The word, Polymath, hardly describes Peter Hann's genius in all things he's put his mind to. Peter was born near Hamburg, Germany, has lived in South America and is currently living in East Germany where he runs his own Studio. After studying Design at Burg Giebichenstein he worked as a Teacher for Game Development using Virtools at the Games Academy in Berlin.
He eventually became a Game Designer with the now defunct video game developer Ascaron Entertainment. Ascaron was best known for its franchises like Pole Position, The Patrician, Port Royale, and the Sacred series. Peter left the company around the time it shuddered its doors and founded MonkeyHead Studios. As CEO and Project Lead, he employed 2 ex-Ascaron programmers – the rest of the crew consisted of his Friends and Colleagues.
Peter, with MonkeyHead Studios, began working on, a yet still unannounced, Playstation Network title for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe that had lasted for a 2 year Development Cycle. In 2010, sadly, Development Processes failed and MonkeyHead laid down for the long goodnight.
Always the optimist, Peter has since become a Freelance Designer working for a slew of great clients all while continuing to maintain his Indie Dev status from his early days at the academy. Currently, his day-to-day consists of Graphics, Gamedesign drafts, Product visualization, working on his Indie Project Cyberpunk 3776, and being forced into this Interview against his will.
Me: Alright, Mr. Hann. Do you mind if I call you Peter, or do you prefer Peter "der Gewaltige" Hann?
Peter: Peter.
Me: Let's pretend I haven't Fanboy'd over your new title, Cyberpunk 3776, and I need you to pitch me the game. Go!
Peter: Well, the Project I’m currently working on is called “Cyberpunk 3776”. It is mostly a classic Arcade style Side-Scrolling Shooter in a Post-Apocalyptic setting where the Player fights an already lost Battle against an Alien Invasion.
I was frustrated the day I started the project and I used my emotions to paint a picture of this utterly lost "World" where our presence has lead to a hopeless future. The "World" is ultimately lost, Society has destroyed it through its very own avarice and disregard and now these Alien Invaders are just the last straw.
The Protagonist can’t win. It's not out of resignation that he will lose. There is nothing left to return to. The "World" has died and the only thing left for him to do is fight his last battle until the bitter end. There is no Hope to steady his thoughts, he stands purely for himself and what should have been. It is a really dark setting and I’m aware of that, but I like it that way.
Our civilization is heading to a dark future if we continue the current on our current direction, but that might be a different topic.
Me: We can come back to that topic during another Interview. After you've become "Gabe Newell" famous I'll call you up and you can tell me more about our impending Social collapse. Unless, of course, we're all living in underground bunkers by then. What a buzz kill. Quick, talk about something happy!
Peter: Do you know the movie Ghost Dog, by Jim Jarmusch?
Me: I celebrate the Man's entire catalog, sir.
Peter: I like this inevitable path that things have to go no matter what. Everything moves on. Every hour, every minute leads to the inevitable "End". Your only choice is to hold your head up high while walking down this road or crumble in a dark corner crying.
Me: What tools are you using to create Cyberpunk?
Peter: I am developing the game currently with Unity and Playmaker, aiming to complete it in the first quarter of 2014. It is somehow a training project for me to get back into the saddle after the break I took from developing a short while back. Plus, I'll get a chance to get comfortable with my new Dev Tool, Pipeline. With this in mind I’m primarily developing for PC only, with support for Gamepad and Mouse steering. This game will eventually become an exercise in learning digital distribution for such small Indie titles.
Me: I've been fortunate to have seen the amount of effort you've progressed through in the conceptual and actualization stages of Cyberpunk, but how will you know that you've hit that point of the story where it's just time to give up the ghost, compile a finalized executable and leave it to everyone else to make it their own story?
Peter: There is no such thing as Perfection. When you finish a Project as a Developer, you might feel the strong wish to rebuild it all from scratch since you've learned so much by the end of production, but everything has to come to an end at some point. I usually tend to end a process as they start becoming different instead of getting better while I’m in production.
Most likely, if I mess it up and the result becomes worse, I'll change it, but sometimes you can’t even look at it anymore by the end of it because you've spent so much time using so many parts of your being to put into it. Overall, it’s a Progress, as you pointed out, and it has to end somehow. You have these things you have to do. You're a Designer. You have to start something new, and most of the time I am fully satisfied with that.
