Willie Stevenson, president of Silverback Productions, says he’s ecstatic with his company’s current headway, but he wasn’t always this optimistic.
“It’s no longer a nightmare waking up in the morning - because it was,” Stevenson says as he reflects on how he felt only a few years ago.
Stevenson founded Silverback Productions with his wife Colleen Shannahan in 2009. The couple initially worked out of their home before establishing their studio on Cornwallis Street.
Both Stevenson and Shannahan came from a lucrative television-producing career, working on shows such as ‘Lexx,’ but they lost interest in that field and saw video games as a more compelling story-telling platform. They put all of their savings into forming a video game studio and it almost didn’t work.
Silverback Productions was in dire straights in its early years and Stevenson says he was at his wits end. “Two kids (at home) and a (loss) here of about $80,000 a month to run this place, and when you’re only making $20,000 - that it is a panicky feeling.”
Their first big project, ‘Ben & Kranky’ was intended to be a full 3-D game with a huge world and story, but it was never completed – Thousands of dollars invested and no product.
But things got worse after that, says Stevenson. Their first casual title ‘Mr Jones’ Graveyard Shift,’ which was supposed to dig them out of their hole never made much of a dent on the charts.
“We re-mortgaged our house. I can’t even explain to you how raunchy it is, and your wife is pregnant, and you have doubts and you’re thinking ‘what am I doing? I’m an idiot and I’m ruining my wife’s life my kid’s life,’” Stevenson said.
Things started to turn around when they tried another casual title: ‘Empress of the Deep,’ which went on to become a huge hit for them, played by millions of people.
Subsequently they’ve made more casual titles like ‘Secret of the Dragon Wheel,’ which are taking off on iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) and online marketplaces.
This growth has allowed them to expand their studio to almost 20 staff. Stevenson says they plan to be double that size by next year.
Silverback’s games are mostly played by women over 30; a demographic that usually doesn’t play video games, but they gravitate to Silverback’s content.
Most of Silverback’s games are point-and-click puzzle adventures with complex storylines, full of twists and turns. Their games have won awards for art design and are highly rated by players on Apple’s App Store.
One of their recent hires is Doug Demyen, a programmer who formally worked at a Bioware with hundreds of employees. He says he prefers the smaller setting because of the increased autonomy with his projects.
“I was looking around and the stuff Silverback was doing looked quite impressive and from all accounts Halifax is a really nice city, and once I started looking around and seeing some of these small companies, the idea of working on a small team was pretty appealing.”
Demyen said despite the recognition received from working on a huge blockbuster game like ‘Mass Effect’ he was looking for something different.
Stevenson said he wants to keep the momentum going this year by releasing a new game every month for the next five months, despite only releasing one title last year.
“I can’t say enough about our people. We are extremely picky, we get a lot of resumes and we only entertain maybe 10 per cent of them, and then when we go to the next level with them we test them for a long period, three months,” Stevenson said.
“They have to have self motivation and passion. We get a lot of programmers who come in and we ask ‘ok what games have you made on your own?’ and if they say ‘well not really anything,’ then we’re not interested in talking to you because if you are passionate you will have made some games yourself already.”
Despite the hard times in the beginning, Stevenson said he is really excited about Silverback’s future with lots of new content coming out this year and special projects he couldn’t reveal yet.
“Cut to now – it’s just a joy, simple fact,” Stevenson said. “It’s really awesome, and every month we get these statements and we plan on them being low and then they’re not. I can’t exaggerate how nice that is.”
Sidebar:
Silverback Productions available games:
Mr. Jones’ Graveyard Shift
Empress of the Deep: The Darkest Secret
Empress of the Deep 2: Song of the Blue Whale
Secrets of the Dragon Wheel
http://www.silverbackgames.com/
