5 Aug, 2011
We’re all familiar with that little game called Castlevania: Lords of Shadow right? With its foray into the world of next-gen consoles and trying to keep an aging franchise alive in a changing market, Mercury Steam proved that even the little studios can make a big difference.
Maybe there’s a little trick involved, or maybe there’s a little bit of mystery, but we’ll just find out soon enough. In the upcoming GDC Europe 2011, CEO of Mercury Steam and Director of Castlevania Enric Alvarez will be giving a keynote talk on how to revamp things without embarrassing yourself.
Entitled “Postmortem: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – How to Succeed and Not Die Trying,” Alvarez will be talking about everything from the relationship between publishers and developers, how to create triple-A titles from a small studio, and how to update a beloved franchise without alienating the entire audience. Ever wondered what it was like working with a publisher who’s an entire continent away? Yeah, Alvarez has got that covered too, with stories on working with Konami.
Before joining Mercury Steam, Alvarez began his career in the industry with Rebel Act Studios as a level designer for Blade: The Edge of Darkness, released in 2001. Though it was revolutionary at the time, Blade never took off the ground and tumbled off a cliff and into a ravine. Then in 2002, Mercury Steam opened its doors with Alvarez at the helm and unfortunately fell flat on its face with Scrapland, co-created by none other than infamous American McGee. Alvarez blamed missing interest on a “lack of tension in the gameplay.”
The last step before the creation of Lords of Shadow came in 2005, when Alvarez finally hit gold with Clive Barker’s Jericho. All those lessons about how to work in an international industry was finally paying off, and Konami came knocking in 2008. What a fortunate meeting of minds, because we wouldn’t have Lords of Shadow if Konami didn’t have the confidence in Mercury Steam.
If you’re going to be at GDC Europe 2011, it will be well worth your time to listen to this man’s experiences. Not only did he take a franchise that has been around since the beginning, he also took it and revamped it with a lot of style.
GDC Europe 2011 will run from August 15th through the 17th. For more information, check out the official website for the conference.
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