address in Brno, but I had never been to Brno before and did not know what to expect: would you live in a small wooden house on the corner of the park or in some old stone castle on the hill ..
Hello! A wooden house – it would be very nice. But there are no such in Brno. You will be tea?
Yes! Green. And you know, we were not at all disappointed when we arrived. You got a gorgeous manner – no doubt that it is here that it lives well and works for the creator " Self Big Win Box Casino -Rostov " And " Machine ".
(smiles) Why? Because I have such a mess?
Because you live on the attic, in the old Austro-Hungarian mansion. This is the classic of the genre! Developers King’s Bounty They should live in a pine forest, and the author of the Machine -um – in a fabulously beautiful city, on the top floor of the mansion, where you can see how old trams turn on the city square.
Brno I love, it's true. We are quiet here, you can work calmly.
And in Prague isn't it quiet?
You know, there are wonderful corners in Prague, and there are also tourist places where it is better not to appear, otherwise they will trample. If I move, I will find something in the area of the park. Or in the area of the old cemetery. So that no one distracts.
And you plan to move?
Sooner or later will have to, probably. Business meetings are always in Prague. Here with you, how many times have we seen in a year? And all the time in Prague, the first time you reached Brno. In addition, I have a girlfriend now from Prague. Yes, I don't mind, it's beautiful there.
Well, Brno is also very beautiful, by the way. You saw the hotel in which we stopped? Wonderful building!
I didn't want to upset you, but it was not a hotel before. I first wanted to write about it when you sent me a link, but then changed my mind.
There, what, the police station was?
Worse. Children's dental clinic. My parents took me there.
Damn it!
It happens with us. The second life of the city, priorities have changed. It used to be important for the clinic in the center to be, and it is not so important in which house. And now it turned out that it was much better to open a hotel in such an old building.
You know, it's just like games. Previously, they looked at the engine, how the water was drawn, how much can you bring the camera. And now – more and more on the script, on the characters. “Machine” in this regard is indicative: players are simply diving into the world invented, and all – a complete immersion. You worked on the game for a long time?
Three years.
And how do you like these three years?
These were three good years. Maybe I would like to complain about something, but in fact there is nothing to. To work in a joy.
Honestly?
Honestly. I do not know, maybe this is due to the fact that we are an indie command and the owners ourselves. Often in postmortems of American studios, you read about the Adovovs of the Film of the whole team, the struggle inside the team. We had nothing like that. They worked a lot, but did not swear, they also did not sit down at night. With a game like ours, it is impossible to make yourself come up with something. To make it good, you have to be in a good mood.
And how many people did the "Machine"?
Seven, this is the largest composition in the history of the "Amanites". Especially when compared with the composition that is made by “Self -Story” (the Samorost quest Yakub Dvorski made alone when he studied at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague.- Approx. "Gambling").
And these seven are mostly employees or old acquaintances?
We are all friends in studying, old orders. We used to intersect to animations, on book projects, and even now we sometimes work together outside the studio.
And what feelings from such a team?
Wonderful. It’s good when you are not alone – I can say to everyone who is going to make your game. And in terms of motivation, and in terms of comments, criticism, worthy of ideas. If you have a team, you will make a completely different game, because with friends many things are much easier. We were instilled at the Academy: “A work as a result of the work of a creative team”, you know? It is extremely rare that the brilliant director could take a good picture by itself – without close work with the operator, with the artist of the project.
Understand. This is a common topic for new teams. By the way-the survival of studios, where there are several partners-friends, are much higher than studios created by single developers.
And now, when you have completed the project, the game went on sale, what do you say? You are happy or vice versa – there used to be a dream, but now no?
I am happy. Without fools.
It's very nice to hear: at least someone is happy in Eastern Europe. Otherwise you will not ask from Russian developers, everyone has a crisis of the struggle for the project is replaced by a crisis from the material surrendered by raw material. Listen, now the journalists call the “Motorium” the best quest of the year, the players say that the project met their expectations. There is a lot of positive. However, two or three years ago there were many skepticism. Tell me, you yourself believed that the game would be so successful?
