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Game development in Germany: Interview with the boss of Studio Merkas

Who does not know it? You sit in the evening with friends in the call and plays a round League of Legends or Counter-Strike, and then it happens... a bug that decides the game. You move up and in you, the desire to grow your own Game Studio to make it better.

But how is the founding of a game company? What difficulties do small Game Studios have to ask? What role does the current pandemia situation play, and what are the role models have developers in Germany? We have exchanged with Nikola Marks, the boss of the small developer studio Marks, from Stuttgart.

PC Games: Do you like to introduce yourself and your studio for the readers?

Nike: My name is Nike, and I am the founder of Studio Marks. My dream has always been to build your own little studio and to guide yourself independently. During my studies, I founded my little studio for games. That was in December 2018. It started with VR and AR projects for trade fairs and smaller gaming productions for the local industry. Later, workshops came about Unity3D and Unreal Engine. On this basis, a wide range of services built up now. There have been three years since its founding and the studio develops magnificently. The founder Nike by Studio Marks sits in the Stuttgart library and reappears a book about games, management or anything in the direction. Source: Studio Marks PC Games: Which difficulties do you see yourself as a small game company?

Nike: Small game companies to which we count ourselves, the entry is getting harder, as the competition of the IT and game companies is growing steadily. To make a name for itself, is not an easy task. The marketing area alone represents a major challenge, as often the budget is very scarce. Unforeseen obstacles and problems, such as the current pandemic, have a strong impact on our company. Only the changeover to home office or remote we fell very easily. We have always been used to work from everywhere. Meanwhile, there is no attention to presence with us and everyone may decide for themselves how and where he wants to work. For this we use only discord and have a few tips compiled here, as you can easily use the tool. The current Studio Marks team works on different customer and studio projects. Source: Studio Marks PC Games: How did you survive the corona time until now and what teachings for your work attracts you?

Nike: The pandemic has really prepared us many problems. We mainly worked for fairs before the pandemic. All orders in the fair sector were canceled by one on the other day and some customers could not pay their orders anymore. Our trainees also had to suffer from it as we could not take over them. To shorten it: We stood shortly before that. No orders, no customers, no perspective. While many studios could not withstand this crisis, we at least had luck to rely on our large and wide-ranging range of services. Despite the criticism in advance We should specialize in we we used every single order we received. That's the great secret as we survived the pandemic.

Fortunately, the contact with Unity3D was founded during the pandemic. I became the UCI (Note d. Red.: Unity Certified Instructor) and have since done the official Unity3D trainings around the world. This resulted in the first global links to other developers, customers, partners and new friends. Over time, a good partnership has also developed into Unity3D and thus the studio also receives special insights into the engine, which always keeps us up to date. A colleague from finance advises in financial matters. Source: Studio Marks

Touring DICE's Studio for Battlefield 3 Ultimately, many happy coincidences have led that we are still at the start. In particular, thanks to the many consultations with friends from the finance, mentors, partners, loyal customers and other entrepreneurs, we were able to help and best hedge our studio. On the other hand, in this difficult time, all interns, trainees and colleagues have stayed with us, even though they could have found a better paid spot elsewhere. All these valuable people are my greatest thanks.

PC Games: What are your / your role models in the gaming industry?

Nike First Tennis for Two reminds us. The game was created in 1958 by William Higinbotham and is considered one of the first video games that have ever been programmed. It is exciting to see which unconventional means a game may develop — In this case, with an oscilloscope. Also, Jaczko Lisa lo, the designer and leader of Angry Birds or Notch, creator of Minecraft and co-founder of Moving are our role models. As a model for game design I count course Will Wright to do so. His basic idea is that games like toys can also be designed, has triggered much with us. Because of him we ask ourselves before each project, whether a game necessarily requires a Win / Lose mechanics. Unity3D is one of the most popular game engines on the market. Studio Marks leads for use by official training. Source: Unity

Since many also enthusiastic in our company are League of Legends players, Riot Games is also included. The main focus is, however, more to the music departments, AR and animation. We also avid Final Fantasy players and musicians in the studio. The Japanese musician and composer Noble Seats, who composed the music for the video game series Final Fantasy, is often referred to. His works are extremely inspiring, and for many of our musical productions for games he's a great role model.

