17 September 09 - Interview with Angus and Dominic, Cubicle 7 Directors

(Chris Birch) Was there a point at which you decided you wanted to be involved in the industry and create games? What prompted it?

Angus: I think I wanted to be involved in the industry and creating games before I even knew there was an industry! As a kid I was always creating board games and my own adventures. When I first started reading the Fighting Fantasy books that Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson produced I immediately started making my own and then when I first played an RPG I created my own adventure to run within days.

When Leisure Games opened up in 1985 I heard about the shop and went as soon as possible and then spent the best part of 24 years there! Nothing really prompted my desire to be involved in the industry, I was just born this way :)

Dominic: It’s always been a dream job for me. There’s very little else like it in terms of being able to apply your creativity. Talking with Angus before we teamed up was the first time I realised that it was a practical possibility – I had just assumed that it was a privileged or part-time occupation for people who didn’t really need the job to pay the rent.

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) What is your vision for Cubicle 7?

Dominic: To be an innovative creator of high-quality entertainment. I winced a bit as I wrote that, but it’s fairly accurate actually. I used to work in corporate communications, so I have to watch that I don’t slip back into that ‘concise, yet meaningless’ sound bite style…

Angus: To produce some great games that people enjoy. To be able to build new IPs that have the strength to compete both within the games industry and also outside it in the wider world. Hopefully, through some of our titles, bring new blood into the industry.

 

(Datainadequate - Twitter) Why join Rebellion Group?

Dominic: We reached a point where Cubicle 7 had an enormous amount of potential, and realised that we needed the resources of a larger partner to help us make the most of that potential in the shortest amount of time.

Angus: As Dom says above, the company had a lot of potential – and some cracking licenses – and it became apparent that trying to run the company in our spare time between day job and family commitments wasn’t going to work. We needed to partner with someone that would allow us to do this fulltime, thus defeating one of our main business antagonists – time.

 

(Karen MacNeil - Twitter) How much creative control do you both keep now that you've joined forces with Rebellion?

Angus: The same as we had before.

Dominic: There’s been no change on that front at all.

 

(D Thomas) Angus – you worked for Leisure Games for the last 20 years. Why make the move into publishing? Any regrets?

Angus: I’d been involved in various parts of publishing and “The Industry” for quite a few years. Setting up Cubicle 7 was a natural extension of that in many ways. When we were offered the chance to be able to go fulltime with C7 it was a big choice. I loved my time at Leisure Games and could have easily stayed there for many years to come. It was a comfortable, stable and very enjoyable job with a great team. The thing I asked myself is would I always wonder what could have been if I didn’t take the opportunity to go fulltime with C7. The answer was yes. I don’t want to look back on my life wondering “What if…?” – I’d rather try something and fail than never try it at all. With this in mind, and the fact that I think we have every chance of achieving something great and long lasting with the company, I took the decision and here we are. Early days as yet, but certainly no regrets. It’s a great experience, and a lot harder work than I think most people imagine, but certainly no regrets.

 

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) Do you ever envisage developing games other than RPGs?

Angus: Yes. We already have several in the works.

Dominic: Yes, absolutely. We’re researching and testing some boardgames and card games at the moment.

 

(Harv Barker - Facebook) I think gaming companies should take more risks in the presentation of their material, be prepared to break from the traditional layout, format and sequence, and instead go for a more open, conversational and friendly tone, as if the rules are actually talking to you the reader rather than coming across as if you’re reading a textbook. I’d like to know what you guys think.

Dominic: A company should always try to present its products as best suits them. That includes questioning the ‘industry standard’ ways of doing things so that you don’t get stale. On the other hand, people can get used to receiving information in a certain way, and then dislike it if you go about changing that. How’s that for fence-sitting? I guess my answer is: think about what the product is trying to do, who its audience is, draw upon your experience of what has worked in the past, and then apply the visual style and editorial direction you think fits best.

Angus: I think you need to look at each line and make the decision on how to present it. Some things you can play around with in regards to presentation, sometimes a more traditional approach is possibly better. I, personally, prefer more of a conversational, friendly, style.

 

(Justin Morgan-Davies - Facebook) Does Cubicle 7 have any plans to develop other lines of games (such as boardgames) based on their product series eg. SLA Industries and Victoriana, in the future?

Angus: We have plans for several of our lines outside of the RPG arena. Some involve other aspects of gaming, some have a wider net.

Dominic: It’s something we’re thinking about. We’ve always wanted a SLA combat game…

 

(Andrew Weller) There have been lots of talk in the past about the “Holy Grail” of licenses – what, in your opinion, would be amongst The Holy Grail?

