Exactly how the office of a game designer is imagined
From being a garage game development studio founded by a few roommates, indie developer NeocoreGames has emerged to be the most successful Hungarian company in the field and has achieved international success and acclaim.
Computer gaming has come a long way since Pac-Man – in fact nowadays, many people choose to make a living out of making or playing computer games. In South Korea for example, the online strategy game Starcraft II became so popular that the national television frequently airs these gaming competitions. Each year, there are thousands of quality games released, awarding international fame to their developer teams.
However, Hungary seems to be falling behind in this fashionable trend as there have been barely any signs of success since 2000, when the Hungarian game Imperium Galactica II: Alliances scored a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Best Music.
Five years later, when three college students sharing a dorm room founded NeocoreGames, they probably did not know how much they will be contributing to the next such success of Hungary. Since its foundation, NeocoreGames has moved from the dormitory to the heart of Budapest, Vörösmarty Square, and became Hungary’s largest game developer studio, employing over forty people. Their games have become popular all over the world and are well-known for their high quality and originality. What is the story behind the success of NeocoreGames and what makes their games receive so much praise from professional critics?
Entering the office headquarters, the first thing we see is two young people playing table tennis with great enthusiasm in front of a large metallic NeocoreGames logo. Apparently the office has many options for a tired programmer to chill out for a while: it is equipped with a dartboard, giant bean-bag couches, all kinds of board games and gaming consoles, and of course the table tennis.
Only if we go past the impressive glass door can we find the place where the magic happens. Designers, programmers, graphic artists, sound technicians and the management are all working side by side in rooms decorated with beautiful fantasy artwork from the studio’s games. The tasks are well distributed: some designers are writing the story of a game while others are dealing with mechanisms such as in-game abilities. Separate coders are working on the graphics engine and the programming of the artificial intelligence that can control in-game characters on its own.
The recording studio gives visitors a feeling that they have entered into a timewarp where the medieval past and the high-tech present got all mixed up: there are long swords, chainmail armour and flintlock pistols lying across the room along with professional recording tools. It seems that sound effects are recorded the authentic way instead of creating digitised sounds from scratch.
The award-winning NeocoreGames team
Walking across these rooms, one constantly has the impression that these young people are more than co-workers, and indeed over the years the company has managed to remain a group of friends who often hang around together outside the office. The studio’s newest game will hit the stores in spring, but the traces of the usual rush that is typical in such times are nowhere to be found yet: people are chatting in the kitchen over some coffee, discussing implementing new kinds of features and enemies into the game, or just sharing their experiences about other games before getting back to work.
A major contribution to the company’s success could have very well been the ambition of the early days that still drives the team to seek new challenges. At the beginning, the company had but an idea for a grandiose strategy war game based on the King Arthur mythology where players could lead battles between immense armies. The problem was that at the time there were simply no game engines (systems used to develop computer games) available for licensing that could handle the huge number of units NeocoreGames designed for their project. But instead of settling for a less challenging idea, the team decided to create a whole new game engine.
It took four years of hard work to finalise the CoreTech engine, but after the silence that characterised these times for NeocoreGames and with the support received from their friends and families, the studio released King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame that got dubbed as “a supreme strategy game” and received positive critiques across the world, instantly awarding the company a chance to write its name into the book of gaming once and for all.
NeocoreGames grabbed this opportunity and began presenting on the world’s largest gaming expos, such as the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, and is considered a regular attendee nowadays.
Since its debut NeocoreGames has released many successful games, the latest being The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, an action role-playing game with a storyline that continues the plot of Bram Stoker’s famous novel “Dracula”. The title became a worldwide success and the game was labelled the role-playing game of the year 2013, not to mention its sequel that has made the list of most anticipated games of this year.
Who does it take to make games that become so popular? Apparently the team unites Hungary’s best in the business. It’s a mixed bunch though: we can find a professional science-fiction writer, a painter, a music composer and of course a lot of great coders and graphic designers who all have many years of experience. However, the employees of NeocoreGames prefer to think of themselves as “pure game nerds who are lucky enough to get paid for doing their hobbies”.
Also let’s not forget that NeocoreGames is a Hungarian game developer studio, and this is well represented in the final products of the team. But how can you smuggle Hungary into a video game? Linda Bozorádi, the chief communications officer of the studio, explains that the game designers often draw their inspiration from Budapest itself and many small bits of the country get implemented into games this way.
What this means is that if we sit down and play some Van Helsing for example, we may explore areas in the game that bear a striking resemblance to Heroes’ Square or even the National Museum. And while we are at it, we can listen to some beautifully composed violin tracks to complete the image.
When it comes to inspiration, NeocoreGames does not stick exclusively to Hungary though: manifestations of Slavic mythologies and Transylvanian legends can be found throughout their games, not to mention the countless pop culture references. There is a river named after Béla Lugosi, probably the world’s most famous Dracula, and players can find quotes and even recreated scenes from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” along with “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”.
All these elements have come together for the sole purpose of serving NeocoreGames’ motto “a new look on gaming”, as its games always have that extra bit that cannot be found elsewhere. Whether it be an excellently written, humorous storyline or stunning graphical design, NeocoreGames will hopefully always stay true to this artistic statement and continue reaping awards.