Video Interview: Student Developers of Morose Marauders

Two students at GDC talk about how to develop a game outside of class...while still in school...






Show Notes:
Interviewer: I'm here at the Game Developers Conference and with me today are some special guests. How about you introduce yourselves?

Apollo: My name is Apollo Keno[?].

Craig: I'm Craig Cashin [?].

Interviewer: You guys developed a game while in school, like student developers.

Craig: It is a side project as opposed to our other school projects.

Interviewer: Well, walk me through this side project.

Craig: Basically, it's just a pretty simple third person run around and shoot stuff.

Interviewer: So, your goal was to do like a 3D shooter.

Craig: Yeah, with some magic.

Apollo: We were pretty tired with first person games, so we just made it third person. Basically, just run around.

Interviewer: And the graphics - How did you guys - They look pretty nice. How did you guys do it?

Craig: We kind of faked associating just using the art style Photoshop. The characters and the enemies have an outlining, kind of a cartoon outline to them. It's not real associating but it simulates it without giving the engine performance hits.

Interviewer: OK.

Craig: There's too many of them.

Interviewer: How many levels are there right now in the game?

Apollo: Right now, it's just this one demo level. You probably if we wanted to go back and add more levels, that wouldn't be so bad now that we have every single game mechanic working.

Interviewer: Yeah. What are the core game mechanics then?

Apollo: Basically, the game actually started with the camera itself and the way the player moves. That was the base, the spine I guess, that everything had to be done, but the whole look where you're pointing, where the cursor's at, wasn't really built into the engine. Since we decided to take basically a first person engine, we made it a third person. Once that was done, stuff just started laying down as we needed it.

Interviewer: Can you talk about then the development of what you actually had to do to make this game and some of the challenges because you guys did this outside of class, right?

Apollo: Yeah.

Craig: Yeah, well, oh Jesus, there's so much to it. Where to begin?

Interviewer: Sure.

Craig: First of all, the camera angle was a big issue because it was hard to see the enemies at some point, so we had to play with the camera over and over to get the feel right. We spent weeks modifying the engine to get the character to look wherever the mouse was.

Interviewer: Oh, go ahead.

Apollo: No, I was just going to say basically it started with an idea and eventually it just steam rolled. We just started doing stuff and we got together.

Interviewer: How long did it take to get a prototype up?

Apollo I'd say it probably took us from the initial camera and starting to drop assets in, I think it only took about a month and a half and then we had basically the game. At that point things started changing real fast.

Interviewer: A lot of student developers talk about making a game. How did you keep the motivation for the first month or month and a half before you didn't have anything going?

Craig: We'd keep motivating each other back and forth. We worked outside of class with each other on this. We called each other up like, hey can you get this done? Yeah, maybe, I'll try it.

Apollo: Some days you'd just run into a problem or something like that and you've got school work to do. A couple days off and all of a sudden something clicks and you find a fix for something and then you're kind of like, you get the sparks back into and let's get this done now.

Interviewer: How did you balance school with this project because this project wasn't for any class credit, right? It was a side project.

Apollo: Just separate basically. It was a slow process at the start, and at the end we ended up meeting and we stayed up late nights and stuff like that, any time we weren't working or in school.

Craig: At the end of the process our lives pretty much consisted of school and then working on that and catching five hours of sleep, back to school.

Interviewer: Can you talk about how you actually learned this technology? What technology did you guys use to actually make this game, and did you learn it in class? How did you teach yourself?

Craig: We originally learned it to work in class, but they only teach you so much. We had to search resources online relentlessly, too.

Interviewer: So, it was pretty much teaching yourself.

Craig: Yeah. As far as 3D aspects and Photoshop, that's a whole other story.

Apollo: We just thought the best and fastest way was to do it yourself. Online there's great creative assets. There's tons of people on there. There's tons of people that have questions. Tons of people in online forums that help you.

Interviewer: Sure.

Craig: If you like modeling, if you like texturing, like focus on that. Focus on that as much as you can along with the actual game design.

Interviewer: Sure. Did you guys have to recruit other people? