Andrew Perry: How has the reception for Rivals of Aether been since launch?

Dan Fornace: Reception has been incredible. Bigger than we expected for sure. It was a surreal experience seeing so many people try out the game on our first week of Early Access. It was particularly cool to see some of the Smash Bros pros that I have watched for years give the game a shot and enjoy themselves.

Andrew Perry: How has the process been porting ‘Rivals’ to the Xbox One?

Dan Fornace: The port to Xbox One has been moving behind the scenes. Due to the amount of work it takes to have a game on Early Access, we wanted to reach out and find someone to help specifically with the Xbox One version. We are working on finalizing our agreement and then hope to be able to get on the Xbox Game Preview Program as soon as possible.

Andrew Perry: What caused you to make some of the decisions that separate ‘Rivals’ from other Smash-esque fighters? Mainly, the replacement of shielding with a parry system and no ledges but a wall jump for each character?

Dan Fornace: So the majority of the engine design choices are made for two reasons. The first is that ‘Rivals’ has a focus on offensive combat, that means defensive options that players see in the smash series have been reduced. The second is for scope reasons.

Grabs were one of the first tools eliminated as I knew the work required to make multi-directional throws look good. You can’t just animated them for each character if you want to do cooler throws, you have to give opponents custom reactions. When working with sprites, the workload becomes exponential based on the number of characters in the game.

Once we eliminated grabs, we had to remove shields. We essentially removed rock-paper-scissors from a fighting game. Now we were left with just attacking. The parry initially started out similar to a smash spot dodge. But then I added a powershield version of the spot dodge that would have better effects than just dodging. Because of how useful this beefed up spot-dodge was, I ended up extending its active frames to the entire length and created a Parry. The Parry has 2 startup frames, 8 active frames and 20 recovery frames across most the characters. When your opponent hits you during the 8 active frames of the Parry, you gain invincibility and then your opponent suffers additional lag once their attack completes. That means if you parry something slow and strong such as a Kragg Forward Strong, then you have the time it takes for the the attack to end AND the additional lag to punish Kragg. There are two ways to counter parries. The first is by baiting them out. Because nearly all aerials autocancel, you can actually bait out a parry by attacking close but weaving away instead of hitting. This is similar to safely shield poking with aerials in Smash Bros. The second way to work around parries is by using jabs up close. As long as you don’t finish the jab combo, you will not have extra lag if your jab is parried. Jabs are low-risk, low-reward.

Ledge grabs were removed because of my time playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl competitively. I had been in matches that went to time (not that uncommon as I played Sonic) and I had seen just how destructive ledges became in the Brawl competitive scene. I wanted to make sure there was no stalling off stage and that the corner was not the safest part of the battlefield. Each character can wall-jump even out of prat fall, but you only get one jump unless you are hit or touch solid ground. This is to prevent stalling off stage while giving a character like Zetterburn some tools to mix up his recovery.

Andrew Perry: Every character in ‘Rivals’ plays differently, having a unique quirk or mechanic that no other character can emulate, so you get a distinct feeling when playing each. How did you think of ways to make each one different?

Dan Fornace: Part of the design behind the movesets was to make something unique to give each character its own identity. For inspiration, we don’t simply look at Smash Bros or Fighting Games. Wrastor’s current for example is inspired by Galio’s Righteous Gust from League of Legends while Kragg’s Pillar was inspired by the test scene in Full Metal Alchemist. When first designing a character we begin with creating a few mechanics that tie into each other. We have a bit of an advantage in this regard because many of the character designs are created after the moveset designs. We know what type of moveset we want to create and then can design a character visual to match. This also allows us to tie attacks and specials together in unique ways because we think of each moveset holistically rather than as separate attacks.

Andrew Perry: With Absa being released, who I cannot wait to play, I have to ask—any information on the next locked character? We already can gather it’s a water elemental, but any other hints you can tell us?

Dan Fornace: It is the last character in our initial roster of 8. And yes it will be our second water character. The roster could probably use another heavy so Kragg has a friend, don’t you think?

Andrew Perry: I noticed some Melee pros, such as Mang0, have played Rivals and seemed to enjoy it. Do you think ‘Rivals’ has the potential to become a game played at EVO annually?

Dan Fornace: I don’t think we really have a shot at EVO to be honest with you. We are incredibly small compared to the games that are on stage at EVO. For a comparison, we have about 5-8 people working on the game in total. AAA fighters could have more than that working on a single character model and texture. I do however think that other platform fighters could make their way on the main stage. Who knows, maybe Rivals 2 will be an EVO mainstay in a few years

Andrew Perry: How long do you plan on supporting ‘Rivals’? Will we see more characters released in the future if the game does well?

Dan Fornace: We plan to support ‘Rivals’ for around one year after our full launch. I would love to expand the roster and do a couple of balance passes after we fully launch. After we add a few more characters, I would aim to take our learnings and start on a bigger scoped game in the world of Aether. We have a solid base that we could build off and expand on. I see an opportunity for Platform Fighters to thrive in a similar vein as MOBAs did about 5 years ago. We want to make sure we are at the forefront of that movement.

I’ll admit that I’ve never been a fan of visual novels. I have nothing against them; it just isn’t a genre I’m interested in. That said, MangaGamer’s announcement a while back that their upcoming Steam release of Kindred Spirits on the Roof would be uncensored caught my attention. While larger games like The Witcher have been able to slip by on Steam and consoles with their sexual content intact, it’s no secret that visual novels and dating sims have had a much more difficult time, with HuniePop being a fairly notable example. While Kindred Spirit‘s sexual content is much more tame than some other visual novels out there, this is still a pretty big departure from Valve’s usual stance.

I sat down with John Pickett from MangaGamer for an interview about Kindred Spirit‘s Steam release and sexual content on Steam in general. Warning: some of the links in this article are NSFW.

Me: I’d like to start with an introduction. Tell us a little about yourself and MangaGamer.

John Pickett: Gladly. My name is John Pickett (though I go as Kouryuu online), and I work as the Head Translator and PR Director for MangaGamer. Our company, MangaGamer, is a coalition founded by several Japanese developers of visual novels who wanted to expand and cultivate the market for visual novels here in the West. We strive to showcase the diversity that visual novels can offer as a medium by localizing a wide variety of titles that range the full breadth of storytelling genres and offer different elements for different people to enjoy.

Me: So what is Kindred Spirits on the Roof about? What’s the game like and what can people expect from it?

John: Kindred Spirits is a lighthearted story following Yuna as she acts as a “yuri cupid” for two ghosts who haunt her all-girls school. The ghosts have watched many girls graduate with unrequited feelings for other students, and now with Yuna’s help they can finally give those girls some encouragement. Initially reluctant, Yuna eventually embraces her role as yuri cupid as she helps the game’s wide cast of couples develop their relationships. Players can expect the game to explore a variety of relationships: some start as friends or as one-sided crushes or as couples who have been dating for a few years already. The game strikes a good balance between realism and playful fun, treating the girls’ situations with respect and never falling into the unfortunate trope of the tragic lesbian couple doomed never to be together.

Me: I’m not sure if you can really answer this, but how in the world did you manage to get an uncensored erotic visual novel on Steam when so many other devs had to censor their games?

John: Well, let’s be clear – it is uncut, though it would be hard to describe Kindred Spirits as erotic or even adult entertainment. A lot of it has to do with the exact nature of the content in Kindred Spirits. All of the more intimate scenes are more internally focused on the characters’ emotions rather than the physical action between partners. In terms of visual depiction, most of the scenes merely include some nudity.

Of course, there’s no explicit penetration described in the text of Kindred Spirits’ scenes. Each of the couples in Kindred Spirits confirms each other’s consent multiple times in each scene.

For all of these reasons, we speculate that Valve decided that the scenes in Kindred Spirits did not constitute explicit adult content; a decision we whole-heartedly agree with – that’s why we recommended it for the user base on Steam!

Me: In your opinion, do you think the reason why Valve is allowing Kindred Spirits onto Steam unedited is because it isn’t as explicit as some of the other games from MangaGamer? Do you think things would be different if Kindred Spirits featured straight or yaoi sex scenes?

John: I would say that’s definitely the case. Titles like our upcoming release of euphoria or Beat Blades Haruka contain very explicit sex scenes and are clearly targeted toward mature adults. We would never recommend those titles to Steam or any other retail platform that caters to a significant number of minors in their audience. When working with Valve, we always take their audience into consideration before making our suggestions.

We’re fairly happy with these arrangements too, since it gives us a niche which we can really stand out in, and lets us help provide services that meet the needs of developers around the world, who otherwise might not find a place in the English market.

That being said, in my personal opinion, I believe it’s reasonable to observe that Valve might allow straight or yaoi scenes which are presented just as tastefully and discreetly as Kindred Spirits does with its scenes.

Me: What has the community and media response to Kindred Spirits being allowed on Steam unedited been like thus far?

John: A lot of the media has definitely run with the idea that it’s “explicit XXX sex on Steam,” causing a lot of outcry and excitement somewhat dishonestly. Though, I think what we’re seeing is a good commentary on the future of gaming as the generation that grew up with video games gets older, and their tastes grow more diverse.

From what we’ve seen, the community and player response on the other hand has been overwhelmingly positive. So many fans are excited to be seeing strides made toward progress on free storytelling in the video game medium, so many fans are excited to be seeing lesbian couples given a decent representation on a mainstream platform, and so many fans are excited to see more games coming to Steam. The community has definitely been very positive, supportive, and uplifting with regards to this endeavor. It makes us realize yet again just how much fans love the possibilities these games present, and encourages everyone on our team to keep giving 120%.

Me: How do you feel about MangaGamer and Kindred Spirits potentially paving the way for more uncensored visual novels and dating sims on Steam?

John: We think it’s still too early to say just what the future may hold in store, but we’re certainly excited and optimistic. It’s nice to see sexual content gaining more mainstream acceptance and recognition as a valuable part of artistic expression. The more people are free to tell the stories they want to share with the world, the better off we all are as a society. Our company philosophy has always been that, and that’s why our store offers uncensored content for all of our games whenever available.

I think you can see that more recent releases have more lax restrictions definitely compared to a few years ago, and our relationship with Valve is much stronger now because of that. Our account manager in particular, has been especially kind-hearted and understanding.

Me: On a somewhat related note, assuming things go smoothly with the Steam release of Kindred Spirits, can we expect to see more titles from MangaGamer getting Steam releases?

John: Absolutely. Valve has been and continues to be a wonderful partner for us. Kindred Spirits was a fortuitous opportunity that arose as part of our current efforts to expand the content we’re able to offer the market; but we’ll also be releasing a host of works in the coming quarter. We hope that the market on Steam and our platform really enjoy the our new releases of such as Himawari, MYTH, Shadows of Pygmalion, and Umineko.

In 2016, we’ll most likely be releasing both an adult and an all-ages version of Princess Evangile W Happiness, with the all-ages version being available on Steam while we sell the adult version on our website.

Me: Are there any tips you’d like to share with other developers hoping to get romantic visual novels/dating sims on Steam, unedited or otherwise?

John: Well, one of our biggest tips is probably a reminder that we offer our own website to interested developers as a retail platform for selling the uncut, unedited adult versions of various games. We’ve already worked with several developers and games such as HuniePot’s HuniePop, Lupiesoft’s The Menagerie, and Unwonted Studios’ No One But You (Coming Soon). We work hard to help ensure developers have a place to sell their games as intended, so they don’t have to compromise on their creative design.

Publishing can be a rough business—we highly encourage developers to approach us with the goals and ideas they have for their products if they think it fits our user base. We can offer much better assistance about which strategies work best for what developers want to create, and tailor it to the market they want to the best of our ability. So that’s the biggest tip we’d offer to anyone trying to figure out how to manage their publishing and release strategies.

Me: Besides Kindred Spirits, what are some other upcoming games from MangaGamer?

John: We’ve recently released our first yuri title on Steam, A Kiss for the Petals: Remembering How We Met, an all-ages title telling the romance between two young women. We’ve also just published Kara no Shojo 2, a mature murder-mystery set in 1950s Japan featuring interactive detective work such as examining crime scenes and piecing together clues to try and solve the murders.

Our 2015 expansion for Go Go Nippon, which completely revamps the engine, resolution, sprites, and adds a lot of new features and CGs is already available as well. Coming up on Steam, we’ll soon be releasing Higurashi When They Cry: Watanagashi, the second chapter in the hit Higurashi series, and finishing work on Supipara from minori.

We’re also looking to release euphoria later this month on our own website. Euphoria is a really exciting title we’ve been working on that focuses on psychological horror and pushes a lot of common boundaries, so we hope people will see past its shock value to enjoy the deep story behind it all.

Me: Thanks for your time!

Kindred Spirits on the Roof will be coming out next year on Steam and MangaGamer. You can check out MangaGamer’s current Steam releases here.

