由前Lionhead成员创立的工作室，并不只有Media Molecule一家获得了成功。

Tak Fung曾经是《黑与白》（Black & White）和《神鬼寓言》（Fable）的编码员，之后又离开了Molyneux团队，与美工戴夫·费恩（Dave Ferner）成立了Supermono工作室，几年前它们主要致力于iPhone游戏的开发。

据游戏邦了解，Supermono后来推出了一系列成功的作品，比如空战射击游戏《MiniSquadron》以及《EpicWin》这款富有创意的仿游戏工作安排应用。

日前，Tak Fung接受了Gamasutra网站的采访，介绍了Supermono这个双人工作室的最新进展状况，以及未来的项目计划。

你是怎么走向独立开发者这条路的？之前做过哪些工作？

我是经历一段缓慢发展的过程，才成了今天的独立开发者。我刚进入游戏这一行时是在Lionhead工作，当时它刚刚发行了《黑与白》，总共只有20几个成员。在负责《神鬼寓言》及其续集的制图和特效编码前，我的工作是把物理效果融入到神秘的Project Dimitri项目中。

不论从专业还是个人角度来说，我在那任职的6年时间都是一段美好的时光，因为我体会到了在200人规模的大公司上班的滋味。但是也是在那个时候，我觉得自己已经准备好了，有足够的能力尝试不同的东西。这个时候有人说电影的后期制作更有趣，作为制图编码的一个老手，我辞掉了工作在伦敦做一名外包编码员。

这一切进展得很顺利，我曾与Passion Pictures和United Visual Artists等许多著名的视觉特效和电影工作室进行项目外包合作。在我发现找工作的窍门并找回自己“一半的独立性”后，我最终决定放手一搏，自己创业，得到“完全的独立性”。

所以在完成最后一份来自索尼的订单后，我就进入了iPhone应用开发领域，以独立开发者的身份推出了《MiniSquadron》！这是一个相当漫长的过程，但重要的是，每一步都是一个突破。我认为每前进一步，你都会变得更加勇敢。

你们的工作室在哪？主要在家里工作吗？

我们的工作室在伦敦，但我主要在家里工作。我的艺术总监戴夫·费恩（我们是在美国弗吉尼亚大学认识的）在伦敦北部工作，而我在伦敦西部，虽然我们可以通过手机和Skype交流，但有很多时候我还是得长途跋涉去和他碰面。

我也和世界各地的合约商合作，这种感觉很棒。我希望成立一个自己的工作室，我指的是“搬出我父母的房子，在伦敦找个简陋的单身公寓，来生活和工作”，但目前还很难实现这个目标，因为整个伦敦的房产物业情况很糟。

虽然这听起来似乎无关紧要，但当你已经是一个独立开发商，就不得不考虑劳动力资源和所在地生活成本等一系列的问题，这可不像是每天上班，然后“回家”那么简单，因为这意味着你的整个生活状态都已经变了（至少对我来说是这样的）。

《EpicWin》的创意从何而来？用户反应如何？

《EpicWin》的想法实际上是来自于我的朋友Rex（借鉴了《LittleBigPlanet》的框架）。他希望开发一款有趣而又可以为大多数人所用的iPhone工作安排应用软件。大家都知道，这种应用普遍缺乏“傻气”和“趣味”元素，无法在第一时间吸引用户注意。直到现在，我最喜欢的工作安排工具还是最基本的纸和笔，其他工具对我来说都太复杂了！

《EpicWin》就是按照这种简单的想法设计的，充满Rex插画的魅力，这也就是所谓的“游戏化”这种大家热议的现象。

所以当这款应用发行的时候，它马上受到了大家的接受和认可，老实说它的反响很令人吃惊——甚至受到了《纽约时报》、《生活骇客》和《洛杉矶时报》等媒体的关注。

我对此感到很兴奋，因为连对游戏不感兴趣的人都玩开始玩起了这款应用。

我觉得和毫无关系的人交流和玩游戏总能让我产生新想法。

游戏开发是你唯一的收入来源吗？如果是这样，营收情况还好吗？

游戏开发是我唯一的收人来源，目前情况很好——我可以支付日常开支和房租（房租给我父母——是的我还得付房租！和付给其他的房东不同，我把它放在家中）。我通过把《MiniSquadron》植入Android、WP7 （即将推出）、PSP（也是即将推出）平台，努力让游戏业务实现多元化发展，同时还推出了《Fox Vs. Duck》和《EpicWin》等更多的游戏。