Angus: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Marvel. Star Wars I guess would also be up there and maybe Star Trek too. I have, in the past, mentioned His Dark Materials which I think would be a great game and it’s a very popular series – by default (because it’s currently very popular) I guess I should also include the Twilight novels.

Dominic: My personal Holy Grail would be a successful home-grown setting, rather than licences. Star Trek and Harry Potter are licenses that would do well, as would Twilight with the right mechanics and marketing. But, at the moment, I am happy with Doctor Who and our other unannounced licences, which we’ll tell you about over the coming months.

 

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) Was there ever a time when you seriously doubted the future of Cubicle 7?

Dominic: It probably sounds a bit trite to say no, but I haven’t. There have been plenty of times when I’ve wondered where the money to pay for x was coming from, but not the future per se. We’ve got a great bunch of people involved, with both the ideas and the drive to make things happen.

Angus: Not really. My only thoughts were really on how much we could do rather than the future of the company. We could have carried on bringing out two or three books a year without too many problems, but we always wanted to be able to do more than that.

 

(Chris Birch) What was the first rpg you played, and what character did you play?

Angus: AD&D back in 1984, at my cousins, when I had just moved to the States. Can’t recall my first character but I think it was a Thief (I remember checking for traps, so I’m guessing it was a Thief!).

Dominic: The Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks were huge for me, and led into Talisman and Blood Bowl, then into miniature gaming and RPGs. The first ‘proper’ RPG I played was WFRP 1^st edition, and I was the Gamemaster. 

 

(D Thomas) What were your first published works?

Dominic: Leaflets to recruit people into teaching. In Gaming, my first job was editing Hunter Sheets volume one for SLA Industries.

Angus: I had various bits and pieces published in some late 80’s/90’s British RPG magazines (Adventurer, Roleplayer Independent, RPI, etc). In 1994 I was part of the team that launched Valkyrie magazine and did a few articles for them (but mainly did reviews and the news column). My first non-magazine work was for a cyberpunk skirmish game called Dark Winter which was published by a company called Network X (which was basically a few friends). The game sold 1000+ copies though and was available in a number of UK stores including the Virgin Megastore chain who were still doing RPGs at the time.

 

(Chris Birch) What writers, TV shows or movies inspire you?

Angus: I’d also throw music in there too. There’s a whole bunch of things that inspire me, but the biggest would be music. Bands such as Conjure One, In Strict Confidence, Diary of Dreams, Metric, Fields of the Nephilim, Funker Vogt, Nine Inch Nails, etc. Anything with an atmosphere.

In regards to TV Shows probably shows such as Supernatural and Buffy. With movies it changes a lot. I really like gangster/political movies with films such as Godfather, King of New York, Long Good Friday rating up there alongside foreign language films such as City of Lost Children, Vidocq, Amelie, The Grudge and The Ring. Darker films such as American History X, Requiem For A Dream and Children of Men are also a staple for me.

Writers is another tricky one – I love China Mieville’s Bas-Lag books and Jim Butchers Dresden Files as well as some classics from Roger Zelazny and Philip K Dick. Ian McDonald’s River of Gods and Charles Stross’ Atrocity Archives are excellent as is Frank Herberts Dune and Umberto Eco’s Focaults Pendulum and Name of the Rose. Also a big fan of the His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Dominic: That’s a tough one. The Wire is a huge inspiration for complex realistic storytelling. I’m sure I don’t need to bang on about how good it is, but I will say that it has made me think a bit harder about the motivation and goals of the NPCs in my games.

Charles Stross’ books are current favourites, especially the ‘Laundry’ series. In terms of general inspiration, I especially love books with a strong individual style that you can really get into, so I’d have to mention Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Voltaire (mainly for Candide), Gabriel García Márquez and (a recent example) Magnus Mills.

Star Wars is my favourite film, although whether that is a conscious choice or from brain-washing myself with it from the age of 4, I am not entirely sure. Embarrassingly, when the films were shown again in the cinema in the ‘90s, I cried as soon as the 20^th Century Fox fanfare started up…just a little, of course, for I am Man, but it was a beautiful moment…um…actually…delete that last part.

 

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) What titles would you like to grab that are available?

Dominic: It’s hard to say. I am very keen on developing our home-grown properties at the moment. I would love to see a Darkplace RPG though…(take a look at www.garthmarenghi.com if you haven’t seen it).

Angus: Any of the first four “Holy Grails” that I mentioned above that we don’t already have. I’d also put Dune on the list as well as a Dreaming RPG based upon Neil Gaimans Sandman/Endless universe. In regards to out of print games I have a soft spot for Kult (Paradox Entertainment).

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) What titles would you like to grab that are currently with other companies?

