Welcome to Macintalk, my continuing quest to bring you an inside look at the lives and work of prominent Mac-related figures. 

This month's Macintalk interview provides us with an in-depth look at the work (and play) of Bungie Software.  I am pleased to bring you an interview with Bungie's first employee and the voice of Bob from the Marathon Games, Doug Zartman.

Doug is currently the "Publicity Agent" at Bungie Software, a company on the cutting edge of computer gaming. Bungie has brought games such as the Marathon series of games and the much-acclaimed "Game of the Year" for 1997, Myth: The Fallen Lords to the gaming world.

Interview Conducted: 22 April 1998

Alex Kushner: What are the roots of Bungie Software's rise to fame?

Doug Zartman: The roots are the qualities of two people — Alex Seropian who has a native genius for marketing products, and Jason Jones who has a native genius for making addictive action games. They really did build the company out of nothing, with no more than programming talent and keen business instincts.

AK: Bungie is kind of an odd name for a company; how did it come to pass? 

DZ: It just sounded like a fun name — sort of brings to mind a bouncing ball, like in our logo. It seemed a good name for an entertainment company.

AK: What type of work force does it take to run Bungie Software?

DZ: There are a few different development teams of artists and programmers working on different games, a marketing department to handle sales and a support department for tech support and direct orders. Thirty people total, between Chicago and San Jose.

AK: What's the Bungie work atmosphere like? Do you think this impacts the public's perception or your products?

DZ: The atmosphere is very casual but very hard-working. People wear whatever they want and have a lot of freedom about when they come in, everyone is on a first-name basis and there isn't much in the way of office politics — very democratic in terms of structure. On the other hand we expect a great deal of work and creativity out of each employee. The development teams are expected to stay all night and come in on weekends, work round-the-clock if necessary, and do whatever it takes to ship games on time. The marketing department is expected to get publicity without spending any money. Those are a couple of big challenges. 

AK: What type of office camaraderie exists among the employees of Bungie Software? Are you a work together, play together group or is the attitude restricted to business only?

DZ: Oh, we play together a lot. We periodically go out bowling, for paintball games, or to openings of big movies as a group. Since people are here at all hours, eating every meal and even sleeping here for days at a time, you forget sometimes that it is a business.

AK: In this casual environment of Bungie, does Alexander Seropian (CEO of Bungie) have to be the straight man, working hard all the time? What does he have to do all day?

DZ: Putting out fires that crop up everywhere. Talking to lawyers about copyrights, talking to the landlord about rents, making sure everyone's insurance and 401k plans are straight, haggling with retail buyers about Market Development Funds (money you pay to big chains to get on their shelves), setting up bundling deals with hardware companies, interviewing prospective employees, approving the text of a press release or ad layout, planning the booth set-up for a tradeshow, troubleshooting the mail server when it crashes. Every once in a while, playing a net game of Myth or Marathon. Alexander is here late every night.

AK: Is the plan, as of now, for Bungie to remain a game-only company? Is there chance that we may see Bungie dabbling in other software genres?

DZ: Nope — we're all about games, and really only about realistic action games. You'll never see us publishing a card or puzzle game, for example (not that there aren't some great puzzle and card games). Since we publish only a few titles per year, we concentrate on very high-profile, "triple-A" titles.

AK: What type of game titles may we see in the future from Bungie? Can we expect a Myth 2, or are you looking to bring Bungie to a different area of the gaming arena?

DZ: We're working on several things right now, but it's too early to announce anything. We are working on a title that is unlike anything we've done before. We don't want to get stuck in any ruts.

Editor's Note: As of 22 May 1998, Myth II: Soulblighter has been officially announced. Read more at http://www.bungie.com/mythII/default.html .

AK: What are your plans for your older, successful games such as the Marathon trilogy? Might we see a new Marathon game or possibly updated versions with TCP/IP support? How about for Pathways into Darkness?

DZ: It's very unlikely we would go back to modify any games we have out there. It would be much easier to re-write Marathon from scratch with TCP/IP than it would be to stick TCP in the current code and make it work — it just wasn't built for TCP/IP. It's possible we might make a new Marathon, years down the road, out of nostalgia, but we have no plans for another first-person shooter any time soon.

AK: With the recent booming success of Myth: The Fallen Lords, it would appear that Myth Mania has overtaken Bungie. Did this success come as a surprise to you? What has this meant for the company?

DZ: We knew it was a lot cooler than some of the other games we saw at E3, and knew it was going to be a big game, but it was a surprise how big it turned out; we figured we'd win a couple of awards but didn't expect to win every one in our category. Though we were well known on the Mac, this was the first time many Windows users had heard of us, so it was a breakthrough title on that side. It bodes well — means we won't have to struggle so much to get our next title recognized.

AK: Unlike many of the prevalent Macintosh gaming companies, you distribute your titles through retail channels as well as online. Why did you chose to go the catalog/store ordering route? Have online orders remained a substantial part of Bungie's profit?

DZ: It's very hard getting into the retail channel as an independent publisher but it's critical to surviving as a commercial software company (shareware is a whole other deal). Since retail chains carry so little Mac stuff, mail-order houses are more important for Mac gamers, and websites probably do disproportionate Mac sales. The web store at http://www.bungie.com/ is a nice addition to revenue, as are our direct sales, 
but the great majority of sales go to distributors and are destined for retailers. The difference between retail chains and mail-order/direct sales is the heart of the difference between publishing a game for Windows and for the Mac.

AK: When you are not working late nights at Bungie, keeping Bungie's press looking good, and performing your "Publicity Engineer " duties, what do you do with your life?

DZ: When I'm not running Bungie PR, I'm the landlord of a three-flat in Chicago. I fix the plumbing, throw beer parties, play a little percussion. I like cooking, reading and playing computer games.

AK: Has a commitment to Macintosh support been a goal of Bungie's since day one?

DZ: In the beginning we made games for the Mac because it's what we owned and what we knew. Mac game buyers have made us what we are today, and since a lot of development is still done on the Mac, and we know Mac marketing like the back of our collective hand, it simply wouldn't make sense for us to stop making Mac games. 

AK: With cross-platform games like Myth, which platform have you received the most support from, Macintosh or Windows?

DZ: Well, if by "support" you mean sales, most of our sales have been to Windows users — about 5 to 1. That's a very high percentage of Mac users for a game. Most hybrid games are about 9 to 1 Windows. 

AK: What do you foresee as the future of computer gaming, especially on the Mac?

DZ: It looks like there may be a little Renaissance coming for the Mac — stock price is up, the G3s are wicked fast machines and doing very well. It kind of reminds me of when the first PowerPCs were released in 1994 — it was a good time for Macs and a great time for games 'cuz there was finally a Mac fast enough to play really cutting-edge games (like Marathon). I sincerely hope we see that again.

The End

I thank Doug Zartman sincerely for providing us with some time away from his never ending work at Bungie Software, to discuss who he is and what he does for us all. It is those accomplishments that enhance our daily computing experiences! 

For More information on Bungie Software and all its fabulous gaming titles, visit the Bungie webpage:
http://www.bungie.com/ .

If there is a well-known person in the Mac community that you are dying to learn more about, please let me know. I would love to hear your suggestions and your comments about my column. You can reach me at macintalk@applewizards.net . Thanks!

     Alex Kushner
        macintalk@applewizards.net

   

                                             http://applewizards.net/