ClickIndie Interview With David Sterling

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Greta Salmon

ClickIndie.com Senior Editor, Ben Sagar, was kind enough to chat with LOOT‘s Managing Director, David Sterling. Check out the AWESOME interview below and check out all the LOOT Interactive stories here!

This past week, ClickIndie.com Senior Editor Ben Sagar had the chance to speak with David Sterling, Managing Director of LOOT Interactive, about their recently announced games as well as the companies rich past in game development. First, they talked about the recently announced games Whispering Willows, Back to Bed and Velocibox as well as LOOT’s approach to indie game publishing. About halfway through the interview, they move onto David’s thoughts on Virtual Reality, mobile gaming, the future of Q*bert, indie movies, PlayStation Home, app developing and much more.

ClickIndie: So David, tell me about yourself. What do you do at LOOT Interactive?

David Sterling: We are a publisher service to bring great indie game to gaming consoles. I am the managing director here so I guess the head muckety muck you could say.

ClickIndie: LOOT is by no means a new company, so why the switch to indie publishing?

Sterling: It’s not a really a switch I think but a transition previously with our work on PlayStation to now we’re doing cross platform. We did game development but now we’re into porting and publishing indie games to consoles.

ClickIndie: What is your approach to publishing games?

Sterling: We try to find those indie games that for one reason or another are not able to come to the gaming consoles. We work with the developers to port and publish games to PlayStation and Xbox. Our goal is to find those great indie games for one reason or another as I said can’t come to consoles on their own.

ClickIndie: What is the difference between a traditional publisher, like Ubisoft and Activision, and an indie publisher like yourself?

Sterling: Well Scale first of all. Usually the larger publishers deal with development teams of hundreds and in our case, we sometimes deal with dev teams of one. That doesn’t mean the game is any worse off, we’ve found great games from small teams but those developers have a much more difficult time to port and publish games on a console. That’s where we step in.

ClickIndie: What do you look for when publishing games?

Sterling: I think we look for the same thing any gamer looks for. Is it fun? What’s it angle? Does it hold that kind of mystique to it that challenges gamers on a level where, okay, this is not the same old thing. That’s why I think when you take a look at our games you’ll see a diverse group of games coming out. Some are a little more casual and some are very difficult for the hardcore audience. But still they are all great games.

ClickIndie: What advice would you have for a developer looking for a publisher?

Sterling: I would look for a publisher that has a diverse set of offerings so they are able to do not only do the technical side correctly – and when I say that I mean really analyse the game and see we can improve the experience and then work with the developer to see if that you know stays within their vision but also has the marketing and relationship chops to bring it to consoles in the way that it should be brought. Alot of times we see great games that should have had a little more of one or the other or both and that’s where I’ve gathered a great group of people from diverse backgrounds and are able to look at games through a whole wide spectrum of view in order to you know to do the game right and bring it the console and hopefully to a wide group of gamers.

ClickIndie: Typically, how far along are games when you sign them on?

Sterling: For the most part they are pretty much done I would say. From 80 to 100 percent complete, and that’s at least the way we start off because you have to really do a thorough evaluation of the game and that’s hard to do when a game is half done. I have seen some games that are very promising but you know you still have to get a little further along.

ClickIndie: You’re planning on showing off three new games at E3 2015: Whispering Willows, Back to Bed and Velocibox, so let’s talk about them. Why have you decided to publish these specific games?

Sterling: Well like I said they There are all very diverse. I think in Whispering Willows you’re getting a fantastic adventure game that will appeal to a wide audience because it’s not only beautiful but it’s also challenging to a certain level. I think that with Back to Bed you’re really getting the art of gaming development. You’re challenging gameplay with a whole art style that is really something to see and I think brings such a different level that you really have to play it to see it and it’s so surreal and that the art matches the gameplay perfectly. And then you have Velocibox which is one of the most challenging games that I’ve not only played but ever seen. It’s definitely for the hardcore audience. Not saying it’s impossible for a somewhat beginning gamer to pick up because it’ll just take a lot more practice but it’s a hardcore game at the very end of the spectrum I think. We have discussions about these three games with the staff and they all come from different angles but appeal to a wide audience for difference reasons.