Yes. I believed in the "Motorum" from the very beginning of the development, there was no question with this. You and I have already discussed it in Seattle, remember? Many, when they say “indie team”, often imagine a group of people without work experience, who are looking for their place in the industry by trial and error. However, in fact, some indie commands, like us, for example, are groups of professionals from various fields that are united to work on the game, based on our last experience. Say, our composer writes excellent music, and I had no doubt that he would cope with the soundtrack to the "Machine". From the very beginning of my work, I knew that in terms of sound and visual solutions we will have a wonderful game – when we finish it.
A rare case! And the prototype was done before starting work?
No, this was not necessary. At the beginning of the development there was only one idea. We are already quite experienced in Amanita and we understand that we do well. I was sure that with sound, graphics and, as a result, the atmosphere here everything would turn out perfectly. The risk was different.
In the plot?
In the game mechanics. When I began to draw the first sketches, I quickly had an idea of what the gameplay could be, and I knew that such a process by our visual means is completely realized. We did not invent new technology, did not rely on what did not exist, how sometimes we have to do the game developers of other genres. However, I was not sure that as a result this gameplay would work out, how better it would be to formulate it … Funny? I was afraid that it would come out beautiful, atmospheric, whole – but too mechanically, or something. That is smooth, but boring. Like a non -alcoholic wedding.
Why? You have already made a “self -resistance”, this is a very funny game ..
You know, I have much more experience like an artist than a designer. If you ask me who I am by profession, I will not say that I am a game developer, I will say that I am an artist. I work with films, recently made dolls for a new Czech project. I work with animation, draw clips, illustrations for books. And in the gaming design I am just starting.
Actually, for many Russian developers, this is not a hindrance, you know, some of us consider themselves specialists literally in everything ..
It seems to me that every experienced person understands his restrictions. The more experienced – the stronger. The point is the degree of control to which you get used to. Developing “Machine”, I completely controlled the visual series of the game: as an artist I can definitely predict the result of my work. Remember, we undertook to redraw some backdrops already at the very end of the development? We went to this without any risk, just sat down, looked at what could be improved, and realized that it would take a month and a half, which we had at the disposal. But in terms of design, I lacked experience, I lacked the predictability of the process. I had doubts until the last year, it will turn out – it will not turn out, it will tighten it – it will not drag.
It's clear. I once climbed to Mount Haf-Daw in California, in Yosemiti Park, and before the campaign like a real dude put a bottle of champagne into a backpack in a backpack. To mark up. And after ten hours of ascent, when we sat on top, I opened this bottle. He sipped-and somehow it turned out not at all as it seemed to me in the camp: that I will wave a bottle with happiness, water the cliff with foam and so on, and so on. I just took the card and started to lay the return route. That is, there was no delight, a peak, the moment when it would be possible to really go crazy with happiness. And you had some bright emotional moment with Motorium, when you understood-that's it, this is a success? For example, sales began, you saw the first orders and took out a roslice from the closet of the 1966 port of 1966?
Good story with champagne.(smiles) No, there was no such peak either. We opened preliminary orders two months before the release of the game, sales went gradually, without excitement. In addition, at that time we sat at work without work, finishing the game, and we didn’t even have time to look at the number of copies sold.
Of course, I would not be completely honest if I said now that money is not at all interested in. For us, money is largely freedom for the experiment, freedom to do such projects that are interesting to us. It’s just that we have already talked about this with the team-you know whether we will sell a lot or little, we will return or will not return the invested budget … and realized that we could not somehow influence sales, except working on the project, we cannot. It's better not to worry, but just work.(smiles)
And as sales in general, now, when you have time to look at statistics?
Sales … (smiles) Sales are good. Very good. No one believed, for example, that in Germany or in Russia you can sell more copies of "Machine" than any quality strategy or role-playing game. This was a complete surprise for everyone. Well, at least, so the publishers tell me, but I believe them.(laughs)
With the last "Self" is comparable?
Ten times, twenty more. And now partners from countries from countries where we were desperate to look for the publisher began to come to us. So we recently signed a contract for the publication in England, Belgium and even Australia – and you remember, you and I showed the game to the Australians at the last exhibition in Cologne, and they said that they would never be in demand in their market.
You are selling Mechanicalum in Europe and in America for twenty dollars. It is a lot or a little?
