Interviews

JA Speaks to dtp Entertainment’s Chris Kellner
Conducted by Randy Sluganski

Relatively unknown in North America, dtp has grown into the biggest publishers of adventure games in Europe. They started publishing only for German speaking territories a few years ago with older titles like The Longest Journey, Sanitarium, Gothic and then Runaway (which was signed to other countries only after its initial success in Germany) in late 2003. Flush with this success the decision was made to specialize in adventures.

dtp - itself comprised of passionate adventure-gamers – soon found that they were filling a niche. The infusion of new titles like The Moment of Silence and Tony Tough 2, combined with some innovative marketing techniques has now thrust dtp to the forefront as a major player in both the adventure and publishing community.

Christopher Kellner – dtp’s International PR Manager – took some time from his busy schedule to chat with JA.

You seem to have found a niche as the adventure game publisher for German speaking territories (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). Was this just a lucky coincidence or was it the goal of your original marketing plan?

Well, adventures have been on dtp’s radar for some years. We took some early steps with Sanitarium and The Longest Journey, sniffing into the RPG-genre with Gothic I (which turned out to be a major hit). But it was not until the astonishing success of Runaway that we decided to specialize in adventures. We saw the opportunity, we found the niche and jumped into it. But not only because of economic reasons, but also because some of the most important senior staffers at dtp, including myself ;-), are hardcore adventure-fans and always thought of reviving the genre.

Are there any specific adventures right now that you would like to add to dtp’s game catalogue?

Of course there are some interesting titles out there right now being developed, but I’m really not allowed to say the names – we don’t want to wake up sleeping dogs and give away business opportunities.

Tony Tough 2 is your first worldwide title? Can you elaborate on this? Will dtp be the publisher for Tony Tough 2 in North America?

We have been focused on the German speaking areas for a long time, but now we thought this over and came to the conclusion that in order to make the firm grow we have to seek opportunities in foreign countries. It’s also financially easier to fund and initiate (and thus have more influence) the development of a game and buying the worldwide license for it. Right now we don’t have the staff and the infrastructure to publish and distribute a game in a foreign country, but we can work with some partners with a similar structure to us in other countries. So maybe Tony Tough 2 will be published in the USA by xy and in the UK by wz, but our logo will be on it and we will keep an eye on the quality of the localization. We don’t have any contracts regarding Tony Tough 2 yet, so I can’t tell you who it will be in the US or in the UK.

Do you ever help game development with funding or do you focus only on the publishing of the game?

Titles we got offered or we sign when their development has already started can’t be influenced by us that much, but we recommend to change certain aspects if we think that they would hurt. For example, we got the sneaking sequence and the fire-extinguisher sequence in Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silver Earring made easier by the developers in the German version, because we know that these are parts reviewers and gamers as well don’t like. If we initiate a game and fund it, we certainly keep a close eye on the development and intervene at once if we think that it’s going in the wrong direction. I think this is a good thing, because sometimes developers are stuck so deeply in their project they don’t realize that certain parts may not be fun to play any more.

Is there a specific target audience for adventure games in Germany? Age-wise? Gender-wise?

We know that there are definitely more women in our target audience than in other genres. And adventure gamers tend to be a little bit older than the average gamer – from 25 to whatever. And adventure gamers – and I say this without any elite-arrogance – seem to be better educated than fans of other genres.

Is there a market for adventure games on console in Germany? They have failed miserably in North America.

As Germany is primarily a PC market, I don’t think adventures would sell well on consoles, and the ones that have been published sold almost nothing. I also think that the point & click controls don’t fit to gamepads.

What dtp releases have sold the best and which games have been your biggest disappointments sales-wise?

The best selling adventure we did was Runaway, but in the passed year it was Black Mirror. It was in fact the best selling adventure game on the market in the past year in the German speaking countries. I think that in fact the German sales exceeded that of any other country. Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silver Earring was a big commercial success, too. A little bit disappointing for us were the sales of The Westerner (Wanted).

What have you learned from a marketing point of view from both your best-selling and worst-selling games?

