Podcast Interview: Producer of Student Game, Chromatica

Gene, from student-developed game Chromatica, talks about developing an indie student game…

You can download the podcast here…
http//www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/chromatica-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here…
http://www.indiegamepod.com/dewplayer.swf?mp3=http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/chromatica-podcast.mp3

Show Notes (thanks to Grace):
Interview with Monjoni, gaming student, and part of the production team of Chromatica. http://www.chromaticagame.com/index2.html

Interview was held at the Austin Game Developer’s Conference.

16 students in Ohio University’s brand new game development program, were asked by their professor, John Bowditch, to come up with a game during their first week of class. They all sat in a room and thought about what they were good at, and what they were capable of, and came up with a series of game designs. At the end of the week they picked one which turned into Chromatica.

Students as a rule are hard to manage. There are personality conflicts, and especially with a team of 16. There were a couple of incidents which Monjoni speaks of. In one, a stressed member of the design team created a big scene when a meeting was scheduled at a time when she couldn’t attend. In another example, a couple of people on the tech team were fighting over who was doing more work. Monjoni says that there were some huge fights which required mediation and a desire on the part of everyone to come together and work harder on the game. Drama won’t get the game done – sitting down and working, will.

Two people who’d never done code before in their lives were put on the tech team. The game was started in Torque game builder. They went through what few tutorials there were. They were overwhelmed! They put their noses to the grindstone and for the first solid month spent all their time learning code, even weekends. The made mistakes, but worked through, figuring out their mistakes and fixing them. After three months an experienced coder came into the project and analyzed their code and helped them with their mistakes. It was a learning experience for everyone. Sometimes that happens, you get thrown into a situation you’re not comfortable with. You’re a student, you’re supposed to make mistakes. What’s important is that you learn from your mistakes and move forward.

Problems for management are more about motivation than size. Every team no matter how big has a naysayer or two who aren’t excited or even interested in the game they are helping create. The hardest thing as a producer is getting these people excited and interested in the game. Some people just aren’t excited by certain genre’s of games. Professionalism is doing the job well even when it’s not exactly, or even close to the kind of game you might have wanted to do. If you feel like “I don’t want to do this – this doesn’t matter” – punch yourself in the face, because you’re wrong!! Everything you do as a student developer, matters. If you forget that, you’re screwing your own future.

The design doc for Chromatica was done during first month of development. Mockup, story, and levels were being developed during the same period. It took them too long to find the fun. Weekly QA tests helped them find the fun. He regrets not doing QA earlier. His advice is to get your prototype out there early and have QA early. Also, if it’s not fun then go back and fix it. The game has to be fun – #1 rule!

They worked on the game up until the last minute before shipping. Only three days before did they feel that the game would be successful. If you’re a student and it’s early in development, don’t be disheartened, it won’t look like a game, or much of anything, for awhile. Once you get other people outside of the team in to play it, then you’ll start to see what you really have.

Top 3 Lessons:
1) Game development is a whole lot of Hell – but once your game gets out there, there’s no better feeling!
2) Players are the most important thing! Get feed back from people outside of the team. They will affirm everything you thought was wrong and right about your game.
3) Student development is a wonderful opportunity. Even if you’re not a student, get out there, get a team, and make a game. It’ll be the best experience of your life!!

Take care,
Action