There's an excellent interview over at 1UP.com with Too Human and Eternal Darkness creator Denis Dyack, wherein he details, among other things, how he believes the structure of Silicon Knights and the firm hold they possess over their intellectual property allows them to create meaningful interactive experiences.
Here's Dyack on teamwork:
We're taking the model of a traditional guild, where I want to be as close as I can to a university. There's a learning environment, but at the same time we have trade secrets. The only thing I can think of most recently that comes close to that is the concept of a guild from back in Medieval times. They would teach you the way that they did things, and at the same time there would be secrets. Guilds were meant so you could stay there for life and didn't need to switch. The guild was self-supportive. That's why we've structured Silicon Knights the way we have, because we're really big believers in that.
We also follow the model of a Shakespearean troupe. Everyone contributes to the game. We've had lots of people come in and lecture on Shakespeare and the history behind Shakespeare, and it's not even clear if he was an actual person, or if it was the troupe just iterating over time. But if you look at Shakespeare's plays in general, the content they produced was insanely complex and really well-done. We looked at that and asked ourselves if there's any way we can try to harvest that sort of thing. So we structured the company around those two ideals. Whether we're successful or not, time will tell, but we've been around much longer than most developers. With Silicon Knights, if you're here for ten years, we knight you and give you a sword.
1UP: Yeah, you had mentioned that either on the panel or on 1UP Yours.
Dyack: Yeah, so this year we're giving out 13 or 14 swords. It's crazy, it's really great. How many developers have had people that have been with them over a decade? Except for the Japanese developers. When we worked with Miyamoto-san, we felt like children. He was like, "Yeah, I've worked with this guy for over 25 years." That's how their games are so good.
You can find the rest at 1UP.com.
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