由于我的所有游戏都是付费应用，所以很难与带有DLC的免费应用竞争。只能说我们勉强保持收支平衡，但这对所有处于高强度竞争行业的小公司来说都是一样的。

你们至今最成功的游戏都有哪些？

《MiniSquadron》和《EpicWin》都取得了很大成功，下载量大，用户评论不错，收益也很好，还被一些奖项提名了！《Fox Vs. Duck》有点太简单了，但这是我对超级休闲游戏的一种尝试，它呈现的是非传统的艺术风格（单色调，注重设计感）。不过把美学和休闲用户市场结合起来并不是很好的主意。

你是如何让自己的游戏脱颖而出的？用户是如何发现这些游戏的？

我天生就对视觉艺术很敏感，我和比尔迪·戴夫（Beardy Dave）一起制作令人印象深刻的图像效果，让我们的游戏和应用出类拔萃。戴夫有敏锐的设计眼光，他让产品表现出清晰的线条和经济实用的形式，而我则经常有更“奇怪”的想法。

有时候把这些想法汇集到一起，就会让游戏看起来很棒！除此之外，我还会确保游戏很有趣，玩起来不会让人抓狂——当用户界面是触摸式的时候，游戏玩法可是一大挑战。但是我的真正秘诀却比任何图像效果或者游戏设置更为强大，那就是“捕捉想象力”（这是我们公司的格言）。

别人第一眼看到或者听到你的想法的时候，你就可以让他们展开想象吗？你能激发他们的热情，让他们继续体验游戏吗？这对我来说很重要，我所做的一切就是为了达到这个效果。

用户大多是通过应用商店推荐功能和网页用户评论发现我的游戏的。另外，我也在学习如何进行零成本的广告推广！

对你来说，目前最成功的销售渠道是什么？

苹果App Store是一个很好很强大的销售渠道，所以我的游戏主要是针对iOS平台开发的。

《MiniSquadron》在谷歌Android Market上的运营情况也不错，但这主要是因为它是一款已发行的游戏，而且采用了OpenFeint平台的交叉推广策略，Android Market最近的变革也颇为振奋人心，但他们的发展步伐还得更快一些。

你在App Store有没有经历过挫折？苹果应如何为你们提高服务质量？

目前还不错，我的意思是说，就我的个人目的来说，App Store的运营方式很灵活，而且用户覆盖面广泛。应用搜索和曝光率仍然是个老问题，但苹果没有义务为我推广游戏（不过他们的推荐功能确实对我的游戏很有帮助），老实说，我已经很满意了。App Store很棒，我不需要在这一点上过于操心，只需要继续专注于开发游戏和想出新创意就行。

有哪些因素对你的事业发展产生了影响？

这些对我产生影响的因素是随着时间发展，不断发生改变的。我出生在香港，从小深受机器人和日本动漫等亚洲文化的影响，我特别喜欢各种日本动漫和任何可以变来变去，与机器人有关的东西。

后来我开始喜欢上所有类型的动画，但我觉得越古怪的东西越好——《FLCL》（Yoji Enokido），《Dead Leaves》（Production I.G0）和《Evangelion》（Gainax）。《MiniSquadron》“纷繁的卡通图片”部分就是受到“Pixel Art”/“8-bit Art”的启发而生成的。保罗·罗伯特（Paul Robertson）的东西总是让我发笑！

有关游戏玩法的影响因素时有变化，我通常偏爱快速的大型电玩，比如《街头霸王》（Street Fighter），但我其实玩过各种类型的游戏（包括凌晨5点还流连在《文明》中）。我也通过看音乐视频来获取灵感——米歇尔·冈瑞（Michel Gondry）是我最近的最爱（开始喜欢那些法国设计师！）。越古怪越好——我从许多东西都可以获得灵感，事实上我经常以自己的方式尝试新的东西，常受到游戏之外的其他东西的影响。