Black Shell Media is a multimedia marketing and PR studio specializing in distribution and publishing of indie games! We do a lot of marketing and work with websites, YouTubers and streamers, journalists and more, but our primary focus is on helping indie developers get on Steam and build a fanbase! Black Shell started off as my business partner, Daniel Doan, developing SanctuaryRPG while wrapping up his undergraduate degree in psychology. I, Raghav Mathur, joined him about six months later, in the summer of 2013, and eventually we grew into Black Shell Media! We filed as an LLC (a whole journey in itself!) and now it’s official. We’re both super excited to be doing what we do!

Raghav Mathur, co-founder of Black Shell Media

You work primarily in indie games, though your lineup seems pretty diverse. What does Black Shell look for in games/clients? Are there any through-lines in your catalog of games?

We have a selection process by which our company partners only with games and developers that would be a good fit with our brand and our personalities. Every game we publish has been analyzed, and we’ve had conversations with the developers to make sure we are going to have killer synergy! Both Daniel and I, as well as the rest of our studio, are avid gamers, so it’s a lot of just looking at what we personally feel comfortable working on. I find that by working on stuff you’re passionate about, you end up performing far better than you would by forcing yourself to work on something you aren’t personally enjoying.

What’s your plan of attack when building a game’s brand? Your website lists Twitter growth, publishing, and marketing, but do any take precedence over the others?

We view most aspects equally! Building a brand is a multi-channel and multi-faceted challenge, so we hit it on multiple fronts such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and more. We focus a lot on Steam and Steam forum engagement because we like to centralize the playerbase around Steam and encourage fans to chat amongst themselves and talk to the developers through Steam forums, but the rest of our marketing channels like the press and Twitter all complement each other.

Games are fun, but Black Shell is a business. What’s your workspace like? How do you balance the joy of working in the games industry with doing good work?

It’s a lot easier than you’d think! I’ve actually been playing games less since I started working with Daniel. I figure that each hour of my time is valuable, and if I have a free hour I’d rather spend it working rather than playing. Now this isn’t to say that I don’t kick back and enjoy a few rounds of Zombie Party numerous times per month when I’m with friends, but most of my available time is dedicated to work and its numerous aspects. Our work environment is very relaxed except around new launches. Then it’s crazy.

You guys are based in Basking Ridge, NJ. Is there an indie game scene in your neck of the woods?

I actually lived in Basking Ridge until about a month ago, when I moved out to the Bay Area! Daniel is based in Bakersfield, CA. We met on Reddit and all of our team is a mixture of connections we had or people we recruited online. Basking Ridge didn’t have as much of an indie game scene, but its proximity to New York and Boston lent itself easily to having opportunities to attend conventions and meetups! San Francisco, on the other hand, is bursting at the seams with indie games. It rocks!

I assume you all, or at least most of you, are gamers yourselves. What games are the folks at Black Shell into right now?

Personally, I’m playing a lot of Zombie Party. Ben, the developer, is a cool guy and I really like grabbing a projector, inviting a few friends to join and shooting up zombies together. I’m also revisiting a lot of the Portal series and trying out the levels again. I had originally played them a while back and it’s interesting to see how quickly I can now work through puzzles I thought were challenging back then! Maybe I’ve grown and gotten better as a gamer. Maybe I was just really dumb back then. We’ll never know!

Anything cool you’re currently working on?

We’re working closely with a lot of bigger brands in the press and media, and it’s been awesome to get to develop relationships with journalists, YouTube personalities and Twitch streamers. It’s a whole other world, and I thoroughly enjoy seeing their fanbases intersect with ours as they cover or play our games.

Thanks! – anything else?

Just a word of advice to developers––don’t be afraid of publishers! We often get a bad rap, but game publishers can really bring a lot to the table in terms of connections, reach, network and more. Black Shell aside, there are a ton of very talented publishers and marketing whizzes out there like NovyPR or Evolve PR. Get out there and start reaching out sooner rather than later!

Raghav Mathur is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Black Shell Media. Find him on Twitter at @Xinasha

With that out of the way, onto the interview.

Me: Before we begin, why don’t you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us a little about Propelled Bird Software.

Clay Walters: So my name is Clay Walters, I’m the founder and lead developer at Propelled Bird Software. Propelled Bird started back in my sophomore year in high school (mid 2011 I think) basically as a group of friends building something with just for shits. We were originally working on this sort of Far Cry/Hills Have Eyes love child thing, when we started messing with a bunch of the Unreal Development Kit’s physics stuff. After awhile, we ended up playing with an idea that become the main mechanic behind the Catalyst, the gun featured in our first game, TesserAct. We saw something really neat in it, and decided to make Propelled Bird into something more. Since TesserAct‘s launch, the team has nearly doubled in size, and we’re looking to announce our second title really soon.

Me: TesserAct was released on Steam almost a year ago now. What’s the game like and what sets it apart from other first person puzzle games like Portal or Q.U.B.E.?

Clay: TesserAct is the offspring of us breaking UDK and seeing what we could do with the pieces. We were huge fans of games like Portal and Antichamber, and when we stumbled onto what would be the Catalyst device, we couldn’t have been more excited. The game itself went through a TON of iterations in terms of theme, starting off as a sort of underwater adventure, to time travel, and eventually we settled on multiverse themes. Something we wanted to try to do differently was we wanted the world of TesserAct to feel plausible (in any sense we could considering the multiverse-bending gun involved) by really thinking out how the universe worked.

We put countless hours into planning out the Heywood-Bowman facility’s lore, thinking about how something like the Catalyst would be used, and making the universe something we could potentially use later. We also wanted to steer away from the tried and true “test facility” we’ve come to see done in games like this. Players go through a broken facility after a major catastrophe, and use devices that weren’t made to test somebody, but rather as tools for maintenance/utility/emergency. The Catalyst device that the players use, for instance, was built as an emergency tool in case of sudden seismic shifts on Europa’s surface, where the game is located. I suppose that’s the game’s defining feature is that everything we put into the game was put there with a purpose in that universe.

Me: It’s certainly gotten easier over the last few years, but how hard was it for Propelled Bird to get TesserAct onto Steam? Was it Greenlit or did you get in on your own?

Clay: It was a huge rollercoaster. The actual Greenlight process went really, really well, we were Greenlit just a few weeks into it. That being said though, we went in prepared with a playable demo, and had done a concept Greenlight as well to get some initial feedback.

Me: I see that TesserAct has fairly mixed reviews on Steam. What sort of feedback have you received from the community and how has it shaped TesserAct post-launch, or possibly even with future games?

Clay: After launch, we received mix reviews, which was actually much more than we hoped for as high school developers making a game for the first time! People really enjoyed the atmosphere and world we had developed, which was awesome for us. We had some issues with stability when it came to levels, and overall it was a shorter game than previously expected, which led to most of our negative criticisms. That in mind, we take our feedback to heart. We try as hard as we can to listen to our community and fix what we can and let them know that we do listen. TesserAct was our way of putting our toes in the water, now that we know the temperature, we aim to make a big splash with our next project.

Me: Are there any plans to revisit TesserAct with DLC, or even a full sequel?

Clay: When we first built the game we were fairly certain it’d be a onetime thing. But now with a larger group of talented artists and programmers, and a bigger list of the do’s and don’ts of building a game from start to finish, we’ve talked about possibly going back to the universe of TesserAct. I suppose we’ll see where our team goes further down the road.

Me: On the subject of the future, does Propelled Bird Software have any other games in development right now?

Clay: We do indeed! We’re hoping to announce one very, very soon. Without saying too much about it, we are working on a 3rd person action game where people’s inner demons become a very real thing. We’re also building with the Xbox One in mind, so that’s been pretty exciting for us.

Me: So, a big part of the reason for this interview was an upcoming game jam Ben wanted to highlight. What’s this game jam all about?

Clay: Well a few weeks ago I was at a get-together with Ben and Rahul, who I hadn’t talked to in quite some time. He brought up how cool it’d be to get a couple of indie teams together to host a jam, and I felt like it could be a great way to stir up the indie dev scene here in the valley. The plan is to do a sort of Cutthroat Kitchen-styled jam, in which team’s would have the ability to either benefit themselves or handicap another team’s ability to make a game. We’re calling it the Developer’s Trinity Jam, with the theme set as “The Future.” There’s still work to be done, but the jam should be pretty rad, and our teams will be posting about it in the weeks to come on our various social medias!

Me: Sounds fun. Is there a concrete date for when the jam will take place? What’s the best way for developers to contact you if they want to join in?

Clay: The jam is set to be done during the weekend September 25th at the University of Advancing Technology. If anyone is interested they should email my team here at this address, or email Ben’s or Rahul’s teams. (liveinthegame@gmail.com and contact@roguerobotstudio.com respectively)

Me: Thanks for your time and good luck with the game jam and any future titles.

Propelled Bird Software’s first game, TesserAct, is currently on Steam for $15. You can find a free demo for it here.

Developer Spotlight is my new attempt to both do more interviews and give some coverage to indie companies that I’ve taken a liking to over the years. This first article in what I hope to make a semi-regular series is all about Arcen Games, a small indie studio known for making some really odd strategy games. Arcen’s titles usually blend genres in interesting new ways, like a 4X with turn-based shooter combat (The Last Federation) or a procedurally-generated Metroidvania with town management elements (A Valley Without Wind).

But I’m starting to ramble here. I’ll just let Chris Park tell you all about the awesome games they make over at Arcen.

IGS: First, why don’t you start by introducing yourself and talking a little about Arcen Games and the company’s history.

Chris Park: I’m Chris Park, the founder and lead designer at Arcen. Back in the dark ages of 2009, I founded the company as kind of a side gig. I had been working in the business software realm for about 8 years at that point, but game design and coding had been a lifetime hobby of mine. It seems like an alien thought today, but when I was a kid — and even back as recently as 2009 — being a game developer for a living was not a reasonable prospect. You might get lucky and do it, but you’d probably have to move. You’d probably have bad pay, and horrendous hours, and not actually get to have much creative input. No thanks.

By sheer luck, Arcen came to life right around the start of the indie revolution. Our first game, AI War: Fleet Command, remains our most popular, best-selling, and best-reviewed. But we’re now 8 games and… I want to say 7 expansions… along now. We’ve experimented in a lot of genres, had financial ups and downs, had staff growth and shrinkages, and overall been on an upward trend each year despite the stress and occasional setbacks. Our most recent game, The Last Federation, got very positive reviews and is now our #2 bestseller, so that’s been a big boon for us.

At present there are five of us fulltime: myself on design, business, general producer duties, sound design, and programming; Keith LaMothe as our lead programmer; Pablo Vega as our ever-awesome composer; and Daniette “Blue” Wood and Cathrine Langwagen as our artists. Blue also takes on art director responsibilities, finding and coordinating the various independent contractor artists that we periodically work with. We then have a roster of part-timers, including Erik Johnson on PR and marketing, Josh Knapp on community management and support, and then a variety of musicians, writers, voice actors, and so on that we work with off and on.

It sounds more impressive than it is; we all work out of our homes, and we try to keep it to as few people as possible while still being able to get the work done. Still, it’s a long way away from where we started when it was just me doing everything except music, which was Pablo from the start.

IGS: As you yourself pointed out, AI War remains your most successful game and still gets regular updates and expansions. Why do you think this particular game caught on the way it did?

Chris Park: It was one of Metacritic’s top-rated PC games (across all genres) for 2009, and Rock Paper Shotgun just named it as one of their top strategy games of all time. To a very large extent it is frustrating not being able to top your debut title, I will say. And if I knew exactly why it resonated so strongly, you can bet I’d try to do that again and again.

All of Arcen’s games are experimental and blend the familiar and the novel to various degrees. They also blend genres to various degrees. AI War happened to hit the sweet spot, evidently, and it also filled a void in the RTS games market that no other game has really touched to this day.

The mechanics of AI War are really familiar to an RTS player, overall: you can just sit down and pretty much know how to play and move things around. Just like you can sit down with whatever FPS game, and pretty much have your bearings on the controls within minutes. But AI War really challenges things in terms of what you do with those controls: you have to advance against a far superior foe, taking territory and gaining power… but not taking so much territory that the AI enemy notices you too much and comes to smash you.

So that turns all the actual strategy portions of the game on its head. You are not in a zerg rush to capture resource points: your enemy already has them all. You are not trying to capture all the territory and “paint the map your color” to gradually win: at some point during that process, the AI will notice you enough that they crush you. These differences on the macro scale, plus a ton of smaller mechanics, make for an experience that is familiar mechanically, but which takes you into the territory of leading a guerrilla fighting force, which is exciting and new.

Oh, and of course the AI itself: it’s coded unlike any other in the genre, and so it does a lot of really interesting and surprising things. It uses a distributed intelligence and some flocking-like algorithms to make for a truly worthy foe.

IGS: I personally really enjoyed Bionic Dues and rank it as one of my favorite Arcen titles, which is why I’m a bit disappointed that it never received an expansion like many other games you’ve created. Are there any plans to revisit Bionic Dues at some point?

Chris Park: For Bionic Dues, that’s a tricky proposition. I definitely really love it also, and it was a blast to make. But it’s one of the games that, unfortunately, has not earned back the money that we spent making it. Out of all our games, only AI War (and expansions), Skyward Collapse (and expansion), and The Last Federation (and expansion) have earned back the money we spent making them.

