Sherman Chin, Founder and Producer at Sherman3D Multimedia Inc, is positive and optimistic about the games industry in Asia. He emphasizes that opportunities abound with a rapidly growing market as well as how accepting players are of different types of games. At Casual Connect Asia, Sherman announced the release of the Japanese version of Alpha Kimori Episode One, a game that has been meticulously localized for the Japanese market and is launched directly from their official website. Seeing the expanding mobile market for games, they are working to expand their mobile development team, as well as working with their cloud gaming partner, OnLive, to make their PC downloadable game immediately available on more platforms, including mobile.
With the help of a talented team of developers, Sherman is the producer of Sherman3D’s games and oversees the entire game development pipeline. Through his experience in programming, he is able to serve as a bridge between the technical and creative team members. As the one responsible for business opportunities for the company, he draws from the insight into the Japanese game market that he developed as a game producer in Tokyo. For external business development, he finds it useful to tap into his large network of contacts in the game development industry.
Highs and Lows
As with most people who are involved in this industry, Sherman has experienced challenges and disappointments, as well as high points in his career. For him, one of the best experiences was having Sherman3D featured in New Strait Times with a full color center page spread and cover in their technology pullout.
Yet what started out as another high point ended up being one of the biggest challenges he has faced. A 3D demo he had coded was to be showcased at E3 2003, but it had to be cancelled when the technology company they had partnered with closed down. He realized then that he needed to focus on the content of game, rather than putting too much emphasis on the technology. Sherman offers this advice on how to make a better product: “For indie JRPG game developers who have grand ideas for their first JRPG, it would be best to flesh out the story using a simple JRPG development tool like RPG Maker XP before being too caught up with the technology.”
Comments
