Interview with Krome Studios

An Interview By Steve Heller

Our Interview with Creative Director at Krome Studios, Steve Stamatiadis

First of all could you tell us some of your duties at Krome Studios and how long you have been there?

I have been the Creative Director of Krome since 1999. I’m involved in a lot of different areas from level design to art direction, character design, story and cutscene direction. A bit of everything really, depends on the project.

With several hits for multiple platforms, has there been quite a buzz around the office about the success of Krome?

We all get a big buzz from hearing how much the fans enjoy playing the games, who their favourite character is and getting their feedback... So, when a game’s a hit, it’s a great feeling and gets everyone around here really excited.

The games industry is growing each year in Australia, working with large companies abroad, how would you say the local scene is going in comparison to overseas?

The Australian industry is still in its infancy, but for our size we are making some of the most exciting games across the board. Local games development in this country is rapidly growing and we are being recognised as world class developers, which is great for all of us. The industry is just going to get bigger and better.

Krome were chosen to develop LucasArts latest game for the Wii. Were u a star wars fan living the dream working on a game for the franchise?

It was a dream 30 years in the making for me. A lot of other people on the project are huge fans too. A big plus was getting to visit Skywalker Ranch, which was one of those pilgrimages you dream of making as a fan. And it’s been great being able to add to the Star Wars mythology with our own creations and seeing some of them end up as toys.

Working on the second Scene It title for the Xbox 360 has Krome implementing features from the New Xbox Experience? Was it easy to implement, and more importantly what can fans expect?

There was a lot of communication between Microsoft and Krome as the NXE was developed. Now that it has been released, players can bring their custom Avatar creation into the game and see their friends’ Avatars over LIVE games – it’s an extra piece of personality you get to inject into the game. Fans can expect a great experience playing Scene It? Box Office Smash with over 250 movies, four new games to play and downloadable content it will be the game to play this Christmas.

What is next for you and the Krome Crew?

We have three unannounced projects we are working on for the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 and we are also developing a new, original IP, provisionally titled Blade Kitten. So, there are plenty more Krome projects to look forward to.

MrWii 03/12/2008

Kudos: 3075  Mates: 76

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