A New Perspective

Martin Korda's career in the games industry began almost a decade ago, when he took on a role at PC Zone magazine. In 2003, he opted to go freelance full time, and has since acted as a consultant for the likes of EA, Valve and Lionhead, where he was part of the scriptwriting team for The Movies and Black & White 2.

Korda has also continued to write for a wide range of publications, including numerous games magazines, Stuff and The Guardian. Now, although he intends to remain active as a journalist, Korda is setting up his own company - VideoGameConsulting.com.

GamesIndustry.biz sat down with Korda to discuss why he feels there's a gap in the market for such a company, and why publishers could use a helping hand when it comes to ensuring their games achieve triple-A status.

Martin Korda: After consulting for many years, I started to realise that there was a growing demand from game publishers and developers for evaluations and mock reviews of their products.

As with any creative process it's all too easy to become too close to a game when you're involved in its daily development. Sometimes you need another, external pair of eyes - or several pairs - to identify where you're going wrong and how you can improve things.

How many times do you see reviews where the reviewer laments that a game could have been great if only certain things had been done differently? Imagine if the publisher or developer could have that insight at the start of a project, or half-way through, or even a few months before completion.

That's why I've gathered together a team of experts from around the world, so that game companies can attain a professional external viewpoint on their products and find out where their games need to be improved before it's too late.

I also realised that scriptwriting in games is still a major problem. All too often stories and dialogue are overlooked, or put in as an afterthought, which is why we also offer scriptwriting services from some of the most exciting new writing talent in the industry.

So who is your service aimed at?

Anyone involved in game publishing, development or PR can benefit from our services. They include evaluations, post mortems, mock reviews, scriptwriting services and even press release writing and translating.

By attaining an informed, expert opinion from industry professionals who've been evaluating games for many years - be it in magazines, on websites or as consultants - companies could transform their games from also-rans to chart-topping hits.

What makes the difference between an also-ran and a chart-topper?

Having worked closely with many game development companies and publishers over the years - both as a journalist and as a consultant - I've been able to see first hand what works and what doesn't, where changes can be made and what makes games fail and succeed, both in gameplay terms and in their marketing and PR strategies.

So many times when I review games, I'm left frustrated; if only this had been changed, if only that had been slightly different. Games that don't quite make the grade are the ones that have a strong concept, but are let down by poor execution, lazy oversights, poor planning or clunky interfaces. All too often, potentially great games will be hamstrung by a lack of direction or clarity or even a poor marketing campaign, which in turn hampers their sales.

Chart-topping hits are the games that feel polished and professional, which capture the imagination of both the mainstream and hardcore gaming audiences and sell themselves with excellent marketing and PR campaigns.

Do you think that publishers should be looking to change their PR and marketing strategies as the next-gen cycle begins? Has the industry changed?

I don't think it's a case of PR and marketing strategies necessarily having to change, I think it's a case of making sure that you use the right PR and marketing strategy for each game.

It's quite common to see great games being let down by poor marketing drives. That's when you see AAA games struggling to make an impact at retail. There's nothing more frustrating than seeing a great game overlooked.

Change in any industry is inevitable and the games industry is no exception. Independent developers are slowly being bought by large publishers, meaning that they can hopefully now concentrate on making great games rather than worrying about making ends meet each month.

Meanwhile, the rise of online distribution should eventually help gaming reach an even wider audience than it already does, and encourage the emergence of new talent. I think it's a very exciting time for gaming right now.

Do you think gamers are changing, too?

The games industry is an ever-evolving beast, and that also goes for the consumers.

Over the past few years, mainstream gaming has been growing at an astronomical rate. However, casual gamers have slightly different expectations from their games than their hardcore counterparts. That's why it's essential to find a balance between the two in order to maximise sales, and with development costs spiralling, this has never been more important.

What's causing development costs to rise? Do you think it's beneficial to the industry as a whole?

As technology improves, developers can push the boundaries of what their games are capable of. However, as games become more complex and visually impressive, development teams also need to grow to support the extra demands of their products.

Now that next-gen development has really kicked into gear, the line between failure and success is growing ever more narrow. It's also taking longer to develop games than it used to, due to the increase in hardware capability. That's where the extra costs really start kicking in.

This is both a good and a bad thing. Growing costs mean that publishers are becoming more reluctant to take a chance on new IPs, while the number of games that we'll see released is also likely to dwindle somewhat. However, with boundaries being pushed across the board, games will become more impressive than ever before.

When there's so much at stake, it's paramount to ensure that your product is of the highest possible standard. That's why we're here to help companies - whether you're a huge multinational publisher, or a small developer seeking to sign your first game - to evaluate potential products, identify key areas of weakness and create a more complete package.