Joystick Junkies interview Chris Birch

For the people following us here longer than 5 years you might remember that nisute and joystick junkies have gone a long way. And since we’re into gaming lifestyle, we figured it would be nice to pay our friends at Joystick Junkies, one of the ground-breaking game T-shirt designers of europe, a second visit. Chris Birch owner and Founder of JJ will be answering our burning questions today. Have fun reading!

NiSuTe: Hey Chris.
Chris Birch: Hi mate.

NiSuTe: Can you tell us something about the company and the start of it all?
Chris Birch: Back in 1999 I was wondering why no one was selling cool tees based on video games. It was strange that with such cool graphics no one had taken advantage of the imagery to design tees. Finally after talking about it for maybe a year, people got fed up of me dreaming and I decided to just do it. I drew the logo in a bar on a napkin one night, walked in to the office the next day and said: “Hey we’re starting Joystick Junkies”.

NiSuTe: Did you start on your own, or did you have a partner?
Chris Birch: Back then I had a public relations company working with a lot of games companies. So I got some friends at the trade paper CTW to sponsor us with some advertising. We invited everyone in the industry to a launch party including people from TV, film, model agencies, advertising and other PR companies. Then we designed some cool clubbing style t-shirts based on some classic gaming graphics. And our first party was a roadblock. 30 arcade machines on free play, marshall jefferson the godfather of house music DJ-ing and a self confessed gaming addict. I dreampt up the idea and started it with a couple of other guys – one who did the t-shirt production for us- another who owned the arcade machines we used for the parties. But we re-launched the company with new partners a few years later.

NiSuTe: Wow that is really cool. So JJ is more like a hybrid between the gaming industry and the fasion industry?
Chris Birch: My challenge to myself was to make gaming so cool that non-gamers would want to wear the designs. I loved the idea that I could bring together to different industries that at the time were so far apart. While gaming parties were traditionally full of guys, we threw the hottest parties in london with a nice mix of girls and guys, great music, arcade games, 80’s vibe.

NiSuTe: And, is it working?
Chris Birch: Well we’re now in some of the biggest high street stores across Europe and some of the coolest fashion boutiques stock our clothing. The reason we’ve been so successful is that we’ve designed the t-shirts or hoodies to look really cool. They have to be fashion first, not gaming first.  That means someone has to be able to walk in to a store who is not into gaming and get the design and think: “Wow that’s cool I want to wear that”. Now if I’m a gamer and I see the design there’s a bonus, there’s always something extra to it I’ll get. I realised there were people doing ‘gaming’ t-shirts but there weren’t commercial – to survive as a business let alone a fashion business you have to be commercial – so the challenge is always to make t-shirts that are commercial and will sell. But still to be true to the game and make it even cooler if you know the game.

NiSuTe: Well that must be getting harder and harder to do for you guys.
Chris Birch: We have to constantly re-invent ideas – so for winter 2010 we’re now designing a whole range with a comic book vibe.  It’s all about heroes, but the gaming inspiration is still there. It’s just everything is drawn in a pop art or comic book style.

NiSuTe: But how doe this work? Do you contact the developer with a nice design or do they contact you?
Chris Birch: You can’t just keep designing the same style of tees. Most of the time we design for ourselves. Sometimes we’ll go to a company like Atari or THQ and say: “Hey we love Saints Row. Why don’t we design some tees around the game”. We have to submit detailed proposals but if we get a licence we can then get access to all their graphics and development art. We then spend time designing a variety of graphics that we think will fit the commercial fashion trends – the guy who is the buyer for say the hip store in paris or the big chain River Island in the UK has to look at the design and think: “Yeah this is going to sell thousands in my store”.

NiSuTe: Speaking of Capcom just a minute ago. would you like to create some T’s for them (and us eventually), too? (I would love to see a JJ sir om nom nom t shirt)
Chris Birch: Hahaha. Yes i love capcom they’ve got some great games – and times are changing – when we started we were doing retro designs which then were late 70’s and eary 80’s games, recently we’ve been doing mario and sonic designs so things are catching up, and with Saints Row 2 it’s now been shown that we can do cool designs based on modern games.

