SAE Magazine 13-2

64 People & Business // PipeDream - Philipp Hellman, Felix Klakow Felix: We also worked together during my freelance period. There was this one project where I needed the help of a graphic artist. Then came more small- er projects, where we were often in contact - and now we have our own company. Felix, you use your own technology to develop games. Could you tell us about this? In 2012 we worked a lot with Unity3D and I also used it the year before. Therefore we were both aware of the disadvantages of using an existing engine. You are bound to the capabilities of the en- gine, provided that you do not have a source code licence and these are generally much more expen- sive and modifications take up additional time. If you need a completely new feature you are reliant on the manufacturer or you have to wait for a version which supports this feature. Worst case scenario the manufacturer doesn’t make such a feature and you have to find another solution. We therefore decided to develop our own complete engine which is tailored to our requirements. With each of our games we ensure that we further develop the engine and expand some of the features so that it gets better with every game. In this way the technology grows at the same rate and we are always able to implement new and complex ideas faster. Currently our engine has many 2D features, its own very flexible user inter- face system with animations, atlas texture support, fonts, etc. In addition first basic 3D features and physics have been implemented which allowed for the first internal game prototypes of our game ideas to be implemented. With Memotion 1.0 we needed a lot of time f things at the beginnin which we now can accom plish in less hours. An definitely faster than wi an existing engine. What are you current working on at Pipedrea Games? Philipp: We are primari further developing our tec nology.At the same time w are also working on variou concepts and have applie to FFF Bayern [a compan which supports film and T in Bavaria] for support fo ideas. Our first work “Mem given a new look and we ing the menus to provid experienced Art Director big help with this. As I been more of a Technica each other very well. In ad sion we will shortly be rele and a free version with in- show people that good ga It is our long-term goal t are more complex and i It is clear to us that this However we feel that we and the game mechanic played. Memotion was an the way to bigger endeav

SAE Magazine 13-2

Pages