How do you build an A-list console game without selling your IP - and your soul - to a big publisher? You start with a cult hit on the Web. In October, upstart developer the Behemoth is making the unprecedented jump from Flash to PlayStation 2 and GameCube with the release of Alien Hominid. "We're more like an indie rock band than a game company," says producer Tom Fulp. Indeed, the Behemoth has taken its violent, anti-establishment side-scrolling shooter to the main stage without selling out.
How a Web game invaded consoles
Audience: Since the prototype's August 2002 release, Alien Hominid has been downloaded an astonishing 6 million times.
Strategy: The Behemoth raised its own capital and made the console game with a tiny staff of 12. Then it sold the finished property to publisher O~3, which has distribution with Electronics Boutique, Wal-Mart, Fry's, and Amazon.com. The Behemoth maintains the right to sell the game through www.alienhominid.com.
Value-add: Illustrator Dan Paladin, aka Synj, drew every object and background by hand. Thus it has the potential to become "a collectible, a living piece of art." The company hopes to sell Synj's original sketches at its site.
Merchandise: "We still own our IP," says Fulp, "and the sale of the game, figurines, and T-shirts through the Web site is just as important to our revenue stream as sales through traditional retail channels."
Spin When you can't compete with Doom 3's hi-res graphics, flaunt your retro hipness instead. "Alien Hominid is everything 2-D games would have become if the world hadn't been seduced by 3-D," sniffs Fulp.
- Evan Shamoon
credit The Behemoth
Hominidés new home: The popular Web title is moving to GameCube (seen here) and PS2; the entire game is hand-drawn, like the concept art.
credit The Behemoth
Hominidés new home: The popular Web title is moving to GameCube and PS2 (seen here); the entire game is hand-drawn, like the concept art.
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