Artist Interview - Kees Gajentaan - Pt.2

Which video game have you spent the most time playing, EVER?!
- That would be Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast. It was the first online co-op action RPG on console, it was revolutionary at the time. Hundreds of hours were spent dungeon crawling and chatting with other players. Most players were really nice to each other - I received Christmas cards from a few! 🎮

What was the defining moment that set you on your path into game dev?

Whilst working on my graduation project in university, I saw a recruitment ad from LucasArts - the studio best known for making classic point-and-click adventures and Star Wars games in the 1990s. The skills required for the job were an exact match of mine. While I had dabbled in programming very simple games in high school, this was the first time it occurred to me that I could get paid to make video games. I worked in architecture and design for a few years but eventually decided to pursue that dream and found a job at a game development studio in London. 🇬🇧

Developing a game isn't for the faint-hearted! How hard are you on yourself during the creative process?
- We just try to make the game to the best of our ability within the given time limits. At Implausible Industries we take the quality of life very seriously, so we’re pretty good at avoiding crunch. Of course, it’s different when you’re developing your own game, but generally speaking, our work-life balance has been much better compared to when we were working as employees at our previous game studios.

How do you keep motivated to finish a project?
- Once I’m emotionally invested in a project, I want to see it through to the end. I like to see and play the end product. Even games that I worked on in the past that didn’t turn out great, playing the game years later is a bit like flipping through a family photo album – it’s full of memories.

What is your main focus during the process?
- Our team is really small, and most of the development was done by two others and myself. We’ve all had to wear many different hats and that keeps things always interesting. I’m the “art guy” on the team, so nearly everything art-related is either done by me or directed by me when we outsource art.

What have been your top three high points working in game dev?
- Outside of the obvious release of RESEARCH and DESTROY:

1. As one would expect, the release of the first commercial game I worked on, LEGO Loco.
2. Raising the visual quality bar on EA’s FIFA games. Back in 2001, I worked at a studio that was helping with FIFA’s World Cup game. We developed an improved workflow that made it easier to create high-quality player likenesses, so much so that EA featured our assets for the promotion of the game.
3. Working with several very well-known game directors in Japan: I won’t list them all but I’ll name drop Shinji Mikami (director of Resident Evil) and Yu Suzuki (director of Shenmue and many classic SEGA arcade games).

What has changed for you most in the game industry?

- Disciplines have become much more specialised in professional game development. I started out as a generalist artist, and that’s quite rare these days. 

Do you play card games?
- I occasionally play Nine Tiles Panic and Tomatomato with my family. Both are wacky Japanese card games that came out a few years ago. I also find myself often coming back to the video game Monster Train, which is a very deep and challenging deck-building game.

What is your favourite deck in FLICK, and why?
- My favourite is Impeccable India - it has a beautiful design, is easy to read and has a really unique colour scheme. 

What are the pros and cons of being an indie game studio?

- The pro is being (mostly) in control of your own destiny, the con is that you need to rely on yourself for (almost) everything. Another con is that you have fewer colleagues to learn from. 

With RESEARCH and DESTROY ‘s release, what are the hardest pressures experienced when launching a video game?
- I think the hardest pressure comes from oneself. There is so much competition out there, you really need to create something that stands out. Of course, players have different tastes, so you’re not making a game for everyone. But for the ones that do choose to begin playing your game, you have to make sure they enjoy it.

From many years in the industry (around 25 years!) do you have a favourite project/game you have worked on?
- It may sound cheesy, but RESEARCH and DESTROY has been my favourite project by far. It’s our first fully original game from our small team, so we’ve all had our say in each design decision. This was, of course, the purpose of starting our own studio. After years of mostly executing other people’s ideas (and sometimes completely disagreeing with those), it really is a dream coming true. 

Advice for aspiring game designers?

- My advice would be to seek out others you can work well with. While it is possible to develop a game by yourself, I think working with others will make the experience both easier and more gratifying. In a good team, you’ll be able to learn more, as well as build on and sanity-check each other’s ideas. Let go of your ego and you’ll end up working together towards making the best game possible within your team’s abilities.

- What is next for Implausible Industries?

Now that we have our debut game under our belt, we hope to be able to expand our team in order to create our next game more quickly. Of course, we plan to create many more original and exciting games!

Thank you to Kees!

FLICK is right behind our friends at Implausible Industries! We look forward to exciting times ahead for all the team! 🎮