作者：Craig Chapple

《愤怒的小鸟》取得突破性成功以来（已累积10亿多的下载量，且影响力不只停留在游戏上，也涉及了毛绒玩具及各种周边商品），Rovio毫不掩饰其进一步扩展的动机。

除了收购第三方开发商的IP（游戏邦注：比如最近收购的《Casey’s Contraption》，后改为《Amazing Alex》），今年早些时候，这家芬兰工作室宣布将在瑞典的斯德哥尔摩创建一个30人规模的新工作室。

月初，该公司任命前EA Easy工作室总经理Oskar Burman去负责该工作室，并聘请了来自DICE，也是《战地3》的高级制作人Patrick Liu担任其创意总监。

Patrick Liu(from nowgamer)

因此，Develop采访了Liu，探问他为何会在《战地3》大获成功之时离开DICE，以及对Rovio的发展有何计划。

为何决定加入Rovio？

这是个充满活力的公司。而我个人也一直想尝试一些新事物。现在，我已经着手制作一些不同类型的游戏，但却总是无法获得满足。而Rovio伸出的橄榄枝正好能够帮我实现这一想法。

在此，我们可以从头开始开发新游戏，而且我喜爱斯德哥尔摩。我难以抗拒这次的机会。

作为创意总监，你的职责是什么？

其实我也不大清楚。目前工作室中只有我与Oskar两人。我们正筹备招聘工作。我们的目标是创建一个30人左右的团队。

从短期来看，我得先致力于工作室创建，发展团队文化，而后才能真正开始游戏创造。

对未来发展有何计划？打算制作哪类内容？

我们会依形势而定。显然，我们想要尝试各种类型的内容。Rovio需要这么做，他们也在不断探索其它领域，所以我们不能局限在《愤怒的小鸟》上。

这也意味着我们将着眼于更多内容，并期待能够在未来取得更大的发展。

你们将着眼于内部制作更多新IP，而不是购买第三方游戏？

对此我并不能多加透露。

创意总监似乎与你之前的职位完全不同，为什么你会选择扮演这一角色？

我相信，移动平台与传统硬核游戏将会逐渐融合，届时，这两者将具有互通性。

比如，最近我投入大量时间在iPad上玩游戏，并在这一过程中我明确了想要从事自己所喜欢的工作，而创意总监刚好就是我目前的兴趣点，所以我才会做出这种选择。

你认为，何时才能组建一个完整的开发团队？

我们希望尽快实现这一愿景。只要拥有足够成员，我们便会启动项目。这没有明确的时间轴，我们只想尽快着手进行。

你和Oskar是否拟定了理想员工的要求，或者你们认为这是一种持续发展的过程？

在我看来，这是个长久过程，特别是对于我来说，一切事物都还很陌生。但是我真心希望我们能够很快制定出一个绝佳计划。

为何决定离开DICE？特别是在担任了该公司5年的高级制作人之后。

我觉得在此时离开是最合适的。DICE是一家杰出的工作室，特别是推出了《战地3》后。的确，我们在DICE拥有大号的发展前景。在鼎盛时期离开远比在时运不济时走人好，不是吗？

我十分满意自己在参与《战地3》制作时的表现，而现在，也是时候去做其它尝试了。

其它尝试指的是？与小型团队合作？还是着眼于不同平台？

当然，这是个全新创作环境与挑战。我一直都希望能够创建一家工作室，这也是我之前从未尝试过的。所以这正是驱使我做出这个选择的主要原因。

最近，David Goldfarb也离开了DICE，但你说过，现在该工作室发展良好。是不是其中出现了某些问题？还是现在人们都不愿意效力于大型开发商？

不。我认为David与我的离开纯属巧合。而最近应该不会再有人员离开DICE。

但你也提到想要离开这种创造环境？

如之前所说，我会根据自己的兴趣做出选择。也许有一天，我会对AAA军事射击游戏感兴趣，并转向该领域。但就目前来看，我最想尝试制作移动游戏，并创建一家新工作室。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Interview: Patrick Liu on his move to Rovio

by Craig Chapple

On the back of its huge breakout success with the Angry Birds franchise, which has accrued well over a billion downloads and has spread its wings away from mere gaming to plush toys and merchandising, Rovio has made no secret of its intentions to expand its offerings.

