Gaming
Games
Does Kellee Santiago have gaming’s greatest job?
Or is it the hardest? We speak to the woman charged with bringing games to the Ouya.
Kellee Santiago might just have the most enviable job in all of gaming. The founder of thatgamecompany and the brains behind 2012's BAFTA award-winning Journey for PS3, she left the studio she founded earlier this year to join the team at Ouya, the tiny, cheap Kickstarter sensation that aims to upend gaming in the living room, as head of developer relations - or Developers' Best Friend, as it says on her business card.
Or is it the most unenviable? Getting launch titles ready for a new console is no easy task. Ask Nintendo. It's her job to persuade developers to make games for an entirely new type of console, one that isn't even on sale yet, and to stop the start-up from getting trapped in the chicken-and-egg cycle that's killed many games machines before it. Ahead of the Ouya's commercial release on 25 June, Red Bull UK speaks to the woman charged with getting developers on board for a whole new type of console.
It's quite a switch to go from making your own games to helping others do the same. What made you want to switch lanes like that?
What got me interested in working with Ouya from the beginning was meeting Julie Uhrman [Ouya's founder and CEO]. I think a lot of people that have met her describe her as a force of nature. It's a small company - about 30 people total - trying to do something very large and disruptive. I think Julie's philosophy from the very beginning has been to hire smart people and get out of the way, and it's created a really fun dynamic and exciting dynamic to work in. Everyone really believes in the fundamental mission.
You have a more traditional background in console gaming, what convinced you Ouya's download model was the way forward?
I was definitely on the skeptical side of Ouya before meeting with Julie and then obviously became a total convert. Ouya wasn't created to fill some unidentified niche, as a pure numbers opportunity…the gamers she had assembled really did believe in making things better for gamers and game makers. There’s so much ensconced in the paradigm of gaming in the living room that doesn't need to be.
I started having a taste of it through my work with the Indie Investment fund which I co-founded back in 2010. We would have conversations that would end in, 'Oh this is the sort of conversation we would have in the halls of Microsoft.'
That was one of the aspects of the role that attracted me: in order to continue and expand upon my impact on the industry, it required understanding perspective of the other side more. I've already just in two months learned so much about why console manufactures make some of the decisions that they do. It’s really exciting to be at that point, having that same conversation - how can we get to a different answer?
Ouya Games Console
© Red Bull UK
You're Ouya's developer best friend. What exactly does that entail?
There aren't really titles at Ouya because we’re such a small team, but we thought that would best describe the goal of my position, which is to create a very developer friendly eco-system and pipeline as far as seeing things from their inception to coming out on the platform, and setting things in place that will make the process of developing for Ouya much easier and better than the other living room consoles.
I was happy to find out there were already some things in place even when I started - I've never been a part of so many manufacturer meetings where the developer is thought of and brought up so often in every conversation.
How do you break out of the chicken and egg situation, where you need games to sell a new console, but developers won't make games for something that hasn't sold?
It helps when there's a developer that gets it. There is this greater mission here: the developers that are coming on board now are the ones that really want to see a different dynamic between themselves and gamers, remove as many barriers between them as possible - there's so many right now in the living room, from complicated technical specifications to the gatekeepers themselves. We’re really trying to topple a lot of that at Ouya. If we succeed, we create a better platform for developers over all.
We don’t require our developers to make a single player mode, or fit in certain achievements or even support online multiplayer. If they just want to make a game they can play with their friends they can do that. That's something I really love.
Which Ouya games are you looking forward to most?
I have been trying to play Stalagflight because everyone says that I'm totally terrible at that game, but I'm very excited about Airtight Games's Soul Fjord, it's a title from inception that's been developed exclusively for Ouya.
The Ouya devices sent to early Kickstarter backers haven't had the most positive reviews so far. What did you make of the feedback?
For me as far as the criticism around content, I am definitely excited for this year to progress, and to get more of the games that I'm seeing coming down the pipe onto the platform because they will address our early backers concerns.
Describe a day in the life of a developers' best friend.
It changes so much. Right now I'm really focused on making sure that our players and the public see this story that is happening at Ouya, getting through the chicken and egg problem. That moves from talking with developers who are, or are interested in developing on Ouya, making sure they’re empowered, to working with our PR and marketing teams to showcase those developers and their games. It's really great to be working in a company where I wake up every morning and I am excited about what I do, because I really want this team to succeed - that's a good job, I think.
Where do you see Ouya in a year? What about in five years?
I hope in a year we will have been able to show a strong showing in our game library, in showcasing these different kinds of games, having success on the platform, both in - success being both critical and financial success for the developers themselves, that it becomes natural selection for developers to think of Ouya.
In five years' time, the technology we’re working on is evolving so quickly, it’ll be interesting to see what the permutation is at that point, but I hope, becoming like the iPhone App Store has over the last five years, this assumed marketplace for games in your living room - that would be my dream.
