BeefJack Exclusive Redspotgames Interview
It’s a well known secret that the Dreamcast still lives, if not inside us all then right here right now. One of the power houses behind the strong and continued support is Redspotgames. Who were kind enough to answer some questions and let us know, just what it is that keeps them living the dream.
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First off give us a little background on Redspotgames.
My name is Max and I’m one of the founding members of Redspotgames, a videogame publisher, distributor and promoter for Sega Dreamcast games. We have released two titles so far, Last Hope for Dreamcast in 2007, a port of the NeoGeo AES shoot ‘em up, followed by Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles, an advanced puzzle adventure with an enormous story mode, which came out in November 2008. Most recently we have announced our upcoming title Rush Rush Rally Racing, which is a 2D top-down perspective racing game that should please fans of Neo Drift Out (NeoGeo) or Micro Machines.
Basically Redspotgames started as a collective of Dreamcast fans with different backgrounds who wanted to bring professional games to the Dreamcast a more independent way. We wanted to be a bridge for indie developers who want to invest more time and efforts into their productions but need the financial and professional background for production, distribution, marketing, contacts to wholesalers and retailers, among many other points.
Working with the post-DC scene must be very different to working for a current scene, how does that affect you as a company?
Well, so far I can rate the situation we’re working with the same seriousness on our projects just like normal publisher, but within a much more familiar ambience concerning colleagues and customers. But of course we recognise that we’re serving a small niche. A loyal and cool one.
How does Redspotgames work from the publishing to developer side of things?
Generally we’re the ones who are contacting the developers first. We are at a lot of events or smaller conventions all around Europe. We’re also participating as exhibitor at smaller events (RetroConnexion, France) or larger ones (Games Convention, Germany).
We have a QA, since we know that we need to deliver quality, no matter if it’s a game for a very small or very large target audience. We want to create satisfaction among our customers, the games should be worth the money because of its quality, and not due its sympathy advantage because it’s from the scene.
There’s never really been anything in the industry like the post-DC scene. What are your views on it and how it’s grown since the demise of Sega’s system, why do you think people can’t seem to let go of the Dreamcast?
It all started back in the 80s at my place, (but I have been through almost all consoles) and was always looking for the alternative scenes of a platform, e.g. the homebrew scene on the Nintendo 64 or most recently the GP2X scene. But indeed I have never seen something like the post Dreamcast scene. It’s pretty loyal to the platform, it’s also something pretty different to the NES / SNES cult affection, even though there are still some homebrew games coming out for it.
Since you have asked for my opinion how it became that way… my personal guess is that the demise of Sega as a console manufacturer was a very shocking and dramatic situation for who crossed their fingers for a successful Dreamcast. And I don’t mean the die-hard fans, but even just sympathisers. There was a little bit of magic afterwards, all official games that came out after January 2001 had this melancholic aftertaste. Everyone knew that these could be the last Dreamcast games. And every single new game was something special, even more special that it usually was.
Then we have the hardware, which is almost perfect for homebrew activities. You don’t have to modify your console in order to play homebrew titles. There’s the open source and legal KallistiOS development kit. Even nowadays the specs can compete to those of the Nintendo Wii. There are so many advantages other consoles never had, plus Sega never really sued homebrew activities and tolerates it.
Well, basically it’s the combination of those both points in my opinion.
Would you recommend indie devs start looking more towards consoles like the Dreamcast over XBLA for example?
(laughs)
I don’t think I should go between the decision of the developers, everyone is free to choose the platform she or he likes. But I would recommend every developer to have a closer look into the Dreamcast hardware and libraries (KallisiOS), they would serve a very fine community. And beside, the fun you have while gaming isn’t about the age of a platform. I would be grateful if more hobby and indie developers would do their work on older or alternative platforms, because their time isn’t over just when other console manufacturers or retailers say so.
What are your opinions on the games you’ve published so far? Despite them being homebrew the vast majority have stood up to most of the existing DC library.
Oh, thanks for the flowers!
I’m satisfied with the work we have done. We’ve learned more and more with every release and getting more professional each time. It feels nice to watch something start growing and be part of it. The areas we have influence in also become bigger with each new title.
With Rush Rush Rally Racing just about to hit, how was the whole process of getting that up and going like in comparison to
something like Last Hope or any other game you’ve published?
Unlike Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles and Last Hope, the public already knew about an upcoming commercial Dreamcast release of Rush Rush Rally Racing very early. So we had to be careful not to spread too much information and disappoint the audience if some promise couldn’t be kept.
The first business negotiations started in early 2008, even before our release of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles. A lot of time has passed, and one year and a half later the final product has come out. You see, there has been a lot of collaboration before the public knew about our part within this project.
The earlier days we had to negotiate about all contract details, and when we knew that Senile Team and Redspotgames would team up to release Rush Rush Rally Racing, we already started all preparation about the financing, marketing, distribution and production details. Senile Team also gave us the possibility to influence the design of the game, I want to thank them again that we also could make this experience!
Do you think maybe the Dreamcast could turn into a console that will carry on as long as the video game industry does, but just behind the shadows for the more dedicated gamer?
I’m afraid a second NeoGeo scenario is very unlikely since the official support isn’t given anymore. It all goes up and down with the strengths of the scene. If many people are going to quit the scene from one day to another, we can not release more games on the Dreamcast because every single sold units counts. Only a few 100 sold copies less, and we could be into financial problems since there will be no cost recovery.
Thank you for your time, is there anything additional you’d like to add that you haven’t had the chance to say?
If you (the readers) like to give Dreamcast a try, feel free to contact us via our contact form. We’re always looking out for good coders. You could also help us by just spreading the word. Thanks for all your support so far to all supporters and fans!
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That’s it for now but you can still check out our full review of the latest Dreamcast epic, Rush Rush Rally Racing here only on BeefJack. As long as the Dreamcast keeps kicking so will we (I will at least), so stick around and we’ll give you all the latest news as soon as it happens.
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