Phantom EFX CEO Aaron Schurman
Darkest of Days is the project Phantom EFX CEO Aaron Schurman wanted to make when he and a group of investors first started the company ten years ago. The concept was born after Schurman played through the early levels of Medal of Honor, where players reenact the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Despite the technical limitations of the time, the awe of experiencing a fragment of that historic battle in an interactive format was powerful, he said.
The idea of setting more games in history’s “darkest of days” with players facing overwhelming numbers was intriguing to Schurman, but the technology to make it possible was out of reach.
So the idea was put on the back burner and Iowa-based Phantom EFX decided to raise money other ways. It became a world leader in casino, card and slot games with its Reel Deal Casino and Reel Deal Slots series, selling around 600,000 PC games every year, Schurman said.
After building a successful business with these casual casino games, Schurman thought the base was strong enough to support the increased development costs of a more complex game. About three years ago, development on Darkest of Days began in earnest.
Making a game like Darkest of Days requires a sizeable investment and immense risk, Schurman said. And even if you can survive three years of development without seeing a profit, competing for shelf space as an independent publisher is another challenge. Large publishers that release multiple games a year have inroads with major retailers, who stock even their poor products so they have a chance to sell the popular ones too, Schurman said.
Even if you can get your game in the store, competing with the multimillion dollar marketing budgets of large publishers is another obstacle.
“There were times I was worried the game wouldn’t come out,” Schurman said.
As a privately owned company, Phantom EFX had a limited budget. Most first-person shooters cost $40 to $50 million to develop and market. Phantom EFX spent less than $10 million to develop Darkest of Days, Schurman said.
About half of the total production cost went to designing the game’s engine, Marmoset, which is capable of rendering hundreds of enemies on screen in vast, open environments, Schurman said. The technology was necessary to recreate the scope of battles Schurman wanted to have players experience.
The talent needed for a first-person shooter is different then that needed for casual games, so Phantom EFX created 8monnkey Labs to hire new producers and directors to work on Darkest of Days, Schurman said. Finding employees was one of the biggest challenges, Schurman said. Most of the talent is concentrated on the coasts. 8Monkey recruited about half of its team from these hotbeds, while the other half came from all over the Midwest, including Omaha, Schurman said.
“It’s hard to get someone from San Fransico, New York or L.A. to move out here, but once they do, they just love it,” Schurman said.
Many loved the laid back atmosphere and short commute times, he said.
Being located in the Midwest was a major help in reducing costs, Schurman said. The lower cost of business meant cheaper production costs relative to companies on the coast, he said.
Schurman is encouraged by early interest in Darkest of Days. The game’s PC demo was downloaded 100,000 times in the first week, neck and neck with the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, Schurman said.
“If you do something unique and think outside the box as a developer, you can definitely be rewarded for it,” Schurman said.
Even Hollywood is interested in the premise of Darkest of Days. Schurman said he has been in contact with producers and screenwriters who see potential for Quantum Leap style television series.
There will be a future for the Darkest of Days franchise, Schurman said. The story for a sequel is already written, and develops further on the question of whether it is right or wrong to alter history, he said.
But one of the most rewarding aspects of completing Darkest of Days is the satisfaction that comes with doing the impossible. Naysayers told him it was impossible for a small studio to compete with the big boys like Activision and Electronic Arts, Schurman said. They said that the Xbox 360’s hardware wouldn’t allow hundreds of enemies at a time.
“We were told that this will not work, that we couldn’t have this many people running on screen,” Schurman said. “But with a small company and a small budget, we made it possible.”