Titles with a simple, but fascinating setting and plot which you can easily explain in the press to anybody, including my Grandma (without saying my Grandma is stupid, she just lacks the knowledge and understanding for modern game themes), sell well. Black Mirror can be explained with the phrase “Edgar Allan Poe on PC”, and Sherlock Holmes explains himself. Titles like Syberia II – however beautiful and good they are - are difficult to explain and the average gamer just doesn’t understand them or the fine art they are based on. Comic-style adventures are also very difficult. German adults don’t like to play anything looking like a children’s game. Runaway worked because the comic-look was not exaggerated and it is in fact an adult story. But titles like The Westerner had a hard time.

What game has been your biggest disappoint (i.e., game you thought would sell but did not) and what game has been your biggest surprise (i.e., game you thought would do okay, but ended up being a best seller).

We all thought The Westerner would sell much better than it did, because it got very good ratings and topped the reference lists in nearly any German game magazine. And we all thought that Black Mirror would be ok, but we didn’t expect it to be such a strong long-seller.

What seems to be the German-speaking audiences preference - adventure/horror like Black Mirror, comedies like Tony Tough & Wanted or mysteries like Moment of Silence & Sherlock Holmes.

Germans like stories they understand and are interesting, but are not too far off the ground. Comedy-titles – as long as they cannot be linked to any of the old Lucas Arts legends – are difficult.

To what do you attribute the strong sales of adventure games in Germany as compared to a dwindling North American market?

I know little about the US gamers and the US market, so I can only assume some points. Most Germans definitely don’t consider games as culture or even art. Many of them have a problem with computer gaming not being considered as an intellectual hobby. Maybe that’s the reason why they like adventures – which are at least “interactive books” and give them a more intellectual feeling than other genres. German general media has a profound problem with shooters – so they tend to write about adventures instead, vice versa to the game press which doesn’t like to write about adventures at all.

You said in an Inventory interview that adventure games are not considered triple A titles in Germany. What is the perception of adventure games in Germany?

If you talk to any editor of a game magazine in Germany about adventures, you will always hear the same arguments: “Adventures are not mass market, are not our target audience, are outdated, are old fashioned, their gameplay stinks in comparison to other genres, etc etc etc.” Well, unfortunately, the sales prove them right at least with the argument of the mass market in comparison to shooters or RTS. You have an hit with an adventure if you sell 30.000 copies at full price (40 Euro) during the entire lifetime. If you sell 30.000 copies full price of a shooter, it’s a flop. Really hyped shooters sell around 30.000 copies in the first week after release.

You also stated in the Inventory, that most 1st person games tend to be ‘boring graphic artworks.” Can you be more specific as to what type of games you are referring to, for example, the Myst games are all 1st person yet many gamers find them fascinating.

And I certainly didn’t want to offend the fans of this kind of games. But I know that the situation about them is different in the US than in the German speaking countries. With the exception of Myst, all of these games don’t sell at all over here. And even Myst never gets a better mark than a low 7x % and only sells because it’s a ten year old brand. I personally think that most of these games are indeed boring graphic artworks, although they sometimes build up a decent atmosphere and show nice pictures. But that’s just my taste. However, most German adventure players seem to have the same opinion.

For localization, you use voice actors that are well known in Germany for being voice-acting ‘doubles’ for large movie stars. Can you elaborate some more on this and do you think that, for example, using the voice-acting double of Johnny Depp actually helps to sell more games?

Yes. Not only because people would buy it just to listen to the voice. But it’s also a symbol for an excellent localization, which is very important in the German speaking countries. And you have an well working marketing lever on reluctant general press editors.

What trade shows do you visit? Are you considering either the GDC or the E3 in North America this year?

We most probably will have a booth at the E3. We are of course at any trade show in Germany.

What sources do you use to find games? Referrals, web sites?

Most adventures are offered to us by the developers themselves, but we also scout the web for information about new titles. Often there are reports about new adventures long before their developers sign publishing contracts. So often we see an article about a new project and then I or one of my colleagues writes an email.

Are there any what you would consider too cultural specific games. For example, what games do you think would sell in Germany but not in the U.S. and what games in the U.S. but not Germany because of the game being too culture specific.

I don’t think the two “game-cultures” are that different. On the whole you can say that Germans love economy-simulations, which are not that liked in the U.S., are they? Germans love all games where you can build up an overwhelming empire, get an economic superpower etc…. hmmm. ;-) But on the whole, the charts in Germany don’t differ that much from the ones in the USA or the UK.