This, in our opinion, reflects what players receive for this money. In Germany, by the way, in stores the game costs thirty euros, but this, in my opinion, is already too much. It’s not very convenient for me because of this, although German players are very good about the “Motorium” respond.
Tell me, your team is happy with commercial success? That is, the recognition of the press is good, but it was expected, you yourself understand that the game turned out to be very high quality. But the money collected is another matter.
We are very surprised. We are not very versed in the commercial side of the issue, and the current financial result for us was a surprise. If you read the sectoral press, it will seem that the genre of such games as our Motorium, is dying out if you have not died out anymore. Developers and publishers complain about bad sales, budgets are reduced, projects are canceled. And everything is somehow very good with us.
Many players?
Very. On the day the game is released, the server fell from overload.
So there will be a continuation?
There will be a new game, of course. But it is unlikely to be a direct continuation of this story, but we are not Electronic Arts.(smiles)
Okay, I'll ask you about the new project. But returning to the development process-say, during these three years there were some periods, some points that were especially difficult to give? Or, conversely, easy?
It's like a mountain to climb, you know. At first it is very easy, the first few kilometers. You are motivated and full of energy. Then you get tired, it becomes hard – and the farther, the harder. The landscape does not change. Instead of abstract thirty kilometers, specific stones and Christmas trees occur. Only at the very end, when you already see the top, it becomes easy for you again. We did it with the "Machine". It is always important not to lose a goal, but still you always lose it at some point and go into depression. What to do.
There were many such difficult moments?
Many.
For that, I love you, yakub! The American developer would say here that he worked exclusively with a smile on his face and that all garbage, except bees.
Eh, I'm from Eastern Europe, I can't deceive myself like that.(smiles) I enjoyed working on the project, but it was not without depression – they were, and quite serious.
About what? Just fatigue accumulated?
And this too, but basically I was worried about whether we could finish the game in principle – in terms of game mechanics. It seemed to me that I swung too widely with the design and immediately such a large project for Amanita after the “Sugar” could be overwhelmed. That is, we will draw backs, we will write music, and the process itself, the plot will not debug, we will not be able to cover all possible options for the development of game situations.
Author!
Sergey Klimov – General Producer of the Moscow Studio Snowball Studios And the permanent author of the magazine " Gambling ". He has been engaged in games for 14 years, during this time he managed to publish more than 200 projects in Russia for all platforms – PC, PS2, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, WII and DS, although it refers to PC with special trepidation. From his own games he managed to develop and publish ( Pike ), another – to develop and freeze (" Vseslav ").
At the moment, Sergei and his team are developing his own production direction, working on a game about the USSR war in Afghanistan, a project for children based on a modern television series and a role -playing adventure that is built on the engine Mount & Blade: Warband. Most of all, Sergei wants to someday take an academic vacation in his publishing department, go to the Czech Republic to his friend Yakub Dvorski and finally work for a couple of years on Vseslavyv.
What did you do at such moments?
He told himself that this is passing, that depression in creative people is normal, this is part of the process. It happens both with filmmakers and the directors in the theater. I have been at the academy while studying. So I just waited until the bad mood itself passes, and it passed. What else can you do? To make yourself work somehow is not an option. Through the “I do not want” you can paint the fence, but it will not very work out to come up with a caricature or a song to write. You will do a little – and the quality will be controversial. You can not force yourself, but wait until the spring squeezes again. This option is somehow closer to me, I am not a supporter to commit violence against myself. I work best when I'm in good shape, when I have a good mood.
Yakub, I saw Thomas this morning, who is developing " Alchemy "( www.Alchemiagame.Com ). And he thought, an interesting coincidence – he lives literally an hour riding from you, in Bratislava. At the same time, his "alchemy" is similar to "self -resistance", and he himself admits that your work is very inspired. This is some kind of Czechoslovak aesthetics why your projects have a similar visual style?
I think it is a matter of general cultural context. Brno and Bratislava are close enough to each other, moreover, Thomas with the same age. And we probably read the same books in childhood, watched the same films. Yes, this is such an oriental European style, if you want.
What do you think, you can only play the "Machine", to determine that the game came from Eastern Europe?
Certainly. A World of Goo – A reverse example: it seems to me that it is immediately clear that she is from America. It is difficult for me to imagine that such a project could be done in the Czech Republic or Hungary.
