Dev Box Interview: Abylight Studios’ Co-Founder Alberto González

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview series takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. In this week’s expanded Dev Box we are letting Abylight Studios’ Co-Founder and Design Director Alberto González provide us some insight into who he is as a gamer, and how he ended up working in the game’s industry.

Name: Alberto González
Title: Abylight co-founder and design manager
Company: Abylight Studios
Job Description: My job usually involves game conception, design and supervision. I’m also in charge of all sound related works, except for music composition which has been handled by another guy in our latest games.
First title worked on: “Hostages” for 8 bit computers
Most recent title worked on: “Stop Stress: A Day of Fury” (WiiWare)

What game has most influenced you, and why?
That’s a very difficult question to answer. I can’t think of only one game as it wouldn’t be fair. Different games have influenced my way of designing in different contexts. For example, if I’m thinking about sense of “impact” in a physical way, “Final Fight” and “Street Fighter 2″ come immediately to my mind. Control brings “Mario”, dungeon puzzles bring “Metroid” or “Zelda,” and my jaw still drops with Nazca games, from “In the Hunt” to the latest “Metal Slug” episode.

What are you playing right now?
I’m trying to find some time to play “Dragon Age – Origins” for PC, and I’ve just started playing the new “Zelda” for DS too.

What was your first break in the games industry?
In 1988 I joined a very small company named New Frontier, as a graphic artist. At the same time I started making music and learned coding in assembler. My first published game was “Hostages” for Spectrum, Amstrad and MSX, for which I did the music and half the graphics.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
“Be water, my friend…” No, seriously, I can’t think of any advice right now.

Where do you look for inspiration?
I find inspiration from everywhere in my normal life: cooking in kitchen… watching the TV (mostly documentaries, especially about animals), playing with my son, or playing other games. Not surprisingly, I have seen many ideas coming later to reality and being developed by other companies.

However, when I’m looking explicitly for inspiration on a specific subject, I simply close my eyes and try to bring the ideas to life in my imagination. As strange as it may seem, the sound takes a big part in this process, as I need to put music and effects to all things I imagine. If it doesn’t sound, I can’t think of it!

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about game development?
Two painful lessons equally important: First, things take much more time to be done than you could imagine in the first place. Second, no matter how well you do, how much effort you put on it, there will be someone who doesn’t like your work at all.

Who do you think will come out on top this console generation?
If we are talking in terms of sales, probably Nintendo. They know how to sell their own consoles and games, and have also expanded the game industry to new audiences. Without the new audiences Sony would be the king by now, in my opinion.

What do you think is the biggest problem current games suffer from?
Maybe it’s a matter of taste, but I think many current games have an excess of realism, complexity, tutorials and dialogue. I still haven’t found anyone who reads all the dialogue and tutorials. I like games designed in a way that you don’t need to read anything to understand how to play, it’s more natural after all. I get the impression that some games use the player to play, instead of the other the way around. I enjoy using my brain to find the way in the games I play, and my imagination to shape the things that are not explicitly shown in them. You can always check an online walkthrough in the worst case…

What is the most important thing that has happened to gaming in the last 10 years?
I think it’s the Internet. Being able to play in real time with other players from any place on earth, even hundreds of them at the same time, is amazing. Now you don’t even need to go shopping to buy new games, thanks to digital distribution. And I don’t think we’ve seen it all…

Where do you see gaming in 5 years?
About the future in the game industry, I’m feeling a strange mix of curiosity, grief, and excitement.

The way man interacts with machines is changing and in many that’s thanks to videogames. I see the big companies developing new ways of interaction with games. That’s a way of bringing new concepts to the market, and also a way to re-release old ones with new control methods.

I also see the awakening, or better said, re-discovery, of true 3D vision in games, although that may take more than 5 years, at least in the console market.

The less appealing part to me is the increase of realism and blood in some games, which will happen for sure.

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