Featured Interview Ypsh Chats With Home's Newest Dev, Jam Games!

YPSH : It's always a pleasure to welcome a new developer to the PlayStation Home scene and today we welcome JAM Games on the occasion of their first release for PS Home! Please welcome Emma Johnson, Administration and Public Relations for JAM Games, Ltd. Welcome Em and thanks for taking some time out to tell us about JAM Games.

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JAM : Hello! It's a pleasure to be here, it's such a relief to be at this point and able to share our news with you and all your readers!

YPSH : Let's start with some background on how JAM Games came to be. It was started by two friends, Michael Frost and Joan Pons Tomas is that correct?

JAM : Yes, they met many years ago when they were working together in Spain and have been friends ever since. I think it's a dream that many people have to one day own your own company. They left their employment at the beginning of this year and after taking a few months out, have been working hard getting everything into place ready for their launch into Home! This isn't just a job for them, it really is their passion, it's a dream come true.

YPSH : I understand Michael went to Bournemouth University, was it here that he got his formal education in 3-D Artistry?

JAM : No, this is where Michael did fine art, hand to paper art you could say! He went on from here to become a medical artist, drawing high quality illustrations for medical papers and publications, very interesting and kind of gruesome in places!

YPSH : So how did Michael get his start in video games?

JAM : He had his head turned when watching the film Toy Story, he wanted to create digital art so he went to work for Cyberlife making the PC game Creatures, from here he joined a tiny development company based on a farm called Frontier.... you may have heard of this now giant development company? Here he worked on games such as Dog's Life and Wallace and Grommit.

YPSH : Michael is credited on Heavenly Sword for the PS3, Ghosthunter, 24 and Medieval on the PS2 to name just a few. He was working for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe at that time?

JAM : Yes, as he progressed through his career he moved to Sony in Cambridge and worked on quite a few games, it was from here that he moved to Spain to join another development company and met Joan. It's been a long journey since then to this point now and he has gained so much knowledge over the years!

YPSH : Joan Pons Tomas is from Spain and attended Universitat de les Illes Balears Master. I assume he also took up 3-D Art and Animation there?

JAM : Yes, Joan studied a 3-D and Animation Master Degree there (the Balearic Islands University), the degree covered all areas of 3-D, from preproduction to final render and editing.

YPSH : While at Pyro Studios, Joan worked on Planet 51 (Xbox). Is that where he got his introduction to the video game industry?

JAM : No, Joan started to work on the video games industry at Tragnarion Studios developing "The Scourge Project" a third person shooter released for PC on Steam (this is where he met Michael). After working for a few years at Tragnarion, Joan moved to Madrid to work at Pyro Studios, here he worked mainly on characters and assets for the Planet 51 game.

YPSH : Prior to that Joan had worked on numerous film industry projects, correct? Tell us a little about that.

JAM : In 2002 Joan worked in London at Digitalia ltd as a 3DJunior Animator/Artist, this company specialises in the film and advertising industry and he worked there for almost 2 years. Later on he moved to Madrid for a couple of years and worked as a 3-D Artist at "Mundo 3-D", this company worked in stereoscopic 3-D advertisement, the kind of 3-D that needed the glasses in order to work. From here he moved into the world of gaming and has stayed there ever since!

YPSH : Both Michael and Joan worked at Outso (Lockwood) if I'm not mistaken. What were some of the projects they worked on there?

JAM : Yes they were both environment artists, Michael was lead and responsible for many projects at Outso, actually it'd be intersting if any of your readers will be able to look at the Garage apartment and recognise Michael's style from any other popular apartments and spaces on Home! Let us know on our website (there are quite a few!).

YPSH : Now, just about 10 months or so later, JAM Games is ready to launch its first product for PS Home, tell us the thinking behind it?

