Author: Mike Minotti / Source: VentureBeat
Chris Tremmel made his name as one of the creators of the classic 16-bit platformer Boogerman, a game that thrived during the gross-out humor craze of the ’90s. Now Tremmel has joined mobile game studio Jam City as a studio creative director.
Tremmel has had a long career. After Boogerman, he went on to work at companies like Electronic Arts and Activision, working on licensed games based on huge media properties like The Lord of the Rings and Transformers. Jam City itself has a reputation for working on licensed games, notably with Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.
We had a chance to talk with Tremmel about his move to the mobile industry, why Jam City is a good fit for him, and if Boogerman will make a comeback.
GamesBeat: After such a long career in more traditional console gaming, why make this transition to mobile?
Chris Tremmel: Since mobile first started, it’s been a market that’s been really interesting to me. Most of my peers, a lot of former bosses and colleagues, went on from EA to start Zynga, or to work at Zynga and start their own companies. All these other mobile companies. Over those years I had discussed potentially moving into mobile. It was always very scary, because it was such a different market. When mobile was first launched, it was almost unrecognizable compared to what it is today.
That wasn’t very many years ago. It was a process of changing my mind from working on something for a year or two at a time and shipping it off in a box, transitioning to the concept of making a product and then supporting it for a number of years as a service.
That took me several years, coming to grips with that concept alone. When I first heard of that, it seemed very foreign to me. That was probably in 2012, maybe? Around that time. It’s all been building, really. The technology is getting so good. The mobile market has been pushed so far now that it really feels like it’s converging, finally, with console.I’ve been spending a bit of time on the PC in the last few years. I’ve felt that sense of a particular development style. It was console-type development. After getting here to Jam City, it’s clear that these two worlds are colliding now. The thing that makes me feel good about being here now is that I’ve spent all this time learning about game design, building and shipping games, trying to get better at the craft. People working on mobile have defined and laid the groundwork for so many things. Honestly I’m just standing on the shoulders of giants here, trying to take my console sensibilities and merge them with the thinking around what makes a successful game as a service, how the economies work, the whole free-to-play thing. It’s a new world, for sure.
GamesBeat: Are you working on specific titles on Jam City?
Tremmel: I’m working across everything that’s in development here at the LA studio. Right now that would be Wild Things, which is still in soft launch, and a game that we have live right now that’s been live for a couple of years, Genies and Gems.
GamesBeat: Jam City has a lot of licensed games, and you’ve had a lot of experience from things like Lord of the Rings and Transformers. Did that make the company seem like a good fit for you, or is that just a coincidence?
Tremmel: No, that was a huge thing for me. I’ve always been involved with licenses, on and off, throughout my whole career. One thing I’ve seen in the industry, you watch these cycles come and go. A new console cycle will start. You might have some licenses in the beginning, and then a lot of new IP, newer ideas happening. Then, by the end of the life cycle, you see a ton more licenses, because publishers are relying on brand equity and that sort of thing. In the past I would see companies go either all the way one way or all the way the other. It was either reacting to do all IP, own all your own stuff, or reacting to focus all on licensed products. Usually, because this industry is so cyclical, that sort of focus in the long term doesn’t work out that well.
One thing I love about Jam City is they complement — I have to see “we” now. We complement our portfolio with some great original IP, but then we strengthen it with some well-loved licenses. I love working on a good license. It can be a lot of fun if you’re into it, and if it’s a license that has a lot of depth. In my time working with Lord of the Rings I was exposed to so many amazing people, artists and developers. I still keep those relationships going today. But yeah, the licensing part is definitely important for me. If you’ve ever watched Josh talk about how Jam City approaches licenses, it’s basically — it’s the way that I would hope that they would approach it and handle it. We’re not relying on it, but it’s something that’s good for us to have.
You can see, with the latest success we’ve had with Potter, that’s an awesome franchise. People love it so much. I’ve been on the development side working with licensors. I don’t work on that title, but I know that’s a solid franchise to work on.
GamesBeat: Licensed games seem like they’ve had a big change recently. It used to be that every major blockbuster would also have a console game coincide with it, and now they have mobile tie-ins. What do you think a licensed mobile game needs to succeed, compared to back when you were making things like Lord of the Rings?
Tremmel: The biggest difference, when you’re going onto mobile here, is really going to be the business…
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