Veteran Game Designer Tom Sloper
Your resume reads like a “who’s who” of the electronic gaming world: Atari, Activision, Sega, Western Technologies and more. Some of these companies are no longer with us and some have undergone drastic changes over the years. How do you feel about this?
It is amazing to realize that companies can be even more mortal than people. But Atari, for instance, is not completely dead. Somebody still owns the intellectual properties created by that company.
Many of these systems and their game libraries are no longer produced or sold. What is your opinion on emulation and abandonware?
Well, the law is the law. If somebody still owns some intellectual property, then in my opinion that ownership ought to be respected. I’m a creator, a designer. When I create a game as an employee, then that game belongs to my employer. But if I create it as an individual, then I expect to continue to get my appropriate compensation for it, as long as I remain the owner. If I sell my rights to another party, well, that other party bought something of value and ought to continue receiving the benefit of that valuable property within the law.
Intellectual property becomes public domain (or ought to become public domain) at the point that the law says it becomes public domain.
I understand the desire to get neat free stuff on the internet but I do not think that translates into a right to steal stuff that somebody rightfully ought to be getting paid for. If an intellectual property has indeed fallen into the public domain, then it is up for grabs and I am as interested in getting a copy as the next guy!
Activision was the first third party game developer for any game system. Do you think the original members had any idea of the industry that would be created by their break from Atari?
Probably not. But if they had not done it, somebody else would have.
There was a message thread in our forums that discussed the spirit of the 1980s in regards to games and development. How would you compare the retro games we all grew up with to today’s games?
I believe that simpler classic games are inherently better than complicated games that require the player to first learn a specialized skill and be familiar with a genre. That said, many of those great eighties games sucked. Back then you could make a game about anything and get it on store shelves. The result was a plethora of silly or bad games and the luster wore off the fad pretty quickly. Some of the games from that era were truly classic-simple, yet addictively fun-and those are rightly the games we refer to when we talk about “Golden Age” games. But many of them were just dumb.
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Ghost Busters
You have produced and developed a string of hits over the years. Which game are you most proud of?
I deny that I had that many hits! Some of the best-selling games that I produced were Ghostbusters for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Alien Vs. Predator for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and MechWarrior for the SNES. Ghostbusters was just a straight port of the computer game created by one of the Activision founders, David Crane; I just produced the reverse localization (from Japanese back into English) of the NES game, so I cannot claim a lot of credit there. Alien vs. Predator was terrible but the license helped it sell. Mechwarrior was (again) just a straight reverse-localized port of the computer game, but the SNES hardware was used very well by Beam (the Australian developer) and it was a lot of fun to play. That game got an award: Best Simulation Game 1993, from Game Informer magazine.
Overall, I am most proud of my first game design and my most recent one. My first original game was “Firing Squad” on the GCE Game Time watch, in the early 1980s. Simple and addictive fun. My most recent published design was Shanghai: Second Dynasty for Windows/Mac (which recently was awarded Year’s Best Classic Game 2000 by Computer Games Magazine). Second Dynasty was the culmination of my work on the Shanghai line of games. Adding true Mah-Jongg to the classic solitaire tile-matching game was my attempt to help Shanghai players “graduate” to true Mah-Jongg. And I really liked the stuff we put in there for kids to enjoy—it has actual educational content, disguised as fun.
Are there any games you’ve played recently that made you think, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
Nothing surprises me in the game biz very much anymore. Except maybe Conker’s Bad Fur Day. And the question that comes to mind with that one, rather than “Why didn’t I think of that?” is “Why did they think of that?” Have you seen the commercial? If I was a parent I would be conflicted but, since I am not, I want to play it!
You spent time working at Activision Japan and have come in contact with many Japanese developers and publishers. Are there any differences between Western developers and their Japanese counterparts?
Japanese developers smoke more cigarettes and are more polite. I am in Japan now, as you are interviewing me. I attended a party last night of folks who used to work at Sega. A great bunch of guys and very talented. Several are now heading up their own development companies and turning out some very good games.
Activision’s Shanghai line and Mah-Jongg have been part of your life for many years. What is the appeal of Shanghai for Western game players?
Some people are turned off by the foreign-looking tiles but most people who are exposed to classic Shanghai tile-matching and spend five minutes playing it get hooked really fast by several factors:
- The exotic beauty of the tiles
- The authenticity and the sense of classic timelessness
- The simple purity of the gameplay
- It is very addictive—you just know that you can do better next game
True four-player Mah-Jongg also has its own appeal. The strategy is much deeper and it is a joy to chat on-line with the other players.
