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[EDITOR'S NOTE: Following last month's critically acclaimed Age Of Ornithology postmortem by noted German developer Schadenfreude Interactive,
which was described by at least one tearful reader as 'the Citizen Kane
of avian RTS analyses', we have invited the company's CEO, Karsden Mörderhäschen, to comment further on just what makes his firm so 'special', and present a history of the seminal game creator, as part of the continuing 'Schadenfreudian Slips' column.]
Introduction
As
our great German philosopher Nietszche said, “History is just all the
things that have happened before now, but written down because they
would otherwise be too difficult for everyone to remember.” I think it
was Nietszche... it may have been my Uncle Reiner from Stuttgart. He
also had a way with words. He was the one that told me, “You cannot
learn to play accordion without breaking a few Hummels” (he was a very
enthusiastic accordionist). I took his message to heart when I founded
Schadenfreude Interactive in 1995, as it was a long and Hummel-strewn
path to get to where we are now.
After some success in the 1980s with my Commodore 64 arcade clone Wurstzeit (Sausage Time), I founded Schadenfreude Interactive with my best friend and fellow programmer, Bruno Schwartzritter. Bruno is the author of Mutantkameleschlagen, a delightful game inspired by Jeff Minter's Attack of the Mutant Camels. We are all very proud of Bruno, as he is here considered to be the Alexei Pajitnov of the Black Forest.
I
wrote my first game on a borrowed Amstrad in the garden shed while
sitting on a milk can. Bruno wrote his first game in his father's
autogarage -- he simply pulled up a chair and set his monitor on top of
a Fiat Topolino (he is 6'5”)! I still have the milk can, but Bruno does
not have the Fiat Topolino... I have the better of the bargain, as both
the milk can and the Topolino are small and made of metal but at least
a milk can is good for something -- it can hold milk!
That story gets a big laugh here in Europe , but I think something is lost in translation.
A Delightful Name?
Speaking
of translation, in German, “Schadenfreude” means something much like
“delight in the suffering of others.” Many people question why we chose
such a strange name. But do not all game companies have bizarre,
freakish names, such as “Electronic Arts?” I am reasonably happy with
our name, although most people cannot spell it, including four of our
employees (the goat is not among them).
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The Schadefreude Office in Ludvigshafen.
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Our
office here in Ludvigshafen was quite a bargain, for it was originally
a barn. This worked out very well, as the concrete pig stalls made
perfect cubicles for our programmers and artists. The place even came
with a goat... we tried to get rid of him, but he kept returning.
Late
one night we left him at a farm a few miles outside town, but he found
his way back! This was not surprising to us, as we had the same result
when we tried it with our art director. Now both Lothar (the art
director) and Ziggy (the goat) are full-time staff, and we would be
lost without them.
All that our new office needed was a roof, and after we published Nazgul Thunder 2003 we were finally able to purchase one. But even so, working only on days when it did not rain, we were able to finish Nazgul on time. And where, I ask, is Duke Nukem Forever? Perhaps its developers are spoilt with their fancy office chairs, fancy foosball tables and fancy roof over their heads!
From Schnitzel To Riches
In
1998, we became a game publisher as well as a developer. Since then we
have been doing everything ourselves, from package design, to retail
merchandising, to putting customers on hold when they call with
technical support questions and then accidentally disconnecting them.
But do not imagine Alles lief wie am Schnürchen.
We
got our first batch of game CDs at a significant discount, but they
arrived without holes in the centers. This problem was easily overcome
-- we had Crispin Frosch, our intern, drill a hole in each of the many
thousand CDs. Crispin has been with us for more than nine years, and he
is learning more every day. Soon we may promote him to game tester.
As
for the future, this Spring we will be releasing what I believe to be
the first zombie U-boat simulator. Bruno is a fan of highly technical
and realistic sub sims (you may have played his late 1980s Amiga game, Das Reboot)
and our art director is a big fan of Romero (the director, not the game
god -- although Lothar admits that one “is rather dreamy, especially
back when he had the long hair”). I think the game will be great fun
for anyone who is not afraid of blood, gore, and a 2,584-page manual.
However,
it has caused a great deal of controversy here in Germany, and
ultimately pressure from the BPjM (our federal agency that reviews
games and other media) forced us to replace all the blood and gore with
green bubbles. As you can see in the character comparison below, the
game ended up looking like what happened when I foolishly put dishwashing liquid in the dishwasher instead of dishwasher detergent (a subtle distinction, but, like the difference between H2O and H2SO4, a critical one).
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A comparison of the before and after effects of BPjM regulations.
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Gung Ho On Dung Ho!
The
PC game is still thriving here in Europe, but we have made some steps
towards the console market. Two years ago we had a console game in
pre-production entitled Dung Ho!, which allowed one to play as
a dung beetle rolling a giant ball of -- the name says it all, ja? I
got this idea while watching an Animal Planet special on dung beetles
in the wee hours of the morning (I was perhaps delirious, having eaten
some bad sauerbraten). Although it was a completely independent
invention (I had not heard of the Namco game)
Dung Ho!'s game mechanics were indeed very similar to Katamari Damacy,
and so we could not continue development for fear of legal
repercussions. It is a shame... dung beetles are fascinating. So
industrious, so determined, so focused. If only we could teach them to
program in C++! Ah, but you are right, they would be happiest in the
marketing department.
Conclusion
As
for the future, we plan to horribly mismanage our money and end up
bought out for mere pfennigs by Take Two. Ha! I am only joking. We are
practically solvent and have many exciting projects in the works, as
well as this column for Gamasutra.
Much like in Tetris,
these imminent columns will hopefully present you with both joyous
anticipation and some minor nervous anxiety. Watch out for those tricky
green L-shaped ones.
Aus nichts, wird nichts,
-- Karsden (karsdenm@schadenfreudeinteractive.com)
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