Remedy Entertainment's managing director Matias Myllyrinne was the second keynote speaker of GDC Europe's opening day, delivering a humorous and forthcoming talk on creating original IP “the Remedy way.” His talk focussed on the development of new IP as an expression of development philosophy, and how the benefits of a small, focussed team can outweigh the production speed of larger outfits. There was also a powerpoint slide of a pig wearing lipstick and the occasional Chuck Norris reference.

“The games industry is moving very rapidly,” began Myllyrinne, addressing the audience in front of a backdrop montage of the developer's key IP, Max Payne and Alan Wake. “It's changing, and it we take a Darwinistic view. Our environment changes and the organisms that live in that environment need to change and evolve as well. If we don't, we get marginalised... We view Remedy as an entertainment company; we don't think of ourselves as a software or technology company, or even a game company... We judge ourselves on entertaining the most possible people in the best possible way.”

Before explaining his own IP-creation philosophy, Myllyrinne was keen to share a few of the apparent principles of modern game development that Remedy – as well, presumably, as everyone in the conference hall – is keen to get away from. “Cutting me-too features is important,” he asserts. “One of them is the resurrection of a multiplayer that offers nothing new. In too many games to mention, they slap a rehash of Counter-Strike onto the FPS as a me-too, gravy feature. I don't understand this, because people aren't going to play it; they'll be playing Halo's multiplayer, or Gears Of War, or Call Of Duty – something that's compelling, and good, and offers something unique.

“We want to focus on the essence: doing few things, but doing those few things really, really well, and hopefully doing one or two things that nobody else is doing and innovating through that,” he states, placing an emphasis on playing to your strengths that returns throughout the talk. “There are a lot of developers and marketers who believe that the core tenet of marketing is to blend in, to be unnoticed.”

Myllyrinne shared an open, if humorous, contempt for tickbox marketing techniques and feature lists, illustrating the point with a cute riff on game naming principles. “It starts with the naming of the game and a lack of focus on the design. We have generic words in the title, such as 'war', 'race', 'star', usually followed by 'of', 'to' or 'from', and then war, race or star again, followed by a sequel number or an unpronounceable word. So, Race of War II: The Wrath of Cthulu. Apologies if you're working on that,” he smiles.

His flippancy might seem dismissive, but Myllyrinne isn't immune to criticism of his own games. His assertion that sequel numbers should be avoided at all costs raises a few eyebrows in an audience staring at a backdrop with the Max Payne 2 cover on it, but he's aware of the irony. “Max Payne 2: The Fall Of Max Payne was not a terribly good name,” he admits, laughing. “It was a compromise. Not a good choice. We really should have gone for one or the other.”



Myllyrinne sees Remedy's structure as conducive to the creation of good new IP. “Quality over quantity applies to both our games and our team,” he claimed, illustrating Remedy's corporate philosophy by drawing a neat parallel with its development philosophy:  “You can have a lot of features in a game, but if your core gameplay mechanic isn't fun, no amount of gravy is going to fix it. It's much better if you have good ingredients in the right proportion instead of adding things to compensate for the fact that the heart of your product isn't working. Clearly, this applies to the team as well.”

A small team size in combination with outsourcing, freelancers and middleware means that everyone is free to do what they're good at, he elaborates. “What we should be doing is making sure that people get to play their strengths and not waste time on their weaknesses... Be adaptive in your organisation and build on those strengths, but don't try to change people's fundamental talents in your company. A small company can be flexible that way.”

The importance of cross-disciplinary teams and influences were a key theme of Myllyrinne’s talk – in order to create a franchise that applies to a broad spectrum of entertainment, you need a development team with a varied background bringing different influences to the table. “Designer-wise, we've got someone who studied drama, someone who studied psychology – we're making a psychological thriller, so that's handy – and if you're looking at building environments that look and feel real, people who've studied landscape architecture become valuable. Bringing people from different fields into the company allows you to go beyond the norm... There's a bit of collision, but the sparks lead to innovation.”

Myllyrinne named seven core principles of Remedy game design – a strong lead character, third-person perspective, mainstream approachability, a cinematic feel, real-world believability, depth and atmosphere of the story, and action. Again he stressed interdisciplinary influences, citing the X-Files' headlamp-strength flashlights, the storytelling principles of Stephen King thrillers and action-movie gun porn as obvious inspiration for elements of Alan Wake and Max Payne.

It ties in with mainstream accessibility – taking influences from a broad range of entertainment makes new IP more accessible to a broader audience. “If I pitch the game in 20 seconds to someone of my age or older who doesn't really play games, will they get it?” asks Myllyrinne. “There are many games that are popular amongst current game fans but do nothing to broaden the audience. That has its appeal, but it limits where your IP can go. Usually, for one thing, you're throwing away 50 per cent of the audience with female gamers – and as an industry and an art form, we can do better than that.”

Myllyrinne's session was peppered with intriguing information about Alan Wake, too – most of it we've heard before, but the talk culminated in a six-minute presentation video, wherein lead story designer Sam Lake showed off the game's setting, combat and narrative depth. Remedy is clearly proud of its newest baby; it's the most direct expression yet of the developer's admirable game and IP design philosophies, and that's as good a reason to get excited about it as any other.

Words: Keza MacDonald