TGL ‘Shank’ Interview: Jamie Cheng CEO of Klei Entertainment

CommentJuly 28th, 2010 00:51

We recently threw a few questions at Jamie Cheng, the founder of Klei Entertainment. Jamie and his team at Klei are about to unleash Shank on PSN, XBLA and PC and look set to have a monster on their hands. This game is going to blow you away. Here’s what Jamie had to say about everything from Shank to God of War, Digital Distribution, Double Dragon and why playing Shank renders playing boardgames obsolete…..sort of….

TheGamingLiberty: Could you tell us a little something about Klei Entertainment itself and the kind of goals you set out to achieve with your games?

Jamie Cheng: Our goal as a company is to create original IP and strives to surprise players with experiences they’ve never had before. We take significant risk to only build games that we absolutely believe in, and that’s how we’ve operated for the last 5 years.

TGL: What’s the inspiration behind Shank? It’s a pretty brutal and unforgiving experience. Has any other game inspired Shank’s dedication to sheer death and carnage?

JC: Our main inspirations for Shank are Double Dragon for the classic beat-em-up gameplay, and Desperado for the lawless world he lives in. Two of our favourite things in the world.

TGL: Does the game’s animated aesthetic allow you to get away with more when it comes to blood, guts and general killing?

JC: To me, it was natural as I grew up with animated violence. It’s both easier to watch and at the same time more impactful – have you watched the first 10 minutes of Rorouni Kenshin, OAV? It’s visually gruesome, but you end up feeling sad rather than wanting to puke.

TGL: What is it like working with Marianne Krawczyk on Shank? Marianne is of course synonymous with the God of War franchise. What has Marianne brought to your game?

JC: She’s a lovely lady with a crazy sick imagination J. Marianne and I met in Austin 2008, and we both lamented in not being able to be absolutely creatively free. So in early 2009, I showed a prototype of Shank to her, and since then she’s worked with Jeff to craft the story we see today.

TGL: Does the character of Shank have anything is common with God of War’s Kratos? You could argue that they’re both two good guys that got pushed that little bit too far.

JC: Kratos is more of a pawn in his world than Shank, but it’s definitely true that they share the classic revenge story. In the end, Shank is personal rather than epic, and we always wanted the world to be grounded in reality. Well, as much reality as stuffing a grenade in a guy’s mouth holds.

TGL: Klei’s origins lie in the indie scene. Was it always a goal of the Klei team to eventually get plucked out of this scene and work with a larger publisher, in this case EA?

JC: We took our sweet time to find a distribution partner, because we were adamant that the vision of the IP and game stays intact. We did go out looking for a partner, because we felt that it would ultimately benefit the consumer to do so, but not at the expense of the final product.

Thankfully, EA Partners has been an extremely positive experience. Without them, we would not be launching on 3 different platforms.

TGL: Why does digital distribution work for a game like Shank?

JC: Where do I start? In short, digital distribution gives players an avenue to find far more types of games, including a re-envisioned retro brawler like Shank.

From the developer’s standpoint, it gave Klei an option to self-publish, which allowed us to move ahead with development without a publishing partner, and later on gave us leverage in negotiation, which ultimately is what allowed us to create Shank in its current form.

TGL: Does Shank have a lead platform? This will be the first time a Klei game appears on PC and PS3.

Shank’s lead platforms are XBLA and PSN. It basically comes down to which controller you like more – I personally enjoy the 360 controller for this game, but I’ve heard both camps.

TGL: Have you been surprised by the great ‘buzz’ that surrounds Shank? Gaming sites (including our own) the web over have nothing but great things to say about it.

JC: Honestly, we had no idea what to expect when we first showed the game. My favourite memory is walking the corridors of PAX 2009 and hearing people saying “have you seen that game Shank? It’s totally sick!”

That kind of reaction really helped keep us going during development – plenty of late nights with the crew where we added that last iota of polish. Here’s hoping that we meet or exceed expectations!

TGL: Can we expect DLC for Shank post release? Additional episodes for example?

JC: That’s up to the fans to decide. I know I’d love to create DLC, but we concentrated on creating a single, solid product, and no material was left out in the release.

TGL: Have you guys decided on a definitive release date for Shank yet? We can expect it in the fourth quarter of the year right?

JC: Earlier than that! August 24^th for PSN, August 25^th on XBLA. PC arrives Fall 2010.

TGL: This year’s E3 has dominated by 3D and motion control peripherals like PS Move and Kinect. Are these something Klei will be looking into in the future? Are you interested in motion controls?

JC: I’m a tech geek so they’re definitely interesting from that point of view. We don’t currently have plans to create full on games, yet, though.

TGL: Last question: Why the hell should we all buy Shank when it hits XBLA, PSN and PC later this year?

JC: I have an anecdote for that. About 6 or 8 friends came over to my house one night to play boardgames, and one of them suggested that I show them the final build of the game. So I did. They ended up spending the whole night playing; taking turns at the controller, laughing at each other’s skills, disposing enemies and bosses, and for those who don’t play games, simply enjoying the show.

I thought “well, if they’re just being nice, there would be an awkward silence and we’d break to play said boardgames”. Instead they left at 3am. Hopefully you have a similar experience.

Shank releases on PSN, XBLA this August 24th and 25th with a PC release to follow in the autumn. Check out our impressions of Shank when we played the game with EA in London earlier this year.