00:04We believe there is a third way to develop and release games, neither AAA nor Indie.
00:10Where games can take creative risks, can be made for a smaller audience, but still strive for AAA qualities.
00:16And this is what Hellblade is all about.
00:23Many of the games that stand out for me aren't necessarily the really big ones.
00:27They're the ones that have something special or individual about them.
00:31Games like ICO, or Abe's Odyssey, or Jet Set Radio.
00:36It's slightly unnerving to think that those games would probably never get greenlit in this day and age of go
00:43big, go home, big AAA blockbusters that have to sell 3 million to justify their existence.
00:50It's only a few years ago that it would have been impossible to publish our own game onto console.
00:55But the openness of the platform holders and technology has meant that we can now release our games across the
01:01world without having to manufacture discs, put them into boxes and ship them out to retailers.
01:06It's digital distribution that means that we can now release a game without having to charge $60.
01:13Hellblade is the first game we're doing under this independent AAA model.
01:16It's not a game that's attempting to be all things to all people, rather it's about what we feel passionate
01:22about, what we're good at and what we think our fans and supporters want from us in a game.
01:27But it comes at a price. We have to self-fund this game and we have to work within the
01:32restrictions that that means for us.
01:34The Hellblade team currently consists of 13 people and in most discipline areas we only have one person.
01:41But by keeping the team small and the costs low, it means that we only need to sell 200 or
01:47300,000 copies of the game in order to make the development budget back.
01:52Hellblade isn't about world domination. It's about pushing ourselves creatively to make the kinds of games we feel strongly about,
01:59hopefully to find an audience that want to play our games.
02:02And if in the process we can earn a good living from it, then we'll have hit the sweet spot.
02:09We've created a model that might work.
02:12With taking our work on Hellblade, there's an opportunity to question the way that the games industry have always done
02:17things.
02:17To see if there's a better way, a more streamlined way, to create amazing quality but on a smaller budget.
02:25And when budget is your constraint, you can't just throw people and money at a problem.
02:28You have to find new ways of working. If you can't afford particular devices or equipment, you have to invent
02:35your own.
02:36And this is exciting. It's a model that forces you to take creative risks.
02:40One of the keys to Hellblade is finding partners that are really excited about what we're doing.
02:45And want to help us prove that this model works.
02:48Over the past few months, we've been reaching out to performers, musicians and technology owners that want to collaborate with
02:55us on the game.
02:55The enthusiasm for Hellblade has been fantastic.
02:58And we can't wait to share with you some of the partners that we've got on board.
03:03Performance capture has traditionally been thought of as a very difficult, expensive process, even by big AAA studios.
03:09So we want to show in Hellblade that you can do it on a much, much smaller budget.
03:15That you can do it using a mixture of existing and homebrew equipment and achieve results that are up there
03:20with the best.
03:22So we reached out to Vicon to see if we could work together to find a solution that would enable
03:27us to shoot performance capture,
03:28but make it work within Hellblade's budget.
03:31We're working on techniques and technologies to find a solution.
03:37We want to share as much of the development process as possible.
03:40And we're taking this as an opportunity to create a range of merchandise for the fans that want to support
03:45our project.
03:46All of the profits that we make from this will go back into the development budget to make the game
03:50as good as possible.
03:52So if you're interested, please do get in touch and let us know the types of merchandise that you'd like.
03:57But we also want to help nurture the next generation of developers.
04:01So we're working with Epic Games to launch a series of online masterclasses aimed at university students and hobbyists.
04:08We'll be posting regular tutorials and offering feedback to people who want to try out the work at home or
04:13as part of their course.
04:16Ultimately, we want there to be a future for mid-sized developers like us.
04:20And the best way for us to do that or contribute towards that is to share how we're doing Hellblade,
04:27in the hope that it can be replicated or variants of it can exist thereof,
04:32but mainly to show that there is a space here that we can all be part of.
04:38We're sharing Hellblade's development with you, but your role doesn't end there.
04:42We want to get you involved in QA testing, play testing and giving us feedback.
04:47We believe that by sharing the game with you early, we can ultimately make a better game.
05:16We'll be right back.
05:18We'll be right back.