Angus: For licenses I’d say The Dresden Files (Evil Hat) and Tales of New Crobuzan (based on China Mievilles books which Adamant are publishing – admittedly with us so maybe that shouldn’t be here). Supernatural (Margaret Weis Productions) would interest me too. From the existing RPG arena I love Deadlands (Pinnacle), Cyberpunk (R Talsorian), Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium), 7^th Sea (AEG) and Warhammer (Fantasy Flight Games) as well as some of the smaller Indie Press Games such as Cold City by Contested Ground Studios.

Dominic: I’ve always had a soft spot for Ars Magica.


(Seven - C7 Forum) Bearing in mind that the only mainstream alternative is Mutants & Masterminds (D20), do you have any plans to consider making a superhero RPG using the Starblazer system?

Dominic: Angus is the Supers fan, so I’ll let him pick this one up!

Angus: No plans for one using the Starblazer system at present. I’d love to tackle a superhero game at somepoint (hmm… Marvel…) as it’s one of my favourite genres.

(R00kie - C7 Forum) Where do you see your priority, expanding your existing five product lines (Qin, Starblazer Adventures, SLA, Victoriana and Doctor Who) or introducing new product lines?

Angus: A balance of both. We have plans for new product lines in development as well as plenty of plans to support our existing lines.

Dominic: In the short term we will be focussing on our existing lines (including several we haven’t announced yet), but we will still have one eye on the future.



(R00kie - C7 Forum) What distinguishes Cubicle 7 from Mongoose Publishing? What is the advantage of having two seperate roleplaying companies in the Rebellion Group of companies?

Dominic: On the creative side, Cubicle 7 and Mongoose are entirely different companies. The only personnel we share are in our sales, accounts and distribution teams. We will also diverge more into separate areas as time goes on. C7 is going to publish board and card games, and Mongoose will be releasing more miniature games.

I think that Rebellion assessed the companies on their merits and saw value in being involved in both. C7 and Mongoose aren’t direct competitors in too much of a cutthroat way. 

Angus: Apart from the different product lines, plans and staff and (to a certain extent) ideology Cubicle 7 is looking at also doing Card and Board games whilst Mongoose is looking at doing more Miniature games. So we both meet in the RPG spectrum but have different specialities, interests and goals.

 

(Datainadequate - Twitter) What will be your relationship with Mongoose?

Angus: We currently work out of the same office, share the same warehousing facility in the States and share the same Sales Team. But beyond that we’re very much two separate companies. We team-up on some functions to save money/time where possible but it’s on a purely financial/time saving basis. We get along well with them.

Dominic: Think of it as friendly rivals who play for the same team. There’s bound to be some rivalry and competition, but there’s also a lot of collaboration over ways and means of getting things done. We can pool our buying power when dealing with suppliers, for instance.

 

(Joshua John O’Connor - Facebook) Should budding gamesmakers keep their day jobs?

Angus: Most definitely.

Dominic: If they need to pay the rent, then yes! But the path to working full time in gaming could be shorter than you think, if you have a plan (and don’t need too much of an income to survive). If you haven’t already, check out Matthew Sprange’s e-book on working in the RPG industry.

What worked for me was building the skills in my day job that I would later be using for games. I spent a couple of years doing editorial jobs, a couple doing layout, a couple as a print buyer etc. By the end of that, I could personally (and to a reasonable standard) carry out quite a few of the tasks needed to produce a game book, reducing the number of skills we needed to buy-in and improving our profitability by quite a bit.

 

(Chris Birch) Who do you think has been the most influential figure in the industry for you?

Dominic: For me, it’s everyone who has worked on all the cool games that have inspired me over the years. From a business perspective, Peter Adkison has showed us what it’s possible to do in the industry, so I’d have to say he’s been very influential.

Angus: There’s a ton of people who I consider friends and very schooled in the industry that I talk to and take advice from. Shane Hensley (Pinnacle), John Kovalic (Dork Storm), Christian Moore (ex-Last Unicorn/Decipher), Peter Adkison (ex-WotC), Matt Forbeck, James Wallis (ex-Hogshead) and Daniel Steel (Esdevium Games) to name but a few. Plus Tony Berry (the founder of Leisure Games) who helped and supported me for many years and allowed me in indulge my hobby and make it my living.

 

(Chris Birch) Who do you most look up to in the industry at the moment?

Angus: Similar to the above. Daniel Steel of Esdevium Games and Matt Forbeck rate very highly. Jordan Weisman (the creator of Battletech, Heroclix, etc) is someone that when he comes up with an idea I listen.

Dominic: Paizo, for Pathfinder – they have really put their money where their mouth is, and it seems to be paying off.

 

(Chris Birch) What do you think have been the most defining game/s of the last ten years and why?

