PlayStation Universe recently hooked up with Rob Clarke, PR Manager at Curve Studios, the publisher and developer behind games such as Thomas Was Alone, Proteus and Lone Survivor.
In the interview, Rob talks about the current indie scene, PlayStation Vita and working with the PS4.
1. What is your position at Curve and what does your daily work routine entail?
I manage the PR at Curve in our publishing department, Curve Digital. My job is to get the word out about games we’re publishing and developing, which means writing press releases, talking to the press, managing the Curve Twitter account and generally doing everything I can to make people know what games we are working on and when they are coming out.
2. Your website states that Curve’s mission is to create great video games and bring “excellent indie games to console audiences.” What do you look for from indie developers and your own development team to keep up this level of excellence? Quite simply, what do you think makes a game great?
That’s probably the wrong question to ask – what we ask ourselves in the office is “Would this make a great CONSOLE game?” We look for games that work well with the Vita screen and control system, and we also try to engage with developers who are making the types games that aren’t seen as often on consoles, like Proteus and Lone Survivor.
3. What has the response been like so far to the games you have worked with?
We’ve been very pleased by the response from gamers and the PlayStation press – every game this year has had high Metacritic scores and positive reviews, which we’re really proud of. It’s always great to be able to take these popular games that a whole audience of gamers has never been able to play and give them the chance to check them out, especially when we add new features to the Vita versions.
The latest game from Curve, Proteus
4. How do you think you can build on that experience during the next generation of consoles? Are you excited, for example, about Sony’s open attitude toward PS4 indie titles?
I think everyone is excited by the indie titles being considered more mainstream. The obvious fear is that it will make discovery harder for everyone, but that’s a risk worth taking if it means it’s easier to bring games to consoles. From our perspective it’s exciting, because it means more developers that traditionally saw the console as too big a challenge to be worth dealing with are starting to seriously look at them as an option.
5. You have vast experience with handhelds, dating back to the PSP, but how have you found working with PS Vita? Would you consider it a success right now or do you think the best is yet to come?
We’ve seen the Vita is a viable platform ever since our first release, but there’s no denying the system had a slow start due to a lack of killer games. It’s really carved out a niche for itself in the indie scene this year though, and that can make a big difference. The larger library, continued success of PlayStation Plus and the remote play features on the PS4 are both going to help convince more people that a Vita offers really good value for money.
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6. Having also worked with developing and publishing games on PS3, how have things changed for you for PS4? Are you impressed with the hardware?
Developing and porting to the PS4 is going to be a lot easier, which is exciting because it means games that didn’t make sense to port before can now be looked at. While a lot of people assume indie games don’t need to use the hardware as much, many of the games we port are designed for quite powerful PCs and have required a lot of tweaking to work on the PlayStation 3 – something that should become much easier on a much more powerful console with more memory.
As for publishing, there aren’t any huge changes in publishing on the PlayStation 4, but a new store with brand new games should make it easier for us to get noticed. Sony have already made a big push to help indie games get seen amongst bigger releases, so we’re hoping that’s something they continue to focus on with the PlayStation 4.
7. Sony has been building up a reputation lately for forging good relationships with indie developers. How have you seen your relationship with Sony change over the last 12 months?
The great thing about working with Sony is that we don’t feel like second class citizens, which is really important for a small studio. Obviously we’re never going to compete with amazing triple-A titles like Watchdogs or Killzone but we don’t ever feel like an afterthought despite the size of our studio and our games. We’ve always found Sony are always honest, helpful and open with what their plans are as well, which in turns mean we’re happier to discuss our long term plans and any games we might want to be working on. In short it’s a really positive relationship!
Thomas Was Alone recieved rave reviews
8. How do you feel about Xbox One’s new indie developer publishing program, ID@Xbox, compared to that of Sony’s own initiative?
The ability for small teams to get access to Devkits easily for the first time is a great move, but it’s not something that greatly affects us as a larger studio. I wouldn’t want to comment on the quality of the service itself as we haven’t published a game through Microsoft before. The fact it exists at all though is a very good sign, and hopefully evidence that Microsoft are serious about the indie marketplace on Xbox.
9. What does the future hold? Do you see Curve continuing to champion the indie scene, or dog you plan growth in other areas?
We’ve got a new original game coming up next year, along with at least another three PlayStation releases that should be out before the middle of 2014, so we won’t be slowing down any time soon. We’re already in talks for new titles to work on with other indie developers, and we should be announcing the first one in December!
For more information on Curve Studios, please check the official website.