Breaking the Norm
Rick Treweek, Stefan Wessels and Dave O’Reilly are three very lucky guys. The South African trio are the people behind Singapore-based Breakdesign, a multiple award-winning studio that produces programs that run on mobile phones.
Their most significant project thus far is a collaboration with mobile phone giant Nokia . Breakdesign has been producing a slew of games apps that have been on the most popular list of Nokia ’s Ovi store for umpteenth months, a testimony to the company’s ability to build what people want. games like Dawn of the Fly, Ninjani and the slightly controversial (for “looking too real”) That Roach Game, are redefining how mobile entertainment should be made, and for Breakdesign, that’s a solid breakthrough in today’s highly competitive gaming market.
Breakdesign’s story began sometime in the late 1990s. The three guys got together to dapple in to Flash development for websites and web designing. those were the early days of cutthroat, groping in the dark venture into online animation where you either be among the top three or be out of the game as fast as you can to save your own skin.
Fast forward to today. Breakdesign and its recently launched subsidiary gaming arm called Barking Seed boast an impressive portfolio of brand names like Adobe, MTV and Tiger Beer. But success didn’t come easy for the trio. Despite their early tribulations, Breakdesign stayed focused on their path to establish a credible operation. “I guess being South Africans, we have a survivor instinct and when we get discouraged, it kicks in,” says Stefan, who oversees the technical aspect of each project. “Keeping the team minimal comes with its own set of obstacles but because it’s only the three of us, it’s easier to maintain communication and synergy of ideas – we have complete creative control over what we want to do, and then present it to companies like Nokia , who see a suitable match to work with us.”
“Being independent also means we can keep in direct contact with our customers – our personal gaming community – who give us feedback on our products. They are a fantastic source of encouragement; you can tell that we do what we do purely for passion and that is truly what keeps us going all these years,” adds Dave, who is the technical programming expert in the team.
What sets Breakdesign’s creations apart is the strikingly engaging graphics and flawless programming operation. This, says the team’s energetic creative brain Rick, is to match Nokia ’s easy-to-use and quick-loading interface. “Nokia was the first to come up with a Flash-enabled mobile phone and this meant we needed to create quick-launching, full screen animations that would be as fuss-free as Nokia ’s interface.” More than that, he adds, the games are available for download cost free, offered as rewards for being a Nokia user. “We decided that the games we created for Nokia should be available free of charge to Nokia users. You can download a game for a fee but it may turn out to be a bore. Users will become more critical of you just because they’ve had to pay for it. That’s what Breakdesign and Barking Seed try to avoid because we believe the response to our games should be as sincere as our creativity and passion in doing this,” he continues.
The Breakdesign trio is joined by Nokia ’s senior marketing manager, media & Ovi services, Nelson Wee.
SWITCH: What games do you remember playing most during your childhood?
Rick Treweek (RT): Oh, a variety! The ones I remember distinctively are Macross, Starcraft (and I’m still waiting for the much anticipated sequel!) and Dizzy the Egg.
Stefan Wessels (SW): The strategy game, Defender of the Crown.
Dave O’Reilly (DO): I remember being obsessed with ZedX – that was mostly what I played.
SWITCH: What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?
RT: For me, it’s creating and watching our game characters come alive – I truly enjoy making them vivid and believable. Reward is also receiving feedback from our fans and Nokia users because it represents the response to our hard work and shows us how we should keep going.
DO: Ultimately, it is the beauty of doing what we want to do without barriers and expectations. We create purely from what we imagine and from inspiration, and having others appreciate that is great.
SW: Consciously staying small is something I think contributes to what we have now. We feel that the company’s focus changes if it grew bigger, especially after having been through that briefly.
SWITCH: What void is Breakdesign filling with its games for Nokia? Who are you targeting?
SW: Imagine the guy waiting for his girlfriend to arrive; or the bored passenger on board the MRT – these are the people we target. The games we create are designed for quick-launching and simple to play, yet are engaging at the same time.
DO: Plus, we have our mobile phones with us all the time, almost 24 hours a day; seven days a week. The phone is compact and a permanent part of us, so it should have a dose of fun as well.
RT: We bring in indie games that connect players on a personal level, and reward them with real world prizes. We want to reach as many devices as possible on a community-based level.
