Konami say Hi from Paris

Hi all, I am Axel de Rougé, "talking" to you live from Konami's Development Studio in Paris. From now on, I will be blogging around our projects to give you some inside and unusual (let's hope!) info about my role here as a producer and studio head, about the team I work with, life at the studio (and sometimes out of it) - and not to forget a very special project we're currently working on. The Paris studio was built around the PES Franchise several years ago and so far the team has successfully developed PES 2008, 2009 and PES 2010 on the mobile platform. We're building on our experience and are ready to face any new challenge we're offered. We have some games in preparation for various platforms and are constantly pitching new concepts for gamers today. What are the new gaming habits? What do core gamers value most? And what about casual gamers? Creating new concepts is ok, but how best can we evolve in a striking way with a yearly title? Take the example of football. It's been more than a hundred years since the main rules have been fixed. So we can't really change the way a match is played in a game, can we? Just like the console game we're aiming for realism and a true football experience with PES on mobile platforms. There is no way we can suddenly design teams of 16 players or players able to use their hands. We have to keep to the classic game but still have room for innovations. Our job is to make these innovations happen in a natural way. Still want to be a game designer? ;) To end this blog, here is a funny anecdote I found when compiling the laws and rules of football together with one of our game designers: You might know that there are 17 key points that determine the laws of soccer, but not all of them were integrated in the initial constitution written in England in 1863. For instance, stoppage time was not included until 1891 aft [...]