One Love

Martin de Ronde talks One Big Game - the business model, and the journey so far

Feature by Phil Elliott Contributor

Published on June 10, 2010

GamesIndustry.biz Of course, there's the obvious broad benefit to the project, in terms of raising money for good causes - but there's an additional benefit to these pairings, in terms of giving smaller teams experience of working with industry legends, the mentoring, and so on. Was that intentional, or has it just worked out that way?

Martin de Ronde

I think partially it was intentional, in that we've taken our cue for One Big Game from the music industry. When we said we wanted to do Band Aid for videogames, that was the original standpoint. But if you look at the music industry in general, you see a lot of duets happening - George Michael invites Elton John on-stage to perform a certain song, and not only do you get a refreshing take on that song, but you also see a bit of a career re-launch for Elton John off the back of it.

These dynamics happen when two people from the same creative business work together - but how many games designers have worked together in the past 30 years, in terms of the big names, and that yielding interesting results?

So I hope that not only can we boost indie talent by pairing it with famous games designers, but perhaps we could one day see two famous designers work together on one small One Big Game.

You do see that process of people learning from one another, though - Matsuura-san is contributing a lot to Triangle Studios in terms of how he things and designs, but at the same time, Triangle Studios - with their approach to things - are giving him knowledge that's also worthwhile.

It's definitely a two-way process, and that's why it's working so well.

GamesIndustry.biz The WINtA collaboration is particularly interesting, because it's East-meets-West, set against a backdrop of the Japanese industry needing (but largely failing) to appeal increasingly to a global audience.

Martin de Ronde

Yes - and that's something we also have to get used to. The Japanese culture is a very polite culture and we've all heard the stories about presenting something to a company in Japan - but they don't want to say to your face that it's not very good... so you do the reverse as well.

But Matsuura-san is interesting, because he's already very poly-cultural, and that entire process... You could see it during the first couple of brainstorming sessions - we were trying to find our way, but in the manner he responded to people's ideas you could see a new dynamic coming into play. People let go of the cultural boundaries, it was refreshing.

GamesIndustry.biz It's a fascinating role to play for you - the enabler.

Martin de Ronde

I think that's what we do - we enable it to happen.

GamesIndustry.biz So let's clarify the business model - Chime was released earlier this year and all revenues went to One Big Game for a period of four months. After that, the charity no longer benefits at all?

Martin de Ronde

Actually no, we're very grateful to [Chime developer] Zoe Mode - the original idea was to have a limited exclusivity period, then remove the game wherever it was, and then the developer would be entitled to release a version that had to be different from the original. But practically, if you launch something on XBLA, you can't tell Microsoft to just switch it off - you need to work with product updates, it's a bit more complicated.

So with Chime XBLA we're likely going to work with a product update that will turn it into the developer-profit version. If things go well there will be further versions in the franchise - but Zoe Mode has already indicated to us that they are considering donating a percentage or proceeds still to charity.

In the initial period for One Big Game it's 100 per cent, we have the rights - but after that exclusivity period Zoe Mode can decide if they want to donate. We think it's fantastic that they want to continue, as it's not stipulated in any kind of contract.