Andy Schatz talks

After seeing Andy's incredible work and success on Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa, I had the opportunity to talk to him a little bit and ask some questions about his time on the game.

I asked a range of questions from development to publishing. I know I didn't have the opportunity to ask everything (I wish I had more time to do so!), but I hope I covered most of the bases.

The complete interview is located here. Some exerpts are below.

I want to thank Andy for his candid remarks, and for taking the time to sit down and talk with me.

Quote:
Sam Bacsa: Hey Andy. Thanks again for taking the time. How've you been?


Andy Schatz: Yeah no problem. I've been pretty good. Been very productive these last few weeks.


SB: Yeah, I'll bet! Congratulations on shipping your game. It must be a great feeling.


AS: Yeah, feels great. I think it finally sunk in, and that's why I've been feeling good. I've gotten past the frustrating difficult bits.


SB: Is it already in stores?


AS: Yeah. I haven't seen it on the shelves yet, but it's there. Our guy has a meeting with WalMart tomorrow, so I should hear whether they will stock it. That would be huge.


SB: Definitely. I'll make sure to pick up a copy. I played the demo; it was some really fun stuff. Really a new thing in terms of sim games.


AS: I think the demo is one of the weak points of the game. I mean, the strong points are that there are lots of animals, cool animal AI, and planning/strategy; but the demo gives you so few animals that you don't really get a glimpse of what's cool about the game.


SB: I have to say, I really enjoyed the demo! I thought it was nicely put together, and a really fresh concept in terms of sim games, which brings me to ask: how did you come up with the idea for Venture Africa?


AS: Well back in high school, I was in my state science fair. I had done a project modelling fractal qualities of lagoons using satillite photography. Anyway, the day of the awards ceremony, I went to go see an iMAX on the Serengheti. There were these epic helicopter shots flying low over stampeding herds of wildebeasts. Those images were so powerful they brought a tear to my eye, seriously. Well later that day, I was lucky enough to win some awards, but the recognition paled in comparison to the powerful images from that movie... so it always stuck in my head. When I was starting Pocketwatch Games, I wanted to make games that I was passionate about; I also believe that if you make a good game and market it right, people will buy it. So I figured: I really should be making games that I feel have some value to the world. I've always felt that the Discovery Channel does an incredible job at making the process of broadining our minds something fun. I feel the same about NPR. So I modelled the business plan of Pocketwatch after the Discovery Channel.


SB: We've all played sim games... you know, your traditional, "there are so many details and boring things to do, that the user is overwhelmed before they really start to enjoy the game". What is it that you thought of to revamp the way Venture Africa works in contrast to the "classic" sim game?


AS: Well, I wanted to make Sim games appeal to players of casual games as well as traditional gamers, so I reduced the number of active choices that the player has at any one time to 4. I didn't want the player to be scrolling through menus, reading info boxes, or anything that might slow them down. So at any one time, the player only has 4 animal types to choose from. If they don't like those choices, they can shuffle their choices and get new ones, but they never need to scroll through a huge library of choices. At the same time, I wanted the player to be actively doing things most of the time, so I allowed them to control individual animals. Also, the player is given small goals for which they get little rewards, like being able to plant a new tree, or fill a watering hole, so the player is pushed along little by little to achieve these distinct rewards. Typical sim games don't offer rewards this tangible, since they are dealing with money, which is a pretty analog thing. When I wrote the original GDD, I reimagined the Sim genre to appeal to the downloadable audience, which is generally a more reward-oriented, less patient group. At the same time, the strategy elements are really deep once you get well into the game, and a lot of strategy gamers have really been loving it, plus kids love the open-ended aspect.

Full Article Here