Interview with Torus' Senior Producer Kevin McIntosh at OZ Game Lounge

It's rare to get a glimpse into the elusive Victorian games developer Torus, nestled comfortably in the eastern suburbs, about half an hour from the Melbourne. Even though they've been around for about 13 years with over 70 games to their name, weathering the storms of 3 generations of console and handhelds, staying above water and independent all the while. Still being a modest sized company of around 40 people the future looks bright as they continue to grow and expand into next-gen.

In this broad interview with Kevin McIntosh from Torus Games, one of Victoria?s oldest independent games developers, Kevin discusses the origins of Torus, being a developer in Australia, getting into the industry, what they?ve working been on recently and Torus? plans for the future.

my dad started Torus Games. He was in computer games from about 1986, so I grew up not only with video games all around us, but the development of games. He would continue making games at home during the evening and we would get to experience the whole project. When the company was about 5 years old, it started to grow with titles like Duke Nukem GBC and Carmageddon TDR 2000, so new departments had to be created. I came in as the first tester at Torus and within a year I had become the first producer. My brother is a lead artist at Torus and my other brother leads the QA department.

Australia is a great place to do development. We have the American influence (TV, movies) and the European influence (heritage, immigrants), as well as being on the doorstep of Asia. We can make a game that is culturally relevant to each of these areas, which is not something that they can do easily. The benefit for American publishers is that they request items at the end of their day, and by the time they?ve gone home, slept and returned to the office, the work has been completed and they have the day to review it. Because of the time zones, we?re like game elves working away through the night.

Anyone that puts restrictions on the games that they work on or the platforms that they work on is less useful to the company. Companies spend a lot of money setting people up with hardware and software. All they ask in return is enthusiasm for whatever task comes along and willingness to be involved.