That’s one of the risks of being really experimental with what we do, I suppose; we have a number of games that only caught on in a more niche way, that people would like to see more of but that aren’t financially viable for us. With Bionic, I would definitely like to revisit a lot of the ideas from it at some point in the future. The roguelike area interests me, and that sort of turn-based style in particular. I think I would do it really differently next time, just to have something fresh and that stands on its own, but I could definitely see a spiritual successor for that somewhere in the future.

The big killers for us with that game were, I think: 1) the name is a turnoff for people; 2) the screenshots are very, very dark, which is a turnoff when people first hit the steam page; 3) we failed to have a really concise, exciting pitch for why you should play that game compared to another roguelike. There are a lot of them. We see a lot of stats thanks to Steam and other partners, and we know for a fact that the name and icon were a big turnoff, because the clickthrough rate is unusually low for this game out of all ours. Then the quick bounce rate (glimpsing the screenshots, etc) is also unusually high.

So in revisiting the concepts that I really like about that game, I’d pick a better name, have much more bright and interesting screenshots, and figure out an added high-concept hook to pique people’s interest. With AI War, for instance, that simple hook is “some of the best AI you’ve ever seen.” That gets people to look further, and then they either like it or don’t. But when people don’t make it to that stage of looking further, which is what happened with Bionic Dues, that’s when you’ve got a really deadly problem in terms of having any sort of widespread success.

IGS: A Valley Without Wind has an interesting story attached to it. From what I’ve read, A Valley Without Wind 2 came about due to a combination of mixed reviews and the team’s own dissatisfaction with how some mechanics turned out, though feel free to correct me if I’m wrong there. This lead to the game being significantly overhauled and released as a free sequel to owners of the original. Could you talk a bit about the problems with the original and the decision to make so many drastic changes and give it away as a freebie to existing customers?

Chris Park: AVWW was a troubled project all along, in some respects. First off, it’s very ironic to note that the original game gets played about 5x more than the sequel, so there’s that. AVWW had a lot of pre-release buzz and excitement, but I was still finding my legs as a designer in some ways, and I really made a number of missteps in the cohesiveness of the game. Some of the parts don’t fit together as much as I would have wanted. AI War was a mix of genres: grand strategy, RTS, 4X, and even tower defense. But AVWW mixed citybuilding with a Metroidvania action-platformer, and that was less snug of a fit.

One of the biggest complaints against the first game, at least in terms of frequency, was the art. People didn’t like the art. (Then of course, after the second one came out, a bunch of people started talking about how they actually did like the art of the first one, sigh). So I wanted to embark on an upgrade to the art, which would be free to all existing customers. But during that process I realized that I wanted to change more than just the art if we were already spending all that effort and money making new art. Why not avoid a plain reskin, and instead focus on fixing things that I was annoyed with in the first game

The problem was, I’d already promised the art upgrade for free to the customers of the first game, and they were excited about it. What was I going to say: “sorry I promised you this one thing, but that’s canceled and now I’m going to charge you for this other thing!” That didn’t sit right with me, although we were having financial difficulties at the time and ultimately that wound up costing me a couple of hundred thousand dollars in losses. (Yow. It’s lucky AI War did so well, or the company would have sunk around then.)

Valley 2 was an interesting game in that it reigned in some of the things that I felt like were over-complicating the first one, including the crafting and equipment systems, and it completely revised how the procedural world generation worked. Out of the two games this is probably the one I prefer, although I personally like them both. The press preferred this one by a large margin, but players prefer the first one by a huge margin. The sequel isn’t even in the same genres as the first one, incidentally: it’s a Contra-like instead of a Metroidvania, and rather than having a city-building component it instead has a strategic layer.

The mix of strategy and Contra-like is a tricky thing, because the set of people who like A and B is a very tiny portion of the sets of people who like A or B. Even so, had that game been sold as a standalone game, I think that we would have broken even on the two games, which is some comfort to me. I wasn’t so off the mark that they would have been a huge loss or something, aside from the fact that I gave the sequel away for free. And I don’t regret that decision either, despite all the trouble it’s caused financially; it was the right thing to do, for one, and goodwill is simply worth more, for two. Even from a selfish capitalist standpoint, I think that sort of decision makes sense in the long term.

Anyway, the second game was a lot more polished and cohesive, but still two very disparate genres. The first one was much rougher and not as pretty, but there is also just something… elementally fun about it. There’s an X-factor there that gets somewhat lost in the sequel.

IGS: On a somewhat related note, if you could revisit a previous game and create new content, expansions, or even a full sequel, which game would it be and why?

Chris Park: Honestly the thing I keep coming back to in my head over and over again for the last couple of years is “what if I did a sequel remake of AI War?” Basically take the base game of AI War plus all the content of its expansions, do new art, and make a bunch of revisions to smooth out some of the rougher elements there. The learning curve on that game is steep, the interface is something I’d like to experiment with a lot, the tactical AI is something I’d like to experiment with more, and I’d like to figure out some way to handle the combat that doesn’t so routinely have thousands of ships vs thousands of ships (that can eat weaker CPUs).

But then I always think about Valley 2. If that game had been a standalone thing, and not the sequel to Valley 1, then I think that game would have been received by players. There would have been no expectations that “okay, this is Valley 1 again, just prettier… and different but not too different.” That sort of expectation can be deadly when you’re really trying to reinvent something. Somehow Nintendo makes that work again and again, but then you see games like Supreme Commander 1 vs SupCom 2 where those really fall flat.

I think, for those reasons, if I ever did a “sequel” to AI War, I’d call it something else, distance it from the original in a number of ways, and just make it the semi-spiritual successor. Then again, that doesn’t really work. People still always gripe about how spiritual successors to System Shock 2 don’t live up to that one. Or Tim Shafer and anything since Day of the Tentacle or maybe Secret of Monkey Island. Just because it’s him and it’s an adventure game, there are certain expectations. Those thoughts really make me wary of revisiting the past too much.

IGS: Why don’t you tell us a bit about your upcoming game, Stars Beyond Reach, and what gamers can expect when it releases in September.

Chris Park: This is Arcen’s first true 4X title, and it mixes in a healthy dose of city-building in a really complementary way. In a lot of ways you can think of it like Civilization meets SimCity, but with a whole lot of unique elements as well. Like AI War, this one is sandboxy in terms of how you go about moving from start to victory, and this also moves along at a pretty quick pace once you know the generalities of what you’re doing.

One of my favorite elements of this game, though, is that it really has a lot of good opportunities for Dwarf Fortress-style LPs. Boatmurdered is something I just love, and having a game that’s rich enough in content and gameplay to evoke those sorts of twisting and darkly hilarious tales of woe is something that has always interested me.

This is our biggest game yet by far at this point, which is exciting. It’s our prettiest, and in a lot of ways I think it will be our most polished. My dear hope is that this will finally be something that can top AI War, but it’s not there yet. It’s already a great game and there are a couple more months to go, so hopefully we’ll be able to push it over the top between now and release. Whether or not it tops AI War, though, this is one that I’m definitely exceptionally proud of.

IGS: Thanks for your time and good luck with your future games.

If you want to check out Arcen’s games for yourself, you can find them on Steam, GOG, and Humble Store.

Frank is an aspiring game designer that currently writes for Indie Game Source and Bell of Lost Souls. You can follow him on Twitter @Frank_Gaming for updates on future articles and reviews.

Reviewers generally agreed that The Banner Saga, released in January 2014 and developed by Stoic, did an amazing job of bringing a Viking inspired setting, incredible soundtrack and hand-created animation to life.

The Banner Saga is no easy journey because catastrophe is as much a part of the landscape as the unique and appealing scenery. Players will trek through rigorous environments and will encounter a variety of characters and it’s never easy to tell if they be friend or foe. It is up to the player to make the meaningful choices that will shape each narrative, but in the end, The Banner Saga is really all about the relationships and we wanted to know more about the how and the why surrounding its character development.

Stoic’s lead writer Drew McGee sat down with us and provided a glimpse into his perspective regarding some of the human liaisons that helped make The Banner Saga a storytelling success.

Jesse Tannous: Many games that have been commended for their strong narratives and character development (The Last of Us, Bioshock, Silent Hill) have featured father-daughter relationships. This type of relationship seems extremely important in The Banner Saga with Rook and Alette being the key focuses even in the menu screen. Why did you choose this type of familial relationship as a key focus, and what do you believe makes it so compelling?

Drew McGee: The father-daughter relationship pulled at us for a variety of reasons. Topically, it allows us to explore the importance of family versus clan versus humanity. Digging a bit deeper, it gives us views of gender in our Norse-influenced society. And beneath that, there’s the chance to glimpse a father’s knowledge – or lack thereof – of his daughter’s mindset and vice versa. These mysteries (and often, misunderstandings) are a timeless part of the human condition. The games you mentioned give us brief moments to consider empathetic views from various perspectives – powerful stuff that really seems to resonate with audiences on many levels. That said, if The Banner Saga comes close to The Last of Us, Bioshock, or Silent Hill in this regard, we’re just friggin’ lucky.

JT: Given the emphasis of this father-daughter relationship in the game, why did you decide to force players to choose between the lives of Alette or Rook at the end of the game? Didn’t you just destroy one of the most compelling, if not the most compelling, relationships of the game?

DM: While death certainly affects aspects of a relationship (for instance, hugs and conversations become remarkably one-sided), it rarely destroys the entire thing. In the wake of someone dying, there are opportunities for truly compelling growth, reflection, and even destruction. Emotions are either tucked away or worn on the sleeve and decision-making is affected along with the way. Others react to these decisions. Ultimately, the death of a hero should pave the way for greater character development and relationships with those still alive.

JT: It seemed to be extremely difficult in the game to juggle between providing for the caravan and upgrading your main group of fighters, with purchasing items being nigh impossible. Was this intentional or is this something that will be potentially re-worked for the sequels?

DM: It was intentional, which never means it was necessarily the “right” way to do it. Items in The Banner Saga are tricky on account of the balanced combat system. If too many characters have a chance to hit for double strength, battles are no longer threatening. At the same time, if no character has a chance to equip an item to hit for double strength, the RPG customization aspect is dinged. While we may look into ways of offering a few more chances for items, there’s something fitting in the dire world of The Banner Saga about a small inventory of items which are true boons if you acquire them, but a distinct gamble if it means going without food.

JT: One element of the game that many seemed to take full advantage of was the ability to revert back to old save points in order to modify decisions. While compelling in order to correct what were considered mistakes, it also seemed to make choices feel a little less meaningful. Was this effect noticed by your team during play testing? Has there been any consideration in creating a mode or difficulty setting that does not allow reverting to previous saves?

DM: Originally, the game only had a system of very few and hidden checkpoints. We’re older gamers who remember leaving the NES on all night because we couldn’t get to a save point by bedtime – when dying meant hours of replaying content and anxiety about winning that battle the next time. It’s fun in a damning sort of way, but alas, the outcry for more frequent saving was patched in. While we hear players mention that they went back at times, most of the Let’s Plays we watch forge ahead with comments of, “I can’t believe so-and-so died! I’ll have to try something different next time.” Obviously, we want people talking about the game, discussing their differences in choices, and not seeking out the “right” way to play it, so perhaps a type of “Ironman Mode” will be an option moving forward.

JT: Choice and consequence are obviously a huge part of the game that will be continuous through all three titles. However, will you perhaps hint, at one specific consequence or choice that will have a huge impact on a situation in the next game?

DM: So, you’ve already mentioned one decision that will have a massive impact on your saga moving forward. We’re hesitant to name the decisions that will carry forward because once out there, players tend to start “gaming the system” rather than enjoying the ride. We truly want you to sit back, play, laugh, cry, and worry about whether you could’ve made a better decision – that’s what carrying the Banner is all about.

Leaving much for the imagination in regard to the upcoming titles, Stoic’s The Banner Saga likes to keep us guessing, but that’s really the best part of this expedition.

Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Despite Indonesia being a completely different type of gaming market compared to the United States, with more than a dozen different mobile titles for sale on their website, Touchten Games certainly has plenty of experience in maintaining a consistently producing studio.

Touchten Games’ CEO and Executive Producer Anton Soeharyo sat down with us to explain how the studio keeps up and manages so many different projects while continuing to create new ones like Target Acquired.

Jesse Tannous: You have a fairly large team with several seemingly smaller scale light-hearted games under your belt. How do you manage the existing projects while also working on new games?

Anton Soeharyo: We adopt the 2:1 ration so far. Two casual light games that we can finish and launch ASAP, and one more “advanced” game like “Target Acquired” where it takes more time and resources. When one of these slots is gone, we can then always fill it in, keeping in mind the 2:1 ratio. We hope to expand this overtime as our team does.

JT: What have been some of the most important tactics you’ve put in place to ensure your studio continues to stay afloat and grow?

AS: Never stop creating. I think the mistake that most people make is to be married to only one project. The smartphone gamer crowd can drop our game anytime, therefore we should continue to please them. That’s the secret, I personally think.

JT: As a CEO and Executive Producer what are the hardest challenges you encounter during the game creation process as opposed to the core development team?

