Simon Mack: The Advantages of Developing for Mobile

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Simon Mack: The Advantages of Developing for Mobile

May 5, 2014 — by Catherine Quinton

Simon Mack Photo — Simon Mack, CTO of NaturalMotion

Simon Mack, CTO of NaturalMotion, knew at an early age that he wanted a career in software development but, although he grew up playing games, he never considered the possibility of working in the games industry. While he was studying at his university, a friend introduced him to a company called MathEngine and the physics simulation middleware they were making. He says, “I was blown away—this was unlike anything I had seen before and more advanced than I had thought possible. I got an internship there and was hooked.”

Inspired by Technology

During Mack’s work on physics engines, he met Torsten Reil, CEO of NaturalMotion, and was inspired by the breakthrough technology his team was creating. He has now worked for the company for almost 11 years.

Today, NaturalMotion focuses on advancing its middleware technology with state-of-the-art character animation that scales across consoles and PC, as well as for their own mobile games. They also focus on growing and sustaining their mobile games such as Clumsy Ninja and their CSR franchise, while developing new breakthrough mobile games in new content categories. Emphasizing product value and customer experience is what allows NaturalMotion to build experiences thought to be impossible on mobile. And, they are always interested in hiring the best people to help take the company to the next level.

CSRRacingScreenshot5 — NaturalMotion is growing and sustaining their mobile games such as Clumsy Ninja and their CSR franchise.

No two days at NaturalMotion are the same; Mack claims it’s hard to imagine a “normal” day. Because they use agile, collaborative processes across all projects, usually they begin the day with scrums with various teams. The rest of the day includes such things as product reviews, tech planning, and helping teams resolve technical issues efficiently. Mack especially enjoys the sprint reviews where he sees the progress on each project. He points out, “With so many teams working across technology and games sections, there’s always something we’re working on together to raise the bar for incredible consumer experiences.”

When not hard at work, Mack does manage to fit in a bit of mobile gaming. These days, Mack’s mobile gaming includes Threes! and Boom Beach. He also admits to playing a lot of Zynga’s recent launch, Farmville 2 Country Escape; he enjoys the game’s visually rich design and depth of gameplay.

Succeeding on Your Own Merits

Clumsy Ninja Trampoline — In the games industry, Mack finds “a fantastic blend of genuinely cutting edge technology and artistic creativity, something that is found in very few places.”

In the games industry, Mack finds “a fantastic blend of genuinely cutting edge technology and artistic creativity, something that is found in very few places.” He enjoys the constant change and the inspiring talent the industry attracts, as well as the fact that it generally allows people to succeed on their own merits.

Mack has had considerable involvement with recruiting talent and offers this advice to people starting out in the games industry: “Build a portfolio that showcases your art or what kind of code you can write. I always enjoy interviews where the candidate shows off a personal project.”

Great Growth and Consumer Experience Opportunities

During the time Mack has been in the games industry, he has seen amazing technical progress in the console space as well as a change in the scale of games, development teams and budget growth. The results have been richer visuals and deeper AAA games with great content, causing a great deal of consolidation in the industry.

And, he notes that the past few years have seen amazing growth in mobile gaming. “Mobile games have enabled smaller teams to create high quality games more quickly, revitalizing the industry with massive opportunities for growth,” Mack says. “Millions of people who have never played traditional video games now play social games on mobile devices every day. Casual consumers benefit from far greater accessibility, social experiences, and lower costs, whilst hardcore consumers have better console-quality experiences than ever before and an increasing number of category options on mobile.”

CSR Classics Screenshot 2 — “Mobile games have enabled smaller teams to create high quality games more quickly, revitalizing the industry with massive opportunities for growth.”

But Mack sees possible mis-steps made by developers new to the industry, including determining the right level of innovation in technology. Some resist using middleware, preferring to develop their own solutions. So, as they re-invent the wheel, they have less efficient development time and miss the opportunity to use best-in-class technology.

Clumsy Ninja AppStore Icon — Simon Mack will be talking about Clumsy Ninja and the character animation system used to create their game during Casual Connect Asia 2014.

He also sees the opposite scenario: it is becoming more common for development teams to pick an off-the-shelf engine solution and simply add content. He believes this lack of technical innovation can lead to games that lack the ‘wow’ factor they need to stand out. At NaturalMotion, they emphasize constant innovation in technology while remaining as efficient as possible by using best practices and reusing existing systems when it makes sense.

