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Interview: Sammy
While most high profile game developers at the GDC were snubbing press when it came to interviews, the good people from Sammy were nice enough to grant us some of their time. Though this was perhaps in some part due to the fact that they are currently hiring and looking for a few good persons, as it were. My jobless friends, take heed!
Again quite unusual for the show floor, Sammy Studios was represented at the GDC by key representatives from every facet of their operations – audio guys, programmers and concept artists were on hand in addition to the usual PR and human recourses folks. Mostly what you see around the trade shows and conferences are a pr guy or two, perhaps a producer, and a host of hired help. Not so here…for audio questions, I ask the lead audio guy. Programming/gameplay questions, just ask one of the team! Really a breath of fresh air in that regard.
The following is a summary of my casual conversation with:
Aaron Habibipour – Concept Artist
Andrew Waggoner – Lead Audio
Vassilios Mavros – Programmer
Olin Georgescu – character artist
(all from the LA dev studio)
Carla Block – director of human recourses
Meelad Sadat – manager of marketing communications
(from the Carlsbad offices)
Game Side
As you may have recently heard, Sammy Studios announced just this morning that they plan to develop two new games for the current game consoles – a genre/character driven FPS, and a story/character driven flight combat game.
While I could not get the particulars no matter how hard I tried, I did learn a fair bit about what’s to come. The FPS is character and story driven. That is to say, it’s not necessarily just an Unreal Tournament blast-fest. Were one to make a comparison to an extant console game, Halo might be the closest model. Meelad and Co. were actually quite reluctant to call it an FPS proper. It’s in first person mode to be sure, but the game promises to be just as engaging on the intellectual level as it will be on the twitch level. Sammy Studios is out to create a new intellectual property here, transferable into other media such as film and comics (mere examples, nothing is set in stone).
The process in fact began with a script, and Sammy is really trying to emphasize the fact that they’re aiming for a more mature audience. By which I mean the more sophisticated gamer, not necessarily the bloodthirsty gamer (though I would be shocked if I didn’t see a bit of the old ultraviolence therein). There will be vehicles, though they couldn’t tell me what kind, because that would have given the game away. I almost caught them there, it was right on the tip of Meelad’s tongue. Curses!
Two curious clues here – Andrew was the most excited and engaged about this game. To me this says that the audio will play a very important part in the final product. Another bit – that the vehicles would give the game idea away means that there’s something special about the rides. Especially since this is a new character and franchise. Intriguing…
The flight combat game will also be very story driven, ultimately aiming for the engaging overarching narrative. The game will be as unique character-wise as Skygunner, but of a totally different style. It will play more on the vein of a Starfox shooter than an arcade-based or sim game. This is definitely a console experience.
Incidentally, those comparisons were made at great duress. I had to prompt and prod given the fact that these titles are really in the early stages. So don’t take these comparisons on face value, they’re merely my way of imparting to you some idea of what kind of field we’re dealing with. Both games are due out in Q4 2004, so until that time you'll be seeing the usual publishing work from Sammy. Further, Sammy Studios is making a big arcade push this year, likely due to the recent gaping hole left there by Capcom. But that's a topic for a later date.
Recruiting Side
Sammy Studios is recruiting a bit for the above two games, but even more heavily for a second team; the aptly named Team 2. They’re looking to build this 25-30 person group in their LA studio, located in the lovely Sherman Oaks Galleria right next to Warner Bros Animation. This area is full of other production studios of various sorts, so Sammy is surrounded at all times by their peers. They’ve got an existing core talent there, great benefits, and love the loud rock music (so says the mighty Olin).
In addition to the development group, Sammy is setting up an audio recording and production studio in LA, with plans to draw from Hollywood talent for voice acting, music et cetera. This gives Sammy Studios better control over the dialogue and thus the entire feel of the game. This is an especially significant statement to me, given the fact that the bar has recently been raised quite high for narrative in games. Any company that does not advance themselves in this regard is destined for utter mediocrity. And it’d a damn shame that a significant chunk of the companies out there are satisfied to wallow there. Thus I’m pleased to see such attention paid to the audio side.
There are both professional and entry level positions available in most areas now, but even in the latter case the expectations are extremely high, given the current talent they already have.
They really do seem like fun guys and gals to work with – character artist Olin, being an utter madman, was doodling away throughout the entire conversation, and came up with some brilliant work in my opinion. Behold his artistic prowess in all its glory!
As for the location of the studio itself there’s a movie theatre nearby (in which I semi-recently saw the abysmal Star Wars Episode II), you get a 10% discount at P.F Chang’s – Andrew made sure I included this – not to mention a free gym. And this may sound a bit odd, but when you’re attending the GDC and hanging around developers all day, it’s quite surprising to see some physically fit persons who make games. Sammy are a handsome bunch of individuals, and now the reason has been revealed!
Another benefit (mentioned by Aaron) is that the human recourses department is constantly checking in on them, once per week usually. Checking project status, employee well being and those sorts of things.
So if you’re at all interested, feel free to visit them on the show floor Saturday at the GDC (booth CP 1821), or check out the website (www.sammystudios.com) and contact them that way. If you want to get your in with a fun company on the verge of something big – this is your chance!!
brandon sheffield
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