AS: The hardest challenge which I totally enjoyed, is definitely marketing the game. Connecting our games with the media, is something of a passion for me.

JT: How does your studio decide what game project to work on next? Is it a collaboration between the whole team or are current market popularity trends more important in your process?

AS: We have these game pitching days, so when one of the slots become available in the 2:1 ratio I mentioned above, we gather the team, buy pizza or snacks, and then prepare for Game pitching day. Anyone can present their game idea (within our guideline of gameplay and retention flow). Then the company votes together to find a great game we want to make and play!

JT: Are you aware of any unique challenges to making games in Indonesia that developers in other parts of the world may not have to contend with?

AS: We have such a huge population, (4th largest in the world, 1st in South East Asia) and such a young population too, but the challenges are: no payment gateway to collect money, low credit card penetration, slow internet, and low Smartphone penetration. But having said all that, I believe things are ONLY going to get better, and I am excited to see where we can be in the future!

While the steady stream of titles that Touchten Games creates may seem oversimplified, their cooperative structure helps produce experiences that they consider fun and are built with an understanding of the obstacles unique to their national market.

Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Already successfully funded on Kickstarter, Sprite Dlight is designed to take a lot of the repetitiveness and reliance on artistic skills out of the picture to make dynamic lighting effects possible for any 2D images.

Deciding to leave much of the technical explanations to Faas, we wanted to sit down with him to learn how his tool worked and how it can benefit the game development community.

Jesse Tannous: Can you share some of the reasons why you developed this tool?

Dennis Faas: Many of us grew up in a time where games were restricted to two dimensions, low resolution and a limited color palette. That is probably one of the reasons why we still love pixel art and 2D games in a modern age that provides technologies for games almost as realistic as life itself. But why shouldn’t we combine the amazing look of 2D games with some of these? Imagine a pixel art character being affected by the atmospheric lighting of campfires and other light sources, depending on the angle and the distance to them. All that can be achieved with some basic 3D information for two dimensional characters and objects. While there have been approaches to make hand painting of that 3D information easier, Sprite DLight generates it automatically, based only on the already available 2D art.

JT: For the non-programmers out there can you explain what Sprite DLight actually does?

DF: Sprite DLight uses simple images of game characters or objects or even sheets containing multiple animation frames of a character and estimates 3D information for them. Based on the shapes and surface details of the input image, the tool calculates a normal vector for every pixel to determine the direction the pixel faces in 3D space. Using this additional image together with the original sprite and a light source allows for beautiful dynamic lighting effects in games. Sprite DLight also has an internal lighting preview, which makes it possible to simulate dynamic lighting on any 2D image.

JT: How do you believe Sprite DLight will improve game developer experiences or make their work simpler?

DF: Dynamic lighting is one of these dreams many developers have, but the possibilities to achieve this in an acceptable quality have been restricted to hand painting multiple versions of the same subject, which would be a huge amount of effort when doing it for all characters and objects of a game, that is why we have rarely seen it to date.

To use Sprite DLight, you don’t have to be an artist or mathematician, you just feed it with one or multiple images, adjust the settings to your needs and let the tool do the rest. I believe this technique will be used in quite some games soon, because dynamic lighting is an improvement for any game, and why shouldn’t you use it when it can be done with almost no effort?

JT: On average how much potential time could developers save by utilizing the functionality of this program?

DF: It depends on the number of assets you want to process, and it depends on the tools and the workflow you would use instead of it. I won’t go deep into detail regarding common normal map generators, as they can only achieve a “bevelish” look for a surface. For a simple game with 3 different characters, where each character has 5 different animations, consisting of 8 frames, you would have 120 frames.

If you take the route of hand painting the shading from the cardinal directions and calculating the normals based on these, it would be 120×4=480 images you would have to draw by hand, before processing them. Processing these 120 frames (and probably some environment objects) with Sprite DLight would require you to set the desired intensity and wait a few seconds until all images are done.

So, on average I would say, you could save a shedload of time.

JT: What are the biggest downsides to the program at this moment? Are they things that can be fixed?

DF: At this time, the tool is still in an early development phase, so there are of course things that are not yet optimized. For the tool, it is also sometimes hard to guess if an area inside an image is concave or convex, just as it can be for the eye.

You won’t always be able to generate perfect normal maps with it, but the feedback I got so far makes me confident that the quality is good enough for most purposes. However, there is still room for improvements and that is why I have been asked to add a feature for manual artistic control, which is already planned and introduced as the 4th stretch goal.

JT: Does this program benefit inexperienced or veteran developers more? Would this be a good learning tool for students studying game development? How?

DF: From an artistic point of view, there is a lot to learn about shading and how colors interact.

On the technical side, it could be a good match for shader programming exercises and an example for the combination of 2D and 3D technologies. As the use of Sprite DLight is very simple and straightforward, beginners will benefit from it just as much as experienced developers.

My main goal is to make dynamic lighting possible for every game developer and I am glad to provide something that helps to give indie games more atmosphere and to make them look more awesome.

If Sprite Dlight ends up performing as described then it may be on the fast track to become a favored tool of amateur developers lacking the required technical or artistic skills needed for dynamic lighting effects, while also benefiting more established studios looking to save on time and resources.

Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Despite having an intriguing elevator pitch, the developers at Dejobaan Games had many creative and mechanical obstacles to overcome. Most concerning of which was figuring out what kind of a game they were creating. Eventually the team settled on basing the visual aesthetic of the three worlds they currently have in development off Romantic era art, and poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and George Gordon Byron. This, combined with pre-generated and randomized writing prompts would constitute the core game-play as players slowly uncover and create the history of the alien races that once inhabited the lands.

However, the developers at Dejobaan Games, known for their humorous and uniquely engaging game concepts weren’t happy with creating a simple educational experience that promoted writing with aesthetically pleasing game-like images.

Elegy for a Dead World was designed for all players regardless of writing ability. Its purpose seems to be to inspire creativity while giving an outlet to share that creativity with others. This comes in the form of the built in platform that allows players to share their finished stories with others.

Studio lead Ichiro Lambe sat down to help explain how you create a game based on getting players to write and how this might benefit or entertain the gaming community.

Jesse Tannous: Do you consider Elegy an educational game? How is it similar/different?

Ichiro Lambe: It absolutely can be, in that it gets people writing creatively. We’ve had educators come to us wanting to use Elegy for everything from English as a second language (ESL) learning to introductory rhetoric classes and beyond. Where it differs from more traditional educational games is that there are no quizzes or wrong answers.

JT: This is a concept that targets a niche audience, as developers how was support for this project acquired? Did it depend heavily upon crowd-funding?

IL: Elegy was funded out-of-pocket for most of its development, but we’ve just run a successful Kickstarter campaign, which means that the remainder of development is crowd funded. It’s totally a niche game, but I think that’s actually why we’ve received so much support for it.

JT: Throughout the development experience thus far what have been the biggest creative obstacles you’ve encountered when trying to base a game on writing?

IL: Oh boy! The biggest question was: what the heck is this game, anyway? Programming lead Ziba and art lead Luigi know how to implement and illustrate (respectively) as well as anyone, but none of us knew how to create a game that encouraged players to write. For the first third of the game’s development, we just asked players to write freeform, without any prompting. We later found that constraining players (the fill-in-the-blank writing prompts) actually helped them write.

JT: How receptive have educators been on utilizing a game like this as a teaching tool?

IL: One of the Kickstarter stretch goals we reached was “1,000 free keys to educators,” and a majority of those are now taken by people who teach everything from ESL to middle school to AP Literature and even university courses. Educators occasionally do use our games in an academic setting, but Elegy‘s by far the most popular.

JT: What would your advice be to other game developers who might be hoping to explore unique concepts?

IL: What worked for us was that we scoped the project appropriately (the game’s not this full-blown 3D experience, for instance), and we made sure to keep iterating on the core concept and putting it out there to gauge reactions. We didn’t stop refining until people literally told us, “Holy crap, I have to play that.”

Even if writing doesn’t seem like an interesting enough hook for you, many supporters of the Kickstarter seem eager to experiment with this new concept and maybe learn something while they’re at it.

Jesse is a reporter first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Kasavin landed his first big spot as an intern at Gamespot in 1996 where he spent the next ten years immersed in video game journalism until he announced his final resignation in 2007 as the Editor-in-Chief. He followed Gamespot by working at Electronics Arts (EA) for a couple of years on the Command and Conquer franchise among other titles. From there Kasavin did a stint at 2K Games until ultimately choosing to gamble a bit by being a member of the Supergiant Games team.

Kasavin sat down with us to talk about his career, Supergiant Games, and the decisions that led him to pursue his dream of complete creative freedom in game development.

Jesse Tannous: Is there one particular moment that might stand out among the rest while working in games journalism for all those years?

Greg Kasavin: There’s a lot for me because I was at Gamespot for more than 10 years. It’s hard for me to single out a particular moment. A lot of it is a blur and a lot of it I do remember rather vividly. For sure one of the amazing things about working in the games industry in any capacity is you can get so close to your heroes in a way. I’ve had an opportunity to meet so many of the people who I really really admired.

One of the first for me was, and this was way back very soon after I started at Gamespot, I got to interview Richard Garriott the creator of Ultima, for like a history of Ultima series. Ultima when I was growing up as a kid was basically my favorite thing period, and Ultima 4 is like, when I was playing that as a little kid was when I knew and felt that I wanted to make games, it was a really profound experience for me. So that was really cool, I kind of couldn’t believe it, I didn’t do a ton of interviews actually while I was at Gamespot, but I was just there a long time and being able to meet folks like that even in passing was just unbelievably cool.

JT: For someone who has been in video game journalism for many years and then transitioned into game development, how was that transition?

GK: It was not so bad, it was relatively smooth, at least professionally. There was a couple of reasons for that. One is that I’ve wanted to work on games since I was a little kid, so the desire was definitely there so I was willing to take a certain amount of punishment and just kind of figured it out. But really one of the main things that helped me transition smoothly, in my role at Gamespot at the time, well I had left back in the beginning of 2007, I was working a lot on the website itself. Sort of the product side of it in addition to working on content and the editorial team, so that gave me a good deal of practical experience working with engineers and graphic designers, and basically those various disciplines.

On a high level something like Gamespot, much like a video game is a piece of software that a lot of people contribute to, so that type of experience I think really helped translate. Where I think if I had been sort of exclusively a game critic, writer, or reviewer I think I would have had a much harder time and been out of my element when I first started.

JT: You had to make several personal sacrifices to join Supergiant Games, can you tell me about some of those?

GK: Getting into game development was at best a sort of lateral career step for me. It was sort of a career reboot in a lot of ways even though I just talked about for sure I didn’t start from nothing, and I felt like I had many advantages in fact going in, from my perspective. But from another point of view I was kind of starting over in a new career path, and I wasn’t even doing that well financially as a result of that. Which was fine, it was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make.

For Supergiant in particular, we started as 2 people working in the living room of a house. I was working at 2K Games at the time, I worked for 2K for a year after EA. So going from a stable and good job at 2K to joining a couple of my friends with almost no money and statistically very poor chances of success that took some convincing with my family because I already had one kid at the time and another one on the way. I was at the point in my personal life where I couldn’t just easily drop everything and pursue my passions because there are other people, including very small people that were depending on me for a certain amount of stability in their lives.

So that was a stark moment of it, but my family was obviously super supportive in the end. My parents were very supportive including monetarily, I’m very very lucky. I was just incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I could mooch of my parents for a while, which was the first time I did that since I was a teenager, but initially they helped me out monetarily just so I could take that job, and go work and make Bastion.

A studio like Supergiant doesn’t get made because peoples priority is the stability in their lives, we were just really interested in making games our own way and seeing where that would take us, and thankfully Bastion was really well received and as a small studio gave us financial stability. Now I’m no longer mooching off my parents (laughs) thankfully. The sustainability of what we do is really important to us long term because we want to keep doing this for as long as we can. But starting up it can be rather scary I guess.

JT: Choosing to go from the stable environment of 2K Games to the sort of dream project like Supergiant and Bastion, one might call that completely irrational. So what was that conversation like when you approached your family with this decision?

GK: To look at it rather objectively, I could give you an answer that makes me sound like I did something noble. Frankly, it was probably a deeply selfish decision on my part. It was not a rational decision. It was something that probably put my family at risk financially and arguably took advantage of my parents and their generosity, all for the sake of what I wanted to do.

That is the not nice way of looking at it, but I think it’s the fair way of looking at it because I couldn’t make any promises. All I could say was ‘I really want to do this, I think it could succeed, and if I don’t do it now I don’t think I’ll have another chance’. But was it a good decision? That is highly debatable, but I tried to kind of do my due diligence in terms of explaining it and saying, ‘Here’s what this will mean in the shorter run, and here’s what will happen in the longer run, here’s what will happen in a year from now one way or another,’ and we just kind of worked it out that way. So we kind of planned out the worst case scenario and decided that the worst case scenario was tolerable and wouldn’t be devastating.