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Shanghai
After leaving Activision in 2000, you set up your own consulting business in game software development. Can you tell us more about this venture?
I am in discussions with several companies about working with them on some interesting software projects (mostly on-line games or PC/X-Box). I also submitted a game treatment (for a PS2 game) to another prospective client.
I have designed some original dice games (analog, not digital) as well. If I do not find a company to license and manufacture them in Japan then I will look into getting them manufactured and market them myself.
I took some classes at Santa Monica College’s Academy of Entertainment Technology in 2000 and realized that with all my experience I ought to teach. I have a lot to tell students about game design and producing. I recently taught Mah-Jongg at Games University.
I am working on a book about Mah-Jongg and offer my consulting services to game developers and publishers worldwide.
You have worked on many platforms over the years. Although iDevGames is devoted to the Macintosh platform, we are interested to know what your favorite system to develop for has been?
That is a tough call. It falls between Nintendo’s 8-bit and 16-bit platforms (NES, SNES and GameBoy) and the Sony PlayStation. Consoles are a lot easier to develop for than computers: no configuration nightmares, no multitudinous operating systems, no “novice user” handholding necessary.
How do you feel about the current Macintosh line?
You mean the iMac? I had an iMac at Activision. It used to crash a lot until I downloaded the firmware upgrade and then it worked much better than my Windows 98 system. I have not tried a PowerBook or Cube. You know what I really hated? That round iMac mouse! I filed flat spots on both sides of it so my fingers and thumb would have a “home!”
Macintosh computers have long been “de rigeur” for sound designers and graphic artists but I have never been a sound designer or graphic artist!
Do you feel Apple is taking the right strategy in regards to gaming? For example, its support for PC ports as opposed to original/exclusive titles on the Macintosh?
I own a Windows machine at home because, as a game designer/producer/consultant, I need a system that has a good game library available. I have never been happy with the variety (or lack of variety) of games available for the Mac.
Let’s talk about the game development cycle. How does the concept creation for your games begin?
Game concepts come from a variety of origins, as I said in my Classic Gaming Expo Talk in 1999. The four usual sources for game concepts are:
- Brilliant inspiration
- Licensed intellectual property
- A technology hook
- Orders from upper management
Now that I am freelancing, I guess that fourth can be redefined as “client-need-driven.”
Sometimes I get an idea out of the blue, but such brilliant inspirations are often just things that I myself would enjoy. It is much more important to design games that will sell. So now I prefer it if my client can give me a rough idea about what kind of game they want designed. One client recently requested a PS2 concept. That’s all I was given to go on—a game for PS2. It was not very much, but it gave me enough to start with. I know, for example, that if someone wants a PS2 game then they do not need something for little kids or something for middle-aged adults. It needs to be a high-concept game with enough richness, depth, and excitement to appeal to PS2 players. This guideline narrowed down the field of possibilities and I was able to come up with something that ought to do well on the PS2. Now we just have to see if they want to license it!
Can you cover some of the important aspects of the design document?
A design document is akin to a blueprint. The programmers, artists and sound engineers need to have a detailed blueprint so that they all know what parts to make in order to arrive at the same finished product. You can also look at it as a road map. All the team members have to be making progress towards the same destination, and they all need a detailed road map so that, even though they are all taking different routes to get there, everybody winds up at the exact same place. There is more about design documents at my web site.
Do you have any recommendations for project management regarding small development teams?
My specialty was working with outside development teams. I prefer managing external teams to internal teams. It gives me the ability to work on multiple projects at a time. When working with an external team it does not really matter much whether the team is large or small. I am usually just coordinating with one person at that external source.
Some readers of this interview have no programming experience, but would like to enter the game development industry as designers. Do you have any advice for them?
Programming experience is not necessary to be a designer. It helps but it is not a requirement. Designers may start in the game industry in several ways: as testers, as production coordinators, in the mailroom, in marketing, or as a programmer. The important thing is to get a college education, then get a job in a game company. Any job. Any game company. Exposure to the business is essential, so aspiring designers should begin by simply getting a foot in the door. With foot in door, the aspiring designer can work his or her butt off, displaying with a great cooperative attitude, can-do spirit, willingness to help and a lot of hard work, that he or she has a lot of value to add in the creation of games. Again, there is a lot more about this topic on my website.
Bio
Tom Sloper is a long time designer and producer of computer and video games, and is perhaps best known for his work on the Shanghai series of games for Activision. He is expert on the classic Chinese game of Mah-Jongg and also enjoys the Japanese card game, Hanafuda.
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