As we saunter casually towards Christmas, looking forward to a few days off, so well deserved rest and the bright, promising glow of 2008, we thought it would be appropriate to ask the games companies in Scotland to give us a round up of their year - the highs, the lows, the tears, the triumphs and their hopes for the next twelve months. From now until the holiday, we'll be running one update every single day from the games folks 'round here and bringing them to you.
Kicking off this misty-eyed, nostalgic, yet supremely hopeful and joyous feature, we welcome Chris Chapman from Black Company Studios in Edinburgh...
1) What are your three highlights from 2007?
- Seeing our prototype for Add Knowledge running on the PSP properly for the first time (see attached screenshot)
- Moving into our new office in Palmerston Place
- No Scottish developers went under this year! The bad times are hopefully behind us!
2) Three less pleasing moments/events from 2007?
- News that I wouldn't see a light-saber game for the Wii until Spring 2008
- More controversy about games content and ratings, courtesy of Manhunt 2. Seriously, if we're going to have a debate about adult content, can it at least be over a decent game?
- Scottish elections leading to more dithering over policies instead of being able to get stuff done.
3) Three things you're either looking forward to, or would like to see in 2008?
- Would like to see publishers shifting focus away from sequels and licences and focusing on good production values and more innovation.
- Would like to see more success stories from Scottish developers
- Looking forward to working on our own titles and getting them published
4) What two gifts would you most like to see in your stocking come Christmas?
- Call of Duty 4 for PC
- Replacement for my aging and almost dead Honda CB500. Might not fit in a stocking though, unless it belonged to the BFG
5) What should we look forward to from Black Co in the next 12 months?
- More teaming up with other developers to work on their projects, as always
- At least one small downloadable title, most likely for console and PC