NiSuTe: modern games have very detailed graphics, doesnt that pose you any problems?

Chris Birch: no because we don’t necessarily use the full graphics. Often we’ll take sketches or logos and make 2 or 3 colour art from this.

NiSuTe: and that isnt a problem for the developers?
Chris Birch: with fashion design you have to consider the costs of producing the prints and what is commercial – often this is not full colour artwork. The developers or publishers are more interested in seeing their games get in to fashion magazines and as long as you can show you’re respecting the brand and making it cool they’re usually happy. When it’s really detailed high res art of a game this isn’t necessarily what will sell as only fans of the game will understand it – that’s not a big enough market for a major high street fashion chain to justify buying the t-shirts. So you have to consider art that looks cool whether you know the game or not, you have to research the game a lot and see if there’s any cool development art or logos or poster art. We do a lot of work to find out what will work – but usually we won’t try unless we have a feeling it will work. However, for some newer bigger games we’re considering designing just for the community, with designs that are only available online.

NiSuTe: So how close are you with the developers?
Chris Birch: Some better than others – most have been to our parties in the past!

NiSuTe: Can you tell us more about the parties and the drive behind it?
Chris Birch: Well originally it was the idea to help build the brand doing great parties. Getting lots of different people in the entertainment industry together. Fashion-shows of our clothing, old arcade machines. The challenge of throwing a gaming party that was actually a fashion party. Again I loved the idea of making a gaming party the coolest party in london that night. And we did it. They were packed  every time. We’d invite press down for fashion shows of the new range, buyers, possible sponsors. It all helped promote the clothing with the sheer number of emails being sent to invite people, flyers and other press.

NiSuTe: But its all UK based? I mean the parties.
Chris Birch: We have done a party in the US. In Hollywood during E3 with lots of celebrities.

NiSuTe: But never on europe’s main land? Will this ever happen?
Chris Birch: We have cut back on the parties because there is so much work involved and it detracts from selling the fashion, however, we’re talking to some sponsors about throwing a really big party at Gamescom. I’d rather do a few really good events now than lots of smaller ones. the costs are quite high so if you don’t have sponsors it can be a difficult thing to do.

NiSuTe: True. Tell me about the celebrities ^.- who have you met and how is their reaction?
Chris Birch: Well we had a lot at the party in LA – Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jessica Alba, the Rock. That was about 6 years ago. They were all doing their thing with friends and it’s always best to let them enjoy the party than hassle them. Jessica Alba was rocking out dancing on one of the speaker’s. I meet a lot of bands in the UK – I find with our gear that people either love it or not, our colours are very bright and the graphics bold so it’s more for people who want to stand out. This is perfect for guys on stage.

NiSuTe: So lately you’re into bands ? They must recognise the games right?
Chris Birch: Yes they do – sometimes they love them as they’re playing whilst they’re on tour.
There’s some good pics in the VIP section of our site of bands wearing our gear:

NiSuTe: That must make you feel good.
Chris Birch: It’s great when people like your hard work.

NiSuTe: But it wasn’t always this easy was it? (not that it’s easy now, but you get what I mean, right?)
Chris Birch: No, you’re right. We’ve been working hard for ten years to get to this point. That’s a long time, and we’ve had hard times and good times. At the beginning we had no stores selling our products, just online on our website. Then gradually we started to find stores then distributors in other countries – most of that has happened in the last 5 years – then in each country you’re starting from scratch, gradually building things up. There’s a huge amount of investment, time and money to make each country successful. And when you’re spending time on one country you can’t focus on another so you have to be careful to grow slowly.

