Tuesday, 20 April 2010 16:17 Last Updated on Tuesday, 04 May 2010 16:41 Written by neutron

Interview in HandAction number 101 in April 2010

Interview with Sascha Staat, Marketing Manager at Neutron Games.

How came the idea to make an handball simulation?

In 2007 our creative art director and co-CEO Gregor Ilg, who played for a fourth-league side in Berlin, injured his anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL), one of the worst injuries for an athlete. While playing other video games during his rehabilitation he got bored because there was no handball game available and he decided to change that.

Why does the whole development takes so long?

It’s our goal to publish a game which will convince the people and satisfy their request for quality. Other companies have published games or will do so in the near future, but they got very bad ratings and we want the users to enjoy our game. It’s a very complex matter to develop such a game, together with the software for the education of coaches and referees, and it also takes a lot of patience.

What were the challenges you faced in designing the game?

The major challenge for such a project is, as always, money. People are waiting for a game like Handball Challenge, so there is a lot of request within the gamer community but also with active handball players or fans. But the designer team has to be paid, licenses have to be paid and the office is full of screens, computers and various other things you can only do with money.

Will it be possible to play with real teams with real names?

We already bought the license of the TOYOTA Handball-Bundesliga, so the first and second German division will be part of the game and Germany is the biggest market we have. But we want to satisfy people in France, Spain or Croatia as well and will start further negotiations soon.

Did you have difficulties to acquire licenses or have you been denied?

It’s never easy to get a license and you need a lot of patience. But I think the quality of our product is the main reason why we were able to get the license of the TOYOTA Handball-Bundesliga and that makes us optimistic for future negotiations. Luckily we didn’t get a no as answer so far.

How is the promotion for the game organized?

One of our main marketing tools is Facebook and other social media networks like YouTube, where we usually place all our videos. We can reach people everywhere with only a few mouse clicks, which is very comfortable considering our small budget for marketing. Another main point is the partnership with handball stars around the world and soon we will be able to announce the co-operation with a major French player as well, so stay tuned.

What impact does this have for the moment, in Germany and in the world of handball?

I think many handball fans in Germany already know about us and the interest is very high and also the feedback is very positive. We want to change the way handball is brought to the younger players and also change the education of referees with our software Handball Trainer 3D. To answer your question, I think the impact will be huge once we release the HT3D.

Here you can download the interview as PDF version in french.