As well as looking to snap up IP from third-party developers, such as the recent acquisition of Casey’s Contraptions, now known as Amazing Alex, earlier this year the Finnish company announced its attention to build a new 30-person studio in Stockholm, Sweden.

And having already made an impressive coup by appointing ex-EA Easy GM Oskar Burman to head up the studio earlier this month, the developer has already brought on its first hire in the shape of DICE and Battlefield 3 senior producer Patrick Liu as its new creative director.

Develop asked Liu why he decided to leave DICE after its huge success with Battlefield 3, and how he plans to move Rovio forward.

Why did you decide to join Rovio?

I think they are really exciting. I’ve been looking for something new to do, just from a personal standpoint. I’ve been doing the other kind of games for a while now and I’m always very restless. The Rovio opportunity turned out to be very unique.

They’re giving us this chance to build something new from scratch, and it’s in Stockholm which I love. It’s just a very unique opportunity that I couldn’t say no to.

What does your new role as creative director actually entail?

I’m not sure actually. It’s just Oskar and I right now. We’re only two people but we are hiring. We’re going to build a new team of probably around 30 people.

But in the short term I’m going to help build up the studio, head up the culture of the it and what we’re doing, and then probably move on to what kind of games we’re going to build.

What are your plans for the future? What kind of content are you looking to create?

We’ll see. I can’t say that much right now. Obviously we’re looking into building all kinds of stuff. Rovio needs to, and I think its known, that it is exploring other areas, we can’t just be doing Angry Birds.

But that said we’re going to look into that a lot as well and we’ll see in the future what comes out of it.

So you’ll be looking to make more new IP internally rather than more third party acquisitions?

I can’t comment on that.

This role seems quite different to what you’ve done before, why have you chosen this particular role?
I’m pretty convinced there will be a convergence of mobile and traditional core games, that they’re moving towards each other both ways.

Looking at what I’ve been playing personally lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time on my iPad playing games and I really want to work with stuff where my passion is, and I feel that right now this is where my passion really is, and that’s why I looked into doing this.

When do you think you’ll have the full development team set up?

We hope to do it as soon as possible. As soon as we get enough people in we’ll start doing things. There’s no real timeline, we just want to get things started as soon as possible.

Have you and Oskar drafted up the ideal people you’d like to bring in or is that still an on-going process?

It’s an on-going process, it’s all very new still, especially for me. We’ll see, hopefully we’ll have a good plan soon.

Why did you decide to leave DICE? Especially after five years as senior producer there.

I think it’s good timing really. DICE is a great studio, DICE has never been as good as it is right now after shipping Battlefield 3. We have a really great momentum at DICE. I feel like it’s better to leave on a high note than when times are bad.

I’m happy with what I did for Battlefield 3, and now it’s time to do something else.

What do you mean by doing something different? You’d prefer to work with a smaller team? Different platforms?

Exactly, a new creative environment, new challenges. And building a studio is really my biggest excitement, I’ve never done that before. That opportunity to build a studio is really what drives me right now, so that’s the main reason.

Obviously David Goldfarb has also left recently, but you said this is a great time for the studio. Is there a sign of there are some sort of problems there? Or that people don’t want to work at such big developers now?

No. I think specifically David and I are really coincidences. I don’t think there’s been anyone else that has left DICE lately, it’s just coincidence.

But you just wanted to move away from that kind of environment?
As I said, I go where my passion is. Never say never. My passion might return to triple-A military shooters one day and hopefully I’ll be able to return there. But right now I feel like I want to try out making mobile games and build a new studio.(source:develop-online)