Trigeminal

August 18, 2009 - The European Game Developers Conference 2009 continued Tuesday in Cologne, Germany, with sessions from a number of new development speakers, including Chris Taylor, founder and CEO of Gas Powered Games, who presented attendees with his insight into the process of creating original intellectual property. He also referenced his studio's latest work, Demigod.

Chris Taylor began his session with a brief history of his career. He started in computer and videogames in 1980 and went to work for Electronic Arts Canada in 1988. In 1995, Taylor said he made $250,000 working for EA. In 1997, he designed Total Annihilation, inspired by Command & Conquer. He started Gas Powered Games in May of 1998. "The idea was that I was going to create something very, very original," he said. He eventually released Dungeon Siege. In 2007, Gas Powered Games debuted Supreme Commander, which cost $11 million to make and sold more than a million units. And in 2009, the developer released Demigod.

"Why is creating new IP so hard?" he asked and then answered his own question. "Because it's not about creating it. It's about selling it."

Taylor said that now, 42, he's just started to realize that maybe people don't want to come home from a hard day of work and dig into some ridiculously hardcore game that's going to mentally beat the hell out of them.

He noted that he thinks "the iPhone is changing everything" and made several suggestions to developers, such as making their games accessible. And then he joked, "Despite all of this, we made Demigod."

According to Taylor, the future is bright for something new -- casual games like Peggle, for example. "And, of course, my favorite, the poster child is iPhone," he said. He also thinks Xbox Live Arcade is another great platform. "If you do something really, really incredible on Live Arcade, PlayStation or iPhone, you can build it up and take it somewhere." He cited World of Goo as an example.