What was a requirement for me, we weren’t going to relocate, I wasn’t going to uproot my family as part of it, so the stability of my families situation was a necessary ingredient which is how I dragged my parents into it. That’s how we were able to minimize the impact on people who were not me. Again this is a selfish way of looking at it, but the part where I can have a creatively more fulfilling job potentially that could, in theory, have benefits to the human beings who have to put up with me day in and day out.

So it was things like that, it wasn’t an easy decision and my wife Jenna has been sort of eternally tolerant of me, we’ve been married for more than ten years now and she’s kind of put up with my crap the entire time. The hours I was working at Gamespot were really quite bad, and when I went to go work for Electronic Arts I was essentially commuting and I wouldn’t see my family for two weeks at a time. So she has always put up with a level of ridiculousness in my professional pursuits and in some respects this was just the latest in a series of those kinds of decisions, but in the long run my track record with my career decisions I think Jenna has a certain amount of faith in my decision making around this stuff based on my track record even though in the moment it can seem as you said very irrational and like ‘oh god why can’t you just be happy and stay put with what you’re doing?’ Unfortunately, I can’t control how I feel when it comes to that stuff, nor can a lot of people I suppose.

JT: I’m interested in your style of developing narrative in your games. Essentially, the game gets created and then you go and write the story after the fact, is that an accurate description?

GK: Not really, but I think aspects of what you’ve heard are true. We develop them in parallel as much as possible. Foremost we are a gameplay driven studio, we don’t start with a script and back fill the gameplay. The narrative aspect is sort of heavily developed by what we do on the gameplay side. I feel like that is part of the challenge but it is part of the pleasure of it as well.

If I just wanted to write a story in some respects it’s much much easier just to do that than make a game. There is a lot of really difficult stuff about making games, there are just purer ways of writing a story than integrating one into a video game, at least with the way we do it. I really enjoy finding the harmony between the gameplay and the narrative, finding opportunities to connect narrative themes with whatever is happening in the gameplay so that it all feels very closely tied together so it’s an iterative process.

I think what you’ve heard is that we don’t do any of the writing until we had playable content, so the writing does occur to fit the playable space that was created, but that’s based on having an outline, we still at that point have a high level outline about what is happening in the story at that given time. So it’s a little of each we have it roughly planned out but then we defer on the real writing and execution until we have what we feel is strong gameplay in that area.

JT: Having worked at a couple of big studios, is this sort of style done frequently or is this more unique?

GK: I don’t know that it is done that frequently, it feels sort of proprietary for us. Logan (Logan Cunningham) is a big part of the reason we’ve been able to do it that way at all. We’ve collaborated with him so closely with voice over recording that we can literally have dozens of voice recording sessions over the course of development. As opposed to even on very big projects that are many orders of magnitude bigger than the kinds we make, those still only get kind of several big recording sessions with their top actors.

Like the new Call of Duty (Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare), they aren’t getting Kevin Spacey in twice a week to record new content. They probably only have a couple of opportunities with Kevin Spacey to get all the stuff that they need, so they gotta have the script all locked down and they’ll record with Kevin Spacey and it’s gonna be expensive and god willing it’s gonna be worth it and it is gonna be awesome. But with Logan we are able to collaborate with him so closely and iterate so often we’re able to take this very tactical approach of just kind of recording a little at a time and re-recording frequently to make sure everything felt right.

We were going for this more reactive style where it’s not just a linear straightforward script, we try to do a lot of reactive stuff in both of our games, so having access to an actor who could record frequently was essential to that process. I think that is less common than the alternative where you have to have your entire script ready by certain deadlines and having massive recording sessions, and then maybe you get a couple of pickup sessions later on, but it is going to be much more concentrated than spread out during production.

JT: Do you think that style limits or increases your scope for creativity?

GK: For sure it’s been essential for what we’ve been able to do thus far. On Transistor actually we had a little of each because Logan doesn’t have the only speaking part in that game, and for a couple of the other speaking parts we recorded those in a more traditional way of having more of the script nailed down by the time we got the actors in because again, we kind of aren’t as close to them as we are with Logan.

That has certain advantages and constraints as well, to put it another way if we didn’t know Logan and didn’t have that personal relationship between him and Amir (Amir Rao), our Studio Director, and Darren (Darren Korb), our Audio Director, the narrative aspect of Bastion wouldn’t have existed. Which is crazy to say because it seems like such a key part of that game, but Logan is very much what made that possible, we wouldn’t have even contemplated that kind of an aspect to the game if we didn’t have a member of the team would could deliver on it.

JT: Some of the differences I’m seeing between Bastion and Transistor is the expectation of the players. Does Supergiant plan on making smarter games like I’d argue Transistor is with these denser stories in the future?

GK: There is a range of reactions to the game. It’s not uncommon even among people who really love Transistor to note that it is a relatively challenging game both narratively and gameplay wise, in the sense that there is not a lot of hand holding there. We wanted to make a thoughtful experience with this game, especially from a gameplay standpoint. No aspect of it was trying to do something better than Bastion since the response to Bastion was so strong we felt that if we could just make something with its own identity we would be in good shape.

We don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to make a bigger better game every single time, I think that’s really asking for trouble. Bastion took Action RPG gameplay into a very action oriented direction, a lot of twitch based mechanics and timings and stuff, so it had almost kind of arcade like gameplay for an action RPG. So we were interested in kind of taking a sharp detour just for creative reasons and seeing if we could make this more strategic feeling, more thoughtful feeling moment to moment play experience.

I think narratively we did not start out with a goal of ‘let’s make it harder for people to understand,’ or anything like that, nor was that a goal from a gameplay standpoint either. It is really important to us that our games be accessible and approachable, easy to pick up and start playing, we want the challenge to be there, we want our games to be interesting, but we don’t want people to struggle to get into them. We try to find a balance there, because it is really important to us that people can just pick it up and go and not get tons of boring preamble and immersion breaking tutorial or even pandering condescending tutorial either.

So on Transistor, we did consciously risk like the game being harder to pick up, in some respects, for the sake of the sensation that you could figure it out on your own and the pleasures that come with that sense of discovery. So many games just kind of spoon feed everything to the player and we definitely did not want to do that while at the same time finding a good balance so that people could figure out. We have no desire to just make our games more elusive or whatever, we want our games to be accessible and interesting and memorable, hopefully, but there is not a goal of like shutting people out from those experiences.

JT: A lot was on the line for Supergiant Games when Bastion released and thankfully it was a big success, is Supergiant still in the same position now with the release of Transistor?

GK: Overall it is very similar to Bastion in the sense that we kind of put it all on the line with each of our games. Each game we work on we give it our all and the success or failure of that game will kind of profoundly influence whatever happens from there. We didn’t have any plans beyond the launch of Transistor for the reasons I just mentioned, we don’t even have to plan far ahead as a small team which is nice. Before our game had come out, it’s like any plans for the future, there was both some superstition like ‘let’s not jinx anything or count our chickens before they hatch,’ and also just a sense that those plans would feel kind of false, because we didn’t know how’d we feel once the game had come out or how it would and so on and so forth. Now that it is out and it’s been out for a couple of weeks were finally starting to take a look around and survey the landscape and see how the dust is settling and see how everyone on the team is feeling and figure out what we’re going to do from here. Thankfully it’s been doing very well so far, the response has been great, people have sort of generously bought it, knock on wood, hopefully we’ll be able to keep on going for a while here. As far as what’s next for us, your guess is as ours.

JT: As the Creative Director I imagine like many writers you have a folder or a notebook stashed somewhere filled with different ideas for stories, games, or even mechanics. Now that Transistor is out, are any of those coming to the forefront of your mind even conceptually about the next project?

GK: For sure I have those kinds of ideas. If those are just things that I’ve been thinking of myself, those are very different from the kinds of ideas we talk about as a team. Despite what my title is our process at Supergiant is super super collaborative. Everyone I work with is both very opinionated and very creative. So the idea of someone bringing like a fully formed game pitch to that team is actually rather deeply frowned upon.

We have to develop those ideas by finding the common ground between what everybody is interested in. As opposed to saying like ‘Oh I really wanna make this game next, what do you guys think?’ that’s not how our conversations are structured. This sounds like this can’t possibly be true, but you’d be surprised that there has been almost no conversation about what we are going to do next among us on the team thus far. Which I actually do think is really weird, and most studios are not like that, but we have our strange idiosyncrasies and superstitions and we have to make sure we put this thing to bed properly before we move onto the next thing. Internally we are talking through our post mortems and just making sure where everybody is at before we can move forward.

JT: Would you mind walking me through that collaborative process?

GK: I’m sure we’ll change things around to a certain extent moving forward, but the way we started on Transistor was having everybody talking together about their preoccupations. That can really mean anything remotely related to a game, whether it’s sort of thematic content, a game mechanic, a piece of technology, a genre, just really anything that anybody is thinking about that is exciting to them at that time.

We get all of that stuff on paper or on a board and start to talk through it and start to look for common ground. The idea that the most of us are excited about, and I feel very strongly about this, the thing that the most of us are the most excited to do is the best game we can make, it doesn’t matter what kind of game that is, what matters the most is our excitement to pursue it.

We’re just trying to immediately find what kind of game that that will be and then just unlock members of the team to start doing work on it, to start exploring it in their own perspective disciplines. Whether that’s Darren pursuing a new musical style that kind of fits a certain tone were interested in, or me starting to outline some kind of story structure or prototype some narrative that seems interesting and worth pursuing, so it starts very broad like that. It doesn’t start with some sort of pitch, we are actually resistant to that. We don’t want a concrete idea for the game at the beginning, we want a context and a general direction to explore and then see where that takes us through constant iteration.

We operate very tactically from there, lots of small tasks that can be done in a day or two, so we can start making rapid progress and just kind of all keep talking about it and moving forward until it starts to turn into a thing. That kind of a development process leads to a lot of stuff that you spend a lot of time working on it, end up not using it, but hopefully you learned something through that and it lead you to an idea that was more fruitful and so on and so forth. But yeah, the pre-production process for us can take a while I guess to figure out what we’re making.

JT: It seems to be working out for you so far.

GK: It’s nice. The world building aspect of Bastion, like the part where we kind of made an original setting and characters, that aspect was well regarded, and we wanted to see if we could make a new world from scratch with our next game, and I think that part has once again been well received with Transistor. The gameplay direction we took has also been well received thus far. It feels very exciting and liberating that we can just kind of make, quite frankly, whatever we want and hopefully if we just do it well people will kind of sign up for it. I think very few studios, including very big studios are in the position to do that these days, cause with bigger studios in the off chance that their game is successful then there is a high chance they’ll be signed up to do the sequel to that as their next project.

The game industry is so, understandably I guess, so risk averse. But for us, I think part of our signature as a studio is a certain amount of novelty to the game were making. Making things that are unexpected in some way, I would much rather our studio be known for that over time. I don’t have a problem with sequels, I mentioned the Ultima series earlier, Ultima 6 was an amazing game, Final Fantasy 6 was an amazing game, and there is nothing wrong with getting up there in sequels if you approach them in a certain way. For us we don’t know what our limits are at the moment so it’s good to keep searching and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone.

JT: After Bastions success you grew in size as a studio. Do you have any plans to expand Supergiant Games even more, or are you close to reaching a sort of cap of personnel to remain small?

GK: Yeah it is much closer to the latter, we have no plans to grow. Our growth on Transistor has largely been around filling pretty critical gaps on the team. The way Gavin (Gavin Simon) the Co-Founder of the studio put it, we were an incomplete team on Bastion. So the folks we brought on board since then was all about shoring up some pretty glaring weaknesses we had when we were starting up and didn’t have the means to easily resolve those weakness.

To give you an example we had no animator on Bastion. We had Jen Zee who I think is an extraordinary artist who does amazing work, but she is not an animator, but Bastion obviously has animation in it. So anytime we needed animation we had to like call in a favor with one of our friends, who chances are was working somewhere else and so on. It’s not an ideal way to run a studio and it put an intense amount of pressure on those moments, it made us really question, ‘Should we even ask for this animation? Are we sure we really need this?’ and if the answer was yes well then chances are we had one shot to get it right.

So when Bastion was successful, that’s the kind of resource we really ought to have at the studio full time because the kind of collaboration we could have with that person the kind of iteration we could get will lead to a better result, so we hired a guy named Camilo Vanegas whose a 3D Modeler and Animator who we think did a fantastic job onTransistor and I just don’t know what we would have done if not for him given how much animation is in the game. That is just one example, they just provided something essential that we just could not do prior to them joining.

JT: What was the after party like once Transistor was done?

GK: Another shocking and perhaps awful revelation (laughs), we have had no such party as of yet. One of the perhaps negative consequences of being small is we just kept working through the launch. For sure though we all need to get together and sort of raise a glass and just acknowledge and celebrate that we’ve released our second game. Making games, I don’t know that it ever gets easy, for sure it has not even begun to get easy for me personally so each one feels like its own thing and it’s definitely worth acknowledging the accomplishment that we’ve gotten something out there much less thankfully in this case something that lots of people have enjoyed.

Still on a journey of self-discovery as a studio, Supergiant Games seems intent on charging ahead into the unknown in order to find the limits of their creative capacity, which, so far, has been exactly what fans have loved about their work.

