Steel X
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Todd McFarlane should need no introduction. But just in case you've been living in a pop culture vacuum, McFarlane is the successful toy designer/owner of McFarlane Toys, the company that specializes in detailed action figures from film, video games, and sports. He also owns a hockey team (the Edmonton Oilers), and is the creator of the well-known comic book character Spawn, which has enjoyed success off the pulp page as a film, animated series, and a video game, first on Playstation and then on Dreamcast. (also on Super nes and gameboy color)
It's been a few years since Spawn was manifested into a video game, but that's all about to change. It's old news now that in terms of the video game realm, Spawn will again be rendered in a cross platform action game from Namco. In addition to supplying the characters for the game, McFarlane also contributed to the game play and the story line. And as if that weren't enough, McFarlane recently designed a new character for Namco's successful franchise Soul Calibur: the ominous, demonic pulverizer Necrid can be utilized in Soul Calibur II. McFarlane has also designed a line of toys to tie into the Soul Calibur II game.
As can be expected, given that he literally has two games due out around August 2003, McFarlane was on hand at E3, signing mini-posters and conducting interviews with MTV2 and other such similar press. Just as the "end-of-the-convention" revelry sounded over the South Hall's speakers, IGN managed to slip into a quiet section of the Namco booth and talk to McFarlane about his new Namco alliance and the forthcoming multi-platform games.
"It was sort of a simple beginning," he says of the route he took to creating Necrid for Soul Calibur II and, eventually, the realization of the new cross platform Spawn title. "As technology advances in the gaming world you can sort of almost go back to the well every three years and go 'Hey, we haven't made a Spawn game [in awhile].' There's new platforms and new software engines, there's always something new, right? In two years from now there's supposed to be another one. So we went around and asked 'Hey, is anybody interested in doing Spawn?' We struck a deal with Namco and within the confines of striking the deal with Namco for Spawn the conversation of toys came up, 'Oh, you do Soul Calibur? I do toys.' 'Well, Todd, would you like to invent a character?' 'Oh that would be cool, then I could make a toy of it,' you know? Then Namco said 'Hey, since we're gonna be doing a dedicated video game, could we put Spawn in one of the games?' It was "what if" stuff, right? Nobody had thought about it when we were negotiating. It just spilled out from 'What do you guys do? Here's what we do. Let's not just stick to our guns, let's commingle a little bit.' And hopefully the end result will be sort of better exposure and better business for everybody and will make us potentially want to do more games or, again, more Spawn games specifically, if it works. If it doesn't, then everybody'll just go their own way and try to figure out where to come up with that next jewel."
Speaking of jewels, contrary to what one might think, McFarlane didn't always dream of being a multi-media mogul with his hands in everything from toys to film and video games. Back in the day, when he was drawing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics, McFarlane's ultimate "vision" was more one of survival than self-styled domination of the entertainment world (i.e. conquest was not consciously on his mind). "Not really. Only late in the game when we were talking about the formation of Image Comics that at that point I knew that you couldn't just do comic books and make a go of it if you were gonna completely cut yourself off from the system. You know, I was leaving the bosom of Marvel and they did all this stuff, the licensing and all the movies and stuff that nurture why people would want to buy this comic book called Spider-Man.. So I realized that I would have to sort of do a smaller version of it. I actually I even looked at some of the stuff that Disney did. Once he invented Mickey Mouse he invented Minnie Mouse and Pluto; he came up with other stuff. He put it into other venues, then he did Fantasia and then he moved on to Snow White, which meant he wasn't just married to Mickey Mouse. He was just trying to survive as an artist, which is all I was trying to do. I said 'If I just do the Spawn comic book and nobody wants the Spawn comic book, I'm dead.' [Leaving Marvel] was like leaving home at 18 and failing and having to knock on the door and go 'Can you take me back in? I can't do it.' So to me it's just been 'how do I survive and stay strong enough so that everything is in front of me and I don't have to ever think about what I just walked past.' I didn't ever want to be in a position where I had to go back to Marvel of DC. And if that meant that I had to make KISS action figures, okay. I could connect the dots. Just like buying the Mark McGuire ball or buying a little bit of the Edmonton Oilers and betting that it would help me get those sports licenses that I was trying to get. And now we've got NHL, NFL, baseball, the NBA, and a little bit later this summer, NASCAR. Sometimes you have to create your own little cracks, too. You've got to spend money to make the crack, you know? I guess I've made more right decisions than wrong. And the Darwinian theory at that point is that the guys who are making more right calls or maybe have a little more shrewder instincts, are gonna survive longer than those that don't. I've now become fairly adept at what I need to do for business to keep the creative going. And some people have said 'Ah, Todd, you've become the enemy.' I disagree. I've only become the enemy so I can understand how I can get this art there. I gotta understand what the enemy thinks and how they move and how the system works so that I can maneuver into it or through it or around it."