除了关于视觉艺术的东西之外，我还很容易受到国际大事的影响。我对安全和隐私（维基泄密虽然只是其中之一）很感兴趣，对普通大众以及他们日常遇到的问题也有兴趣，尤其是贫困的国家所面临的那些问题。

你们的游戏开发宗旨是什么？

就是把我当时的想法传达给用户。这可能是“趣味”或者“欢乐”，但首先得取决于想法。从根本上说，我想让别人体验我所喜欢的东西——游戏就是我和用户分享观点的媒介。

具体来说，我希望通过《MiniSquadron》，让人们享受一个紧凑的射击游戏，收集一些小飞机，但有时候我也希望开发一些娱乐性的东西，也许是一个大家可以随意摆弄的小玩具，谁知道呢，总之Supermono并不会仅局限于开发游戏。

很显然，我现在已经受困于开发具有商业价值的项目，我无法创造自己“真正”喜欢的东西，但是我希望有一天，自己可以发展到某个阶段，再也不会面临类问题了。

最为一个独立开发者，你目前面临的最大挑战是？

资金和曝光率。这也所有小企业面临的共同问题——资金流动很重要。我们生活在一个经济基础决定上层建筑的世界中，我得有钱才能生存下去。我们并非与世隔绝，这就意味着我们必须与全球的精英竞争，才能吸引用户的眼球。

作为独立的开发商，我们的成本比较低，这让我们很容易保持收支平衡状态，但我这里指的不仅仅是“维持生存”——我还没有足够的勇气承认将把自己的一生奉献给游戏。所以最后总得让自己的喜好和商业价值这两者实现平衡，然后实现另一种程度的独立——在这个阶段你就可以开发自己所喜欢的游戏，不需要考虑后果。

在未来12个月中，你希望实现什么目标？

我希望发行更多游戏，把我开发的后端网站完全呈现给用户，然后把我的游戏连接到一个庞大的SkyNet型系统中，支持用户体验在线社交/多人模式的游戏。我把它称作“TakNet”，我希望它能在2020年产生影响力。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

In Search Of Epic Wins: Supermono Studios On Two-Man Indie Development

[Gamasutra editor-at-large Simon Parkin caught up with ex-Lionhead staffer Tak Fung, founder of Supermono (EpicWin, MiniSquadron), to discuss the company's ongoing attempts at fulfilling its motto of "capturing the imagination" through games and apps.]

Media Molecule isn’t the only successful studio to have been founded by ex-Lionhead staff.

Tak Fung, one-time coder on Black & White and Fable, also left the Molyneux camp to start up development on his own, forming Supermono with artist Dave Ferner, and launching full-time into iPhone development a couple of years ago.

Since then, Supermono has found widespread success, not only with more traditional games such as its shoot-’em-up MiniSquadron but also with creative, game-like software such as EpicWin, a to-do list app with an RPG-esque leveling system overlaid.

Gamasutra’s Simon Parkin caught up with Fung to find out how things are progressing, where things are headed for the two-man studio and what’s next on the developer’s own to-do list.

How did you get started as an independent developer? What did you do beforehand?

I became an independent developer in a very gradual fashion. I started off in the games industry working for Lionhead Studios just after it had released Black & White, when the studio was just 20-odd people. I was put on integrating physics into the secret Project Dimitri before eventually moving onto Graphics and Special FX coding on Fable and its sequel.

It was a great time professionally and personally, as I experienced working in an environment of a handful of people right up to about 200 people at the end of my six-year tenure. However, it was at this time that I felt I was ready and well-skilled enough to go ahead and try different things. There was talk around this time about more exciting things happening in film post-production, and being a big tinkler in graphics code, I took off to become a mercenary contract coder in London.