NiSuTe: So how big is the JJ team now?
Chris Birch: We’re  a 7 people operation; me and my business partner Rick ( I handle the creative side of things ), Rick manages the business and handles the sales, there’s Ansa who is the production manager who sees the designs through from finished artwork to actual t-shirt, sources fabrics and colours, does trend research. Then we have Lee who works with some of the big retailers managing the sales, Cindy who handles the admin and shipping, Ghurkan who does the accounts and Vicky who just joined us as an intern from Germany for 3 months. Oh and I forgot Tim who’s our finance director and one of the investors – he makes sure we don’t spend all our money! We have agents and distributors who don’t work for us directly in each country in europe as well.

NiSuTe: Okay, I think we can start rounding things up ^.^ Is there anything you want to show us or tell us?
Chris Birch: Well the new Christmas range is going online in a few days. Be sure to check it out on Joystick Junkies.

NiSuTe: What makes the Christmas range special this year?
Chris Birch: It’s got some cool designs from next year’s range brought forward especially. The christmas range is not the full winter range though, just some last minute designs we do for christmas itself. I’ll try to get you some pics in a couple of days then

NiSuTe: Anything you want to tell our readers?
Chris Birch: Thanks to those of you who’ve supported us over the last ten years, we really do appreciate it. Every t-shirt sold is like a thanks to us for all the hard work!

NiSuTe: No problem, and thanks a lot for this interview Chris!
Chris Birch: No problem mate!

IGAD Breda Is A Game Design School Like No Other

Today Kevin and I (Maikel) traveled to Breda, an old town in the Netherlands; we had been invited by a teacher from a school there to have a look around. After battling a windy and rainy day on my motorbike with Kevin holding on for dear life, we arrived at the NHTV International University of Applied Sciences. A branch of this University is called IGAD, which stands for International Game Architecture and Design, and it is at this department of the NHTV that the teacher Stefano Gualeni lectures. When we arrived,  Stefano was eagerly waiting to give us our tour of the faculty.

Read more

NiSuTe special: Kalydo

At the Gamescom a few months ago, Kenneth and I walked humbly over the “Holland Pavillion” at the business area where all dutch gamedevelopers could have a word with each other, and have their business appointments. Chris van der Linden, Creative Director at Kalydo, approached us, and we had a great conversation. If all this went past you, click here for a refresh!  The conversation wasn’t that long, so we decided to pay them a visit. After all, Eindhoven is very close to NiSuTe’s office!

Kalydo is a young development company settled in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Starting out with a small group of friends, the company has been growing ever since. Chris is one of those founders: “We started with 4 people to develop in 2005. In the beginning we were all volunteers, we had a lot of part-timers and interns so we have seen a lot of people come and go. At this point we have 20 people working here.”

As the creative director, Chris has a busy schedule. “On mondays we usually have meetings with partners and other company’s, I’m also responsible for the marketing of our games, and bringing the product to the world. I work together with Rob, who is our gametech. The rest of the week I keep in contact with partners, do some photoshopping for the marketing, and send a lot of e-mails. My main job is to direct the whole artist department, both audio and visual aspects of the games.” The team is a very active one, and like to play their games themselves as well. If you look at the highscores, the team is very high in the leaderboards!

At this point 6 games are done, the seventh is on it’s way and the team is working hard on a new game. The first 6 games are colourfull, happy games. They can either be improvements of classic arcade games like brick breaker, or a whole new concept like ‘Cube: Gardens of Zen’; a puzzle game which requires a lot of spatial visualisation ability. At first hand all these games look like casual games for everyone to play, but games which hardcore gamers detest. But looks deceive! “All games which we make are a great compromise between casual and hardcore. The games are quick, easy to understand, but with great storylines and achievements that only die hard gamers can solve.” At this point all games are available in Dutch and English, but “more languages will be available in the future.”

As stated in the first article, Kalydo has a very special way of letting the audience play their games. You can buy credits for your account on Kalydo or a social network. With these credits, you can play the games, and when you played a certain game long enough, it becomes yours. In my opinion that’s a great system, for; when you don’t like a game, you didn’t waste too much money on it, and when you really like the game, you will never pay too much.