Tell me, and when you worked on the "Machine", you set yourself the task of making a game in a certain visual style? Well, at least in the East European?
No, I did not stylize the graphics. I just did what seemed to me natural. If, in addition to work, we also adapted to a certain external standard, we would hardly have been able to complete the game in three years. Freedom of creativity in our case increased the speed of work on the project. In this regard, the "Motorum" is the "Amanita".
Here you have another advantage of the status of an indie developer. In general, the "Motorium" is an indie project in its pure form, correctly?
Yes, "Motorium" is Indie, you're right. No one has rendered any pressure on the part either by terms or creative tasks.
"No pressure from the outside" – this is for you indie?
Exactly, “Indie” is when all the solutions in the game are made by those who work on this game and work. The budget, the money in this regard is secondary, you never know where it can come from – a loan or an advance. The question is more about the control of the process. The independence of the development is that the Indie project has a team for itself.
"Indie" as a characteristic of the project – positive?
Well, it depends on a lot. Actually, indie projects had rather difficult times, when there was nothing to be proud of the indie testing. There was a development for the sake of development, not for the sake of players, these were such manifestos, you remember after all? The first indie projects were understandable only to fans of the topic and were written exclusively for their.
These are those that were "non -profit"?
Yes, the developers then often said that their games are “non -profit”, it was the second most popular characteristic after independence. Although in fact these were just cheap games, which is far from the same. Now a lot has changed: now we have Braid , World of Goo. These are outstanding projects that have changed the idea of what is considered indie. Everyone wants to play such an indie, and such indie games are very sympathetic to traditional publishers.
You know, many, when they talk about indie, confuse the method of production with the target audience. For me, for you, Indi-game is a game developed by an independent team. And some, speaking “Indie”, suggest that the project is designed for “connoisseurs” – only then it is the real indie.
With all due respect to the indie test, I cannot agree with this. Especially considering how the industry is developing now. The boundaries between the fact that we would call “indie” and what we would call the “mass market” are erased, the further – the stronger. You can be an independent team and at the same time make a very simple, very affordable and very commercially successful game – and it will be a real indie. And you can make a new, unusual game, while receiving a salary from the largest international publisher, which will set you the task of "inventing and developing an original project". For example, one of the largest international publishers recently came to us with a proposal to redeem all rights to “Self -stroke”, in order to then make a continuation on the consoles on its basis, draw an animated series, release comics … And if we agreed to sell them, the game would remain perhaps an arthouse, but no longer indie.
Why didn't you sell?
Because the director of the Czech branch of this international publisher released my first game. And he deceived him very much. Now I do not want to have anything with him or his company.
What do you think, the fact that “Amanita” is an indie developer, and the “Motorium” is an indie game, played into your hands?
Yes, it helped us and our project.
How?
Due to expectations. It seems to me that people did not expect such a level of quality and such volume from the indie project and were in a good way surprised by the fact that they received.
Oh, yes! I can now make a whole list of all sorts of strange projects that are sold for the same twenty dollars, but they are not even games, these are just some conceptual “thoughts on the topic”, “interactive art”. I don't like such things at all. It seems to me that such aesthetes are spoiled for us all raspberries ..
You can, I will not comment on this statement? I have a lot of friends in an indi-test, and I would like to save them.(smiles)
Okay, we return to the game. What do you say about the press assessments? Average score – 9 out of 10. At the same time, in my opinion, 10 are not simply made of fear of what will be written " Dragon Age – 10/10, “Motorium” – 10/10 ”and outraged fanboys will come to them and will demand to correct the 11/10 Dragon Age assessment so that nothing shame their lovely ..
Personally, I am satisfied with the assessments. Journalists write about Assassin’s Creed, about Call of Duty – and after such projects, they are still able to love the Motorium, this is very cool! It also makes me very much that the game is compared with NEVERHOOD. If we were just as pleased with someone, as Neverhood once pleased, then this is the best compliment that can be made “Amanit”.
Wonderful! Listen, what did you do when the game was completed? You at least drink on the release day? Or on the occasion of the first review, maybe?
