Billy Goat Entertainment - Her Majesty's Spiffing

[neon]

In einigen Minuten starten wir hier die Interview-Session mit Will Barr von Billy Goat Entertainment. Fragen können bereits gestellt werden.

In a few minutes we'll start the interview session with Will Barr from Billy Goat Entertainment. Questions can already be asked.

[Will]

Hi Michael, thank you for having me. ASK AWAY! =D>

[neon]

Hi Will,

one question from my side, you just right now released a new campaign update that points to a new demo version that now includes mouse controls. Is there any special reason why a point and click adventure didn't have that from the beginning?

[Will]

We always planned to have mouse only controls in the game, however we were pressed for time to develop our prototype (an earlier version of which we bright along to Gamescom to show yourselves and a few others) and decided that if we were going to demo our game to press/ publishers and alike that it would be easier to do so with a controller. That's simply the reason we developed it first. Also we where keen to show people that a classic adventure game could work perfectly well on a console as quite a few people we've spoken to about this were somewhat sceptical!

[neon]

You've been running a first campaign in December, actually about the same target and it failed by only reaching 10.000 Pound. Looking at the new one it already exceeded the total amount of the last try withing the first 10 days or so (meanwhile nearly half way funded).

What did you learn from last time, what is better this time (except having a demo)?

[Will]

Well, we had quite a few people back us in the final few days of our campaign that simply hadn't heard about our project before the bitter end! It's fair to say that we didn't do a good enough job running into the first campaign to tell people about our game before we started. Also, being an obscure developer from Belfast that no-one had ever heard of, when we did start to try and tell people about what we were working on they weren't very interested!

Getting visibility was a big issue for us in our first campaign (and is something we're concerned about this time too), however, a lot of folks that backed our campaign the first time around have came back again, which we're really grateful about. The vast majority of the people that backed us in the first few days are folks that backed the first campaign. Now that we have as many of them onboard as I think we're going to get we're into new territory again to try and convince new people to back our project.

Also, from our failed experience last time, we gained quite a few contacts (press and other developers) that have helped us get the message out more this time. But we're under no illusion that we still have a tough road ahead of us!

[neon]

Her Majesty's Spiffing ist planned to be released in three episodes. If funding is secured for the first one, what do you think how long it will take to make the rest of the game?

[Rockford]

Hello!

Your game is very britsh? What is this supposed to mean that it quallifies for a special funding because it's british?

Errr, do you like adventuregames?

[Will]

As soon as possible!..

It depends on a couple of factors, the first is whether or not we manage to get the funding to make episode one or not. If we did and we were to overachieve on Kickstarter we would be able to make the second and third parts of our story considerably quicker (we have parts 2 & 3 pretty much planned out, it's just a matter of putting the man hours in to make them).

If we were to get more funding we'd be able to hire a couple of other folks and get the extra gear (computers, software licences etc) that they'd need. Because of the computer equipment and extra studio space there is quite a big upfront cost to taking on another artist or programmer.

If we just make our £30,000 target then we'll spend a bit of time during the development of part one trying to secure funding to work on part two simultaneously, this would most likely involve speaking to publishers and investors, a successful Kickstarter campaign would be a great calling card as it will give these folks the confidence that they'll be able to get their money back!

Worst case scenario (assuming we get funded on Kickstarter, so it's not quite the worst case, but can't secure any additional funding) we'll start to develop part two once part one is released and selling (as this will pay for our ongoing production costs).

Much like our politicians over here I've avoided giving you exact figures and therefore haven't answered your direct question so far!

In short Part 1 will take us another 8 months to make, each additional part we expect to take an additional 4-5 months (in man hours). However, if we can start working on the additional chapters simultaneously the time between each release will be considerably lower!

Sorry, that was a bit long winded!

*intake of breath*

[Will]

What is this supposed to mean that it quallifies for a special funding because it's british?

The universally loved and seldom wrong UK government last year tried to introduce tax breaks for video game developers based in the UK to try and stimulate the economy (basically, to try and compete with Canada, or more specifically Quebec, that has very generous tax laws for the creative industries themselves, which is why so many AAA studios are based in Montreal etc).

Unfortunately some of our, er, delightful neighbours thought that this would be unfair as the UK was effectively trying to become a tax haven for big developers. To cut a long, legislative laden story short the UK was allowed to (from this financial year) distribute their tax breaks provided the project in developed passed a 'UK Cultural Test', the British Film Institute decide what the definition of "Britishness" is, their guidelines can be found here.

If truth be told, in practice they are quite lenient in their enforcing of these rules, so you don't HAVE to have a red post box or pictures of the Queen in your game to qualify... We just wanted to be sure

[Will]

Errr, do you like adventuregames?

Also, hello to yourself Rockford and, er, yes.

I'm glad SOMEONE appreciated our Kickstarter pitch video!

[neon]

Will, we also have more threads in the main topic:

http://www.adventure-treff.de/forum/viewforum.php?f=44

[silicbo]

Have their been any other games or films in particular that has inspired this game?

[Will]

Q. Have their been any other games or films in particular that has inspired this game?

Ha, by inspire I presume you mean what have we plagiarised! We did lift this joke right from Airplane 2:



... although in our defence we do own up to it in-game. It was also intended as a tribute to Airplane 1 actor the late great Leslie Nielsen. The vacuum cleaner is labelled “Leslie”, in a style similar to the “Henry” brand of vacuum cleaners. Or Hoovers, as they’d say in England.

Our autonomous beverage dispensing robot "GER-TEA" may also bare some resemblance to Kevin Spacey's "GERTY" character from Moon:



As for games, we definitely wanted to try and capture the spirit of the old Lucas Arts adventure games, they always have been my favourite adventure games. We are also big fans of old surreal British humour as seen in the Monty Python films and TV shoes. That's the vibe we're going for. Rendered in glorious 3D!

[k0SH]

Scheint was geworden zu sein:

http://www.adventurecorner.de/reviews/6 ... s-spiffing

=D>