This worked out pretty well, and I ended up contracting at many famous visual effects and film studios, including Passion Pictures and United Visual Artists. Once I got the hang of looking for work by myself and getting “half my independence” back, I eventually decided to try and actually go ahead and make things by myself and bring on “full independence”.

So eventually, I took a final contract job at Sony, and after that, hooked up with the iPhone and created MiniSquadron as a full independent developer! It was a long journey, and fairly gradual — but importantly, each step was a small leap of faith that you have to take. I guess you get bolder with each leap (until you jump down the wrong hole).

Where are you based? Do you work primarily from home?

I am based in London, and I primarily work from home. My Art Director Dave Ferner (whom I met at UVA) works in North London and I’m in the West, so although we try to communicate by phone and Skype, there are times when I do a lot of cross-London trekking to get together.

I also work with a group of contractors all around the world, which is pretty cool. I am looking to expand and get “an office”, whereby I actually mean “moving out of my parents’ house and getting a shitty one-bed flat in London to live/work in” but it’s a struggle since the whole property situation in London is a total mess.

Although it may sound like this is an unrelated thing, when you are an independent developer and you get to sample things like the labor market first-hand and living costs of your chosen locality — everything matters. It’s not a case of you work and “go home”; everything is one and the same, and your whole ethos of living changes (or at least it did for me).

How did the idea for EpicWin come about? What was the reception like?

EpicWin actually came about from my friend Rex (of Rexbox and LittleBigPlanet fame). He was looking into creating a fun to-do application for the iPhone that people like us would actually use. They all simply lacked the “silliness” and “fun” that would get our attention in the first place. You have to understand that my favorite to-do application up until this point in my life is basically paper and a pencil, so anything beyond that would be confusing for me!

Anyhow, EpicWin was designed with this simplicity in mind, and with loads of charm from Rex’s illustrations, and it just so happened that there was all this “gamification” topic being bandied about (this was near when Jesse Schell gave his talk at DICE about gamification of everyday activities).

So when it was released, everyone pretty much got it straight away and the reception was pretty amazing, to be honest — getting picked up in places like the New York Times, Lifehacker and eventually LA Times, too.

It’s really exciting for me, because it is being used and played by people who are not particularly interested in games, and I find communicating and playing with people outside of my immediate interests always generates new ideas for me.

Is game creation your sole source of income? If so, how is that working out?

Game creation is indeed my sole source of income, and it’s working out fine — I am able to pay bills and rent (to my parents – yes I still pay rent! I just keep it in the family, as opposed to random landlords). I worked really hard to diversify MiniSquadron by putting it on Android, WP7 (coming soon), PSP (also coming soon) and also putting out more titles like Fox Vs. Duck and EpicWin quickly in order to give myself a buffer of sorts.

Since all my games are paid apps, I have to compete harder than free apps with DLC, although in the future my pricing strategy will likely change. I would probably say we are precariously balanced in keeping afloat, but that’s the nature of running a small business in what is an intensively competitive industry.

What have been your most successful titles thus far?

Both MiniSquadron and EpicWin have been super successful, lots of downloads, nice reviews, awards and nominations! Fox Vs. Duck was probably a bit too simple, but that was my attempt at trying out a super-casual one-mechanic game, with a very unconventional art style (monochromatic and very design-centric). The intersection of those aesthetics with the casual audience market is probably not so great, though.

How have you been working to make your titles stand out? Where do people primarily come across them from?

Being a naturally graphics-inclined person along with Beardy Dave, we strive to make our games and apps stand out by being visually impressive. Dave in particular has a strong eye for design-centric visuals — clean lines and economic use of forms and all that — but I guess I have the more “bizarre” ideas.

Sometimes they come together and make our titles look great! Alongside this, I like to make sure our games are fun and “non-frustrating” to play — which can be a challenge when the UI is touch-based. The real secret I have, though, is bigger than any specifics like graphics or gameplay and it’s basically “capturing the imagination” (this is our company motto).

Can you capture the imagination of someone looking at or hearing about your idea for the first time? Will it fire up their minds and let them go on journeys of what may be possible? That is far more important to me and everything I do is to hopefully get that effect.

