Interviews// Industry Insights: Gordon Midwood, Different Tuna

Posted 28 Mar 2013 14:00 by Svend Joscelyne

As part of an ongoing series, SPOnG gets the unedited, open and highly informed opinions of developers, producers and more in the vast world of computer games.

Industry Figure: Gordon Midwood
Job Title: Head of Fresh Produce
Company: Different Tuna
Best Known For: Derrick the Deathfin

Being an independent developer can be tough. Gordon Midwood knows all about that - his rather brilliant arcade swim-a-chomper, Derrick the Deathfin, put him in debt by around Ł40,000. It was worth it, though, to see the game shine in reviews (check ours out here).

We caught up with Gordon once more to ask his views on always-online, console manufacturers getting closer to indie studios and whether new IPs are needed before the next wave of hardware launches.

Do you feel that an always-online future would be a positive one, for both developers and gamers?

I feel that it would be a very positive future indeed for paranoid publishers!

Of course there are many benefits of always being online in the gaming world, in terms of asynchronous multiplayer, collecting metrics, tweaking experiences in realtime and so on. Personally I have never done any of the things in that last sentence though.

Still there are genres and types of games that have only recently existed that are powered by constant connectivity, and many that are surely still to emerge. And then of course there's the whole nature of digital distribution that is enabled by increased connectivity which is an incredibly positive development in my opinion.

Following Sony's PlayStation 4 reveal event, how successful do you think next-generation consoles will be in capturing the indie and mobile gamer?

I am not sure to be perfectly honest.

There seems to be a wave of successful indie games making their way to PlayStation from other platforms at the moment, which can only be a good thing for all those involved. It shows intent on Sony's part, and they certainly seem keen to have indie developers on board for the PS4 launch.

Nintendo too have opened up a lot to indies with the Wii U as I understand things. So everyone wants indie game makers on their platforms, clearly, but still the cost and barriers to entry for smaller developers on console are considerably higher than for other platforms.

So I don't know what will happen, but I'd love to see more indies on consoles with the next-generation - that would be great for everyone.