We had the great privilege of talking with David Sterling of Loot Interactive earlier this week. After starting as a mainly in house team with Sony, Loot split off to become their own full independent publisher and release their first three games at its main debut at E3 2015. It's always difficult to become your own company and be responsible for all decisions, but two minutes into talking with Mr. Sterling it was obvious why Loot has been able to succeed the way they have been. We've spoken with many execs. from studios, but Mr. Sterling has more passion and enthusiasm than anyone we've spoke to before. You can tell by the tone in his voice how much he, as well as everyone at the studio, loves games and this has carried Loot to where they are now. We spoke with Mr. Sterling about becoming their own independent publisher, splitting from Sony as well as their current and upcoming game releases and VR projects, including Q*bert Rebooted coming on February 12th to Xbox One. 

The full audio is included at the bottom of the page, but be sure to read through as well.

 

MB - Loot Interactive made it's main debut at E3 2015 last year. Originally developing content for PlayStation platforms and PlayStation Home since 2009, they began bringing new games in Whispering Willows, Back to Bed and Velocibox to PlayStation as their launch titles last year. Most recently they released Electronic Super Joy last month on Xbox One and coming up next week, Q*bert Rebooted. Here to talk to us a little about the studio is co-founder David Sterling. Mr. Sterling how are you doing tonight? Thanks for joining us.

DS - Good. Hi Michael thanks for having me.

MB - I have to tell you, Q*bert was one of my favorite games growing up on the Atari and also one of the few games my mother could play as well. 

DS - **LAUGHS**

MB - With the rebooted version coming to Xbox One next week, what was the process like trying to maintain the classic feel of the game while adding some new features as well?

DS - Not too challenging. You know like you said it's a classic game. Q*bert Rebooted comes with the classic arcade version of Q*bert plus the Rebooted version which kind of changes the game a little bit in terms of it has hexagonal pads instead of the square. So it's a whole different kind of rebooted feel to it and look to it. The levels are different. What we did with this version for Xbox One is we added a new soundtrack and we tweeked with the gameplay a little bit in terms of the mechanics to make it a little friendlier for the Xbox One audience. 

MB - Now, Q*bert is a rather basic game and a fan favorite of sorts for people like me who grew up with it. Re-releasing a classic like that is always hard with a combination of sticking to what made it great and adding a modern day twist to it that doesn't overshadow the classic features. Was the development difficult with not going too overboard with these new features?

DS - Well, the development was done by production company Gonzo Games. But when we did the Xbox One version, the classic version is separate and apart from the Rebooted version. I think they did a great job of trying to maintain what made Q*bert great in the first place while still up-rezzing the graphics. The gameplay is very much the same. It's got new characters though and challenges. I think it builds on top of what was amazing in the 80's to bring it up to date now so the audience can enjoy a whole new kind of competitive environment with Q*bert. 

MB - Especially, you mentioned new characters. I like the different skins. The Q*bert zombie skin was kind of funny.

DS - Yeah, one thing I thought that was important when we talked about doing the skins was they didn't affect the gameplay. They're cosmetic and fun to play with but they don't affect the gameplay in anyway so it wouldn't hurt that classic Q*bert feel. 

MB - The zombie axe in the head was pretty funny.

DS - Yeah they make little sound effects. One of them cries so it's pretty fun but like I said, we made sure it didn't affect the gameplay so the hardcore Q*bert players can enjoy the new version also.  

MB - You published both Q*bert rebooted and Electronic Super Joy, but each had their own developer in Gonzo Games and Michael Todd Games respectively. Back to Bed, Whispering Willows and Velocibox were all developed for the most part in house by you. With those only on PlayStation currently, any chance of them making their way to Xbox One after separating from Sony last year?

DS - Our goal is to bring them all to Xbox One. I think the Xbox One audience will love them as much as the PlayStation audience. 

MB - Those three games couldn't be more different at their core. I mean you have a sleep walking guy with crazy obstacles, a girl who can project her spirit out of her body and an endless cube racing through mazes. What is the vetting process like, as in what stands out and draws Loot to games you work on and how do you decide on them with so much variety present in them?

DS - Well I think the first thing is they have to be fun. They are all very different from Tinker to Velocibox they have a range of what they give to the player but what they all are, is first and foremost fun to play. Some may feel that Velocibox is too challenging so they'd rather go with a more interactive game like Whispering Willows. But they're all joys to play and gives the gamer all different experiences and looks, and really highlights the platform in what they can bring with PS4 and Xbox One. I really think that the indies is where you get the imagination and the innovation. I've been doing this a little over a year and a half in looking for games and trying to find the best indie games out there to try and bring to the platforms. What I've seen is such amazing talent out of the developers out there that are bringing new ideas and fresh ideas to the console audience.  Otherwise if there weren't companies out there like ours and others they would be on Steam and PC only.