He eventually became a Game Designer with the now defunct video game developer Ascaron Entertainment. Ascaron was best known for its franchises like Pole Position, The Patrician, Port Royale, and the Sacred series. Peter left the company around the time it shuddered its doors and founded MonkeyHead Studios. As CEO and Project Lead, he employed 2 ex-Ascaron programmers – the rest of the crew consisted of his Friends and Colleagues.
Peter, with MonkeyHead Studios, began working on, a yet still unannounced, Playstation Network title for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe that had lasted for a 2 year Development Cycle. In 2010, sadly, Development Processes failed and MonkeyHead laid down for the long goodnight.
Always the optimist, Peter has since become a Freelance Designer working for a slew of great clients all while continuing to maintain his Indie Dev status from his early days at the academy. Currently, his day-to-day consists of Graphics, Gamedesign drafts, Product visualization, working on his Indie Project Cyberpunk 3776, and being forced into this Interview against his will.
Me: Alright, Mr. Hann. Do you mind if I call you Peter, or do you prefer Peter "der Gewaltige" Hann?
Peter: Peter.
Me: Let's pretend I haven't Fanboy'd over your new title, Cyberpunk 3776, and I need you to pitch me the game. Go!
Peter: Well, the Project I’m currently working on is called “Cyberpunk 3776”. It is mostly a classic Arcade style Side-Scrolling Shooter in a Post-Apocalyptic setting where the Player fights an already lost Battle against an Alien Invasion.
I was frustrated the day I started the project and I used my emotions to paint a picture of this utterly lost "World" where our presence has lead to a hopeless future. The "World" is ultimately lost, Society has destroyed it through its very own avarice and disregard and now these Alien Invaders are just the last straw.
The Protagonist can’t win. It's not out of resignation that he will lose. There is nothing left to return to. The "World" has died and the only thing left for him to do is fight his last battle until the bitter end. There is no Hope to steady his thoughts, he stands purely for himself and what should have been. It is a really dark setting and I’m aware of that, but I like it that way.
Our civilization is heading to a dark future if we continue the current on our current direction, but that might be a different topic.
Me: We can come back to that topic during another Interview. After you've become "Gabe Newell" famous I'll call you up and you can tell me more about our impending Social collapse. Unless, of course, we're all living in underground bunkers by then. What a buzz kill. Quick, talk about something happy!
Peter: Do you know the movie Ghost Dog, by Jim Jarmusch?
Me: I celebrate the Man's entire catalog, sir.
Peter: I like this inevitable path that things have to go no matter what. Everything moves on. Every hour, every minute leads to the inevitable "End". Your only choice is to hold your head up high while walking down this road or crumble in a dark corner crying.
Me: What tools are you using to create Cyberpunk?
Peter: I am developing the game currently with Unity and Playmaker, aiming to complete it in the first quarter of 2014. It is somehow a training project for me to get back into the saddle after the break I took from developing a short while back. Plus, I'll get a chance to get comfortable with my new Dev Tool, Pipeline. With this in mind I’m primarily developing for PC only, with support for Gamepad and Mouse steering. This game will eventually become an exercise in learning digital distribution for such small Indie titles.
Me: I've been fortunate to have seen the amount of effort you've progressed through in the conceptual and actualization stages of Cyberpunk, but how will you know that you've hit that point of the story where it's just time to give up the ghost, compile a finalized executable and leave it to everyone else to make it their own story?
Peter: There is no such thing as Perfection. When you finish a Project as a Developer, you might feel the strong wish to rebuild it all from scratch since you've learned so much by the end of production, but everything has to come to an end at some point. I usually tend to end a process as they start becoming different instead of getting better while I’m in production.
Most likely, if I mess it up and the result becomes worse, I'll change it, but sometimes you can’t even look at it anymore by the end of it because you've spent so much time using so many parts of your being to put into it. Overall, it’s a Progress, as you pointed out, and it has to end somehow. You have these things you have to do. You're a Designer. You have to start something new, and most of the time I am fully satisfied with that.
RSS Feed
