What influences did the team draw on that weren’t from video games – like books, films, philosophy, art?Īlex Hutchinson: For me the two big influences were golden age science fiction, where the act of setting out on an adventure was worthwhile, and you didn’t need to save the world. What were some of the core design tenets that the team established very early on in development?Īlex Hutchinson: We had a few rules from the start: player stories are more important than our story build a colourful and optimistic world try to surprise the player value exploration above all else and keep it funny. And the scale of simulation and the amount of players in your world will be vast. In a few years you’ll be jumping into a new coop game from us using any device you have available with a screen, building your own couch co-op setup on the train, at work and at home. They are putting together a great team and having your game collection online and accessible from anywhere is clearly the future to us. We just want to make cool games with fun people, and that was a match for Stadia. How did the conversation with Google Stadia begin? What do you see the Stadia experience being like for Australians in the next two to three years?Īlex Hutchinson: We have been talking on and off for a long time and it just seemed like a good fit finally. The hero is just there to put a body on the player for me! The villain is a challenge to overcome, an alternate voice in the game, and someone to push back on you. Most of the games I’ve made you either build your own character as in Spore, play as yourself as in Savage Planet, or your pretty much jut a vessel for the player’s whims as in Far Cry 4, so I much prefer crafting the villains. What have you found easier to create from scratch in your career: a great villain or a great hero?Īlex Hutchinson: Great villains are a lot more fun. I like facts and I like rules, so game design and engineering were a good fit. I’m a hyper practical person, so I’m not a fan of grand, flowery statements. ![]() The need for structure and a logical flow in writing helped me gain a superficial understanding of gameplay engineering, or at least what was possible or not, which meant I always communicated better with engineers. What experiences gave you that appreciation for engineering?Īlex Hutchinson: Writing! I was a freelance writer and published a bunch of articles and short stories and even a young adult novel. You once mentioned that it was essential to have an understanding of engineering, particularly as a designer – but you also got into the industry not being able to draw or code. Ty Carey Art Director at Armello makers League of Geeks and Trent Kusters from there are also friends who started out at Torus. Another old friend, Greg Palstra, was head of engineering there too and now he’s GM of the Activision Melbourne studio after a stint making FIFA. In fact I met my current business partner, Reid Schneider at Typhoon while he was an external producer and I was a designer at Torus. Kotaku Australia: You originally landed a job at Torus Games – have you ever kept in touch with some of the staff from your time there? Do you ever reminisce about going back to Melbourne and starting a studio there one day?Īlex Hutchinson: I have many friends from back at Torus. ![]() “I think in a few years it’ll be all digital with an optional physical edition which is only a limited special edition like the old days for super fans.” “I think this is my last game that’ll launch on a disc sadly, and I’ll miss it,” he said. ❤️ /TCywwQbXyM- Alex Hutchinson January 11, 2020īut it’s an experience that Hutchinson, who shipped multiple boxed copies during his time at Ubisoft, doesn’t expect to have for much longer. Surprisingly exciting to find our game out in the wild in the place I used to shop for games for twenty years. Wandered into a game store in my hometown here in Melbourne and saw this. Hutchinson was recently back in Melbourne, and tweeted about browsing through what used to be his local EB Games store, musing on the experience of finding your own game on the shelves. “I love physical media, but they’ve already murdered the manual and the cool game box pack-ins, so there’s not much to lose sadly,” Hutchinson told Kotaku Australia over email. ![]() But according to Hutchinson, it’ll probably be the last game the studio ever ships on a disc. The game is the first title from Typhoon Studios, a Montreal-based developer founded by Aussie ex-pat and Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson and Reid Schneider. This week marks the launch of Journey to the Savage Planet, which we’ve been enjoying so far.
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