JAM : It's quite a challenge coming up with your first collection, you have so many factors to contend with, budget being a key one, saleability being another, we want to appeal to as many people as possible to establish ourselves, but most importantly we had to consider what it was that we wanted our first collection to say about us! We knew we wanted to create a solid space that showed our artistic abilities at their best, our aim is to be a company that puts quality at the forefront, a few pieces done well are more appealing to us than mass production, we're also interested in the back story, what links a collection together? So in answer to all our questions we came up with the Race On Collection! A Garage apartment with some quirky furniture items and a range of motor racing themed clothing and accessories.

YPSH : Sounds great! What made you choose a racing theme?

JAM : The space idea came first for us! It sounds crazy but they used to walk past this old garage near their gym, a great old place that any artist would want to create, lots of age and interesting features that, in part, inspired the design of the space which lead onto the theme of cars and then racing. Also walking around home disguised as a 'mysterious' racing driver could be fun, very much inspired by a favourite TV programme there!!




YPSH : So it's a personal space with a garage theme. What can we expect from the clothing items, furniture, active items, etc.? How many of each and what will they be?



JAM : It's an old style space with lots of detailing to look out for (and possibly a clue to collection 2) and fantastic art! We've got a few pieces of furniture that are quite unique and fun (who doesn't need a tyre changer in their living room?) The female clothing will suit any pitstop beauty with sexy suits with a chequered theme in a variety of colours and stunning stilettos! For the guys super cool full body racing suits and accessories with a couple of great hairstyles! There are helmets to suit all tastes so you can have everyone one asking the question 'who is that tame racing driver?' Its aim is to be fun and has meant that I can use lots of racing terminology in the promotion which has kept me amused! Anyway next corner......

YPSH : Will this be released in all regions of PS Home?

JAM : Yes, we'll be roaring into our release in Europe first on the 10th October, shortly followed by the US and then we hope to go into Asia very soon after that! We want all our work to be available worldwide as it is annoying to see things available elsewhere on line and not be able to have them!

YPSH : Has the pricing been set yet?

JAM : Yes, we've lined up on the starting grid with everyone else on that (I'll stop as I'm not sure that it even makes sense now!)

YPSH : After this first project for PS Home, does JAM Games have plans to release other products on other platforms as well? Mobile perhaps?

JAM : We're chasing our first AAA title should be available for the PS5, (hehehe we are a small company!) Yes we do plan to broaden our base but for now our only aim is to establish ourselves as Home developers, we don't want to be here one day and chasing other projects the next, we want to stay in the race! (sorry, just one more!)

YPSH : What about JAM's future for PS Home products? Will it include more personal spaces, furniture, clothing items? Public spaces?

JAM : Yes we have our next 3-4 projects ready or in development and we have a concept wall that is too full for words. A lot of our ideas are really exciting and we aim to push the boundaries of Home so as we start to grow with each collection we'll be able to increase our budgets a bit! We definitely want to create another space this time with the mini-games and quirky features that we are keen to do and of course carry on with our clothing collections in a bid to be a little different. We have a feature on our website inviting users to send us their suggestions, we'll then aim to include ideas in up and coming collections and even name the item after the contributor so people will know exactly who had the idea!

YPSH : I always like to ask devs, in my first interview with them, what they would like to see in the next gen PlayStation console. What would all of you like to see?

JAM : Difficult to say - there's still so much more the PS3 can do so the PS4 is set to be beyond that! I know that I personally would like to see Home having more recognition for its high quality content off all PS users that would be great!

YPSH : It's always fun to see devs push the envelope in their releases for PS Home. Does JAM have some ideas up their sleeve in that direction?

JAM : Yes, we would like to ............... sorry my answers have been censored, you're going to have to watch this space!

YPSH : I want to thank you again for taking the time out for us here at YPSH. I know you are busy on the eve of your first release and I wish you much success with it! As you can see from looking around YPSH, we are avid supporters of the developers who produce for PS Home. I'm very happy to welcome you to our community and we hope to be talking with you again soon about your upcoming releases.

JAM : Thank you ever so much for your interest in our company! We have big plans for our future as I'm sure your readers will see as our future collections unfold and they show what JAM Games us all about! We can't wait to share it all with you!