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Hello Games on why not innovating is risky business

GamesIndustry.Biz have run a great little interview with Sean Murray from indie developer Hello games discussing everything from the success of Joe Danger to his thoughts on XBLA vs PSN as innovative platforms.



What's really got the tongues wagging though are his assertions about where the big ticket publishers are getting it wrong:

"You see the way that Minecraft, for instance, is on fire at the moment, you know? People want innovation, it's just that at this stage, publishers don't want risk - and that's what they're saying. I think that's really short sighted, to me, but then I'm a small developer. I think it would be really risky not to innovate at the moment.

I'm really excited that there are these new ways to create games, like digital download, XBLA, PSN. A lot of the stuff on Steam is way more interesting to me than a raft of new sequels at next year's E3 for example. I'm a lot more excited for that stuff, and I think a lot of people are."


Another thing Murray seems quite passionate about which hasn't been raised by many other sites are his feelings about the level of quality applicants being generated by certain games courses in the UK. This is something we're incredibly passionate about ourselves:

"I think... I'll get myself into lots of trouble for saying this, but, we've had really great applicants who've done computer science and things like that and we've had really great applicants who've done games specific stuff, but we've been shocked in some cases with how little real world skills people have been given by certain games courses.

I think that's something that's talked about within the industry, maybe not said that often, but I think there are some games courses that are almost taking advantage of people who see the word games and get excited about that. We've had some very clever people who've sent CVs in who've just spent three years not getting the right skills really, and those three years could have been better spent elsewhere."

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For anyone who is considering applying for a course in the future we'd definitely recommend checking if the course has been accredited by Skillset: http://www.skillset.org/games/accreditation/


Skillset's course accreditation scheme was devised in consultation with many companies within the industry as well as education providers. It recognises courses within the UK that provide exceptional standards of training. The courses are rigorously assessed by industry professionals, and have gained the backing of over 50 companies from the UK games industry. If you're looking to make a decision on a great course, this is definitely the place to start!

We've also got a bunch of careers and course information on our sister site, Blitz Academy: http://www.blitzgamesstudios.com/blitz_academy/

You can read the full interview with Murray here: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-10-12-hello-sean-interview

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