Alex Seropian has an impressive history with game development, as founder of Bungie Games (now Bungie Studios, owned by Microsoft) and one of the lead developers of the Marathon and Myth series (and a little, obscure game you might have heard of, called "Halo.") What you may not know is that he left Bungie, and began work on new team, one he started with several other Bungie alumni. Recently, this new team, Wideload Games, announced their existence, with a press release full of unusual ideas and a follow-up with some unusual humor. We tracked him down at this year's E3 to ask him some questions about his new company.

Gamenikki: First off, thank you for sitting down to talk to me and the readers of Gamenikki.

Alex Seropian: No sweat.

GN: The press release mentioned Wideload's philosphy on making games, to create a prototype and then assemble an outside team to finish the game itself. How did you come to the decision to run Wideload this way, and why?

Seropian: The idea behind Wideload is based on my experience in the industry over the last thirteen years and my realization that for independent development to survive going forward, a new development model is needed. The old way of building games, where every contributor is an employee of the studio is not flexible enough and is too expensive. Our model, of a small internal design team, coupled with independent talent has many core benefits. We have a creative culture and avoid the distractions of a large organization (i.e. we stay focused) and we avoid the massive burn rate of 50-100 people per project. We don't have the staffing issues of ramping production staff up and down. We have the flexibility to contract staff appropriate for each project, rather than being locked into internal employees.

GN: There's a widespread attitude that outsourcing work leads to higher costs and inferior product. How do you respond to this?

Seropian: The quality of something like art is very subjective. Whether it is contracted talent or internal resources, if it is inferior, the problem is with whomever put the team together.

As for cost, it's certainly not more expensive. Realize, that headcount cost is about 60% salary and 40% overhead. Add into that the inefficiency of a large staff. If a modeler is waiting for a piece of concept art to be completed - he's still getting paid - a contractor wouldn't be. Also add in that you'll have all fifty+ people on the payroll after the game ships with the old model. In my model you don't. Additionally, what happens if you need an extra month of playtesting? You're still carrying a 50-man burn rate. I'm not.

GN: Can you talk about the other people with you at Wideload? The logo and about page on Wideload's webpage seem to imply that Matt Soell is on your team, and it's already publically known that Doug Zartman has joined you.

Seropian: I don't want to violate their parole. (smiles) Honestly, there's no secret. Our art director, lead engineer, and design team all worked with me at Bungie.

GN: How close are we to hearing about the Super Secret Wideload Project? Is it Operation: Desert Storm 2?

[Reader's note: Operation: Desert Storm a strategy game that was the first title Bungie ever released.]

Seropian: How close? Four. And no, we are not working on Operation Desert Storm 2.

GN: On a bit more of a personal note, what games have impressed you, or influenced you as a game designer?

Seropian: I get asked this a lot and I keep coming back to ICO. This game set the bar for me in story presentation. Very nice indeed.

GN: Thank you very much for your time.