Players sit across from the mysterious Dealer at the end of the world and choose their fate in the form of creating a deck of cards that will determine the challenges, encounters, and equipment that may appear on their journey.

Funded through Kickstarter in December of 2013 with more than 1300 backers Defiant has since made the game available for early access on Steam. We sat down with Defiant’s Creative Director Morgan Jaffit to learn more about the game’s core concepts and find out what players can expect from the title down the line.

Jesse Tannous: What sort of storytelling aspects, if any, can players expect from this game?

Morgan Jaffit: You’re engaged in a life and death struggle with the Dealer. As you play the game, you learn some of the details as to how you got there, and why. We’ve worked really hard to make sure the Dealer on the other side of the table is a living, breathing character. He’s not there to tell you the story or explain how the game works, although he does a little of both, he’s there to represent the player across the table. He’ll provoke you, chat with you, and reveal a little of himself as he does so.

The game is ultimately not about a big story with twists and turns and dramatic plot revelations, it’s about providing a context and sense of atmosphere. So while there is narrative and storytelling through both the Dealer and the cards, at its heart the player will build their own story.

JT: How do players build their deck of cards? And how difficult are they to collect?

MJ: Each time the player defeats a Court Card, they’ll receive some additional cards to build their deck. So through the normal course of progression players will get stronger and gain access to new cards, weapons, and abilities. On the other hand, many cards have tokens (which means they’ll unlock a card if you defeat them) – so you need to encounter that card in game in order to win its token and gain a new card. Some of those tokens are easily found, some need special items and abilities, and some require a lot of work. As a result, completionists will have a lot of work to do in order to complete every possible token and find every possible card.

JT: Since this game does take some inspiration from TCG’s like Magic: The Gathering, are there any plans or ideas of adding a multiplayer element or competitive play?

MJ: Not for this one. We do have a single player score attack mode (Endless Mode) that allows players to compete for the highest score, but that’s as far as we intend to go. We’ve made a lot of decisions along the way that would preclude a really satisfying multiplayer mode, and we prefer to focus on doing one thing well. In the case of this game, that’s a strong, replayable single player game.

JT: How reliably will players be able to utilize their builds in the combat portions of the game? Will players run into situations where they draw no weapons or defensive gear going into a dungeon, similar to drawing no resource cards, like mana or energy, in traditional TCGs?

MJ: Pretty much exactly the same. Depending on which cards you’ve chosen for your deck you may find yourself short a weapon or ability at a critical time – each run depends on luck as well as skill to get you to the right place.

JT: What is going to keep the player engaged once they defeat all the members of the court the first time?

MJ: The game itself is rogue inspired, but it has much more progression than a traditional roguelike. That said, once you’ve defeated the Court you’ll still have tokens to unlock and Endless Mode score challenges to attempt. Even in early access we have multiple players with 50+ hours of play under their belt, so we’re pretty happy with the long term prospects.

Adding unique twists to the basic model of the roguelike might be the only way to keep the genre from going stagnant, and for many already playing the early access version of Hand of Fate it seems to be a welcome change.

Sound Designer Darren Korb and Vocalist Ashley Barrett are given the lion’s share of credit for the soundtrack’s success. During previous interviews with Supergiant Games’ Creative Director Greg Kasavin and Voice-Over Artist Logan Cunningham have provided insight into the studios unique creative processes that emphasize collaboration and taking time to ensure quality.

Korb and Barrett both seemed to latch onto this ideal throughout their collaboration on Bastion and Transistor. We decided to sit down with these artists to hear about how they started working together, what sparked their interest in music, and get some insight into the hidden meanings behind some of the songs that have captivated many.

Jesse Tannous: Can you tell me a little bit about how each of you got into music?

Darren Korb: I started signing when I was really young. Starting around maybe 5 years old I started doing musical theater and did a bunch of that pretty much through high school. I took some piano lessons when I was really young and didn’t like it. I started learning guitar when I was 11 or 12 and started really getting into music. I would play guitar, and started playing in bands, writing songs, and stuff like that. I did that for a long time. I started getting into recording in high school, and that’s when I decided that this is something that was really fun for me and I wanted to keep doing this.

Ashley Barrett: My experience has kinda the same beginning as Darren, which makes sense because we kind of grew up in the same area and pursued the same sort of path. I started doing musical theater when I was around 6 and had my first show. I fell in love with signing and performing and kind of continued that through high school. Then in college I was in some a capella groups which really helped my harmonies and my love for that kind of music making. Then when I moved to New York I was in a few bands and did a few little side projects and hooked up with Darren and started doing this.

JT: Darren, how did you get Ashley involved with Supergiant initially?

DK: We had worked together on a project before Bastion. I worked on a musical with my brother, and was making a demo album. I had personally never met Ashley at that point, but Dan, my brother, had met Ashley, and we had a bunch of mutual friends because we both did musical theater at the same place. I don’t think we were in any of the same shows though. We had kind of missed each other growing up. I had heard through our mutual friends that Ashley was very good at singing so I contacted her and I worked with her on that project. Then when we were making Bastion I thought, ‘Oh I know somebody who has the kind of voice who would be great for this’, so I contacted Ashley and we started working together.

JT: Ashley, Did you ever imagine you’d be doing vocal work for video games and that your songs would be so loved?

AB: No! I mean I first started back when I was really young I actually did a series of voice-over stuff for English as a second language tapes. So I had a little experience from the voice-over world, but never really thought video games was something I would go to, but I think it’s such an interesting industry and its growing super-fast and it is really exciting to be a part of it.

JT: Would you say Bastion and Transistor are what you are most known for?

AB: Yeah definitely. I mean I’ve done some other smaller recordings and I’ve written some of my own music, but I’ve never really had the guts to put it out and really give it a go. So this has kind of been my first foray into it, which is really exciting because I’ve always wanted to do is something with my voice, and make that kind of my sole purpose (laughs). Hopefully it won’t be the only thing I’ll be known for (laughs), but it is definitely the beginning for sure.

JT: Has your work with Supergiant thrust you outside of your comfort zone creatively?

DK: To some degree, for sure. When I started working on Bastion I hadn’t really done any sound design or much direction of actors or anything. In addition to the music I also did all that stuff. There was a big learning curve for me on Bastion in terms of figuring out how I wanted to approach sound design, and how to approach the voice-over stuff from a technical standpoint and also from a creative directorial standpoint. On Transistor there were other challenges, we tried to do some more technically complex things with the music implementation and things like that. It’s always nice to be just beyond what you already known, to do things beyond the scope of what you currently understand because that is certainly a way to improve and learn things as you go. That’s really fun for me. A fun part of the process has always been to learn new things and get better at what I do.

AB: Yeah for me I think it was really interesting having Darren give me notes throughout and give me some direction. For me since I was kind of doing my own thing in New York for so long I didn’t have people guiding me. I think at first it was kind of like, ‘Oh gosh I can hope do this right!’ I know a lot of times we had several takes and I was trying to get it perfect and make sure that Darren liked what was going on. I think that really pushed me to become a better vocalist and I love the way that it ended up sounding even if there were areas when I can tell I would’ve been louder or I wouldn’t have belted that, or whatever it may be.

JT: How major of a factor do you believe that played in the success and overall quality of the soundtracks?

DK: I mean that’s hard to say. I’m just amazed still by how well people have responded to the soundtrack and the fact that people have been so enthusiastic about them. I’ve worked on stuff before that I thought was great and I pushed myself on it, and nobody seemed to be that interested at the time (laughs). So, I didn’t even expect the response that happened, and I didn’t expect it a second time. So, I really don’t know what has gone into that or what has caused people to respond so well. I think what it comes back to for me, is that I really am trying to just do things that are compelling to me, that I find interesting and that I have fun doing. I feel like that is something that people can perceive. If you are doing something honestly and passionately that is going to come across, for whatever that’s worth. So, for me, part of that is pushing myself, and doing stuff outside of my comfort zone a little bit makes it a little more exciting and more fun. So at least indirectly, maybe it has an effect.

AB: I think there was an element of confidence that we had going into Transistor having the support of everyone from Bastion, at least on my end. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh people think that this is good and like the sound of my voice!’ It helped me feel excited to do some more stuff to see what peoples reaction would be.

JT: Darren, all of the songs, especially the ones with vocals, were designed to fit into the overall narrative of the game and seemed to provide clues as to Red’s personality. What was the collaboration like with the other members of the development team to ensure that everything meshed together so well? Did the songs come first or was your direction provided before writing them?

DK: It sort of was similar to how I worked on the songs for Bastion. Greg Kasavin, our creative director and writer, does a lot of work on making a pretty thorough game world document that really had a lot of rich backstory about the characters and the world that is not included in the game necessarily. We all had access to that while creating for the game. I think that is something I utilized while writing the lyrics. I tried to write the songs from Red’s point of view as best I could and tried to make music that would have meaning where we planned to put them in the game, in terms of what is happening at that moment dramatically, while also giving some context to Red’s personality and her character.

JT: Your lyrical work in Transistor had some obvious narrative tie-ins to the game. For Bastion though, songs like “Build That Wall,” “Mother, I’m Here,” and “Setting Sail, Coming Home,” seem to have a little bit more of a loose connection to the games narratives. Could you talk a little bit about the motivations behind those songs?

DK: For Bastion, I approached the songs as if they were traditional folk songs in the game world, as opposed to Transistor, where I saw them as songs Red had written herself. It made sense to me that the songs in Transistor would be more closely related to the story, lyrically speaking, since they are from Red’s point of view. For “,” I thought of it as a sort of wartime song that the Ura might have sung in the conflict with Caelondia, maybe something Zia would have heard her father sing when she was younger. I imagined as a song that would be sung at funerals.

JT: My interviews with Greg Kasavin and Logan Cunningham paint a pretty unique picture of the development process at Supergiant Games. While Bastion and Transistor are your only games, can you describe some of the differences in you and your studios approach to sound design that might be considered a-typical?

DK: I think for the voice over and the music we certainly have a unique approach as far as I know, in that we work very closely with Logan and he is a big part of our creative process. We spend a long time getting at the character with him, and we would go back and forth a do a lot of experiments. For me writing the music, I’m working on it from the very beginning of the project which I think is a rarity in the industry. Not a lot of composers get to be a part of the creative process defining the tone of the game right from the start.

JT: Ashley, considering the fact that the most we ever hear Red’s voice is during your vocalizations, do you consider yourself the voice of Red herself?

AB: Yeah, it’s pretty cool when you play to hear the humming and obviously the singing as well, and since that is such a big part of her character I would say I identify with Red.

JT: Fans have described Red as perhaps the most well developed female character in video games today, how do you feel about that?

AB: That is awesome. I think it’s very unique. I’ve never seen a game that does what Transistor does with the character development. I think using the lack of speaking and using more of the singing elements does a lot for the imagination. She is definitely pretty rad and kicks a lot of butt.

JT: How did you get inside the characters heads in order to bring them to life through song?

AB: I think for both Bastion and Transistor Darren and I sat down kind of before we started anything and I think I had seen some of that document Darren mentioned. We went through some of the backstory and the character development which helped me get into the mind frame of who they were supposed to be.

JT: You obviously have a career outside of the soundtracks you’ve done for Supergiant, can you tell me a bit about that?

AB: Yes – I am a publicist by day! I work at a PR agency called Access PR and have for the past 7 years. We have offices in San Francisco and New York – so I’ve been jumping back and forth from coast to coast for a while now.

JT: Where could locals see your live performances? Do you have anything available outside of your game work that non-locals could enjoy?

AB: I recently re-located to the West coast so I’m in the process of getting together a new band. I perform with a lot of my musician friends from time to time in California, but nothing is on-going at the moment. Definitely working on that! We just played a really fun show in San Juan Batista at a little music festival called Ranchstock that my friends put on. Next year will be even better! You can check out some fun videos from my old songwriting partner, Dustin Cohen and I on YouTube – there are some real gems in there!

I am also in the process of putting together an album from some of my songs that I wrote a few years back. Darren and I have also talked about working on some non-game related songs, I love working with him so hopefully we can make that happen at some point! Stay tuned for updates – you can check out my website for new details.

JT: If and when Supergiant releases information about their next game project can fans hope to see you both return for another soundtrack? If so, what new styles of music or vocals would you each hope to explore on that project?

DK: My main interest is making something compelling based on the material of the project. What is going to serve that and how am I going to make that as interesting to me as possible? I had a lot of fun doing more vocals in this last game, continuing to push on that I would be fascinated by. I stepped a little bit further out of my comfort zone with Transistor than I did with Bastion and I’d be curious to do that as well in different ways.

AB: I think I agree with Darren for sure, I would be excited just to hear what he could envision for me. A lot of times he has ideas for me and my voice that I wouldn’t necessarily have for myself.

JT: Darren, Many fans have concluded that most of Red’s songs in Transistor seem to characterize her as strong, independent, and unwilling to follow the path laid out to her by her environment. How do the lyrics to “” fit into that analysis?

