PAX Q&A: Hothead Games/Greenhouse

As you might expect from the makers of the Penny Arcade game, Hothead was out in full force at PAX. In addition to checking out a preview of Penny Arcade Episode 2, we got to sit down in private with Joel DeYoung, COO of Hothead and Producer of Penny Arcade Adventures, and Vlad Ceraldi, CEO of Hothead Games, to discuss the developer’s titles and the future of the Greenhouse platform.

Read on for more on Penny Arcade Adventures, the newly-announced Death Spank, and Greenhouse’s plans to create an indie-gamer paradise.

One of the things that I was most curious about was what it was like working with the near-legendary Gabe and Tycho (or, as they like to be known in real life, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkens). Joel commented that it wasn’t like working on a licensed game, where you put together large chunks of the title and the licensor signs off on it at the end. The Penny Arcade guys are heavily involved in every step of the development process. However, they do know when to back up and let Hothead do what they do best. For instance, Mike is in charge of the art direction, but defers to the team on 3D matters. Seeing his art come to life in the cutscenes was apparently a fairly emotional experience for the artist. He storyboarded the animations, but watching them was “like seeing his son take his first step.”

Playing through the first Penny Arcade episode was like playing a hodgepodge of different role-playing games. What influences the team the most? I was actually a little surprised to hear that their biggest influences were SNES RPGs, with Chrono Trigger being the single most important game to influence the development team. One of their goals was to always have the player doing something. After all, you can only get so far with presentation alone. So, naturally, Paper Mario played a role in the battle system devised by the Hothead boys. A couple of companies have been making quite the name for themselves while trying to define exactly what an episodic game should be, so I naturally was curious to hear what Joel felt about the other guys in the field. It turns out that there has been almost no influence from Valve, who they feel are “episodic” in name only. However, they are huge fans of Telltale and are amazed by how fast they put new episodes out. They intend to differentiate themselves by having more content per episode. Each Penny Arcade or Death Spank episode is going to be a few hours longer than your average Sam & Max episode.

Hothead has gotten some attention for putting out Mac and Linux versions of the first Penny Arcade episode. It’s rare for a company to step outside of the Windows-only world, and Hothead has been pleased with the results. The sales for the non-Windows versions of the game haven’t set any records, but they have exceeded the company’s expectations. They actually expected a backlash from the Linux community because they are charging for the game, but that backlash never came. Joel speculated that the higher-than-normal Linux sales have been because of crossover with the Penny arcade audience. They also expected problems with the dozens of different Linux distributions out there, but the Linux community took care of its own and most of the problems were solved within hours.

Next, I asked about the future of the Penny Arcade Adventures franchise. Hothead plans a total of four episodes at the moment (which makes sense given the number of “gods” in the game), but is hesitant to put a release date on any of the remaining three. The biggest factor holding up the process is Microsoft’s arduous approvals process for Live Arcade games. If you played through the first game, your character will transfer over with the same stats, level, and customized appearance. They actually had to get Microsoft to change their rules and write some code to allow Hothead to read the save file from the first game on the 360. Didn’t play the original? Don’t worry, they will start new characters at a reasonable power level.

What about Death Spank, Hothead’s new series? Ron Gilbert’s new game is a satirical take on video game heroes, with an “old school adventure feel.” The adventure game legend is apparently a great guy to work with, very funny. He’s something of a superstar around the office and influences all of their projects. The first episode, planned for a 2009 release, will have more of an action focus than Penny Arcade Adventures. Less Final Fantasy and more Diablo, in other words. As a Ron Gilbert groupie, I’m intrigued, but Joel wouldn’t share any other details just yet.

Next, we shifted over to Greenhouse CEO Vlad Ceraldi to discuss their indie-games platform. For those who haven’t checked it out, Greenhouse is a platform for releasing independent games on PC, Mac, and Linux. It’s similar to Steam, but you won’t see EA or Ubisoft on there. There are lots of systems for the bigger guys, Greenhouse is for independent developers only. Vlad made it very clear that the guys running Greenhouse are very passionate about their goal, to bring indie developers and gamers together. They want to give those developers a voice and allow them to build a fanbase, whereas they might be locked out of releasing on other distribution platforms. The guys at Penny Arcade are very heavily involved in the day-to-day operation of Greenhouse. They are heavily involved in the indie community already with events like the PAX10, and they choose which developers get featured on Greenhouse. Mike and Jerry approve each game themselves and have the final say over what makes it onto the store.

Right now, there are a total of three games on the platform. After noticing that the first couple of titles were RPGs, some gamers worried that Greenhouse would become an RPG-only platform (which is a little ridiculous when there are only two games on the service). While Hothead has gravitated towards role-playing games, they are big fans after all, they are not opposed towards branching out. The newest game on the service, Strange Attractions 2, is actually more of an action and puzzle game. The one-game-per-month release schedule will likely remain for now, but Vlad assured me that it might not always be the case. For now, they really want to focus on building a strong portfolio. They want to understand both the game and the developer, and find the best way to position both. However, don’t expect to be flooded with games. Ceraldi wants Greenhouse to have more of an XBLA-style approach where you will usually see, at most, one game per week. The only exception will be if a developer has two titles ready to go.

Like with Hothead’s own games, the guys at Greenhouse would like to support all three major operating systems. If there is any way to bring a game to the other platforms, they will help the developer do so. However, it largely depends on the developer’s time and resources. At minimum, they will share advice and sales data to try to convince a developer of the merits of porting the game. Greenhouse also will not shy away from releasing a game that is for Mac or Linux only if the opportunity arises.

As independent developers themselves, Hothead is working to make Greenhouse a friendly place for indie developers. There is no default exclusivity deal, things are instead looked at on a game-by-game basis. If they help develop a Mac version of a Windows-only game, they might ask that the Mac version remain exclusive to Greenhouse. However, in general, they will discuss exclusivity only if it would help the developer. The profit split is also pretty advantageous for the original developer. While Vlad could not discuss actual numbers, they are apparently in-line with the split on other platforms. They understand what it’s like to be screwed over by a big platform holder and have resolved to not do that to the developers that sign on with Greenhouse.

If you want to learn more about Greenhouse or any of the developers and games on the service, take a look at their website. Every game on Greenhouse has a free demo, so go out there and give them all a try!