MB - Right.

DS - They'd never get to the console audience. There are a lot of gamers out there that quite frankly don't play PC games, they're console people. There was a gap there that needed to be filled and we tried step into it as best as we can. 

MB - When you decide to publish a game, is it almost done, an idea pitch..how far along is it in development?

DS - Yep. It's usually done. For the most part it's already out on Steam.

MB - OK

DS - I think that's important when we look at the game because we want to see what kind of feedback the users are giving to it. We want to see if users have a positive vibe to the game. Yeah so it's important to see what the players think of the game already before we even take a look at it. 

MB - With some of the games you've published being ports, what other ones that you can tell us are you looking to work on or currently working on as well??

DS - Well, next week we're getting Q*bert out and we have Jumpjet Rex coming. We haven't set a date on that one yet. We also have a couple other games that are in the hopper which I haven't announced. Then of course the titles that we released on PlayStation 4 we'd like to bring to Xbox One. 

MB - You've mentioned previously around the middle of last year that you already have a new multi platform game in development. What can you tell us about this game so far and when can we expect it?

DS - Sure. Jumpjet Rex. It's out on Steam, a challenging platformer. It's very large game compared to some of the other ones that we've done. It has local multiplayer, 2-4 player co-op which is something that we did on some of our games previously like for mobile. It'll be a new challenge on Xbox One for us because it's something we haven't done for that platform. But we love Jumpjet Rex. It's another platformer that we're looking forward to bringing to Xbox One probably, I would say sometime in the 2nd quarter. 

MB - This may fall into the last question, but, what would your dream game be to publish?

DS - Oh wow. I've played a lot of great indie games. Some of them I don't think are even out yet or they're still going through updates. For the most part, I found so much great stuff out there that it's hard for me to pick a favorite. I think the games out now that we have all bring a different angle to them, but in terms of challenge between Electronic Super Joy and Velocibox, I think Velocibox is a monster. For the most part, most people are just scared of it. The most hardcore gamer out there too. I love it! It challenged me in a way I rarely found. It hits you from all directions. But ESJ that we just released, Electronic Super Joy on Xbox One is such a great game. I think it is one of the best games I ever played. It has a great soundtrack to it. It has incredible, challenging gameplay. It switches up the game on you, sometimes you're playing upside down. I haven't seen that kind of challenge before and they're all great in their own way. I think Back to Bed is fantastic. It's got this psycho world with so much going on, this dream world. It hits you emotionally on top of just being a game.

MB - That was a hard game. One of the things I noticed was that I was trying to get back to bed while walking through Alice in Wonderland.

DS - Yeah, yeah. It really makes you freak out a little bit. The whole sleep angle is crazy to begin with. This man face dog trying to help your guy get back to bed. It's fantastic I love it as soon as I saw it.

MB - It's kind of ironic that a game about sleepwalkiing is stranger than a game where you can project your spirit out of your body.

DS - Yeah, exactly **laughs** Whispering is such a great adventure. It's very low key but it's got all that suspense type stuff in that makes those kind of games challenging in their own way. There's a game like ESJ that's a strict platformer. Then there's a game like Willows that, and the fact that there's no map. It's that old school stuff that I LOVE. I like bringing that kind of stuff to gamers these days because I think a lot of that stuff has been lost. You experienced it in the arcade in the early days of consoles. You don't get it anymore. I remember playing Shining in the Darkness and I had to draw a map on graph paper. I was like man this sucks I don't really want to be doing this, but at the end when you accomplish it and you're able to finish the game and you're not hand held through it without requiring anything but a little time.  I think games need to be more than that, they need to be games. They need to challenge you back and invite you back when you screw up. Then when you finish it, it's so rewarding. Electronic Super Joy and Velocibox you feel like you actually done something, and you have.

MB - Yeah, especially Velocibox.

DS - Oh my god. It took me an hour to finish level 4. An hour! I died 600 times. 600 times!

MB - ** laughs **

DS - Right in the middle I was like this game's so hard, I'm gonna give up. I thought that this thing is really pushing me I have to figure out if I'm going to quit. It's just so fast! You LITERALLY could die once every second in that game if you're not careful. It sends you in a journey about yourself, which I think is amazing. Is it hard? Yeah, it's a hard game but it's  not impossible but people finish it. 

