Brian Hackett (Claymore Games) - Scotland in Focus

Brian Hackett owns Claymore Games, a small, part-time, independent games company based in Glasgow who develop mobile phone games. Like many other games designers Brian got into the games industry through a university course studying a Post Graduate Diploma in Game Technology at Glasgow Caledonian University, with lecturer Jon Sykes being a heavy influence.

SquareGo wanted to meet the man and caught up with him for a bite of lunch on a typical Glasgow weekday. Brian explained how he had made contacts through the course, "There was a chap there who had his own games company but was there to learn every aspect of games development, coding, graphics and sound. His name was Gordon Ross and he gave me my first freelance contract giving me some great experience in the industry. I also met Brian Baglow, who everyone in the games industry knows, and who set me up with great contacts."

Tales of development

"I worked at DC Studios before they became Firebrand Games, developing mobile phone games and after I left them I became a full time freelancer working for companies like Rockpool, Slam and Dynamo Games with Brian Baglow helping me get many of these contracts.

Having told us that many of these projects had not seen the light of day I had to ask Brian if developers get annoyed spending time on a product that never gets released.

Brian was pragmatic in his response, "With these particular games, they didn't go very far and only reached the preliminary/prototype stages, as none of them really worked as games. When you're developing you have a lot of ideas but when you build the basic model and get to play them they might just not be fun to play."

With growing concerns, like a mortgage, on the horizon and a lack of freelance work, Brian worked for a company doing mobile phone applications for a year and a half until he found a company called Game Ops who provided opportunities for games developers.

After this, a meeting with "a guy who did 3D web applications" led to Brian joining his company which he now owns part of.

Raising the Claymore

During and before this time though Brian had never lost the game bug and initially had his own company called Dinky Dino Games, publishing some small mobile phone games. Claymore Games followed this with Brain meeting Alan Grier when working at DC Studios.

"Claymore Games does mobile phone games development and [artist] Alan Grier and I are the sole employees. Alan has over twenty years experience in the gamesing industry doing artwork for consoles like the Atari and Commodore 64. This makes him ideally suited to mobile phone games as he knows his way round the limitations of the technology. We work on games in our spare time, at least until things become more established and settled."

Given the fact Alan and Brian need to work on other jobs to survive, Claymore Games has to remain a part-time project for now. With the decrease in the use of mobile phone handsets, the rise of the iPhone and Android and the economic downturn things have been tough and Brian has found it hard to find any further freelance work.

Brian told us, "The economic downturn hasn't helped and freelancers are seen as more expensive and so not as popular in these times. It's why we went down the route of developing our own games whilst working full time jobs to pay the rent. It gives us freedom to do what we want as well."

So what does make a good mobile phone game then?

Brian explained, "With iPhone and Android games there's a market for more advanced games, with more content to take up more time. With the Java handsets the market is looking for a pick up and play product. Something for 5 minutes on the bus rather than a greater investement often demanded by the other two. We're looking to move into this market as touch screen technology and those types of mobile devices represent the future, although there is still a market for producing high quality mobile phone games."

Developing Primordial Soup

"In the next couple of months we're hoping to release Super Solitaire for Facebook and Android as they're both Java based and it's easier to develop for. We have created our own middle-ware called Primordial Soup which enables development for Java phones and applets that you can publish on the web. Android is the same technology and code base with a couple of tweaks."

For iPhone though, Claymore Games will need to completely re-write the code and Brian was happy to note that Super Solitaire, a game initially started through a need to learn to program for mobiles, would probably be the first title.

Explaining the game's history Brian told me, "Super Solitaire has a long history and started out as a basic version of solitaire as I learned to program mobile phones. When I met Alan he suggested doing better artwork. We got together and we did a second, fairly basic, version and then steadily added more features whilst creating Primordial Soup at the time." It took about 4 years to be completed and then, thanks to contacts at Dynamo Games, they got publishers PlayerX (now Zed Worldwide) involved and it reached the main mobile phone networks.

Costing the iPhone

It was interesting to find out more about the difficulties of converting to the iPhone and initially Brian mentioned cost. For larger companies these costs are often subsumed into the company but purchasing a Mac as well as paying for the developer program and purchasing an iPhone as well is a large cost for a small outfit like Claymore.

Brian explained the other issues, "There's also the technical hurdle as the iPhone is a much more powerful device than a mobile and it can seem pretty daunting to utilise that full power; especially now that iPhone games are well polished and getting better month on month. The price of each app is also low so you need to have a product that will sell."

Essential Experience

"Experience has taught me it's always good to start on the basis of something you already know, hence Super Solitaire,. At DC Studios I did a version of Worms for the mobile phone and given I understand the game-play, physics and humour in the game, development was so much more pleasant. At Rockpool Games I developed a wrestling game but I had no interest in that subject so it wasn't as much fun."

Brian hopes for Claymore Games to develop to a stage where he can spend an equal amount of time with both his regular work and his games company and if they expand, he has definite places he can look with many, "friends who are interested in game development."

"We've started to prototype a puzzle game which is all our own work. It's called Quoobs and it's a pseudo 3D style puzzle/platformer for the mobile. We hope to have more for you by the end of the summer. [Although the screen images we saw were looking very cool - Ed]

Scottish support

With the recent emergency budget removing tax relief for games developers it was interesting to find out Brian's views on the subject and he was quick in coming forward to explain the advantages.

"I can see the advantages of tax breaks. With them in place there would be more opportunities for freelancers, apprenticeships for students to learn the trade." (Iain Smith also mentioning this type of opportunity when we spoke to him)

Dundee has a strong gaming culture, as we know, but Brian is aware that a number of development companies in Glasgow have folded through lack of support. When asked if there's a community in Glasgow, Brian told us that he hoped one would be set up soon.

"I've been to one of the Dundee events to make contacts and do a bit of socialising and it was great but it's a bit out of my way, especially holding down a job and trying to run a part time business on the side."

Establishing the future

An established group of this kind would give better representation to the Scottish Games Industry and could work closely with the Edinburgh and Dundee groups to canvas the Scottish Government into taking action to support the strong industry that is contained within their borders as well as supporting the smaller companies as they approach publishers, who can be dismissive.

As Brian said, "There are so many companies and so much talent coming from Scotland but no one seems to have been making any noise about it apart from Scottish Games Net. What you're doing at SquareGo is invaluable in increasing the profile of the Scottish industry."

Since doing the interview SquareGo has heard that Glasgow have managed to get their group up and running and we hope to be reporting on their activities soon.

We wish all the best to Claymore Games for both Quoobs and any other endeavours and hope to be talking with Brian again soon.