And if you really think about it, that's what video games are all about, breaking down a strategy so that you can out maneuver the boss and win the game. All of which makes McFarlane's participation in the world of video games that much more understandable.
It's been a few years since Spawn was manifested into a video game, but that's all about to change. It's old news now that in terms of the video game realm, Spawn will again be rendered in a cross platform action game from Namco. In addition to supplying the characters for the game, McFarlane also contributed to the game play and the story line. And as if that weren't enough, McFarlane recently designed a new character for Namco's successful franchise Soul Calibur: the ominous, demonic pulverizer Necrid can be utilized in Soul Calibur II. McFarlane has also designed a line of toys to tie into the Soul Calibur II game.
As can be expected, given that he literally has two games due out around August 2003, McFarlane was on hand at E3, signing mini-posters and conducting interviews with MTV2 and other such similar press. Just as the "end-of-the-convention" revelry sounded over the South Hall's speakers, IGN managed to slip into a quiet section of the Namco booth and talk to McFarlane about his new Namco alliance and the forthcoming multi-platform games.
"It was sort of a simple beginning," he says of the route he took to creating Necrid for Soul Calibur II and, eventually, the realization of the new cross platform Spawn title. "As technology advances in the gaming world you can sort of almost go back to the well every three years and go 'Hey, we haven't made a Spawn game [in awhile].' There's new platforms and new software engines, there's always something new, right? In two years from now there's supposed to be another one. So we went around and asked 'Hey, is anybody interested in doing Spawn?' We struck a deal with Namco and within the confines of striking the deal with Namco for Spawn the conversation of toys came up, 'Oh, you do Soul Calibur? I do toys.' 'Well, Todd, would you like to invent a character?' 'Oh that would be cool, then I could make a toy of it,' you know? Then Namco said 'Hey, since we're gonna be doing a dedicated video game, could we put Spawn in one of the games?' It was "what if" stuff, right? Nobody had thought about it when we were negotiating. It just spilled out from 'What do you guys do? Here's what we do. Let's not just stick to our guns, let's commingle a little bit.' And hopefully the end result will be sort of better exposure and better business for everybody and will make us potentially want to do more games or, again, more Spawn games specifically, if it works. If it doesn't, then everybody'll just go their own way and try to figure out where to come up with that next jewel."
Speaking of jewels, contrary to what one might think, McFarlane didn't always dream of being a multi-media mogul with his hands in everything from toys to film and video games. Back in the day, when he was drawing Spider-Man at Marvel Comics, McFarlane's ultimate "vision" was more one of survival than self-styled domination of the entertainment world (i.e. conquest was not consciously on his mind). "Not really. Only late in the game when we were talking about the formation of Image Comics that at that point I knew that you couldn't just do comic books and make a go of it if you were gonna completely cut yourself off from the system. You know, I was leaving the bosom of Marvel and they did all this stuff, the licensing and all the movies and stuff that nurture why people would want to buy this comic book called Spider-Man.. So I realized that I would have to sort of do a smaller version of it. I actually I even looked at some of the stuff that Disney did. Once he invented Mickey Mouse he invented Minnie Mouse and Pluto; he came up with other stuff. He put it into other venues, then he did Fantasia and then he moved on to Snow White, which meant he wasn't just married to Mickey Mouse. He was just trying to survive as an artist, which is all I was trying to do. I said 'If I just do the Spawn comic book and nobody wants the Spawn comic book, I'm dead.' [Leaving Marvel] was like leaving home at 18 and failing and having to knock on the door and go 'Can you take me back in? I can't do it.' So to me it's just been 'how do I survive and stay strong enough so that everything is in front of me and I don't have to ever think about what I just walked past.' I didn't ever want to be in a position where I had to go back to Marvel of DC. And if that meant that I had to make KISS action figures, okay. I could connect the dots. Just like buying the Mark McGuire ball or buying a little bit of the Edmonton Oilers and betting that it would help me get those sports licenses that I was trying to get. And now we've got NHL, NFL, baseball, the NBA, and a little bit later this summer, NASCAR. Sometimes you have to create your own little cracks, too. You've got to spend money to make the crack, you know? I guess I've made more right decisions than wrong. And the Darwinian theory at that point is that the guys who are making more right calls or maybe have a little more shrewder instincts, are gonna survive longer than those that don't. I've now become fairly adept at what I need to do for business to keep the creative going. And some people have said 'Ah, Todd, you've become the enemy.' I disagree. I've only become the enemy so I can understand how I can get this art there. I gotta understand what the enemy thinks and how they move and how the system works so that I can maneuver into it or through it or around it."
And if you really think about it, that's what video games are all about, breaking down a strategy so that you can out maneuver the boss and win the game. All of which makes McFarlane's participation in the world of video games that much more understandable.