Mack is excited to see how mobile technology will evolve over the next few years. He says, “We’re nearing the possibility of real console-quality on mobile devices, and it will be interesting to see how that is best leveraged in making games that appeal to both the mainstream market and the more hardcore player.”

Simon Mack will be talking about Clumsy Ninja and the character animation system used to create their game during Casual Connect Asia 2014. Find out more about his session here.

Video Coverage

NaturalMotion’s Struan Robertson on Animation Innovation and Learned Lessons from Going Freemium

November 15, 2012 — by Brian Anthony Thornton

Struan Robertson is the Product Producer for NaturalMotion, a company that has their hands in everything from real time 3D Dynamic Motion Synthesis and engine development to mobile game design. He recently met with Gamesauce for an animated discussion of his origins, the impact of the freemium model, and the future of social games.

Beginnings

When Struan Robertson spoke to us about his early experiences with video games, the excitement was still evident. The game that had the biggest impact on him at a young age was Double Dragon. The combination of the 80’s action movie aesthetic and martial arts totally spoke to him as a 7 year old, to the point where he now says he was obsessed with the game. His interest went beyond simply playing the game; he also wrote design docs based around the Double Dragon mechanic. His fascination with this game was one of the influences leading to him joining the industry.

“His fascination with [Double Dragon] was one of the influences leading to him joining the industry.”

Before switching to the video game industry, Robertson was an ESL teacher. He then taught English in Japan for a year, and after that considered going into banking or something similar. Thankfully, an opportunity to work at a gaming start up came about, and he leaped at the chance. He found working at something both technically and creatively fulfilling very appealing.

Robertson claims that in spite of coming from a totally different work background, he didn’t encounter any specific challenges getting into the industry. He has a degree in Computer Science that helped him work with coders, but generally the ability to document and communicate were - and still are - the most important skills he needed.

Innovation In Motion

Robertson described for us the work he does at NaturalMotion. He is the Product Director at the NMG division, which means he is responsible for the direction, design, and delivery of all of their titles. He manages the team of Product Managers and Product Leads who in turn manage the dev teams and the development of individual titles. He was also a Product Lead on CSR Racing, which meant working with the dev team on a daily basis.

Robertson stresses that NaturalMotion stands out due to the quality of the games they make and also due to the ethos of the people who work there. According to him they are obsessed with learning how to make better games and spend a huge amount of time iterating and improving them.

The environment at NaturalMotion is both supportive and creative with a lot of great ideas flying around. He tells us how great it is to be somewhere prepared to take the time necessary to create something truly special.

CSR-racing — Struan Robertson worked as a Product Lead on CSR Racing, which meant working with the dev team on a daily basis.

The Freedom To Be Social

The freemium model has had tremendous impact on the video game industry. Robertson described it this way: “First and foremost it’s brought more games into the lives of many new gamers. “Free” is a powerful word, and being able to use that power to reach such a huge audience is just fantastic. Outside of expanding our audience, I think we’re still at a point where there are many new ways to discover that will make games free but profitable, so freemium has also opened the doors to a lot of experimentation in terms of game design.”

Robertson tells us that the most important key to success in this market is suiting the form factor and play session of the device.

As these doors open in the casual market, the competition grows fiercer. Robertson tells us that the most important key to success in this market is suiting the form factor and play session of the device. You have to make games that suit the way people use their phones and tablets. Failing to do this is a mistake he sees far too often.

Another common error is misunderstanding the target audience. A lot of developers want to create something that appeals to them. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it will appeal to a super-casual audience.

My-Horse — “People don’t always want to team up or participate in PvP but the idea that there’s a wider world of friends also experiencing the same thing as you is very appealing to our nature.”

The social aspect of games continues to increase in importance. Robertson emphasizes that when a game gets social functionality right, the natural human instinct of wanting to share success, failure, serendipity - i.e. the human experience with other players comes into its own. “Playing together, alone” is a phrase that springs to mind. People don’t always want to team up or participate in PvP but the idea that there’s a wider world of friends also experiencing the same thing as you is very appealing to our nature.”

Robertson tells us the future of social games will definitely include more high quality experiences. “For a lot of new gamers out there, they’re consuming almost anything we put in front of them because they don’t have a console or PC gaming background to lean into. Once they see more high-quality, graphically rich titles like My Horse and CSR Racing more and more casual players will start to demand those production values of all their games.”

We asked Robertson what he could tell us about new ideas we could look forward to from NaturalMotion. He would say only, “I can tell you that they’re all good!”