To be honest, then I only drank tea all week. And I read the forums in search of unnoticed bugs in the game – I knew that there would definitely be several comments that would require patch preparation.
Vacation was taken by the whole team?
No, there was a couple of days, and then, from the positive reaction of the players you always experience a very large surge of energy. We are now making a version of "Machine" for Xbox Live Arcade. After Independent Games Festival , which was in the spring, we directly contacted us from Microsoft and offered to transfer the Motorium to their platform. In parallel with this, I illustrate several books and work as an artist on one film.
And at least something was with the team, somehow they celebrated the exit of the game? Dinner in a restaurant, for example?
It was, of course, as without it.(smiles) We spent a couple of days in our forest cottage with the whole composition of the Amanites. They rested well.(smiles dreamily)
You have been working on the game during these three years, what you dreamed about?
About going to the forest. Or on the beach. And so that there are no thoughts in the head for at least one week. To make the full zero. It would be fine.
What was the main ambush for you in the process?
Combining creativity and business. It is very difficult for me to work on animation at the same time and think about what a licensed agreement to prepare for players in the American market. They say that somewhere there are poets who can count money, but this is not about me. I really need someone who would take off the entire administrative part from me, this is time and my strength takes away. I get very tired, I am nervous … But when you already got into it, it is difficult to quit everything right, especially when there is no one to convey. We will somehow decide this this year, take someone for such an administrative work.
And what the next project will be, you have already decided?
And no. I am not completely sure of anything, but I already know something. For example, I would not want the development of the next game to take three years again. One and a half, two, no more.
Why?
In order not to help out as much as at the end of work on "Machine". Recently, I had a lot of ideas in my head, and I only repeated myself: do not start a new game until you finish the current one, do not start. Boom-boom-boom, boom-boom-boom. So let it be a small game, not twenty -dollar, but dollars for ten. One evening game.
About what?
Let's not disclose this yet.(smiles) I can only say that this will be a much more experimental project than Motorium. I want to implement a very rich, very intense gaming process, and this will require such a design that I have not seen anywhere, which will affect how people will, in principle, play the game, how they will interact with it. It will be a mixture of such elements that no one had ever mixed before.
As "first detachment"?
Yes, for sure! This is a very interesting movie. Pioneers and manga, hmm. I don't have about pioneers, but no less unusual.(smiles)
Tell me, and you will expand Amanita for a new project?
Quite a little. Take an administrator who would support users so that I have more time for design and graphics.
And it does not scare you to dive into a new project again, there is no desire to put on their laurels for several months, to make some kind of “gold edition”?
You know no. Despite all the difficult moments that we had while working on Motorium, the development of games in a small team like ours is not a very exhausting job. I told you now about depression, about my doubts, and this is all true, but between these difficult periods we had a great time. I do not know how difficult it is to work in a large studio when there are several levels of management and when production is so expensive that you need to fight for every day. Or, for example, when you take money from the publisher, and then he stands with a stick above you, intervenes in the development process and you need to defend your ideas all the time. I'm not sure that I could. It seems to me that this is much more difficult than working in Amanit. We, an independent team developing a game at our own expense, are much easier in this regard, lives free. Sometimes I even think that maybe the problem of boring games, secondaryness in creativity is not because of a lack of talent, but because of the problems of the current production system, when the developers are so not free that they can not even dream.
Yakub, what do you need for happiness, for successful work?
Not a lot.(smiles) so that I would be left a little at rest, so that there was time to calmly work on my ideas so that I can close and draw in my attic, not being distracted by anything. Therefore, I am so happy in Amanita, where we ourselves determine our pace, where everyone has the opportunity to work quietly in the corner.
Then the last question. I know that you are quite happy in terms of personal life, so it is more likely a theoretical. (smiles) Please tell me such a job as a game designer, it helps in relations with girls? That is, for example, if I play in a rock band on a bass guitar, then this, of course, increases my chances of having breakfast with a pretty girl, or even with two. But if I am a designer and “Motorium” developed, this will affect something?
Hm. I really hope that this interview will not catch my friend's eyes.(laughs) You honestly answer you? In my experience, yes, it really works.(smiles) Girls love those who draw well. I noticed this, even when I studied at the academy: if you are an artist and work either in a movie or with games, then it acts without fail!
