Ypsh Talks To Home Developer, Heavy Water

YPSH : With us today, from developer Heavy Water, are Matt McDonald, President/Chief Creative Officer and Robert Brewin, Chief Technical officer. Gentlemen, welcome to YPSH and thanks for taking the time to talk with us today.

HW [Bob] : Great to be able to talk with others about Heavy Water and what we’re doing here.

(Matt) : Thanks for having us.

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YPSH : Let's start with your backgrounds. Matt, you were at Blue Sky Software. Tell us how you got involved with them and what you did there.

HW (Matt) : I was making 3D music videos at the time, and was introduced to Blue Sky through mutual contacts. I was brought on to work on the Sega Genesis games such as Vectorman 1 & 2, World Series Baseball, Jurassic Park and others. Before I left BlueSky, I was running several projects as the Creative Director and brought key financial investors into BlueSky to publish my original concepts.

YPSH : Bob, you were previously an engineer with Sun Microsystems, as Chief Technology Officer of their software business unit. You were involved with Java and Solaris there. Give us a little idea of how you came to Sun and what you did there.

HW [Bob] : Yes, I was a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems and was there for about 16 years, starting out as an engineer working on C++ compilers and tools for the Solaris / Sun platforms. As my time at Sun progressed, I later became the Chief Architect of all of Sun’s developer activities and finished up my time as CTO for Software. The last 10 or so years I think were really interesting primarily because of the explosion of the World Wide Web (and everything that went with it, like Social Networking) of which Sun played a huge part. For instance, the introduction of the Java language and platform completely revolutionized the way we looked at our computers, whether they were phones, PCs, gaming systems or large data centers. It was an exciting time.

View attachment 4588 YPSH : Matt, your wife Tammy is also your business partner with Heavy Water. Tell us how you two met, how you started Vision Scape Interactive and Heavy Water, and finally how Heavy Water got involved with Playstation Home.

HW (Matt) : Well, that’s actually a really long story, but the short version is that my ex-mother-in-law introduced us. Tammy had her own travel/event company at that time and I convinced her to work from the offices at BlueSky and help out with pre-production for a DreamWorks project we were working on and I eventually brought her onboard fulltime.

At that time, I was also the featured artist that Newtek used to promote LightWave. Newtek asked us if we would be interested in opening up a training center to teach 3D animation/modeling in San Diego using LightWave. We started a school called The Lab 3D Animation Center and from there, began production work for companies like Sony, Sony Online, Midway, InterPlay and others. We went from a small start-up to a full studio with over 100 people making full console game (first party Xbox, PlayStation and Game Cube), music videos and 3D animated series development. About three years ago, EA Sports contacted us to see if we would be interested in designing their new Sports Complex for Sony Home. It was about nine months before Home went “Live” and we worked with the early HDK to design the public space and mini-games. After realizing the opportunity at hand, we contacted Sony to establish ourselves as HAD Developers and eventually were set up as Publishers.

YPSH : Bob, when did you meet Matt and how did you get started with Heavy Water?
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HW [Bob] : It’s funny, but we actually met through our kids. My youngest and Matt & Tammy’s oldest are good friends and have played everything from baseball to video games since they were very young. Sometimes watching the kids play at the field, we would get into really interesting deep discussions about games, technology and how all of these were connected through the Internet (which I obviously had a history with) … one thing turned into another and when I left Sun/Oracle I joined Heavy Water.

YPSH : Is it fair to say that Matt does the creative stuff and Bob you do the technical stuff?

HW [Bob] : That pretty much nails it … if we tried to do the reverse it would be a disaster !

YPSH : About how many people are now employed by Vision or Heavy Water?

HW [Bob] : That number changes with the ebb and flow of projects that we’re involved in. Normally we have a pretty permanent staff of about 20 people but we leverage some contracting resources both here in the U.S. as well as overseas so that we can dynamically adjust depending on the workload and project requirements. Historically, we’ve been as large as to have over 100 people but at present we prefer the small, tight knit core team philosophy with an expandable team that we can pull in as needed

YPSH : Tell us some of the video games you have been involved with Matt.

HW (Matt) : Since starting out in the games business in 1991, I have worked on over 100 game projects. Some of the highlights include: an original game, Assassin 2015, which was nominated for a Cody’s Award, having the opportunity to work with Spielberg on a few titles, and re-designing the Mech Warrior Franchise. Back at BlueSky, I was put in charge of capturing all of the stadiums for the World Series Baseball franchise and traveled the United States to photograph/document all of the baseball stadiums; that was a blast. I really enjoy projects where I get to lead on the creative and am not tied to a licensed IP. I would say that most of what I am doing now falls into that category and includes some original IP’s that will be seen in Home this coming year, so stay tuned!