PC Games: What do you advise young people who want to get into the game development ?

Nike A tip I can give is that it is playing games and a big difference between Games development is. Many young people start such training as a game developer, but then realize pretty quickly that a game was not quite as easy arises. I have seen an incredible number of young people over time, for example, despaired of programming and were able to complete a project. That's not bad — in the games sector, there are many roles and many tasks. From design to music through coding to film and storytelling. So I would advise any young people first start and a small game project then find out what an enthusiastic and then go into training or study at leisure. A player who the game The Misadventures of Dennis & Diana game. Source: Studio Marks is another tip I can give is that it is important to be able to contribute their own skills in a team. The basic idea of ​​teamwork is often critical to the whole success of a game project, as many people involved in a game. Therefore, I can only recommend before or necessarily to work on team skills during training or study. Optimally, can during the training or study secure first an internship. For the beginners to be first confronted with the daily routine of a game developer to learn what skills are important and how they can be improved. For example, we regularly intern at our studio Marks and are also a INK training company. Also, due to the many years of experience in education, we can ensure that the interns, trainees or work students get a first-class support and can learn in a short time very much. A player who later wants to study game programming again. She asked if she could do an internship in the studio Marks with us one day. No problem said Nike, Studio Marks have trained a number of students, trainees or interns. Most of them are still interconnected. Source: Studio Marks PC Games: What new technologies would you like to work ?

Nike We love fundamentally new technologies to experiment and develop new things. Of course, we have many of the gadgets newly available in the studio and have fun with it.

A technology, though in entferntesten sense with which we want to work even more intensively, is Gamification. Gamification are applications play typical elements in a game foreign context. Although we are currently making some gamification projects, but it is in my view not yet arrived where I see it. An intern from Studio Marks demonstrates a VR application. Source: Studio Marks It is currently mainly used in everyday life for marketing purposes. A non-digital example of this would reward points in a supermarket, which can be exchanged for prizes. This principle of scoring is also used in our studio. An employee will receive, depending on the length and difficulty of the task at a certain number of points. With these points then certain perks (benefits) can be called. For example, a steam-voucher, a T-shirt, dinner, etc. Another technology or hardware with which we want to work in the future in the studio like, is a quantum computer. Currently, nothing is known about the use of quantum computers for games, but that we would like to start in the near future experimental projects. A VR application Pentucket for a customer. Here learning content is a playful way. This should provide a relaxed, successful and sustainable learning. Source: Studio Marks PC Games: In which specific games or applications you currently working ?

Nike Due to the current pandemic, we have expanded our range and work on many projects simultaneously. This includes, among other things, the development of hardware for different companies or the design of game design documents and lockups. A few months ago we were able to conclude our first project with the Streaming Twitch Streamer TorroTouretteTV successful. Here were the wishes of TORRO a 3D model of his Rust Role play character, the Iron Avenger created. The Twitch Viewers will no longer see the usual TORRO, but the iron avenger in Facepalm. This is achieved by the application technology of Face Tracking, which detects the facial expressions of TORRO and then transmits to its Streaming character. More about Tubing found here. Squirrels Be Gone is the next game of the small studios. Source: Studio Marks

We are also pleased finally some information about our next studio project to announce. The game is expected Squirrels Be Gone hot. This is a tower defense game, which is developed for mobile phones. In the game it comes to using to prevent malicious traps squirrels mind taking over the world domination. For over two years we have worked secretly on this project, and it is classified our stated goal next Angry Birds and Candy Crush us into the Hall Of Fame.

PC Games: Thanks for the interview!

By Maria Beyer-Fistrich Fire / Editorial Director 04.12.2021 at 07:00

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