MB - Loot has been involved in not just games, but apps as well. With major ones like Crackle, NBA and MLB under your belt, do you have plans for making more apps in the future, and what is that process like in deciding what apps to do?

DS - Well, we don't really pick the apps. They come to us from the platforms. Our experience in apps, especially on the PlayStation is very deep. We released and are continuing to release Redbull TV and we also released Twitch on the PlayStation. 

MB -  Being part of Sony and PSVR launching soon, what plans of your own VR is Loot looking to work on if any?

DS - We're more working on experiences, not games. For VR we're going back to what we did in Home. We're actually building experiences for VR, can't really talk about which experiences yet, but they will rival what we did in PlayStation Home. 

MB - Like the virtual goods type of thing?

DS - More than just goods. Experiences. We started in Home in 2008 doing just items. We were a part of a bigger, engineering group that really pushed the boundaries of package media. Going back to our roots we were a software think tank that developed the DVD platform in the mid to late 90's. So we took that on all kinds of platforms like DVD and Blu-Ray and UMD and 3D and all those that come to  mind. That's when decided to diversify that business with items. Then we moved on to spaces and we started to build the entertainment on demand system, which really was the first concept called social viewing, where you're able to go into these virtual spaces with friends and watch things in sync while still being able to voice and text chat. We did that in 2009 and we kept building on that and we developed The Ghostbusters house, we did the Hollywood Hills house, spacestation apt. things like that but they were all integrated with the entertainment on demand system. We were always trying to push the envelope on what PlayStation Home could do. We did live broadcasts from Caroline's in New York that fed right into PlayStation Home. So we're going to look to do those kind of things for VR. 

MB - Loot was indie even when part of Sony for a lot of your work. That being said, what was the biggest challenge in going fully independent as a publisher?

DS - I think when you're so integrated into one company, when you pull apart that's always the biggest challenge. We have a great group of people working at Loot and we were able to transition very quickly, amazingly enough, basically from an in house group at Sony to an independent studio. We didn't miss a beat and that really speaks to the quality of our people and the resiliency of what they were able to accomplish in a not so easy time. To answer your question, I think just the fact that trying to separate yourself from where we were to where we are now was probably the most challenging thing. 

MB - Before I let you go, with your work in film and Sony pictures, etc. what would be your dream film to make into a game?

DS - OHHHH, that's a great question. That's a great question. I always go for the crazy stuff. I think one of the great films I worked on bringing to package media was Memento. It was a movie that went backwards. It started at the end and you found out what and you found out what happened to the main character as you went through the movie. The end was the beginning and I thought that was pretty cool. There's been so many movies, I think some of the obscure Criterion stuff would be awesome to turn into a game. When I look at games, I want a new, fresh way of looking at it. Challenging the user and connecting with the user. I think that's the most important thing about the game, challenging the user and connect with the user to have them keep playing. That should be a gimme before we even get started. I really look for the kind of things with games that are kind of beyond what's going on in the AAA realm today. 

MB - Anything I may have missed about Loot that everyone should know before we let you go?

DS - Yes, follow us on twitter, that's number 1. That's something we try to reach out to our audience on twitter all day long on what's going on.  We've partnered with a great collection of streamers called Collection Gaming Network, check them out. We're trying to really do things, bring a whole new angle to indie gaming and publishing that hasn't been done before, like what we did in our past. 

MB - With everything so far and how it's been going it seems it's a smooth transition and we wish you the best of luck in the future, especially with the launch of Q*bert coming out next Friday, February 12th.

DS - Thank you, thank you.

MB - Thanks for joining us, have a great night best of luck.

DS - Thanks Mike, I appreciate the time. 

 

It's not every day you get to speak with an executive that is not only as enthusiastic about their company's products as Mr. Sterling is, as well as someone who loves games as much. The dedication to fresh, new ideas and not chasing the dollar out of the gate, is what has gotten Loot Interactive to where it is today. As Mr. Sterling noted, games should be games and challenge users to come back to them. These ideas is what generates those dollars and brings much more creativity to the table. With so much on the horizon, as well as some of the VR projects they are working on (we can't tell you, sorry), Loot Interactive looks to have an incredible year and much more ahead of them. Thanks again to Mr. Sterling for joining us.

As mentioned, Q*bert Rebooted launches this Friday, the 12th on Xbox One and we'll have our review up on that as well shortly.