Angus: The big beast was obviously d20 and Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition. It both reinvigorated the industry for a while and also dangerously narrowed it. It allowed a lot of new companies (such as Mongoose Publishing and Green Ronin) to be born but also, in my opinion, helped kill off a number of great games as there companies either converted them over to the d20 system or held off publishing anything new to see how the d20 bandwagon developed. Prior to d20 we had a lot of great systems and cool games on the market and, whilst we still have some cool systems and games on the market, since then things seem to have narrowed down a lot. Savage Worlds (Pinnacle Entertainment) has done wonders as has the Ubiquity System (Hollow Earth Expeditions by Exile Game Studios) and FATE (Spirit of the Century by Evil Hat). I think a lot of creativity and interesting ideas have come up through the ‘Indie’ sector with games such as My Life With Master, Dogs in the Vineyard and Primetime Adventures (to name but three) bringing a lot of new ideas to the RPG market.

Dominic: I’m not a D&D fan, so the 3e boom passed me by, although you can’t deny its influence! In terms of the number of players, many people argue that D&D practically is roleplaying, and realistically it has to be the most defining game. However, reality sucks, so I’m going to say that it’s a tie between Victoriana and Starblazer Adventures. ;)

 

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) It has been said that SLA Industries suffers from a "gun-toting" style and much of the underlying substance is under-developed. What plans do you have for further developing the SLA background (e.g. stigmartyr, Cloak, etc)?

Angus: That’s more a question for Dave Allsop (Creator and Line Developer of SLA Industries) but I can say we are working on new material which will lead into a second edition of the game. I, personally, would love to see the horror element to the game brought more to the fore in future books/editions as well as a wider choice of character types beyond the OPs you can currently play. My first game of SLA was playing a street urchin which brings a completely new take on surviving in the World of Progress.

Dominic: We have lots of plans, some of which will help to re-balance the game away from the gun-toting. But no new details here sorry, they’re still being worked out.

(R00kie - C7 Forum) Will the release of Doctor Who (a major licensed mainstream release) pull resources off other lines (like Starblazer Adventures and Victoriana)? If it's highly successful can we be sure support for your other product lines will continue?

Dominic: No need to worry, we’ll keep supporting the other lines. In some ways, success of Doctor Who will ensure that we can support the other lines.

Angus: Each line is run and developed individually to the other lines, so pulling resources is not an issue. We are looking at supporting all our current lines, as well as adding some new lines to the mix. One of the reasons for publishing high profile licenses – apart from the fact that we’re fans of the licenses and think they’d make great games – is that the money it brings in allows us to further develop our other homegrown lines as well as spend time developing new ideas. Plus fans of the licensed games we publish will also hopefully be exposed to the other games we do and may give them a try.

 

(Datainadequate – Twitter) Does the world need another licenced-property-based RPG?

Angus: Licensed games have three important factors going for them.

1) They can attract new interest and people into the hobby.

2) Many people like gaming in a setting they are familiar with and enjoy the film/tv/comic/book of.

3) Licensed games can also provide a base for the publisher to grow on – in both terms of cash revenue to inject into the company and other products as well as the spotlight that falls on them boosting their profile and that of the rest of the games in their portfolio.

Dominic: I think that if the game is good, a bit different and true to its source material, then the answer will be yes every time. And that’s what we’re aiming for with Doctor Who.

 

(Chris Birch) Where do you see the tabletop games industry going in the next ten years – any predictions?

Dominic: I think we need to concentrate on attracting new blood, but that’s pretty much always the case. I’d like to see more of a gamer network built up – something that wargames clubs have traditionally been better at. That’s what our GameForce clubs are aimed at, so get in touch if you fancy starting a GameForce in your area.

Angus: I think the sense of community is a very important aspect to develop. Dom’s already touched upon GameForce which is one aspect that we’ll be developing and opening up. Another equally important aspect is bringing in new blood and a fresh generation. The industry as a whole needs to look at new ways in attracting people to the hobby and giving them support and enjoyment once they have started exploring it.

If you can master and nurture the sense of community and introduction of new players then that will go a long way to helping keep the industry and hobby alive. Looking at ways to integrate new technology into gaming can also be very important to stop stagnation.

 

(C Lundberg - C7 Forum) Will we see you at an Irish con soon?

Angus: Hopefully. It seems silly being next door neighbours that we haven’t already been!

Dominic: We hope to get to Irish cons in the coming year. My in-laws are based in Waterford with roots in Sligo and Galway, so any excuse for a visit!

 

(Animadversio - Live Journal) So, if we're at a bar, and I offer to buy you both the favorite drinks of your choice, what am I buying?

Angus: Southern Comfort and Coke please. Thank you!

Dominic: Lovely, lovely coffee, please.