Kalydo isn’t just a company anymore, it has become a platform. “At this point, we have contact with some other companies who want to publish their games on the kalydo platform. This way, we aren’t just developers, but also publishers.” Netlog is the first social website which supports this platform. “If everything goes well, our full installment on the website will be this month (October 2009) and then we’re off ground on the social networks. We have 2000 players now, but we expect an upward line after this month.” Kalydo will also be available on Hyves. “The complete partnership with Netlog took us more then a year, so Hyves will take a while as well.”

So what’s new at Kalydo? “At this point, a game is opted for multiplayer as well. We try to make the game smaller, cut it into pieces, and since it’s browserbased, it will be easy to make it a multiplayer.” A new game is being made at this point and is called Haven. It’s a big shooter, which looks a lot like starfox, but darker and with a great story. It’s not yet clear when the game will be done, but expect to see it really soon!

This is a really interesting way of playing games on a new platform. Check out their websites as well!

Official Kalydo website: Click Here
Kalydo On Netlog: Click Here

Gamasutra Interview: Ankama Talks Dofus, Animation, Subscribers

by Brandon Sheffield

French indie MMO Dofus began when some web developers got together to make a game. With its charming graphical style and free to play area (a small percentage of the full game), Dofus has gained favor with players and critics, propelling the company from a small indie to a larger player.

Ankama was formed in 2001 by Camille Chafer, Emmanuel Darras, and Anthony Roux, and has since grown stealthily to 400 employees, including a new studio in Japan, focusing on animation and manga extensions of the company’s properties. The original game was done entirely in Flash, well before it became a popular platform for games.

As the company rolls out Dofus 2.0 and a new game called Wakfu, we spoke with CTO Camille Chafer and international marketing manager Cedric Gerard about Ankama’s past and future, including the new animation studio, the ups and downs of working in Flash, and player/subscriber numbers.

How did Dofus come about as an indie MMO? Most people wouldn’t attempt such a thing.

Camille Chafer: Ironically, Dofus was not supposed to be a MMO in the first place, back in 2003.

We wanted it to be a turn-based fighting game, PvP only. We were inspired by Final Fantasy Tactics, and wanted to build a similar online game where players would be facing real players, with a massive ranking ladder.

At the beginning it was a very simple project, which we were working on at night and during the weekend. We wanted to have fun, and were not really concerned about commercial aspects. After a while we thought of adding new functionalities, like moving around a town instead of simply chatting in a room. After that, we thought of adding pets in the town, working on summoning AI so they could be fought against…

Then we realized we actually were making an MMO, we were just lacking the professions and an experience system. Since a community had already gathered around Dofus and those guys were quite supportive, we thought of making Dofus into a real MMO.

To be honest, if we had thought of making an MMO in the first place, I think we would have dropped it. It’s probably because we had a slow evolution and kept adding new objectives to the project that we succeeded.

Later on we started developing Dofus-Arena which is PvP only. It is now much more advanced than the first version of Dofus but has retained the original idea of a PVP centered tactical game.

Did anyone on the team have prior experience running servers and such, or did that have to be learned on the go?

CC: We were a web agency, nobody had experience in video games development. We had good developers and talented graphic artists, but no one had game production experience, not to mention MMO development experience!

Learning was a slow process, we made mistakes, we had to go back and start again sometimes. But we were driven by our interest in releasing a game that would be fun, and which we wanted to play.

There was no publisher or producer watching our backs, and we could spend nights working or reworking some parts of the game. We were creating a game for ourselves and for the people talking with us on the forums, so we were not counting hours, and slowly learning.

What are the up and downsides to using flash as a development platform for an MMO?

CC: Flash was not meant to be used for game development in the first place. It may still be partly true today, but five years ago when we first started, it was very true.