SWITCH: What’s the most crucial piece of advice that has impacted your career?
DO: The people we listen to the most are our fans and our “gaming community”; their feedback is the best advice we get because it’s first-hand consumer response.
SW: Also, we do this more for pleasure and passion than as a business, so the people we seek to response most is our audience.
SWITCH: What are your thoughts on the digital age today?
RT: It’s great! Don’t you think so?
Yes, we do.
SW: The landscape of technology has been redefined vastly, as quickly as every six months and it’s very progressive.
DO: Also, the digital age is still very new and because of its youth, there’s no strict protocol; no dictation over how much you can create. It’s an open space, which makes everything flexible.
SWITCH: What controversies of the digital age concern you in the gaming space?
DO: It’s a question of security such as enabling “device lock-down”. But this is a benefit for us as game creators – no one can cheat, despite the openness of technology.
SWITCH: What do you feel is missing from the world of technology? What recommendations would you make?
SW: Where we come from (South Africa), sometimes technology isn’t even existent and I hope that changes. Technology has the opportunity to change lives forever and it should be experienced by the people living in these types of areas. This is something governments and NGOs should look into, while without completely profiting from it.
SWITCH: If you could build something, what would it be?
SW: A phone oriented towards control hardware!
RT: I’d build something that could integrate the real world with the virtual world. For me, it has to be character driven. Something that’s stranger than fiction, but so possible to come true.
DO: A time machine – I’d go into the future, then return backwards to tell myself, “Hey, I made this game!”
SWITCH: What is your response to criticism about your games touching the wrong nerve or teaching the wrong things to your younger audience?
Nelson Wee: Right now, we have a global network of download centres and a list of exclusive titles like those by Breakdesign. With this, we reach a unique segment of players and response has been great, especially with the launch of the N8, and we find that these games represent the social element of owning and using a mobile phone; it adds vibrancy to the whole formula. As for criticism, I believe it’s more about interaction and in the case of young children, discipline and the right exposure by parents.
DO: New things are always attractive, so who wouldn’t be curious to explore them? It’s all in the parents’ hands. As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same”, therefore the level of tolerance climbs higher with every push of the boundary.
RT: We once got feedback from a player that criticised how real our cockroaches looked on screen in That Roach Game – and we found that amusing, because that was the whole point!
SW: Our agenda is purely to entertain – it’s positive and fun.
SWITCH: How has Nokia as a mobile phone company aided and matched with your game-creating philosophies?
RT: Nokia has been a huge supporter of Flash Lite and has always stuck by its guns in terms of usability. And we enjoy developing content with Flash Lite capabilities and features.
SW: Their phones have good infrastructure to introduce new elements that we, as creators, come up with. There are still a lot of heavy Nokia users around the globe because the company is not tied to the latest trends. The N73 is one model that commands high traffic for Dawn of the Fly to this day.
SWITCH: How do Asian gamers differ from Western gamers, in your observation?
SW: In Asia, there’s a giant scope of players but generally, I think Asians are more “tech-ed up”.
DO: Yes, I think they are more involved in mobile gaming, especially in Singapore. People are slightly ahead because of their attachment to their devices. Also, many places in Asia already have impressive technological infrastructure in place.
RT: I find Asians more refined in taste, more discerning of what they want to play and be a part of.
SWITCH: How is phone gaming different from PC gaming, from a developer’s perspective?
DO: With PC gaming, you’ll need a dedicated amount of time in front of the screen and engaging in a game. Creating it entails more complication. This differs greatly from creating mobile phone games, which need to launch fast and be easy to play, and I think the boundaries allow for better creativity.
RT: This also means that game play is rich in terms of visual effects and content – our games fit all Nokia devices, be it varying screen sizes, or touch-pad or keypad usage.
SWITCH: What Breakdesign game best describes your individual personalities?
RT: Dawn of the Fly – it’s more personal to me because this game was the one that started it all for us.
SW: 10 P.M., because for me it was a departure from where we started. It was the start of projects that reflected our goals as a company.
DO: I think Dawn of the Fly too, because of the artistic style and because it’s iconic to us.
(Article taken from SWITCH Issue 02)
