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Corporate politics, sabotage, computer hacking, money-grubbing back-stabbers, it's all part of the game -- the corporate world of trying to get to the top and staying there! Ruthless.com has taken corporate intrigue and cutthroat business tactics and packed it into an awesome new game!
But before you leap into that leather bound computer chair of yours and start managing your computer empire, take a moment to read about the game's creator! Kevin Perry of Red Storm Entertainment is the Producer of ruthless.com. Learn about the challenges and techniques used to creating an exciting turn-based game for all to enjoy!
Zone: Describe your job, and what part of the ruthless.com game were you in charge of?
Kevin Perry: A Producer leads the project team through all phases of the project, from concept to boxed version. This includes responsibility for the schedule and the budget, as well as the implementation of the design. I am also the Designer for ruthless, which is of course, easier to explain. The Designer is responsible for expanding a concept into a game design, which is then given to the project team to implement.
Zone: What do you like most about your job? And what do you like most about working in a gaming community?
Kevin Perry: My passion in life is games. Board games, role-playing games, computer games -- you name it and I'm there. I have done very little else in my life but play and create games of all types, so I take an exquisite joy in being able to make that my profession.
As a Producer and Designer, I am able to shepherd a concept all the way from its smallest beginnings in the depths of my mind, to its final form as a boxed product that hundreds of thousands of people over the world play.
The gaming community is a huge morale boost to gaming professionals, especially the segment that uses the Internet. Authors and directors get their share of fan mail and support, of course, but game creators can actually interact with their audience in the process of using their creation. Not only can I browse the Web and find interactive fan sites where my work can be discussed, but I can also log in to the MSNGZ [MSN Gaming Zone] and actually play the game with the audience. That kind of feedback is intellectually important, of course, but the real value for me is the emotional connection to the people who bought the game. Communities put a face on the otherwise faceless "consumer," and that's very important to me.
Zone: Is the game based on Tom Clancy's Power Plays: ruthless.com book? Did your team read the book before creating this game? And what percentage of the book's material did you use for creating this game?
Kevin Perry: Actually, the novel is based on the game, instead of the more usual process. Tom Clancy is the Chairman of Red Storm Entertainment, rather than a token license we acquired to wrap a game around. With Tom's participation, we have true synergy in a way that's very rare in the entertainment business. We take a core concept and adapt it to a variety of media simultaneously. With ruthless.com, for example, the core idea is the metaphor of modern business as war. We took the software industry as the example, not only because it would be familiar to anyone with a computer but also because its personalities and tactics have made many headlines in recent years.
The novel and computer game then adapt that concept to their respective medium. The novel takes the hero of the series, businessman Roger Gordian, through a very nasty situation in which a corporate competitor uses means both fair and foul to drive him out of business. The novel uses its strengths as a medium, namely firm characterization and a powerful linear plot, to take the concept to its conclusion. The computer game, on the other hand, casts the player as one of the nefarious corporations, and gives him or her the freedom to hatch these devious assaults upon other corporations. The strengths of the computer game medium are used to their fullest, including powerful visuals and compelling interactive immersion.
Zone: What were some of the expectations and challenges in creating this game?
Kevin Perry: The implementation of our concept has been a challenge for many other game companies. In the pitch meetings, whenever I would say, "You play a software corporation. . ." someone would always interrupt, "So it's a business sim?" The answer, of course, is an emphatic no; it always took some time to verbally impart that this was a swift and harsh strategy game that merely called its combatants corporations.
So, in a sense, our greatest challenge was the palatable presentation of a fairly abstract concept. I mean, what does a lawsuit look like? How can an intangible like market share be shown to the player in a meaningful way?
But underlying that challenge was a greater challenge that we set for ourselves. As an avid strategy gamer, I've always been disappointed that the strategy genre does not reach out for a larger portion of the market. We set out to change that from within, by making a deep and complex strategy game that is compelling and easy to play for anyone. A large portion of that is making the game appear visually interesting and friendly, while still remaining under the very modest system requirements we set for ourselves.
I believe we have succeeded in these goals: ruthless.com looks and plays like no other game. Its lush graphics push the boundaries of fine art, without requiring the user to have special hardware. The feel of the game is very open, very clean and beautiful; but beneath the surface is a richly complex game of decision making. The business trappings make it feel very familiar (after all, everybody knows what a hostile takeover is), while the strategy underneath it all keeps the game fresh with every single playing.
Zone: The game has many corporate strategies. Was there a lot of research done on "real-life" corporate issues, such as hostile takeovers, legal issues, etc?
Kevin Perry: Yes and no. As mentioned above, the corporate world is merely the underlying metaphor for the game. This is not a game where the user must flip from window to window, looking at various charts to determine whether some subordinated options should be moved to a different fund to generate 3.5% more money. This is a game where the player decides whether inserting a replicating virus into a competitor's corporate intranet is a better method of attack than adding two more Marketing Departments to the best product company.
So the terms and tactics used throughout are carefully selected to give the feeling of a cutthroat business world, while remaining clear to the non-MBA user. Departments are not destroyed, they are Downsized. Executives have buzzword traits like Empowering and Talented. Buildings are not moved, they are Repositioned by Marketing. Real terms are very much in the game, but were carefully selected based upon gameplay, not reality.
The Zone thanks Kevin Perry for giving us a glimpse behind the scenes! Now that you know how the game is created, scramble into a game room and start playing!
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