Interview of the Week: Astraware

Erin and I have been busy the past few weeks getting some interviews together with different gaming developers, from the big to the small. We set out to ask them about their views regarding females in the gaming industry. For the next few weeks we’ll be posting some of these interviews, as well as some others we’ve done along the way.

Our first interview is with Astraware. I’ve always been a fan of Astraware games, and am always excited to add their titles to my Zodiac, but I didn’t realize what a great group of people stand behind the Astraware name until I got a chance to interview them.

We want to thank Astraware’s CEO, Howard Tomlinson, for taking the time to answer our questions!

PG: What is your company’s mission statement and how does that apply to female gamers?

Astraware: Astraware’s mission is : “To be the leading developer, publisher, and sales channel for entertainment software for mobile devices.”

How does that apply to female gamers? Well we realise that a great deal of our traffic comes to us from the casual games sites, and most of our best selling titles are those which have broad appeal. Leading can have different meanings, but if we’re going to take that to mean most successful, then definitely making sure games don’t just target minorities is important.

In some ways because of the nature of our platform, we’re catering more effectively for women than might seem obvious. My understanding is that one major difference between (adult) female and male gamers is in the way that play time works. Women tend to get their time in shorter blocks, maybe scattered throughout a day, rarely more than an hour at once. Men by comparison tend to play in long blocks, but less often. This suits PDA styles of games which are designed to be able to be played for a few minutes at a time, then put down, and resumed later. Casual games fit really well into this category too.

I’ll hasten to add that my experience here is second hand, since all of the females that I know who are gamers are *definitely* people who play in long blocks of time… my wife for instance can outplay and outlast me on WoW or CoH, and beat me back and forth in Soul Calibur 2…

PG: Do you feel there has been a push recently, in your company and in others, to involve and/or motivate women to become more active in the gaming industry and community?

Astraware: I think the games industry is just beginning to wake up economically, and realise that targeting 15-18 year old males (i.e. those with just about the lowest disposable income) is stupid. To widen their appeal (and fatten their pockets), all parts of the games industry has to be more successful at being inclusive.

In our company, and indeed our beta tester and user community, we don’t have to push to involve and motivate women to be active – they already are active! I’d say that of our active beta testers, around half are female, and certainly of our customer base similar is true.

I don’t think that gaming communities have really got going yet where they work for women. Too many sites that are gender neutral degenerate into kiddie flaming, and that isn’t an atmosphere that works for bring women together and for them to get discussing what games they like (and admit that they prefer games to other activities…)

PG: Industry analysts have suggested that the developers able to meet the needs and desires of the female demographic will be the one to survive in an increasingly competitive business environment. Do you agree with this statement?

Astraware: Somewhat… I think that developers either must create titles with wide appeal, or specific appeal. Hardcore games will have their audience, casual games another audience (maybe with some overlap, but perhaps not much.)
Successful developers will either own their niche, or do reasonably well with a huge audience.

I would hate to see developers creating “pink games” (shudder) in order to sell to women. I’m hoping we’ve avoided that (for the most part), and have simply realised that for a wider appeal you just avoid making things male specific.

PG: How do you envision the Lara Croft of the year 2010?

Astraware: In a business suit, organising corporate hostile takeovers. And maybe teaching righteous lawyers who interfere in the games industry a lesson or two.

PG: How many of your employees were directly trained for game development?

Astraware: Of our game developers, only one holds a degree specifying the word “game” in its title. Everyone else trained and got into games through their passion alongside their formal work.

PG: For all the people out there wanting to get into game development, how do you suggest getting their foot in the door?

Astraware: programming. Keep programming. Keep on programming more. Make some games that are simple but fun. Go to University and get a programming degree with plenty of formal structure to it. Get summer jobs QA testing in software companies (games if possible). Keep on programming throughout. Learn a number of programming languages (C, C++, Java, VB, PHP) as well as HTML and XML. Have an example (of your own work) in each. Make sure you keep a personal website up and looking reasonably competent. Make sure you’re competent with graphics and audio packages, even if you’re not an artist or musician, knowing how to manipulate resources is essential. (Entering a photoshop competition or two is probably going to be good for you, for instance!)

Develop a specialism – an area of particular interest (algorithms, AI, 3D, Assembly, Level Design, anything!) and make sure you read up plenty about it. You might not get a job using it to begin with, but it will help to show that you’re committed.

Don’t turn up for an interview at a games company without an answer to the following:
“What’s your favourite game”
“What have you been playing recently?”
“What do you really like about games?”

If you can’t talk animatedly about games for at least an hour, you won’t get the job. Someone else (who can) will. And that’s in addition to being a good programmer. (Remember all that practise…)

Remember that bit in Reservoir Dogs about making sure you have a funny story to tell? Make sure you do. Like the time you were MUDding for 48 hours solid and fell asleep in the 24 hour computer lab, and snored through the practical the 1st years were trying to work in, and after you woke up, you had a keyboard imprint in your forehead for days… Hey, you can’t use that, that’s mine…

PG: Do you have any games/products currently in development that you’d like to mention?

Astraware: Some of our titles are conversions of existing games, and Chuzzle (from PopCap) absolutely rocks :) Its perfect because it is just… so… compelling… which is great for PDA titles. I won’t mention cute. Even though it is ;)

We’re continuing development on Sudoku, which is doing incredibly well for us – especially as the wave that has swept the UK is starting to hit the US… It helps that many of the Astraware team are Sudoku fans, as that is spurring us on to implement features, as well as compete for best times on the Puzzle Of The Day!

Plenty more in the pipeline, but since our development cycle is measured in just a handful of months rather than the years in the larger industry, we often can’t be so precise about what’s coming in 6 or 12 months!

PG: Any other thoughts that you would like to add?

Astraware: A few things…

- Congrats on a great site, well written – and not condescending to either sex – brilliant! I like the way you portray opinions, and it really comes through that you’re utter game fanatics.

- Thanks for getting in touch and sending through questions – we’re not exactly a mainstream company, so sometimes it is great to be asked opinions, and have the opportunity to give our particular slant on things.

- Lastly, lets see what we can all do to help (and your blog can definitely help!) make the industry better at attracting more females – and in particular into roles such as programming, art, game and level design. The industry needs balance!