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Exciting the team to excite the players - Talking game design with IOI Barcelona at IndieDevDay

We meet again with Eduard López Plans, Game Designer at IO Interactive Barcelona and talk to him about how to generate an exciting creative environment that inspires the team, so that they in turn create unforgettable experiences for the players.

Audio transcription

"We're in Barcelona for the IndieDevDay 2024, and it's almost a tradition to catch up with the guys over at IOI.
So thank you so much for joining us once again, Eduard.
Your panel right behind us was just a moment ago, we couldn't attend."

"So would you like to share a couple of takeaways that you got from this panel?
Sure, thank you very much. Very nice seeing you again.
And as you say, every year we should catch up.
Yeah, this panel was actually really fun, really interesting."

"We're three people, a person like Rene who worked on his own game, someone from Larian and myself.
And basically we let some advice on game design, like some of the challenges we face, some tips to creating awesome ideas.
Some things to be mindful of.
I think some of the advices that we gave that I really like is how to get the team engaged, how to make sure that everyone can feel ownership while having a clear direction of where the game is going, making sure that everyone is aligned, talking to all the people, listening to the feedback, giving up."

"Protecting the gameplay, like how do we design a lot of different things, how can we create new mechanics and how can we make sure that they're incredible and people really like it, right?
Like how do we make a core experience, how do every new mechanic we add, it needs to be out of this experience, how it needs to be expanded, how to be careful with not like go farther away and ruin the game in itself."

"How to plan game, how to plan the game design to be able to hold like for 3 seconds, for 3 minutes, for 3 hours, for 3 weeks, you know like how do we plan from the beginning for these things like to be meaningful.
And basically like how do we make games that are impactful to people, how do we get ourselves like passionate about what we're making and make sure that people resonate with our ideas and create something special."

"So it's like getting the team engaged so that players will get engaged likewise.
So we've been talking about your team several times.
I mean last year it was very techy, it was all about Glacier and stuff.
But we've been talking about how you guys are distributed around the world and how the Barcelona studio is just another studio inside the core sort of main studio that IO Interactive is."

"So what can you tell me about the studio?
How are you guys doing?
I don't know if you got some changes as of late and how do you guys are?
Do you still do those, you know, Terrace meetups?
We do the knowledge with the developers in Barcelona."

"Yeah, we really like to do this, like share our knowledge, get to like share some fun time with people and talk about making games.
So I would say like now the studio of IO Barcelona is buzzling with life and energy.
We have been growing, we are using like most of the floors now of the building and it's really fun to go there every day and be energized with people."

"Yeah, I think I'm very pleased, I'm very happy to see like people just enjoying and also to be able to make games together which is our dream.
We want to make great games together, make great friends and now we can see like the progress we're making on the projects and we can share in the success that we already like perceive and it's really cool."

"It's a really cool time.
You mentioned projects, I have to ask you about projects.
I think the fantasy project that you guys, we know publicly you're doing, you're not that much related to that, but I will ask you about 007."

"You know it's close to my heart, you know I'm pumped, I'm really looking forward to that one.
What can you tell me? How's combat going to be? Tell me something.
It's going to be amazing.
No, I really wish I could tell you like I'm really happy, I'm working in this project as well myself now and I'm just loving it."

"The team is very excited as well, like we're doing our best, working together, seeing the progress.
I think it's going to be a great game, but sadly I cannot.
That's all for now?
I wish I could tell you all about it."

"We could talk hours on why this is awesome, right?
You only live twice, so we'll get to know it.
All right, all right.
One project that I can ask you about that we've been talking about for many years now, it's Hitman and coincidentally you guys recently announced that World of Assassination is also coming to PSVR too, so I don't know if there's something that you would like to share about that one."

"Yeah, I'm super happy about it actually.
I work personally, well I work in all the trilogy of Hitman, the World of Assassination, but I also worked on the VR and there were like a few mechanics that we didn't have time to do and we always wanted to do it and the community wanted them and I'm super happy to see that we are adding so much to it and people seem to be happy."

"For me personally, when I make a game and people are happy about it, that makes my life, you know?
That's why I make games, for all people's enjoyment.
So yeah, I'm very proud of the Hitman VR experience and very happy to see this game come through."

"And you get to be 47 from inside, so it's pretty cool.
How do you feel about VR yourself?
I mean, it looks like VR is always about comebacks and it looks like 2023 and first half of 2024 were so-so, not so many games, but now we're getting a bunch of games."

"Hitman on PSVR 2 and the Metro game is looking fantastic, Arizona Sunshine, blah, blah.
How do you feel about that, about VR?
Is this the real one?
What sort of expectations do you guys have about that?
I don't know, I really like VR myself."

"I started working on VR with the Oculus DK2 set, a thing I had at home, and I made some prototypes and I really liked it.
Actually, sometimes I think, "man, I should go back and make some more prototypes of this." It was fun."

"I don't know what is the future of VR.
I really like it myself. I hope it succeeds and it becomes more mainstream.
The technology is advancing always."

"I also think all the learnings we have done in VR, they have gone so fast.
I was thinking when I was making VR games, when the first 3D games came up, with Sega Saturn, PlayStation, N64, developers were learning slowly because you were working in isolation."

"But right now, when the VR headsets came back again, it's like, okay, there's so much knowledge.
We share so much with developers.
So I think we have a lot of knowledge and technology is getting there."

"So I don't know when VR is going to be successful.
I think it's going to be successful for sure.
I don't know when and how much.
We just need a new Alex to bring all that tech and that ideas together and more prominent games."

"I think the platforms are there.
All right, it's been lovely to talk with you again.
Good luck with the project.
Looking forward to learning more."

"Enjoy the show.
Thank you very much for having me and very happy to be in this show as well."

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