An interview with Dan Marshall of Zombie Cow Studios

This week we have another great interview. Dan Marshall is one of the new breed of British indies that seems to be able to get people interested in his games, unique as they are. Clearly Dan is creatively driven. Enjoy the interview!

Phil:

I remember you releasing gibbage and doing loads of things to try and sell it. How did gibbage work out in terms of return on the time you invested in making it?

Dan:

Well, Gibbage was always a learning experience: I wrote it while learning to code, I didn’t really expect to sell any copies. I didn’t know a thing about digital distribution or indie games, so I simply didn’t know what was possible in terms of revenue.

Sales paid my beer money, and still do occasionally, but it didn’t sell enough to fund an extravagant lifestyle.

Ben There, Dan That

Phil:

You’ve released Ben There, Dan That for free and recently released Time Gentlemen, Please for £2.99. I’m wondering why you released a game for free and then came to the £2.99 price point for TGP, is this a deliberate plan to gather a greater audience at a smaller price point? Or has it got something to do with the cost of development?

Dan:

Bit of both, really. BTDT was originally written to drive traffic toward Gibbage, but took on a life of its own. TGP was written in evenings and weekends, as a hobby, so I could always afford to be generous with the price. It’s an amazing game, but it’s not a talkie, so £2.99 always felt like a fair price point.

For Zombie Cow Studios, at this time, it’s more important to me that people play the games and find out who we are and what we’re about than making billions out of it.

Phil:

One thing that strikes me about your games and your site, is that I have this feeling that you dont really think in a mainstream games way. I get the feeling that a lot of indies tend to think that casual games are the way to make a living. How did you come to develop such unique games?

Gibbage

Dan:

I make indie games because it doesn’t feel like a job. It’s a passion. If I were to work on something that I didn’t enjoy, that passion would fade pretty quickly, and so would my enthusiasm. I’m all about loving your job, at the moment. Doing what you do should make you happy, that’s the most important thing.

Phil:

I posted on the site a while ago about how impressed I was with your press coverage of Time Gentlemen, Please. A huge part of the differences I see between “professional” indies and the regular starving kind, is the ability for the more successful indies to reach an audience. Do you ever think about your target audience when making your games? Do you have any hints for other indies on how to reach thier target audience (I’m thinking of Cas here )?

Dan:

I think as an indie if you’re making something a bit special it’s more likely to find an audience. That said, getting press coverage is a full time job. You’d think that even with something that has regularly scored around the 90% mark you could sit back and let word of mouth take care of the rest.

Unfortunately, that simply isn’t true – I’ve just spent the last five hours responding to emails, sending out press copies and writing interviews, for example.

These things simply don’t land on your lap – you need to actively get out there. I’m still learning how it all works. I’m fortunate enough from my time writing for PCZone to have some journalist friends to point me in the right direction from time to time- they know what it’s like on the other side of the fence, so can occasionally guide me accordingly.

I’m still learning all this obviously. Don’t announce new games during trade shows, for example, because the news sites simply won’t cover it. There’s such a thing as too much news, apparently. Find a lull in the press and exploit it with a full-on blitz.

Time, Gentlement Please Enemy

Phil:

If I recall correctly, you’re not doing the indie thing full-time yet. Is it your intention to work developing games fulltime? Do you think that other media types are amenable to game content? I get the feeling that your games could offer something to other media outlets as they have that quirky sense of humour that often works for youth oriented TV content. Have you ever considered working with other companies to take your games out to a broader audience?

Dan:

Since TGP released, I am now full time indie. Zombie Cow has some exciting projects coming up that are going to require 100% of my attention and use up every single hour in a day.

People in TV are, generally speaking, terrified of games. They don’t really ‘get’ them, and they know at the back of their minds that one day they’ll take over. For Zombie Cow , at the moment, we’re all about games. I’d gladly look into doing other content for TV or internet, and have done in the past, but I’d have to really want to do it.

Time, Gentlement Please

Phil:

How do you find the support you get for developing games here in Britain? Do you get any support from the government, help on business matters or any of the kind of development aid that seems to happen a lot for other creative industries?

Dan:

I haven’t looked into Government support yet. I probably shall do soon, given the very British nature of Zombie Cow’s recent titles.

I’m going to be working with Channel 4 on an upcoming project; they’re hugely brilliant and supportive, and love working with British Indies. If you’re an indie, I highly recommend getting in touch with them to see what they’re up to.

Phil:

Finally, do you have a message for other British indie developers, game players, or even just random web-browsers?

Dan:

Buy my fucking game, you cheapskate. It’s only £2.99 and I’ve got a wine habit to feed.

Thanks for the interview Dan!

You can visit Dan’s website at: Zombie Cow Studios

More interviews next week!

Tags: Interviews

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.