So I managed to get some time to chat with Kevin McIntosh , a game producer at Torus Games. The goal of the time was to talk to him about what it is like working with Torus from an outside perspective like a game publisher as well as what it is like to work for Torus as a programmer or artist. He had some great things to say. For those of you not familiar with them here are some of the recent projects they have worked on:

RELEASED:



• Backyard Football 2007 - GBA
• Curious George - GBA
• CARS - Leapster
• NASCAR - Leapster

RELEASED IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS:
• Shrek Smash N' Crash Racing - GBA, GCN, PS2, PSP, DS
• Spider-Man: Battle For New York - GBA, DS
• Sonic - Leapster

[KMc]: It's very busy right now and we're trying to be quite active in looking for the right people to join our team, particularly programmers and experienced artists.

[SG] What came first the chicken or the egg? I mean was there a project that led to the creation of the team and the company or was the company started by one or several people and then worked to get its first contract?
[KMc] The project came first actually. Three guys from Beam Software hit upon a game character that they wanted to develop and started a company around that. Licensed games took priority in development and Torus grew from there into the success story today.

[SG] Getting projects off the ground must be difficult. Do publishers normally contact Torus about making a game or are you going 'door-to-door' with some ideas and technology demos?
[KMc] It's always a mixture of both. In years gone by, it was more about knocking on the doors. They always say that if you want to sell more, you have to knock on more doors. Fortunately we have good relationships with a number of publishers now, so we are offered projects without having to win them in a bidding situation. That's not to say that it doesn't still happen, particularly with new customers. Our past projects are always a good example of our work to new clients.

[SG] I see a lot of openings over at Torus, I wish I was qualified for one of them. Does the search for talent begin when the idea for the game is born or are you always looking to expand the team?
[KMc] Torus is always looking to expand, but at the right pace. Finding the work isn't terribly difficult, but we don't want to grow too quickly and hire people that don't fit in with the culture. We have a strong team at the moment and bringing anyone into the mix has gone to enhance everyone's day and development. That means no egos, good work ethic, passionate about games and skillful to boot.

[SG] Do you have some secret shrink-ray technology so that you can pile the programmers into the hermetically sealed programming department or will the factory be needing to expand?
[KMc] We did actually run out of room at our old office. We knew it was time to move the day we packed way the table tennis table. Right now we've got room for new programmers abound. We now have space for two table tennis tables, a pool table and even a badminton court!

[SG] Ok, so the last one was a little joke. But there is a fair amount of humor woven into the fabric of the website which makes it an interesting read. Who had the idea to transform the website into a humorous giant robot sci-fi story?
[KMc] Torus has had a few transformations throughout the years, but about 5 years ago we chose the current company logo (Torus Robot) with a view that the style was 1960's view of the future. That means flying cars, personal robots, all the imagination. The website write up was created by one of our old designers and had that style in mind.

[SG] For people interested in working with Torus is an appreciation of this type of humor a key factor? What's the working atmosphere like at Torus?
[KMc] It's a little difficult to explain, but we have a relaxed and focused environment. By that I mean that we have a limit to the starting time in the morning, set lunch and regular hours, but we all wear game t-shirts and jeans to work. Once inside, people aren't watched like a hawk with their work and have room to make decisions in their day. We hire intelligent people and don't need to spoon feed them. People set up meetings when they like and most meetings are sitting together on a couch or on beanbags near a whiteboard. It's friendly, fun, yet challenging for those that are up for it.

[SG] The atmosphere must be conducive to work because Torus has a diverse portfolio of technology including 2D, 3D and FPS engines. Are the engines, like the Southpaw FPS engine which powered Duke Nukem Advance, results of attaining a contract or did Torus begin working on them and then use them to get the contracts?
[KMc] In some cases we show off our technology and win contracts, as is the case with our latest driving title for the Wii. In the case of Duke, we'd worked with 3D Realms previously on Duke Nukem for GameBoy Color. They liked us, we liked them, we set to work on a 3D engine. Our goal is to focus on the technology of creating games just as much as the games to try and get ahead of the curve. It's not always possible, but we try our darndest.

[SG] Speaking of the engines, is Torus working on expanding its technology line-up to include utilization of the Nintendo DS dual screens and touch screen?
[KMc] Torus actually supports 9 platforms at the moment; everything from mobile (working directly with Nokia) to the next generation consoles. Our first DS title has already shipped (Spider-Man: Battle for New York) and our second will ship within the next couple of months, Shrek Smash N' Crash Racing. We're starting work on a couple of other DS titles that will hit the shelves next Xmas.

[SG] Is the call for programmers, artists and producers a result of upcoming projects that will take Torus to the next generation of consoles?
[KMc] We're finding at the moment that there is a lot of work and we want to ensure that it doesn't drift out of the country again. To that end, we're also working with local developers when we have an over run of work. The important thing is that we have upcoming projects that use existing engines so we can bring somebody new and fresh into Torus without a huge challenge on their first title, as well as next generation projects that are going to bend the minds of our senior programmers. We are stretching ourselves on the front, while ensuring there is space to train new programmers and artists when they arrive. Some interesting info he was vague about for obvious reasons:

CURRENTLY WORKING ON
• RPG title - Wii
• Racing title - Wii, DS
• Puzzle title - Mobile
• Puzzle title - DS
• Racing title - Unannounced
• Platformer title - Unannounced

I just wanted to say thank you to Kevin for being so forthcoming with information about everything and that we will be keeping on eye out for the Giant Torus Robot. I suggest you all do the same. For those of you in Australia and looking for game employment I suggest you drop by the Torus employment site and take a gander. Tell them Generation Gamerz sent you, I'm sure it won't help but I will think it is cool heh.

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