Ship Ahoy!

“When I first chatted about the idea for The Ship with friends, we had an amazing conversation, where the ideas just kept on coming. For each problem there was a solution, and for each solution some new gameplay emerged. The Ship had so much potential, we figured as a small company it would be something we could start relatively small, and then keep on adding ideas.

I think that’s one of the things that makes The Ship so exciting to develop, it’s got so much potential. Hopefully we can make it like GTA, in the sense that the original GTA was top down and far removed from the current awesome 3d iterations. It’s taken time for them to achieve what they probably always wanted or imagined for the game. In the same way, I expect us to go on to make The Ship 2 and 3, and I hope that one day we will be looking at the game that we always wanted to make “

“As someone who has left an existing developer and gone & started a new company, sadly, I’d have to recommend that nobody follow in my footsteps. Had we known at the start just how hard it was going to be, I don’t think we would have bothered (ignorance is bliss). It’s very tough to raise the money to fund the company, and publishers just aren’t prepared to take the risk on a new start company.

Game development is tough enough in it’s own right, without the stress of getting funding, finding publishers, finding staff, and so on. We are waiting to see how it goes with our current publisher, Mindscape, who have had the courage to sign the product, and we hope that next time we have an original title to pitch other publishers out there will be more willing to listen. “

Chris Peck, CEO of OuterLight Ltd, talks to me about The Ship and how tough it is to be an “Indie” developer. He’s refershingly frank in this interview, heck the above paragraph should give you some indication of that. He also talks about the creative processes that went into The Ship, and it really is – I feel – amongst the best interview I’ve ever conducted, so on one side I’m very proud of it, but I’m also extremely greatful to Chris Peck for agreeing to the interview and indeed, providing me with some fasntastic answers. I implore, no – I demand you go read it if you have any love for games, and indeed any respect for indie developers. I know I big up The Ship a lot (if you know me from the PCG Forums) – this proves exactly why.