Features// Games Industry Insights with Antti Ilvessuo, RedLynx

Posted 26 Dec 2012 11:00 by Svend Joscelyne

People: Antti Ilvessuo
Games: Trials Evolution (Xbox 360)

As 2013 comes into sharp focus, SPOnG turns to the real video games experts: the people who actually make games. We have posed the same five key questions to some of the most interesting and insightful publishing and development figures in the global games industry. We got their unedited, open and highly informed opinions and we are publishing them in multi-part series of insights.

Industry Figure: Antti Ilvessuo
Job Title: Creative Director
Company: RedLynx
Best Known For: Trials Evolution

SPOnG: In what ways has the rise in tablet and mobile gaming proven beneficial/challenging to your work?

Antti Ilvessuo: The rise of tablets and mobile gaming has definitely changed many of our ways of working in just a few short years. It’s like, what if you were the best guy in the world at putting pigeons in glass bottles as a work of art? Now that art form has vanished, and you have to learn how to shoot dancing bears out of trebuchets through a hoop of flaming potatoes. Maybe your knowledge of pigeon-flapping can help you calculate bear trajectories, maybe not.

The user interface, the player experience, the way you get games and the way you interact with your favorite brands: all of these things have been changed by tablet and mobile games. So it really challenges us all to think in a new way. You have to!

SPOnG: How do you feel the industry has coped with regards to the economy, particularly redundancies and studio closures?

Antti Ilvessuo: Some studios have disappeared, but new ones are formed. Maybe some people leave the industry to do something else, while other new people come in. Things change and that’s one constant in this industry. This time has been more radical than before, because the new platforms have come at the same time as a major global economic downturn.

You can think of studios as humans. Some of them have died, but a lot of them have a few small children that carry their parents’ DNA. And one thing I’ve learned as a dad is that kids are really fun and always invent new stuff. You have to learn from them.

SPOnG: What's your opinion of cloud gaming? Have Gakai and OnLive helped with perception?

Antti Ilvessuo: I’ve always dreamed of being able to play a game on the clouds. It might depend on what speed you’re travelling, but it would best if you were just hovering. That might be really nice, no need for heavy clothes or winds affecting the sound.

It’s always fun to try out new forms of play. I think cloud gaming could still come of age in a big way, like for example how mobile gaming was operated by operators and had small, fragmented markets without app stores before Apple came along. Maybe cloud gaming will fit certain game genres better than others, but it has a lot of potential.

Origin of Pain DLC

SPOnG: Crowd-funding (i.e. Kickstarter) has become a popular method for games developers to pitch their projects. What's your opinion of it? Would you use it? Have you?

Antti Ilvessuo: Not us, since we are part of the Ubisoft family now, but it’s definitely interesting for smaller, independent developers out there. Still, it’s not always perfect. Many of the projects don’t get the right amount of money and their games are not made.

We need really great success stories on games that were funded and released and sold a ton after a Kickstarter campaign, not just stories about how they collected some money.

It’s interesting to see when these new bigger projects start to come up since now as a developer, if you don’t have one publisher then you are responsible. You have all those backers as producers and maybe, just maybe, these backers will all act like mini-publishers have different vision what game should be. Interesting to see how it goes!