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Housemarque’s Harry Krueger: AAA Game Cuts All “Unnecessary Fat,” Remasters a Possibility
Housemarque director Harry Krueger talks Nex Machina, what we can expect from the studio's AAA title, whether Arcade truly is dead, and more.
wccftech.com
Pretty lengthy interview about Housemarque's arcade mindset, how they hope to push into the AAA market, and remasters of previous games:
Let’s talk about that new project. You’re moving into the AAA space with this one, but what does that mean exactly? What makes it AAA? The presentation? The size of game? The budget?
That's a good question, and a topic that gets very philosophical quite quickly -- "What is AAA?" We know we're going to be compared to studios that are more than 10-times bigger than us and more established in the space than we are. They have much bigger budgets, much more flexible timelines. For us, if you look at the last 10 years or so with the arcade era of Housemarque games, we've specialized in sort of 2D indie or retro experiences, but with cutting-edge presentation and lots of explosions. Now we're looking to add an extra dimension. An extra layer of ambition.
Just how ambitious are you getting? I assume we’re not talking open world?
Uh, so, we’re trying not to be too adventurous, because this is a brand new thing for us. It's a new type of game, it's a new size of team, and I think we need to be mindful of sticking to our strengths. Sticking to our established brand of explosive action, responsive controls, a core loop that feels just right. Bringing all that into a package that can be somehow competitive in the AAA space. It's quite a big undertaking, it's not without it's challenges, but it's exciting for us. We hope to create something that will redefine how people view Housemarque in the years to come.
Is there anything else you can share about the game?
It’s definitely going to be something new. There are going to be some things that will hopefully surprise our fans positively. But there's definitely going to be the element of familiarity. We're hoping it will feel like a Housemarque game.
Even though you’re moving on to new things, will your new games carry on the arcade spirit? The “simple yet deep” philosophy?
We're following a fairly similar process to our previous games, we're just expanding our scope. We're doing a lot of fast iteration, and we challenge the design constantly. We do try to squeeze it down to its bare essentials and cut away any unnecessary fat or clutter in the design as we go. So, we're applying the same philosophy we had before with a lot of iteration and inviting people to play the game often as well. Sometimes we have friends and family test sessions where we get a fresh perspective on the game. That helps us catch things that maybe we have overlooked. And of course we now have 70 people, who are a pretty diverse group of players with different sensibilities, different skill levels, and we get them to play the game frequently as well. I think that's helped us catch a lot of things that might have otherwise fallen through the cracks with our hectic schedule.
Despite the “Arcade is Dead” statement, could we perhaps see some remasters of Housemarque classics somewhere down the line?
That's always a possibility moving forward. We have a pretty healthy catalog of games to revisit, but right now we're dedicated to starting this new chapter in our history with a bang.
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Lots more at the link.