YPSH : Does Heavy Water develop for other platforms besides the Playstation?

HW [Bob] : We have in the past and do, however right now at this point in time most of our energy and focus is on Playstation Home which we see as a vibrant and growing market

YPSH : Do you see the mobile market as a potential growth area for Heavy Water?

HW [Bob] : Yes. It will depend entirely on the context and content, but mobile computing is an absolutely huge market and one that has infinite possibilities. What we do in the mobile arena will be done carefully however as not all content is necessarily best suited for mobile devices.

YPSH : Do either of you see any life left in the PC gaming market?

HW [Bob] : PCs are everywhere and thus still a viable market (look at WoW) … whether it’s a market for Heavy Water is a completely different question as most of our efforts today have either been in the console space and most recently in the online (Sony Home) market. I think it’s safe to say that while we certainly do have some projects that will run on a PC, running in a more ubiquitous environment like a browser is a higher priority.

YPSH : What about social media? Any plans there?

HW [Bob] : Absolutely. We have some very specific project plans within this space that we’ll have to keep to ourselves for now, but one of the big things we’re interested in (and me specifically, given my background) is connected gameplay – and social media as well as mobile devices play a big part in that.

YPSH : Vision/Heavy Water has done some work outside of the video game market. Tell us a little about that.

HW (Matt) : We have worked on many projects over the years that have extended outside of the gaming space that include feature film effects, music videos, National TV Commercials, 3D Animated TV Series development, Toy Design and Development and in-game movies and trailers. We do all of our own marketing for our Home content that include print, commercials and PR/Marketing.

[video=youtube_share;2QhJfRLB-sI]http://youtu.be/2QhJfRLB-sI[/video]
YPSH : Today, Heavy Water has developed quite a lot for Playstation Home. I think it would be fair to say that right now, most users of PS Home probably don't realize just how many other projects (besides the current Pin-Ups, Heavy Peeps, Heavy Ink Tattoos, etc.) Heavy Water has developed for PS Home. Can you run down all of the other projects Heavy Water did for PS Home?

HW [Bob] : That would indeed take some time, as we’ve been extremely prolific.View attachment 4597 One of the main reasons you may not have heard of us before is that a great deal of work we’ve done in the past, and continue to do, is work for others. Examples of this include mini-games and virtual goods for clients for example Toyota (Prius Solar Scramble), EA (the original Sports Complex and more recently Top Spin 4), Lucas (Monkey Island), 2K (Bioshock 2), Sega (Yakuza 3 and Alpha Protocol) as well as Sony themselves (remember the Dragon’s Den?).

YPSH : Speaking of other projects, the EA Sports Complex was a big hit, especially the Texas Hold 'em Poker Game. It mysteriously disappeared. We all thought it was coming back, but it never did. Any plans to bring the poker game back to PS Home?

[video=youtube_share;pzV9LWIpUIs]http://youtu.be/pzV9LWIpUIs[/video]
HW (Matt) : Yeah. I really enjoyed creating the art for the poker game and thought it was a real highlight for the EA Sports Complex. I am not sure what future plans EA has for the Complex, but we would love to be a part of it.
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YPSH : Tell us about the "Infinity" personal space and when we might expect to see it.

HW [Bob] : Well, the Infinity Space is something we built for SCEA so any release of that space itself is really up to them unfortunately.

YPSH : How were the new Pin-Up avatars received? Was there any resistance to pricing?

HW (Matt) : Overall, we have had really good feedback on the Pin-Up girls… People are giving us great comments on the styles and unique tie-in with the tattoos. There was a bit of feedback on the “sexy” nature of the girls, but the Pin-ups were Tammy’s idea and she ran the project and design of the girls, and once players were clued in on the fact that a woman was behind the design, they chilled out. We haven’t gotten too much flack on the pricing, but we will be releasing “special” pricing for bundles, which will be coming out next month.
[video=youtube_share;x4Ee9ZNn300]http://youtu.be/x4Ee9ZNn300[/video]
YPSH : Any future plans for the Pin-Ups line?

HW (Matt) : We will continue to expand our Pin-Up line with more girls later this year. We are always excited to see what our fans have to say and will likely take some of the suggestions in our next release. We will also be releasing a “toned down” version of the girls to Europe as most were banned there for being too sexy.

YPSH : Heavy Water is now releasing the Full Body Tribal Tattoos. I know you can'tView attachment 4591 speak to specifics about future releases, but can you give us a hint of what's coming down the line from Heavy Water? New clothes? New items? New furniture? New personal spaces? New public spaces?

