Odd Gentlemen, Inc: Purveyors of Fine Video Gaming

November 25, 2008

The Odd Gentlemen are video game developers striving to becoming masters of the short form game experience.  We make games that are humorous, self reflexive and put a twist on traditional gameplay. We are purveyors of games that easy to pick up and play, but provide depth to thinking gamer.  We really just want to bring smiles to people’s faces.

Read below to learn more about them:

Help us understand what you are up to :
The Odd Gentlemen are video game developers striving to becoming masters of the short form game experience.  We make games that are humorous, self reflexive and put a twist on traditional gameplay. We are purveyors of games that easy to pick up and play, but provide depth to thinking gamer.

We are currently developing our USC master thesis: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom into a full-fledged downloadable game for the current generation of game consoles.

What drives you to continue pursuing this area of study?
Games are in a really exciting place right now.  Technology is changing daily and allowing game creators give new experiences to players.  The medium is still in it’s infancy and we feel like we can push the boundaries of what a game can offer.  Since many of us have been playing games for most of our lives we have lived through several gigantic leaps in both technology and the evolution of game design.  What drives us is the quest to better ourselves as game creators and put out engaging experiences. 

Describe how your work might impact people’s lives, now and in the future.
Taking people to quirky worlds and letting play through experiences they cannot find in any other medium. We want to tickle people’s imagination in the same ways that we were inspired by picture books and fantastical adventures while we were growing up.  We just want to put smiles on people’s faces and let them play.

How did you come up with the idea?
The concepts were developed throughout various courses at USC during the three years of the interactive media program. Looking back through my coursework, many of my past projects explored themes of replay, alternate timelines, and looping. My thesis statement centered around getting players to think in a new way about their actions in the past, present, and future and of course delicious pie.

At the same time, I had a pipe dream of a game that would capture the essence and the charm of an early silent film. I studied film production as an undergraduate and always wanted to put as much of my previous leanings into games.

At some point around thesis proposal time these two ideas merged, and Winterbottom was born.

Has anyone ever doubted that your idea could work?
Of course, everyone thought we were crazy, even our brains hurt thinking about time paradoxes at the beginning of the project.  When we first pitched the game many thought that we couldn’t pull of the tech of the game.

To prove it would work I learned how to code in flash to create a simple prototype during the summer before production started. The prototype helped us burst through some design challenges, and get to the core of the gameplay in addition to proving that it could be done.  We rallied our team around our first simple prototypes.  We’ve never looked back since.

What is the next step in the innovation process for you?
Our first step is creating an amazing game experience with Winterbottom, continuing to build upon the design of the student project snd taking it to a higher place. From there, it is cultivating our company culture of experimenting with game mechanics and creating worlds we would like to visit. We want to maintain our freedom and unbridled enthusiasm for breaking conventions while trying to keep independent and financially stable.

What mistake taught you the most?
Go with your gut, and take a risk. Every time we dawdled on something we knew we wanted, but decided to take another course of action based on external pressures we suffered for it. 

Also, we learned that the simplest way to do a project is usually the best.  Winterbottom did not need to be coded in a 3D engine, or have a massive 20 person team; these are all battles we fought.  We learned to always do what was best for the project.

What is the one innovation you can’t live without?
The office’s George Foreman Grill, that thing is truly amazing!

What would people be surprised to learn about you? 
The Odd Gentlemen’s side goal is to become the buffest game development team, and we plan on doing by utilizing the Winterbottom work out plan. This becomes very hard with all the delicious treats lying around the office. 

How did you come up with the name for your company/organization?
We made an excel spreadsheet with what we thought were the coolest names for a company in the world.  We stopped when wrote down “The Odd Gentlemen”.

What do you wish you would have invented? 
Time Travel….wait…still working on it…. 

Any tips for aspiring innovators?
Protoype early and often.  Start out with the simplest implementation of your idea, test it, and then add the complexity.  Get your idea in some tangible form and get as many people as you can to see it.    

Email or phone? 
Email is always quicker! Nine times out of town we’ll ignore the phone as it just might be student loan collectors.

What is the most fun you’ve ever had? Disneyland.

Three favorite things about LA:

…Warm Weather.

…Center of the Universe.

…Tacos.

Additional website links:

www.theoddgentlemen.com

www.winterbottomgame.com