A few years ago, we had the chance to interview Australian game development icon, Alfred Milgrom, and one of the things we asked him was what he would do differently if he could do it all over again at Melbourne House. Alfred paused briefly to give the question some serious thought, and replied that he wished his company was better prepared for the rapid expansion of staff. Management was not coping with employee numbers doubling every year to over one hundred and twenty eight.
That weakness at Melbourne House of yesteryear hasn't seemed to carry across to their new owner, Krome Studios, who have just revealed that they have hit the milestone of *400* employees. Gamasutra have a fantastic interview with Krome CEO, Robert Walsh, on how far Krome has come since it was founded ten years ago in Brisbane. From the titles they've chosen to do and the publishers they've worked with, Krome has proven to be a reliable developer that can ship products, and they have their eyes set on working on some of their own I.P again.
The interview with Rob covers many more issues that Krome Studios are facing, and it's quite an interesting look on Krome's philosphy on game development, and it's definitely well worth the read, particularly for the touching tribute to the tragic loss of one of their own employees, Ian Lovell. From Gamasutra...
(Robert Walsh) One of our key art guys -- Ian Lovell -- was killed in a plane crash. It's probably, in all the years that I've worked in the business, the hardest thing that I've ever had to deal with. Because Krome, although we have our size, we try to run it very family. So everybody's really, really, really close. Yeah, I don't think there's anything that they can teach you that prepares you for something like that.
Read the full interview at Gamasutra!