ClickIndie: So for Velocibox what do you think the difference is between it and other endless runners, besides just challenge.

Sterling: Well, it’s punishing. What it does is that it challenges you in a different way that yes it [challenges] physically cause you’re always in a fast twitch but challenges mentally on a whole different level. And I’ll leave it that so you can discover it for yourself.

ClickIndie: Tell me more about Whispering Willows. What is this game about?

Sterling: Well it’s a story game and I don’t want to give up too much of the story because the discovery of the game is really what it’s about. And in terms of the game itself, you’re taking a character through an adventure. And it’s really all about the decisions you make and discovery.

ClickIndie: What do you feel is the best part or feature of Whispering Willows?

Sterling: Great question. I’d have to say it’s like a living story and I think that is something that’s kind of lacking. Thats one of the reasons why we chose it in that it’s a different kind of gaming experience where it’s not just button mashing it is about thinking through what exactly you’re doing at the time and how to get through it and then discovering as the story unfolds. If I told you what it’s all about then I would be ruining part of the discovery.

ClickIndie: To me, Back to Bed gives me a very Monument Valley vibe, would you agree?

Sterling: Sure. It’s often compared to that I think. To me it’s more of a living painting or drawing from M.C. Escher as being a fan of Escher for a long time. To see that actually move and breathe is really interesting and then having the gaming challenge on top of that is something very special.

ClickIndie: And Whispering Willows, Back to Bed and Velocibox are aiming for a Summer release?

Sterling: Yes. All three will be out before the beginning of Fall. We’re really excited to be showing these titles at E3 and we hope you can join us and we can share them together.

ClickIndie: What about platforms? Could you share where these games are planned to launch?

Sterling: These three games will be available on the PlayStation suite of devices.

ClickIndie: So PS4, PS Vita and PS3?

Sterling: Right now for the release, we’re announcing PS4, PS3 and PS Vita for the Summer.

ClickIndie: Will they be featuring Cross-Buy?

Sterling: Yes Cross-Buy will be available for all three titles.

ClickIndie: And Cross-Save?

Sterling: Yes I believe so

ClickIndie: Summer is typically known as a time of year when a lot of games aren’t released, so tell me, why have you decided to launch these games now?

Sterling: I think that’s exactly what the reasoning behind why we are doing it. There are certain times during the year where there’s kind of an open area for games to come in and be able to grab the audience and get exposure on the platforms. And I think that summer time is one of those areas. We launched The Last Tinker in August last year and we are very happy with the results. There are certain times during the year where you know it’s just too crowded to launch indie games in our estimations so we think this is a perfect time to launch these games. People are playing games all the time now, there is no season as you say.

ClickIndie: As an industry veteran, can you tell me what it’s like going indie after being with Sony for so long?

Sterling: Well that’s an interesting question because even though we were part of Sony we were still very much indie even when we first started. In our work inside of [PlayStation] Home we launched LOOT as the publisher and were licensing IP from Sony and Sony entities. We started as a group of two, myself and one other person, so you can’t get much more indie than that, certainly not a big machine for sure. So I think we’ve been indie the whole time even as a part of Sony and now that we’re not part of Sony we’re actually a larger group [laughs]. I think that indie is where the gems are, there’s a whole new renaissance of indie gaming going on now that we’re very fortunate to be a part of. I think some amazing work is coming out of indie developers and really extending what was possible. I mean the toolset now is much more diverse and accessible to indie developers than it was even just a year ago. So you’re going to see a whole new slew of indie developers come up with just great ideas of what the gaming experience is all about and I’m really excited about being part of that. In my personal opinion I play alot of AAA games also and I think the fresh ideas are in the indie side of gaming now, really. Just look at our stable of games coming out now in the Summer and you see ideas from across broad spectrum and successfully implemented and I that’s very exciting now.

Just like I think a couple years ago when indie films did the same kind of thing where the tools became much more accesible to create films even seeing now the distribution methods – same things happening to gaming now. And you’re going to see small groups of developers creating amazing games. I think you’re already seeing that. So we’re fortunate to be part of that wave.

Special thanks to Ben and ClickIndie.com for the great interview!