There are lots of confines you have to adapt to – for example, Actionscript is an interpreted language, much slower than C++ which is commonly used in MMO development. We had no control over the use of hardware resources, network capacities were limited and only text could be sent. Binary was to be avoided at all costs (it seems to be ok now). There was no thread handling, and you could not use 3D gfx cards.

But Flash had a very strong point: the graphic engine. You could display an image, rotate it, shape it, resize it, make it transparent … all of that was very easy.

Integrating animations and images made by graphic artists was a piece of cake, since everything could be done just with Flash. A Flash game could also be played on any computer as long as it was equipped with Flash Player.

Sometimes confines can be advantageous for a project, and we think that was the case for Dofus, they made the game original and what it is today.

So why is Dofus a turn-based game? I wish I could say it was all due to Final Fantasy Tactics, but to be honest, it’s also because Flash had trouble displaying too many animations at once!

How easy is it to push updates?

Cedric Gerard: For a long time, Dofus updates were pushed zip archives that were put up on the website. Players had to unpack it in the Dofus folder in order to erase the old files. It was efficient, but a bit tedious from a player’s point of view. They had to visit the website, download a file, uncompress it, and sometimes could screw the install and not be able to play again.

Last year, we launched an online updater which detects patches and updates the game automatically. Makes things much easier for everyone.

We waited a long time to launch this tool, because it had a downside; the fact that we now had an executable file meant that players would not be able to play just by loading an html page. But players seem to be quite ok with it, it makes it easier and they like it much better now.

The company has grown a lot since its inception – can you explain the origins of Ankama Animation, and how the whole cross-media angle came about?

Want to read more than click here: Gamasutra

SPECIAL: An Interview with Ryota Niitsuma

So back at Gamescom Maikel and I got the exclusive opportunity to have an interview with the producer of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ryota Niitsuma, as well as Mao Sugiyama who translated for us and provided us with information regarding the game. We just have to say right now, this interview was awesome. Great experience unlike any we’ve had before, and was a lot of fun.

Read all about it -> here <-

An Interview with Ryota Niitsuma: Producer of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom

So back at Gamescom Maikel and I got the exclusive opportunity to have an interview with the producer of Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ryota Niitsuma, as well as Mao Sugiyama who translated for us and provided us with information regarding the game. We just have to say right now, this interview was awesome. Great experience unlike any we’ve had before, and was a lot of fun. Read more

Gamescom: Ankama part 2

Well, Ankama gave us the oppurtunity to answer some of the dofus-community questions. Have fun reading!!!

1) Ankama is now putting a lot of effort into “class balancing”, which raises a lot of concern from players whose builds get heavily modified. Why is 1vs1 PvP the main source for the balancing? Ankama has long emphesized team play (dungeons, prospecting locks, etc), so shouldn’t the usefullness of classes in all sorts of fights, such as group PvM and team PvP, be considered? Read more

ForeGames opening in Breda

Saterday at 10 in the morning. Dragan, Daniel and Patt are putting the final touches to the new shop in Breda the Netherlands. A swift look around the shop and Dragan makes the call. It’s time to open up! Patt rounds up the kids and hands out the succors here they go. In front of the shop a pretty orange ribbon hangs from one to the other end of the shop’s doorway. Several cameras (including that of NiSuTe Europe) film and photograph the event of cutting the ribbon!

Although the weather is acting up on it all there are still several customers that found their way in to the shop (and after a bit of a slow start and when the sun started to shine it filled up rather fast. Daniel who gave me a tour true the huge gameshop told me they were extremely proud on their retro corner where a huge DK wall painting could be seen. The shop isn’t fully filled yet he told me and there will be much more coming soon.

As the time past by and I was finished with drooling all over the incredible looking new floor it was time for me to say bye and good luck. As I did I saw everyone were hard at work to keep up with the demand. And to me that looks like this shop will be a huge success like the one they have in Tilburg!

Once again NiSuTe Europe wishes ForeGames (our local provider for all our games, hardware and other software) all the best and good luck with the great new shop!!