People come across my games mostly from the app store features and from web reviews. I’m still learning about advertising intelligently on a non-existent budget!

Which has been the most successful distribution channel for you thus far?

The App Store has been really successful, but that’s also down to the fact that all my games are developed for the iOS platform as a primary platform.

MiniSquadron has also done well on Google’s Android Marketplace, but that was helped by being a launch title, along with OpenFeint’s crossplatform strategy. The recent improvements in the Marketplace have also been encouraging — but they need to move faster.

Do you have any frustrations with the App Store as it currently stands? What could Apple do to improve the service for you?

It’s not too bad at the moment — I mean, for my purposes, it’s very slick and has massive reach. There are the perennial problems with discovery, but it’s not Apple’s job to market my game for me (although they have been very good at featuring all my games – yay Apple!). I’m pretty happy with it, to be honest with you — it’s good enough that I don’t think too much about it, and just get on with making games and ideas.

What are your influences?

My influences have changed as I get older — which isn’t unusual, I guess. Being born in Hong Kong and surrounded by a very Asian culture that involves giant Mechs and anime has undoubtedly had an effect on my tastes, especially in that I enjoy the full spectrum of Japanese animation and anything with giant transforming, combining robots in them.

This has grown to include all animation, but I find the weirder the better — things like FLCL (Yoji Enokido), Dead Leaves (Production I.G) and Evangelion (Gainax). MiniSquadron’s “busy cartoon graphics” was inspired in part by the “Pixel Art”/”8-bit Art” that a lot of web designers have been introducing to the world. Paul Robertson’s stuff always makes me laugh!

Gameplay-specific influences vary; I generally enjoy quick arcade games like Street Fighter, but I play all sorts (including 5 a.m. binges on Civilization). I also find inspiration watching music videos – Michel Gondry, so-me are recent favorites (got to love those French designers!). The weirder the better really – I get influences from anything, in fact I think I sometimes go out of my way to try and be influenced by things outside of games on purpose.

Aside from visual things, I get influenced easily by world events. Security and privacy (with Wikileaks only being one facet of it that has been popular with the masses) is very exciting to me, and also in a very general sense, people and the everyday problems they face particularly in difficult countries (e.g. creating an interactive map to avoid police kettling — stuff like that is cool).

What’s your primary aim in your games?

The primary aim in my games is to convey my idea at the time to the players. This may be “fun” or “excitement”, but it depends on the idea in the first place. Essentially with games I am trying to get other people to experience what I would enjoy – it’s my medium to share my views through the power of interactive pixels, man!

Concretely with MiniSquadron I am trying to get people to enjoy a busy shoot-em-up and collect cute little planes, but sometimes I wish to make something that amuses people, maybe a little toy they can play around with – who knows. I certainly am not limiting Supermono into creating just games – one of my useful tricks I’ve devised for myself when I think of what to make is by trying to catch myself saying “Wouldn’t it be cool if …”and then using the “…” as a basis for an idea.

Obviously, I am severely constrained by the immediate problems of having to make things commercially viable so that puts a dampener on what I would *really* like to make, but I hope to make the journey so that one day I can be in a position where that won’t be such a problem.

What’s the biggest challenge currently facing you as an indie dev?

Money and visibility. As is the same with most small businesses – cash flow is very important. We live in a wonderful world of fiat currency, and I need it to survive. And because we do not live in a vacuum that means competing in a global pool of superbly talented people all vying to catch the eye of buyers.

Being indie and having low costs does give us some slack in staying afloat, but I am certainly not in this to simply “stay alive” – I am not brave enough to say that I will die for my art as it were. So in the end it’s a fine balance between making what you want and making something that sells, in order to creep towards *another* level of independence – one where you can make whatever you like and not fear the consequences.

Where would you like to be in 12 months?

In 12 months I would like to have a couple more games out, and to complete rolling out the network backend I am developing in order to link all my games up into a giant SkyNet type system for online social/multiplayer goodness. I will call it “TakNet” and I hope it will become sentient by 2020. Investors take note – you really don’t want to miss out on this bad boy… （Source：gamasutra）