In this week's edition of "Game On," The Fly spoke to Enrique Colinet, the main level designer on The Game Kitchen's latest action platformer "Blasphemous," in an exclusive interview, during which Colinet discussed his studio's latest game, the merits of Kickstarter for independent developers, Google Stadia (GOOG), and more.
'BLASPHEMOUS' RECEPTION: The Game Kitchen's "Blasphemous" launched on September 10 of this year for PC, Nintendo Switch (NTDOY), PlayStation 4 (SNE), and Xbox One (MSFT) and received "generally favorable" reviews, according to reviews aggregator Metacritic. When asked how he feels about the game's performance so far, Colinet said he is "overwhelmed" by how well it has done, adding that sales for the game have been "way better" than he had anticipated. "My best expectation, so to speak, was a number that we achieved in one week, and I was expecting that number to be achieved by the end of the year," he said. "So actually it went pretty well.”
In terms of review scores, the level designer said that they "went as expected." "I was expecting it to be a little bit more well-received, but I get that the game was not as polished as most people expected," he told The Fly. "In production, we have to make some decisions, and we have to respect the launch day... Those little pesky problems that we had in the first week had an impact on the reception of the game, and I feel that we had this opportunity to release the game in that state, but we wouldn’t have had the time. But now we have to look at Metacritic and be reminded every day that we could do better, but we didn’t. So it’s not a problem in the long-term, because we are fixing all of that.”
KICKSTARTER: "Blasphemous" began as a Kickstarter campaign in 2017, using the crowdfunding platform to finance the game's development. On the subject of using Kickstarter again, Colinet said that there is a "possibility" the company would use it for another game. "This is the second Kickstarter that we accomplished, and we released a game thanks to that Kickstarter," Colinet said. "So I think that our fans, or the community behind The Game Kitchen, now they know they can rely on us if we depend on Kickstarter again not only to sell the game but also to market the game. It’s a really good way to showcase whatever we are working on. So it would be a waste from our side to not use Kickstarter as a tool to boost the reception of the game.” While he noted that he could not say definitely that The Game Kitchen would use Kickstarter again, Colinet added that he "can't find a good reason not to use it again."
On the flipside, Colinet said that one of the issues with using Kickstarter is that you have to "take care of a lot of people," namely the people backing the game, as they are "kind of investors." "It’s something more to worry about when you have so many people expecting results constantly," he said. "So if you don’t use Kickstarter, then you don’t have to worry about this pressure from so many people. But of course it comes with a price. They pay money, and they want to help you achieve whatever you want to achieve. So it’s fair for them to want to know how their money is being invested. But as I said, it puts extra pressure on our shoulders.”
PLATFORMS: When asked if the company expected "Blasphemous" to perform better on certain platforms than others, Colinet said that such information would be better directed at "Blasphemous" publisher Team17. “All I can say is that what we expected in terms of sales, it’s what we expected," Colinet noted. "Our first platform has been PC, for sure, and that’s what we were expecting. But then, the Switch was the second console that sold the most for Blasphemous, followed by PS4 and then Xbox One.”
When asked about The Game Kitchen's relationship with console makers Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft, Colinet said, "I don’t know about our relationship, but it is true Sony invested a lot of effort in promoting us, and that was pretty surprising for us. When we released our first trailer, the trailer that got the most views was on the official PlayStation 4 channel. Then Nintendo has invested a lot of effort on us and our game, and that was pretty surprising. But that’s something that Team17 did pretty well, with relations with the first parties.”
SUBSCRIPTION: On the topic of subscription services, such as Xbox Game Pass, Colinet said that the developer is "open" for new kinds of possibilities. "We are reacting according to what happens," he said. "Before the release, there were so many questions in the air that had no answer. But now, everything is happening pretty fast. Now, we have an answer for a physical release. Finally, Limited Run gave us the opportunity, and we found an agreement between Team17, The Game Kitchen, and Limited Run and now we have a physical copy. Now we have the answer. About any subscription service, I don’t know, but I hope it happens, sincerely!”
STREAMING: When asked if The Game Kitchen has any plans to make any of its games available on a streaming platform such as Google Stadia, Colinet he doesn't have an answer for that currently, but that the company is "open for all those possibilities." "Before we wanted to be fair with our backers. It has been part of a controversy to not fulfill the demands of the backers," he said. "On Kickstarter, for example, we promised that the game was going to be released on PC, and we mentioned that it was going to be released on Steam. But [for other crowdfunded games], they changed it, they moved it to the Epic Store. So, first we needed to be respectful to what the backers expected from us. But after the release date, we are open for all those possibilities. Now that we have fulfilled what our most passionate fans expected from us, now we need to find new audiences. We need to find new players. And, of course, if we open the possibility to be released on subscription services and other platforms, why not? It’s just that we are waiting for those offers, of course.”
"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
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