Interview with John Dennis about the company

Besides the upcoming game releases John Dennis – Head of Design at Team17 Software Ltd – found time and gave an interview which consists of questions about the company Team17. Dennis talks about a lof of interesting things you haven’t read yet:

What inspired the creation of the company?

Team17 was started by a group of young Amiga developers who believed they could make better games for the Amiga than were out there at the time. As it turned out, they could.

How did the name of the company come about? How long did it take to think of it?

The name of the company was originally 17 Bit. The Amiga technology at the time was 16 bit, so that made 17 Bit “that bit better than the rest”. However (and you can probably see what’s coming here) as technology advanced and gaming platforms became 32 bit, the name 17 Bit sounded a bit dated. So in the end it was changed to Team17, which it’s been ever since.

While creating the company, what was the hardest issue(s) that were faced?

It’s a while ago now, and the games industry has been transformed since. In the days of the Amiga, there were fewer titles; the market was much smaller and far more hardcore. Games were small and relatively quick and cheap to develop. That all changed with the growth of console gaming the barriers to entry for developers on those platforms became very high, games cost a lot of money to develop and their development could take a lot of time.

Strangely though, with the recent rise of games on iOS and similar devices, things have changed around again, with small developers once again able to have big successes with small and relatively cheap to make titles. The problem for developers now is one of visibility the market is so large and there are so many titles that it’s hard to get people to find yours in a sea of other titles.

What were some of the best moments during the creation of the company?

The company’s been an incredible one to work for… I’ve been here 14 years, and although I wasn’t here at the very start, there have been so many great moments that I wouldn’t know where to start. I’d say a lot of those moments probably aren’t safe for public consumption anyway! ?

You can find the complete interview in the related links below.

Related Links:

• Interview: John Dennis about the company Team17