Danny Goodayle, co-founder of Just a Pixel discussed the events surrounding the development and pending release of his studio's game Light, their first effort. The game was a hit on Steam Greenlight and the developers, a small team of 2, excitedly decided to begin a Kickstarter campaign to fund their game. During the course of the campaign they were contacted by Team17 who wished to publish their game and were also Greenlit. They cancelled their Kickstarter, finished up their contracts and have been building the game since late 2013, to be shown at REZZED later this month. Goodayle discussed the difficulties and stresses of building the complex AI they had devised and his thankfulness to people they had hired into the project, even commenting that the visual design of the game was altered due to some music written by Gavin Harrison. Team17 were also given praise for their hands-off approach to their involvement, offering help where it was needed but otherwise allowing the developers to work to the beat of their own drum (with deadlines of course).
Light looking all gorgeously volumetric
Hearing of their highs and lows was an extremely interesting insight into their development cycle and Goodayle says he learned much from the experience; the value of delegating tasks and not being too untrustworthy with handing your work off to others, the fish-out-of-water feeling of suddenly being introduced to deadlines, QA tests, concerns about optimising the game for a range of systems. The game is currently in a prototyping stage and has no release date as of yet but follow the guys on their twitter feeds and check back on their site for updates.
Steve Iles gave his perspective from the PR side of things, one rarely considered and often considered too late by many designers. He stressed the importance of PR in a successful game, even an independent once. While PR doesn't guarantee success, nor does a lack of actively presenting a work deny its success, Iles discussed what a publisher can bring to the table, including expertise, contacts, experience and an existing market position in many cases. Publishers and producers can really take a lot of the work load of presenting, advertising and spreading news of your game, freeing you up to build; they know the business and will do their best to make your game a commercial success if that is your goal. He also discussed the importance of knowing your target market, knowing what they respond to and knowing how to market to them, noting the Asian mobile market as one of particular importance at the moment. Finally Iles discussed the future of games as a medium, using a term close to my heart, transmedia worlds. These are narrative universes spanning over various media, not simply retelling the narrative of the original but expanding it. Iles considers these transmedia worlds as a large part of the future of games as a medium and I am inclined to agree.
I've already talked a little about Louise James but I'll happily discuss her again. James, the young director of Generic Evil Business Inc., gave her reasons for loving Twitter as a social tool but also as a tool for finding work and making contacts. She discussed the Twitter conversations that led her to work with Dan Marshall of Size Five Games on their game Gun Monkeys and led to a collaborative relationship that they still maintain. Through Twitter James was also able to secure work with other teams, studios and developers and was able to aid others in finding opportunities. The social networking site also enabled her to boost sales of tools she had built by getting the word out of their existence across a network of individuals with similar interests and careers. These relationships built on Twitter have provided a network of contacts and client base that is invaluable and exhaustive, so give her a follow because she's a great contact to have!
Monkeys... with guns... Gun Monkeys!
James Parker of Opposable Games and Alastair Aitcheson, a solo indie developer, were both at odds in their design ideals. While Parker discussed Opposable's interest in second-screen or dual-screen games and networking players, Aitcheson was enthralled by the idea of large touchscreens with multiple players on the same device. Parker lamented the use of second-screens in gaming today, commenting that they are often gimicks that can detract from the play experience by removing vital tools from visible space and putting them on a phone. It is his studio's intent to create second-screen games that utilise both screens effectively but do not force the user to shift their focus when it is needed on another screen. In their upcoming title Salvage they aim to do this by limiting interactions to the second-screen and not forcing a user to use a mouse or keyboard or controller in addition to it. Parker also commented that though people understand the term second-screen and it is easy to use it does not mean the so-called 'second-screen' has to take second place to the 'first-screen'. They also know the audience for their game is a core audience, tech savvy and more able to set up and understand the technology. Catch the game and the guys at REZZED later in the month as well.
Second-screen? First-screen
Alistair Aitchison is a lover of the interactions between people and aims to make games that people have to be in the same room to play. He likes to foster cheating and sabotage, designing his titles to allow and encourage players to screw each other over to win. For him games are about the meta-narrative, the interactions between friends that produce fun and humour. In his latest offering, Tap Happy Sabotage, players must collect cards by tapping them while tapping other players' 'trap' cards, reducing their points. It is a mad rush of tapping and finger wrestling with some extra mechanics thrown in to make the game more competitive and fun. In order to achieve all this, larger screens are much more effective and Aitcheson said he has played his game with 10 players on a single screen. After discussing the ubiquity of touchscreen devices in the near future he went on to say that large screen games are a niche market at the moment and so designing for them now will place you ahead of the curve, though there are many ergonomic considerations for larger screens that must be considered like fidelity of movement in comparison to a smaller screen and fatigue from large, long, extended periods of movement and play.
They're certainly happy about... something
It seems the main points to take home throughout the talks was that accepting help when it's needed is never, ever a bad thing, and actively employing or seeking that help from someone who knows what they're doing is even better. Though you should try new things and make an attempt at something, even if it seems daunting, knowing when you're beat isn't a failure and neither is a helping hand, sometimes it's the difference between success and failure! But the main thing is exposure; follow up on leads, message the right people about your product and efforts, get the word out and have a presence online. People will want to search you and your game and the easier you make it for them to find that info and then buy your game when it releases, the more likely your game is to be a success. Think about marketing and press from the very start of your project and give yourself time to implement some PR. You can make your game a success and earn a living from what you do as a game designer or creator but you have to be active if that's your goal.
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