DK: I don’t want to talk too much about things that are in the world doc stuff, because I don’t want to pull back the curtain too much here. I saw the Spine as a metaphor of her feeling like she understands how the worlds works. ‘I see the spine of the world’, I saw that as someone who could look inside the clock and see all the gears. That was sort of the approach I was using for that metaphor. It characterizes that extra bit of perception that not everybody has, that a lot of artists have, that allow them to write interesting things that are compelling to people because they are tapped into the pulse of everything a little bit more than everybody else.

JT: In this particular song how is Red identifying her connection to the rest of this world in your mind?

DK: I think in the context of that song the angle I was trying to take was, I see how things work as an observer, yet I’m part of it, we’re all part of it.

Supergiant Games is a very interesting studio to see develop as all of the key creative members have remained and helped create their two titles.

So far doing things differently appears to be working out very well for Supergiant Games and their development teams. It seems as though if Korb and Barrett have anything to say about it they’ll be adding their names to the audio credits of a future soundtrack. Until then, fans will simply have to be hopeful, and patient.

The light-hearted concept managed to bring these somewhat creatively disparate brothers together to create a game about blowing up, freezing over, igniting, or shooting holes in your most favorite, and hated, food stuffs. At the conclusion of a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, Damon and Anatole proceeded with the production of Organic Panic which is now available on Steam Early Access.

Both brothers try to stay well connected to their community and have made involving their fans part of the game experience. With a built in map editor, the Branch’s hope players leave their own mark on a game that was conceived by them over 15 years ago.

Anatole made himself available to talk a bit about the origin story of Organic Panic, what it has been like working with his brother, and some of the innovative design characteristics of the game.

Jesse Tannous: You and your brother have been actively working on this game for 5 years now, how did this idea start and how dramatically has it changed throughout those years?

Anatole Branch: The idea started from a game concept we had about 15 years ago, called Veggie Olympics. But we’ve switched gears to developing a groundbreaking (pun-intended), and powerful liquid simulation 2d technology engine, that we could use for a variety of platform/shooter type games. We worked on the narrative of Fruit ‘n Veggies versus Meat’n Cheese as a development of the original Veggie Olympics game. It was just a light-hearted way to create fun characters and context for the story. It has an eco angle, but we’re not trying to push some agenda. This is the first game we’re using this technology, and it naturally developed from wanting to do a fun action puzzler with those original characters.

JT: Why fruit and veggies versus meat and cheese over any other character designs you could have selected?

AB: It started from wanting to develop the characters from the Veggie Olympics games design we already had in our pocket. The Meat’n Cheese just seemed like a natural antagonist to these characters. It was never meant to be a strong political statement, although now we can see how it could polarize players. It was always meant to be light-hearted, and fun.

JT: What has the reaction been to the game so far by play testers?

AB: Reaction to the game has been amazing. Of course, we’ve had our friends play the game but we were also able to bring the game to PAX East this year. Our booth was jam-packed every day and we even had lines going out to the main walkway. It was more than we could hope for. Since then, we’ve gotten the game out into Steam Early Access and the Steam community has been great with providing us with feedback. Even more recently, we attended NYC Game Forum’s Playtest Night and were able to have players test out the latest build, which included multiplayer versus mode. It’s been a bit of a humbling experience.

JT: How has development progressed since the successful Kickstarter?

AB: Development from Kickstarter was longer than anticipated, but much more has been achieved. We’ve fully ported to Open GL, which is the base of many other platforms including Mac/Linux and most consoles. We’re very proud of having reached our beta release in a timely matter and have already fixed a huge amount of bugs and development towards release is going strong. We’re currently working on a large milestone release, which will include new worlds, and up to four-player multiplayer versus mode.

JT: Brothers are generally known for their competitiveness between each other, how has this, for better or worse, affected your game development?

AB: As brothers, we’ve definitely had our ups and downs. We had worked together at a company in the UK called Pukka Games, which ended in part because of our differences. But we’ve both matured a lot since then, and can generally get along with the day-to day-logistics. As the programming wiz, Damon handles all of the technical and programming aspect of the game, while I function as the Art Director. We can still get heated, especially when there is a lot going on and big decisions are happening, but generally we’re more united in how we approach things.

JT: For the non-technical what exactly is it that is so innovative about your game and map editor?

AB: The physics engine gives players breakable terrain, fluid liquids and a sense of inertia. Players can get creative as to how they beat the level by directly manipulating the ground plan. It’s always cool to see players go through a level in a way we never thought of. We made a simple map editor to allow players to be able to create levels of their own and share them with the community. We use the same editor to create our levels, so we’re really interested to see what the players conjure up.

JT: What efforts are you taking to build a strong community interested in custom map design? Have you already had some interesting maps created by fans?

AB: We’re refining the editing tools for the players to be able to create levels as crazy as they would like it to be. We also post a new level design-in-the-making with the initial concept sketch and we encourage feedback from the community and invite them to create their own. From the feedback, we tweak the level before finalizing it for the game. We’re still in the early stages of development but we think this will give huge longevity to gameplay.

Organic Panic seems well on its way to becoming a fully published title that could potentially end up on many different markets despite dietary preferences.

Jesse is a journalist first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Candle is a canvass as such and allows the player to immerse themselves into each scene and identify through the art, the “puzzle” of Candle-a game that while on the surface may seem adolescent but in reality has very adult situations and themes and requires careful attention to detail.

It has also been said that “anything worth having is worth working for” and even though the Candle release date has been set back a full nine months (so far) the backers of this game aren’t complaining because in the end they want it to be everything they have imagined and then some. In fact, one of the most appealing aspects of Candle‘s creation is the support and the involvement of gamers to the extent that a contest had been implemented where interested backers could submit a character creation of their own for possible production.

We sat down with Miguel Vallés, Programmer and Jose A. Gutiérrez, Art Director the creators of Candle and asked them to elaborate a bit on the birth of their “baby,” the reasoning behind keeping it independent and self-funded in spite of some monumental obstacles to entrepreneurship in their native country.

Jesse Tannous: What kind of world did you want to create with the art direction of Candle? What was the intended emotional reaction for this world?

Miguel Vallés: Well, Jose -the Art Director- comes from a very classic art formation, and he always wanted to somehow bring traditional art to videogames, to create a ‘living painting’ but using actual physical hand-painted graphics (not like, you know, making everything in Photoshop and claiming it’s “hand-made”). That was our main goal for the art direction of the game. We wanted the player to really feel like a part of that massive painting, and by that we are trying to encourage everyone to pay close attention to what’s going on in the game.

We have completely removed the HUD from the game, so that the only thing that’s being shown in the screen is the game itself. This way, we can have a lot of clues and puzzles hidden in plain sight, forcing the player to really get immersed by the art, because it is not just a gimmick, it’s a core feature of the game’s mechanics: if you do not pay attention to the screen, you will most likely get stuck in the game.

JT: You call this game an “adult-tale,” can you elaborate a little more on what you mean by that? What sorts of themes does this game explore that will resonate with a more adult audience?

Jose Gutiérrez: We are building Candle‘s narrative from a very interesting perspective. The story is told through the narrator (Teku’s tribe shaman) and cinematics, and the lines are written like a childbook. It is a very deep story about life, religion, culture and humanity, but told with a very simple and “childish” appeal, like a classic fable. However, despite its naïve feeling it has a lot of subtle ideas and hidden meanings that directly appeal to a mature audience.

JT: What was the original catalyst to this project?

MV: Jose and I met at the University, and we soon realized that we really wanted to make games somehow. He was studying an Arts Degree and I was studying Software Engineering, so we could say that we were a perfect match. As soon as we had enough experience with our respective disciplines, we started prototyping a game that, one day, became Candle.

JG: Yes, I remember taking a shower -true story!- and suddenly the idea of a character carrying a Candle came to my mind, I told that to Mike and we instantly knew that it had lots of potential, so we started the main brainstorming process for what eventually became Candle.

JT: How has development been going since the successful Kickstarter?

MV: Well, Kickstarter saved our asses! We are 5 people now at the studio, and another 5 working with us sporadically, so we really needed to get funding for this project. Fortunately, Kickstarter provided us with enough money to work (even with our current 9-month delay for the release date). The development is progressing well, although the watercolours are slower to produce than we expected, so this will take longer to be finished. Fortunatelly our backers understood the situation and aren’t rushing us to finish Candle.

JT: What circumstances led you to pursuing the life of an indie video game developer? What have been some of the biggest challenges/rewards of that journey?

MV: We knew we wanted to make games, and we were determined to achieve that goal no matter the circumstances. Fortunatelly, people really liked Candle and the Kickstarter campaign went very weel, so we can´t complain at all.

However, entrepreneurship in Spain is hard because here the situation is quite bad. It’s hard to fund your projects and it’s even harder to sustain them, since the Government is suffocating the small studios with abusive taxing. But we will carry on.

JG: The most rewarding thing of this journey is the community that was created around the Kickstarter project. We are currently running a contest for our backers (allowing them to design one character for the game), and the amount of passion they have for our game is insane. That’s amazing.

While Candle, is still in development and promises to take the gamer on an extraordinary journey through an artistic realm that mixes fable, fairy tale and imagination, it could also be the case that the story its development could do the same for other indie developers in the world with their own societal obstacles.

Jesse is a journalist first who just happens to love video games and enjoys writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals.

Breton has been working on video games in one capacity or another for the last 14 years, and created his own studio Gamesbymo to develop the games he would be interested in playing. Other than relying on Miyamo of Conagusuri for the music, Breton is acting solo in the development of A.N.N.E. which has served him well so far after earning over $100,000 with his Kickstarter campaign last year. Many of the campaigns reward tiers also included several retro gaming inspired gifts including a SNES version of the games packaging, decorative SNES cartridges, and controllers.

Breton shared his original inspiration for A.N.N.E., his progress with the games development, and his successful Kickstarter campaign.

Jesse Tannous: Tell me about the origin story of A.N.N.E.

Moise Breton: I have been making small games and prototypes for more than ten years hoping that one day I would feel ready to do my own game full time. While staring at my video game collection one day wondering what to play I realized that I wanted to play a bit of everything, then I narrowed “everything” down to my favorite game genres, platforming and shmups. I got really pumped and jumped on a prototype. Two months later I was showing the prototype over at MIGS in Montreal.

JT: What were some of your biggest inspirations for the art style and game play for A.N.N.E.?

MB: The art style is really based on the constraint. I wanted to do a real 2D game (using a 2D engine not 3D) and I wanted the camera to zoom in when playing as the character. So when zooming in from 1280 x 720p resolution to a quarter of that you aliasing and little noisy sprite details that look good in higher resolution 2D game start looking like hard to read details. So I decided to go for a visual style that would work from afar and when zoomed in. The art style has evolved a lot since I first started. I get inspired by nes and SNES classics but I rarely start from reference for the art in the game. I go by feel, play with the shapes and color until I really get a little tingling feeling that I just hit the nail on the head.

JT: How has the development been going since the successful Kickstarter campaign?

MB: Development has been great but I feel that I have elevated my expectations towards the game. Also when i did the Kickstarter campaign the design wasn’t 100% done yet. I did the Kickstarter Campaign roughly 6 months after starting the project and it’s a fairly ambitious project, I did not have the full game down on paper, well I did for the mechanics of the game and the vision, but I really had to go in and design all the areas of the game, bosses, mini games etc… Also I always slow down production in summer, I take care of my kids during the day and work at night. It’s sort of a good thing since things tend to get stale or move slowly when you are spending too many hours in front of your work. This way I get to think a lot during the day and execute at night. I am happy with where things are now, it’s a big game and I want to make sure it’s worth playing.

JT: Were you surprised by how much support you gathered on Kickstarter? More than $30,000 more than you asked for?

MB: Yeah that was amazing. I tried my best not to have any expectations. I hate disappointment so I just focused on getting the campaign done and taking care of it as much as I could. In the end it was necessary for me to get that extra money. I was in debt by the time the campaign ended and a big chunk went just to get Gamesbymo afloat financially once more. Then the rewards, a bit of equipment, lawyer fees, and so on. It goes pretty quick.

JT: What do you believe were some of the most important reasons or causes for you making and exceeding your original goals?

MB: That’s always hard to say. Youtubers and game websites are always saviors when it comes to getting the game some exposure, but it doesn’t mean that people will run to your page and donate their life’s savings. I think that it’s really the x factor; doing what you really genuinely want to do and hoping that people feel it too. A lot of gamers saw A.N.N.E and got it. Now I just want to make sure that they get to play the best game it can be.

JT: What sorts of unique experiences do you think A.N.N.E. can offer players?

MB: A.N.N.E offers a big world to explore by foot or in the air in ways that haven’t been done before. It also combines a lot of distractions (mini games, side quests) and customizations for your ship and character. My goal is to offer a game with lots do to and hassle free backtracking. It’s also important to say that the game should be fairly difficult, I don’t like to throw enemies in just for throwing enemy in, I like to plan my encounters and situations as much as I can. The music is also a major player in the experience and it kicks ass.

For those who feel there’s not enough time to pursue their game development dream, keep in mind the success of “Mr. Mom”, Moise Breton who worked late into the night in order to create A.N.N.E. after taking care of his own kids all day. With a successful Kickstarter campaign under wraps…perhaps Breton can afford to hire a babysitter.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.

