Interview: Press Play’s Rune Dittmer on Upcoming Projects, Max and Microsoft

We had a chance to sit down and have a chat with Rune Dittmer (Studio Director) at Press Play (a 100% subsidiary of Microsoft now) and discuss about their future projects, how they feel working under Microsoft and a lot more.

So, what is Press Play?

Press Play is a multi award wining studio founded in 2006 by Rune Dittmer, Ole Teglbjærg, and Mikkel Thorsted. In 2012, Press Play joined Microsoft Studios in a light-touch acquisition, allowing Press Play to retain full creative control of its projects. As always, Press Play creates original mechanics-driven game experiences for geeks, moms, and other extraordinary people. If this was not enough, this is the way Dittmer describes it “Press Play is a 25 man game development studio based in Copenhagen, and we primarily work on games for Windows Phone, Windows PC and Xbox as we are 100% owned by Microsoft. Our works include Max and The Magic Marker, Tentacles: Enter The Dolphin and recently released title Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood. We are also working on many unannounced games and you will come to know about these games in the future.”

What made Microsoft buy Press Play?

When Microsoft purchased Press Play it left people wondering about Microsoft’s motives behind acquiring a studio that was just a single game old. Dittmer carries on, “My answer to the question will always be the official one: The creativity of the studio, proven experience in Windows platform and past experience of working with Microsoft lead to this acquisition. We were able to convince them that we were the team which will deliver content and remain super creative.”

Is Microsoft Evil?

We have seen a few developers here and there who have this opinion that Microsoft neglects new ideas and promotes building up of exisitng franchises but looks like all these reports are not right, especially in the case of Press Play. “Microsoft supports us in all the creative ideas that are building inside the studio and we will continue to work on properties we have made so far and new titles as well. Moreover Microsoft never pressurizes us to work on any franchises.” Microsoft is a big publisher and has studios of all kind and sizes.  343 industries and Turn 10 are examples of big AAA franchise creators but on the other side Microsoft has smaller studios like Twisted Pixel and Press Play. We asked Rune how is Microsoft’s handling of big and small studios and how are they treated? “Most of the big studios work on franchises like Halo and Forza which symbolise the Xbox system, so the amount of attention they have is generally much more than what is given to downloadable titles like Max.”

You Love Platformers, What About Other Genres?

Press Play has previously worked on Max and Tentacles which are categorized as platformers but the question is whether there is a possibility of Press Play working on other genres? “As a studio we have a strong love for platformers, in future we might develop games that may not be platformers but right now our focus is on platformers and innovating this genre. The platforming genre is much broader than what most people think. Tomb Raider and Mario, both can be categorized as platformers and we could even do a platfroming game with combat in the future.”

Does Press Play Intend to Work on Triple A games?

My experience with Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood instanly made me fall in love with it and also left a desire to see a Triple A Max with a bigger budget and higher production values. “Yes, you can definitely see Press Play doing Triple A games. If you are smart about it you can definetely do a Triple A game with a smaller studio but we are still expanding our studio and I think you will not see us doing a game with $60 (INR 4000) price tag as we are not in this space. There is no Triple A Max currently in development.” Dittmer also dropped a hint by saying “the next title from Remedy, Quantum Break will be pretty spectacular.” He mentions that Remedy and Press Play are similar in size, Remedy being a little bigger, but Remedy still works on Triple A games.

Which Platformer Would You Like To Work On?

“Donkey Kong is my personal favourite but given that we are a part of Microsoft, I think we will never get to work on Donkey Kong and I think Donkey Kong Jungle Beat is one of the best platformers ever made. If we were to choose from Microsoft IPs I would love to make a Banjo game because I feel Banjo series is fun and silly in a good way”.

Kinect and Smartglass As Part Of Press Play?

We all know Microsoft is pushing Kinect and Smartglass and is even in talks with many developers to make games specifically for the technologies, but it looks like Press Play is not one of them.”We believe their is a possibilty of making a Kinect game in the future, but currently their is no Kinect-only title in development. Although we may use Kinect in projects that are currently in development. Kinect is something we would love to work on and we are discovering the possibilities of using Kinect, it has a lot of potential but on the other hand it is risky too. If Kinect is utilized in a smart way it can do some amazing things which would just not be possible with the controller.” Multi-Screen functionality is also getting some buzz so we asked Press Play their take on it. “We are looking into using multi-screen technology for our future projects and we are exploring smartglass features for our upcoming titles which we haven’t announced yet. Smartglass does not fit well into every game so we need to think and evaluate it properly before we use it in our titles.”

Max The Curse Of Brotherhood’s Success And Problems

I enjoyed Max a lot, my only issue was with the controls, which didn’t as you’d expect them to all the time. Dittmer responds “our ambition with Max was to make a game with a controller and it is a matter of perception, I agree that drawing with analog stick can sometimes feel unnatural, though drawing with touch or Kinect would feel more natural, but at the end these control schemes did not work well with the game’s nature as we did try these control schemes early in the development. Challenges with these control schemes on the Kinect were more when compared to controller so we went with the controller.

Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood has done pretty well in terms of commercial success and we expect the sales to boost in coming months as the game will become available on the Xbox One and the PC. “We are happy with how community reacted to our game and are looking forward to implement user feedback in our upcoming titles. Critical reception for the game was a bit low as a handful of reviewers gave it a low score. I belive the game has more value than what reviewers rated it, but I think that all the 8’s and 9’s are justified.”

Utilising Xbox Live And Cloud

Press Play has yet to release any title that utilizes Xbox Live but the team has officially announced that their upcoming title for Xbox One and Xbox 360 will be utilizing Xbox Live in some or the other way. It could either be an indication regarding leaderboards or a multiplayer functionality for their future titles.”Xbox Live Cloud is something we are looking forward to. We believe that Xbox Live Compute has a lot of potential.” Press Play also praised the Xbox Live Community “The Community of Xbox Live is very supportive and helpful.”

Future Projects

Press Play recently gave the first look at Tentacles: Enter Into The Mind at GDC 2014 which is coming up for Windows.  When asked about the possibility of Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles, Dittmer responds “We have few unannounced titles that you might see at PAX East 2014. We are also planning to release another game during Holiday Season for Xbox One and Xbox 360 that will be utilizing Xbox Live. Few projects are very early in development and we don’t have any details to share except that they will be published by Microsoft.”

Third Party Studio Vs. First Party

Press Play was earlier a Third Party developer but now they work exclusively for Microsoft. So we asked them if life now as a First Party studio is any different from what it was before. Dittmer says “As a First Party studio we do not need worry about things like salary slips and we can focus on our goals rather than the short term problems we might face. Money is no more the problem and we can now also work on projects that required money and were risky. So the creative power of the team is on full display when working as a first party studio. The kind of projects Press Play has are different, innovative and risky so it gives a secure feeling to us to work as a first party studio.”

Do Reviews Matter?

Dittmer believes “reviews are not that important for a gamer to buy a game. Other factors like game content and quality are the most important aspect for a gamer when looking to buy a game but somewhere in my mind I have a feeling that bad reviews for Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood could have hurt its sales. Community opinions are definately more important that reviews by magazines as they are going to support the game and make future titles better because of their feedback. Although I should add that many reviewers are part of many game communities and I frequently visit gaming websites for news and updates.”

Final words from Press Play

“Wait for PAX East 2014 we might have something special for you guys.”