Space Engineers – interview in Czech newspaper

Space Engineers - interview in Czech newspaper.

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Aktuálně.cz – Czech online newspaper made an interview with the boss of Keen Software House studio, Marek Rosa.

At the beginning the game is presented for the readers and later on more interesting questions are asked. Below is a summary of all his answers and other important information.

1. Lego truly was one of the inspirations how the game should look like and behave.

2. Marek was not playing with Merkur in his childhood. Merkur is one of the best "toy"for small engineers used widely in the former communist countries. In our opinion it is better than Lego. See here.

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3. The studio did not really celebrate 1M of copies sold. Much more important was the launch of the game when they were under pressure until few hours later it was clear that the game is profitable. And the success was made without any marketing activities and the game is still in the bestsellers ladder. And that counts.

4. The studio is from the Czech Republic. And if you are not aware of it, in this small country there are many successful developers (Bohemia Interactive, Warhorse Studios and more). And the gaming industry seems very well known over the world. Which is not true with Czech movies for example.

5. The goal was not to make Space Engineers so demanded by the market but to make a game where the fun is a top priority. To make it enjoyable for players and let them promote the game on Youtube by themselves. This way the team could focus on the development and not on the marketing. Which was a good way to go as we can see now.

6. The total costs are around €360k.

7. The game was financed by the sales of the studio's previous game and Space Engineers had to provide money already from the early access and not be dependent only on the profit from the final sales.

8. The reason why the game wasn't on Kickstarter or other crowdfunding servers was simple. To focus on the game and its development and not on the marketing campaign.

9. Developing the game for consoles was not possible at the beginning because of the small team. But right now Microsoft bought the exclusivity for Xbox One. 

10. How did Microsoft contacted the studio? The devs were addressed directly by MS at a conference in Paris.

11. Marek has also a big dream of making an AI. Their artificial intelligent should be universal and possible to implement into software and hardware robots. And it should work like a human brain. The AI must be born like an unwritten blank paper and learn all the things alone, to create its unique knowledge about the world around and gather experience and learn from them.

12. The AI development is just in the early research phase. The studio is creating a basic model of the robot's brain in the virtual space and is testing all the hypothesis they have.

13. The brain and robot's identity doesn't have to be connected with a body. The goal for this project is to prepare a new intelligence for the customers and the customers will decide what to teach it and how to use it.

4 Comments

  1. Avatar photo

    Tak ten link na Merkur mě celkem pobavil. Zvlášť, když po přečtení originálu zjistím, že Merkur má v článku jen miniaturní roli.

    Reply
  2. Avatar photo

    So….. No more minecraft?

    Reply
  3. Avatar photo

    I’m glad that more people will know about this wonderful game.

    Reply
  4. Avatar photo

    I’ve seen this game on steam … I must have it.

    Reply

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