Before making Returnal and Saros, Housemarque starred in a great documentary

In February, Housemarque closed out Sony’s State of Play presentation with a trailer for its next game, Saros, a big new original game that builds on what the studio made with 2021’s Returnal, generating plenty of excitement and positioning the team as one of Sony’s premier first-party studios.

Years before any of that kicked off, though, Housemarque was a small, independent team working on arcade-style shooters like Resogun, Dead Nation, and Matterfall. During the production of one of those, 2017’s Nex Machina, the studio let a documentary team in to film the process.

The game — a collaboration with Defender and Robotron designer Eugene Jarvis — reviewed well but underperformed and marked a turning point for the studio. And the documentary, The Name of the Game, ended up being one of the best looks at game development on film, capturing a team living through uncertainty just before that turning point.

In an effort to spotlight game-related books and documentaries, Polygon is running an email interview series with the people behind them. A little over a week ago, we connected with Julian Rignall about his not-quite-an-autobiography The Games of a Lifetime, and this week we’re chatting with The Name of the Game co-director Paul Vogel about what it was like filming with Housemarque back then, what he thinks of Saros, and whether he’d want to do it all over again.

Polygon: I know we’re a number of years out now since The Name of the Game was released, but how did it come about in the first place?

Paul Vogel: It was actually a pretty funny coincidence — and even slightly embedded into the documentary itself! One of the producers, Jirka Silander, ran into one of the main characters, Mikael Haveri, on a tram. They had known each other since childhood but hadn’t seen each other in ages. They got talking, and it turned out Mikael was working at Housemarque, which was about to embark on its first self-published game. They were even considering launching a Kickstarter for the project.  

Mikael knew Jirka was part of our small production company, New Dawn, which, at the time, focused heavily on commercials. The two set up a meeting that brought me and their social media manager, Tommaso De Benetti, into the conversation to discuss a potential pitch video for the Kickstarter campaign.  

After sitting down with them and realizing that one of the leading modern arcade developers was teaming up with Eugene Jarvis — one of the most prominent arcade legends of the ’80s — it quickly became clear that there was a much bigger story to tell than just a Kickstarter video. We proposed following them around with cameras for a while to get a better sense of what that story could be.  

Fast forward several years, and our feature-length documentary, The Name of the Game, was born.

We don’t see a lot of documentaries covering game studios with this sort of access, where you’re along for the ride at key moments. Logistically, what kind of cost/time/effort did it take to produce?

Logistics was by far one of the trickiest parts of it all. We were fortunate to be with the team through stressful times, moments of heartbreak, and even life-changing events. But the cost of that was time — a lot of time. From day one to the final edit being rendered for the very last time, nearly four years had passed. That tested us as filmmakers in ways we hadn’t anticipated.  

At times, we questioned whether a complete story would even come together or if the journey would lead to a satisfying ending for a film. But being with the team for so long is exactly what made capturing some of the most intimate moments possible — from [spoiler alert] one of our main characters welcoming their firstborn to another losing their job.  

None of this would have been possible without essentially becoming an extension of the team and earning their complete trust.

What were the biggest challenges you ran into in pulling it together?  

This ties into the previous answer a bit, but I think the trickiest part was capturing all the important moments — or even having the foresight to know what would end up being important once all was said and done. The first six months felt like we were stuck in one boring meeting room after another. We even joked that the documentary might as well be called Meeting Room: The Movie.  

Out of the 200+ hours of footage we shot, I can safely say that more than half was filmed in just a couple of rooms — people talking, planning, joking. And the challenge was that you never really know what will be useful until much later in the process. My co-director, Jarno Elonen, had a long history in game development and was working at Housemarque at the time. The idea was that he’d be stationed at the office and could quickly capture anything unexpected as it happened. While that sounded great in theory, it rarely worked out that way. Instead, we had to constantly probe, stay in the loop, and figure out when key meetings, decisions, and trips were happening so we could tag along.  

The number of times we missed something we thought was critical is more than I can count. But, in the end, the way everything panned out proved that none of what we missed was essential to telling the story. The entire filmmaking process felt like navigating an enormous decision tree, with certain paths closing and others unexpectedly opening. Sometimes, what we thought the movie would be changed overnight. And, in hindsight, it was always for the better.

Any particular behind-the-scenes stories stand out in retrospect?

One less pleasant behind-the-scenes moment happened during a trip to Paris for Paris Games Week. The team had originally planned to reveal Nex Machina to the world, but due to some last-minute hiccups as shown in the doc, that didn’t happen. The second night there, we all went out for dinner together, and soon after, Mikael started feeling queasy. Then someone else. Then another. Before we knew it, every last member of the team — including me and Jarno — was sick. And not the kind of sick you can just sleep off. This was the keep-a-restroom-within-30-seconds-at-all-times kind of sick.  

To make matters worse, it wasn’t just a one-day thing. After flying back to Finland, I had to immediately turn around and head to L.A. for AFM, where I was pitching the film to potential distributors just days later. I can safely say that was the longest 11-hour flight of my life.  

Another interesting moment took place when Eugene visited Finland. The core team gathered for an evening at a beautiful ocean-side rental house, complete with plenty of drinks and an outdoor jacuzzi to warm up after dips in the icy water. This was where the stark contrast between Finnish and American culture became glaringly obvious.  

In Finland, where there are more saunas than cars, people are extremely comfortable with nudity. Combine that with Finland’s well-known drinking culture, and you’ve got one very out-of-his-element Eugene. To top it off, a fully clothed camera crew was there, filming his every move. While we did our best to make the situation as comfortable as possible, there was no way around it — it was pretty damn awkward for everyone involved!

Did you see the trailer for Housemarque’s new game Saros? Any early thoughts? Would you ever want to do another film following the team again?

I did! And it looks dope! I’m expecting high-octane, bullet-hell goodness that keeps me on my toes. I really enjoyed Returnal and hope Saros delivers equally tight gameplay. Platinum or bust, baby!  

As for a follow-up to The Name of the Game — the thought has definitely crossed my mind, but it really comes down to whether there’s a compelling story to tell. With NOTG, we never set out to make a film about making a video game; we wanted to tell a story about the people behind making games and the lengths they were willing to go to chase their dreams. That’s something anyone can relate to, whether they’re into video games or not.  

We were incredibly lucky to follow Housemarque at a pivotal crossroads — both for the company and the individuals we documented. Harry Krueger was stepping into the role of game director for the first time, carrying far more responsibility than he had on Resogun. Mikael and Tommaso were under immense pressure as Nex Machina was planned to be self-published and self-funded. And on a larger scale, Housemarque was in the midst of a transformation, questioning whether their long-standing approach was sustainable.  

Despite Nex Machina being critically acclaimed, it became clear that smaller-scale modern arcade shooters just weren’t profitable enough. That realization forced Housemarque to reinvent itself, leading to the creation of their next project, its first AAA title, Returnal, and Housemarque eventually becoming a Sony first-party studio. Had our doc not suffered the same fate as Nex Machina, that might have made for a great follow-up.