After leaving several big name studios Lee decided to try and grab hold of the same success that many indie game innovators were having on Kickstarter by releasing his own campaign with his personal passion 18 years in the making. We recently had the opportunity to ask Lee why he would leave one of the biggest names in video games to launch Timespinner.

Jesse Tannous: Can you give me a little background into your work with Microsoft and Bungie?

Bodie Lee: At Microsoft I worked in the Xbox Test Division, doing Quality Assurance on big titles such as Alan Wake, Gears of War 3, and Kinect Star Wars 3. After that I moved on to Bungie where I was a Production Engineer. My job there consisted mostly of writing software tools to help streamline workflows.

JT: What ultimately made you decide to leave companies like Microsoft and Bungie to pursue your own indie project?

BL: It started when I saw the Kickstarter for a Metroidvania game called Chasm. Their success, and the fact Timespinner was so similar, gave me the “indie bug”. This got even worse when I went to PAX Prime and saw how awesome the Indie Megabooth was. One day my manager asked me about my career: “What do you want to do?” I realized that all I wanted to do was work on Timespinner. So that’s what I did!

JT: In what ways has your experience as an indie developer differed from your work with those previous companies?

BL: There’s a really good blog post that a former co-worker of mine wrote, that sums it up pretty nicely. When you’re working for a big game company, you’re a small cog that fits in a bigger machine. While your work is important, your responsibilities are limited within a specific scope. When you’re working independently, your scope of responsibilities grows infinitely in all directions. It’s suddenly up to you to determine where you spend your time and energy. This shift was probably the most jarring for me, but I eventually got the hang of it.

JT: You described how you’ve developed the world of Timespinner for the last 18 years. How did you approach narrowing down the content you have to an approachable game for the masses?

BL: Timespinner is a side-story in a much bigger story in the galaxy of Erneah. The primary plot of Erneah is designed to be told in RPG-form, simply because of its sheer size. In the past I’ve tried making games that tell the primary story with tools such as RM2k, but it always proved to be too big of a task to do on my own. When I first made the prototype for Timespinner, I knew that I wanted to take a manageable piece of the Erneah story and turn it into a side-story game. This is the primary reason that Timespinner is a platformer- this genre is well suited for smaller teams and stories.

JT: What kind of experiences do you hope players of Timespinner will walk away with?

BL: I hope that people enjoy the story and gameplay so much that they can’t wait to hear about what happens next in the galaxy of Erneah!

Timespinner has already acquired its Kickstarter goal and is now moving forward in final development. Lee is just one of many creators who have stepped out of the corporate office in order to take a shot at independent game development.

Lee and his Timespinner, like the name implies, may have just picked the best time to make an eighteen year dream project a reality.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.

Enter studio Tale-of-Tales, and their game Sunset. Run by duo Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn out of their home in Belgium, this studio chose to follow through with an idea nearly 10 years in the making after seeing that the video gaming environment might be open to their projects experience. That hope was verified after the couple met their Kickstarter goal early on in the campaign to now reach more than double their original estimate with nearly a week still left on the clock.

Players take on the role of housekeeper Angela Burnes as she discovers the mysterious activity of her client Gabriel Ortega and the role he plays in a rebellious plot to combat the dictatorial government of their fictional South American city.

The two-person team sat down for an exclusive look into how this unique game was conceived, and how developing games as a couple has flavored their work and lives.

Jesse Tannous: In your Kickstarter trailer, you describe the aesthetics and a bit about the historical period you’ve chosen as the backdrop for your game, but I’m interested in why this period resonated with you as game developers?

Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn: We were both born around that time. It’s where we came from. The early 1970s also seem like the last era of innocence in the Western world. A time when people could still believe in the possibility of political change, in progress even. As opposed to our current “post-politics” that only treat the symptoms of a problem but never dare to consider the disease. Because that would conflict with our core beliefs in democracy and freedom. Beliefs that seem to have become the dominant ideology in exactly those early seventies.

The conflicts in Latin America that inspire the game are those between local social movements and international interventions. Many democratically elected socialist governments were overthrown in that era with the help of the US government under the guise of their passionate battle against the rise of communism. Back then communism was seen by many in the US as pure evil and the rhetoric is weirdly similar to that which is currently employed against terrorism, not to mention the practice of military intervention and regime change.

At the same time, issues relating to race, gender and class are on the rise. Or maybe they never went away and they are simply becoming visible again.

There’s a lot of parallels between the early seventies and our current times. Sunset is a celebration of the revolutionary spirit of the 1970s which seems to be lacking today. As well as a contemplation on the nature of violence, and its relationship to culture and civilization.

JT: What sort of emotional experiences do you hope players will walk away with from Sunset? What do you hope they will learn?

AH & MS: We have no explicit expectations. We want our games to be frameworks that help people define their positions. By putting the player in the shoes of a Black woman immigrant, we hope they gain a better understanding of what the world looks like from her vantage point. The ultimate goal being to enrich people’s lives by making them more aware of the beautiful variety that exists on this planet. So if there is a message in Sunset, It could be that we should always be prepared to reconsider our opinions, not just out of fairness, but simply out of curiosity.

JT: Your project has already been successfully funded, what sort of strategies did you implement to help make your campaign as successful as possible as quickly as possible?

AH & MS: The most important strategy is probably to stubbornly create these types of videogames for ten years. And then to propose an idea based on all that experience mixed with an assessment of what a larger group of people would appreciate. So there’s not much strategy involved at all. I think people back our project because they believe in us as developers and they like the idea of Sunset.

That being said, we did extensively study other Kickstarter projects and critically gaged our personal reaction to how projects were being presented. On top of that we asked for advice from many people with tons of experience. We didn’t really aim to reach our target so quickly. We had real doubts about reaching it at all and considered the Kickstarter first and foremost as a test to see how people would respond to our idea. Needless to say we’re delighted by what happened next.

JT: Why now for this game? You mention in your Kickstarter that this game has been in your minds since 2005, and you’ve been making games together for the last 10 years, so what made now the right time to get this project going?

AH & MS: We were working on two other projects (The Book of 8 and An Empty World) when we noticed a) how games like Dear Esther and Gone Home were suddenly able to find an audience and how similar those games were to our own. We remembered this old idea for a first person game and figured we could develop it in such a way that the audience for those games would enjoy it. Sunset was supposed to be a small project that we did on the side of the two mentioned. But because of practical circumstances to do with logistics and funding, we decided to focus on Sunset and come back to the other projects when it was done. So it’s a combination of intention and chance.

JT: Have you been a couple for the entire time you’ve been making games together for the last 10 years? How has being a couple affected, helped, or hindered your work as indie game developers?

AH & MS: Yes. Even before we started making games, we collaborated on websites and net.art projects (as Entropy8Zuper!). We even won a prize for that in 2000. We started collaborating the day after we met in a chatroom in hell (the hell.com domain, that is: the home of an online artists collective). We both felt that the other complemented something that was lacking. Apparently both creatively and romantically. It took only a few months for Auriea to move away from New York and come and live in Belgium.

The good thing about being two people whose skills complement each other is that we can make an entire relatively sophisticated videogame on our own. The bad thing is that our relationship is always more important than the work we make. That sometimes leads to strange decisions. We might have been much more successful if we didn’t love each other so much. Although, who would want to trade?

JT: Walk me through your process of game development as a couple. Do you have to both be on board conceptually for a project to work well together on it? Or are compromises made to keep both of you interested?

We have to both believe in the project 100%, though we might have different reasons. Compromise can be acceptable but only really in areas where one of us has a veto. But most of the time either we both like an idea or we don’t do it. A compromise would lead to a game that is only half as good than the original ideas. We try to fuse ideas instead in an attempt to make a game that is twice as good. We try to create room for the other person’s creativity in order to enrich the game.

Despite any current debate about the nature of what makes a game, Tale-of-Tales seem perfectly comfortable with pushing the boundary of artistic expression through video games.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.

When asked about his childhood influences and why the rewind of focus on certain aspects of those games of “yesterday” Petruzzi explains, “I really want to get back to the roots of fantasy games, and present an interesting and mysterious world that players don’t want to leave. I think both Zelda and Mega Man have had a huge influence on Chasm. The original Legend of Zelda was probably my favorite game as a kid, and it definitely left a big impression on me. Both the gameplay and the world itself are amazing, and I’ve tried to instill that same sense of mystery and atmosphere in Chasm.”

With their Kickstarter campaign goal met (and the ability to pay their bills ) Petruzzin and Dodd can commit to spending their days working on Chasm full time and tweaking some difficult platforming elements for gamers seeking a bit more grit.

When asked about beginning setbacks on Chasm development Petruzzi describes more than a few, but explains them with an almost grinning confidence, “After a couple of months I decided to pretty much scrap nearly everything and start over with the main focus on the dungeons. I had actually done a prototype of side-scrolling dungeons randomly assembled from various rooms earlier that year, so I decided to go back to that with what I had learned in the meantime.” Petruzzi elaborates on the challenges and successes and goes on to say, “I made a prototype in about 4-5 months, and took it to GDC to look for a publisher. Things didn’t work out as I had hoped, so after I got back home I finished up the Kickstarter and launched it.

The Chasm Kickstarter campaign reached its $150,000 goal in short order so it seems there are plenty of gamers who wish to relive their own childhood memories along with the creators.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.

With a successful campaign behind them we followed up with Castaneda to learn more about this project and the key to their Kickstarter success.

“I prefer same-room play to online any day,” declared Castaneda who created Hex Heroes with the same-room gaming element being one of the key features of the overall experience. While the game will be developed for multiple platforms including PC, Mac, and Linux, it was the Wii U that seemed the best fit for a game that emphasizes same-room play. “The Wii U, and Nintendo in general, has always had a strong focus on local play, and it’s an experience that’s available right out of the box,” explained Castaneda.

Castaneda explained the steps the small team tried to take once they went live with their Kickstarter campaign to ensure its success, “We began by reaching out to as many press sites as possible to drum up initial support, announcing the day our Kickstarter would launch.” Not stopping there, the team also sought out other means of support explained Castaneda, “We also got in touch with several fellow indie developers to see if they liked the game and would support us with a cameo inclusion.”

Due to the efforts of the two-man team and the desirability of the concept the Kickstarter campaign met its goal. Castaneda also explained why he believes same-room gaming is so important in both a general sense and specifically with Hex Heroes, “I personally feel local play trumps online almost every time. In the case for Hex Heroes, players need to be able to communicate instantly with one another to effectively play, and so being together in the same room is integral. The experience of working as a team is heightened when you’re directly next to your team mates.”

What originally started as a game jam concept has now successfully raised over $80,000, a substantial feat for a small indie game development project. Castaneda could not over emphasize his recommendation of taking game jams seriously, “Do them. Always. Game jams have really become the best way to develop games. They allow you to spitball ideas and strive to create a sample of the end experience.”

Same room gaming has undoubtedly hit a cord with enthusiasts as funding for Hex Heroes has been met and Castaneda and Jennewein can place all their focus on the team play concept they are anxious to introduce.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.

Well franchises like “Pokemon” and “Yu-Gi-Oh” have been inspiring these fantasies for years with their video games and animated television shows. Now, the French based game company Peoleo Entertainment hopes to take it to the next level utilizing altered reality technology with their game Drakerz.

While Drakerz is a TCG at the core, the game is designed from the ground up to be an interactive experience used on the computer in conjunction with a webcam. Players actually do have physical cards that literally come “alive” on the screen in action duels and fights Benoit Coupez, CEO of Peoleo Entertainment, explains, “Thanks to augmented reality, we can go a little further than a traditional TCG. For example, we are using the invocation map to move a character, like a war game without removing the tape,” and added, “Similarly, we can introduce a few more variables of the game with different points and gauges (life, mana, weapons, armor) because it is the computer that calculates everything. Paper and pencil are no longer helpful to remember.”

Peoleo has released a Kickstarter to aid the development of Drakerz in the hopes that the community will show its support for the innovative game. Many Veteran TCG players may be relieved to know that the company has considered some of the more frustrating aspects to competitive play such as cheating but explains that in the case of Drakerz, “An unstoppable, anti-cheating system is set up: you have to declare what deck you play at the beginning of the game, and it is the computer that tells you the card you draw during your turn,”

While the game does require a newer computer (no more than two years old), it does have mechanics to play like a normal card game by using pegs and hexagons. Coupez also went into detail about why his company decided to focus so much on the augmented reality aspect which in turn makes it less accessible, “The greatest obstacle was not creating a traditional video game.” Coupez went on to explain, “Every time we said it would be easier to do it with the mouse or keyboard, we avoided the idea. We really wanted to use the cards as a gaming device and not just as a medium that is stored in a closet.”

With altered or augmented reality technology being utilized more and more in today’s environment it is perhaps not surprising to see a game like this appear. Now it is simply up to the players to decide whether or not they want to utilize the newest advancements in gaming, stick with the classics, or go for a bit of both.

Jesse has been writing video game related articles and interviewing industry professionals for almost 3 years and strives to become a professional nerd.