HW [Bob] : The short answer is “yes to all”. We have a number of projects in various states of concept, design and implementation that cover the entire range of possible content types in Home. I think the largest is an upcoming public space with associated virtual goods, mini-games and private spaces that we feel will be quite popular (but unfortunately I don’t want to give away too much right now as some elements are still being actively developed). Beyond that we have a lot more planned along the “Heavy Strike” line as well (of course!) more Peeps, Tattoos and related items.

YPSH : The ability to upload your own playlist of music for your personal space has always been one of the most wished for features to be added to PS Home. Meanwhile, there have been some attempts to provide some music via items like the Playground Boombox, etc.. Does Heavy Water have any plans in this area?

HW [Bob] : This is an area that is of interest, it is of course one that you have to approach with appropriate due diligence as we (and Sony) would of course be very much cognizant of the use of copyrighted material being used in Home. You may have noticed that with the Heavy Peeps video we leveraged music from the band “The Inheritance” … we expect to do more of that in the future as music is an integral part of gameplay and general enjoyment of digital content.

YPSH : Does Heavy Water have plans to expand its products into PS Home in Japan?

HW [Bob] : Yep, and that is something we are currently working on with SCE-J and SCE-Asia.

YPSH : Bob, let’s get back to the technical side for a moment. In developing for the PS3, particularly Home, what hardware or software limitations have you run up against?

HW [Bob] : The platform is actually quite good and is showing increasing signs of maturity. Home in particular is relatively new as platforms go and there is always a fine balancing act between providing features and maintaining robustness, performance and even more importantly scalability. It’s something I spent a great deal of time thinking about when at Sun so I can understand the choices that Sony has to make as they either add additional capabilities into the platform or open up various APIs and features for developers. At Sun, we had the benefit of working against platforms that in some cases had decades of history and thus were extremely mature and stable. I think one thing we did benefit well from at Sun was the open nature of our platforms … it meant we could leverage a large community of developer oversight and participation in the evolution of the platform (and they, sometimes more than we, imposed appropriate safeguards and restrictions on platform growth for stabilities sake). Not clear to me how Sony could leverage something similar as they don’t have exactly the same ecosystem nor environment, but in general I’ve found that there are a lot of people out there smarter than I am … it’s always good to figure out how to leverage their intelligence and experience. If I had to pick one area that I think would be helpful is to decrease the reliance on specialized hardware for PS3 development. I think Microsoft got that bit right with the X-Box and it creates a larger pool of creative talent and thus opportunity for the injection of new and unique content onto the platform.

YPSH : Do you think developers have taken the current PS3 technology as far as they can?

HW [Bob] : There’s always room for growth. Historically we’ve invented tools and technology that help us do unique things in Home, building on the technology that’s been provided to us. Don’t think that we’ve hit some wall or anything, and Sony continues to evolve the underlying platform (which gives us greater potential for future invention).

YPSH : For both of you, what is your favorite feature of PS Home? Least favorite?

HW [Bob] : Most favorite ?The constant flow of new content (especially games in Home). It just never stops. Least favorite ?As a developer, the “walled garden” (see my comment earlier in regards to the platform). It’s highly likely that this is due in part to my background … Unix, Linux, Java, etc, all open platforms and technology driven by community input and participation. If done correctly, I think it works.
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HW (Matt) : I really dig the Tron space we did for Disney. I am a huge fan of the property and it’s always great to work on something you’ve spent countless hours as a boy dreaming of… The one thing I am looking forward to seeing in Home is more gaming.

YPSH : Do both of you and your staff spend time in PS Home just for fun? If so, what do you like to do in Home?

HW [Bob] : I enjoy the games and I’d like to see PS Home evolve to incorporate more of that. Maybe it’s a personal bias, but I spend less time engaging in social activities and more time looking for engaging gameplay

HW (Matt) : I spend time in Home because I love seeing what other (developers) are doing and it’s a great place for getting ideas from. I have three boys and all of them spend time in Home as well.

YPSH : Certainly, in the future, we will see a next gen Playstation. What would both of you like to see changed or added to a next gen Playstation?

HW (Matt) : From my perspective, I would like to see more seamless integration with all of the Sony platforms and the web for connected gaming.
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YPSH : I know all of us here at YPSH are very grateful to be able to give Heavy Water feedback via its message thread here. Thanks for that and for telling us all about Heavy Water! We wish you continued success.
" GO HEAVY - OR GO HOME! "

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The thanks for the connection goes to "Heavy Mystik" who is a member here at YPSH and has a forum thread for Heavy Water, He loves to here from you guys about their products and ideas. Thanks for the Kudos!