The Game Dame™

I recently had a chance to interview Kenn Hoekstra, Producer and Level Designer at Pi Studios, LLC – an independent game developer located in Houston, Texas. These guys have really taken off over the past few years and – according to Kenn – are currently one of the fastest growing independent game developers in the world.

The Game Dame: How did you guys decide on the company name?

Kenn Hoekstra: Pi’s president, Robert Erwin came up with the name. He has an affinity for mathematics and economic theory stemming from working a derivative trading desk for many years. Of particular interest is the Monte Carlo Algorithm Method. If I’m not mistaken, that’s what started it all.

Pi was originally called ‚ÄúPi Ware,‚Äù but the name didn’t stick. One of the partners rescued http://www.pistudios.com from a cyber squatter and the rest is history.

GD: What was your first official release?

KH: Pi’s first commercial work appeared in Call of Duty: United Offensive. The company worked alongside Gray Matter to provide both single and multiplayer content for the game.

GD: What’s your drive or goal in the industry?

KH: Our goal is to grow the studio into three full sized teams that do AAA quality game development for multiple platforms on time and on budget.

GD: Many companies focus on full game development. Do you see yourself in an advantageous niche?

KH: Pi’s focus is on full game development, but we’re always looking for opportunities to build relationships with new publishers. That’s where our contract and firefighting work really paid off. The days of publishers handing startups millions of dollars to develop a AAA original IP are over. If you want to survive and grow, sometimes you have to start small and work your way up.

This business model has worked well for us so far. We’ve gone from about 15 people and one project when I started in 2005 to 90+ people and multiple projects in 2008. Right now we’re one of the fastest growing independent game developers in the world.

GD: What’s your ideal project?

KH: Historically, we’ve come on to projects that were in the middle of development or projects that had shortened development cycles. Neither is optimal. That said, our ideal project would be a AAA console title (original IP) with a two to three year development cycle. Wouldn’t that be nice?

GD: What’s been your biggest challenge?

KH: As I mentioned earlier, we’ve taken on a lot of projects with truncated development schedules. That’s never easy. One of our core philosophies as a company has been to avoid crunch whenever and wherever possible. These shortened dev cycles have sometimes made avoiding crunch difficult, but overall I think we do better than average in that regard.

GD: What’s the best game concept you’ve had that never had a chance to get made? (Ex. A project you were working on that had funding pulled at the last minute or a creative idea that got squashed by “the man”).

Heh… No comment. I don’t want ‚Äúthe man‚Äù getting angry with us.

GD: What should we expect to see from Pi next?

KH: Quake Arena Arcade will be coming to Xbox Live! in 2008 and we have three other unannounced console and PC titles in the works. Keep your eye on PiStudios.com in the coming months. You can expect to see some big announcements soon.

Thanks for your time, Kenn! We’re looking forward to see what’s next from Pi.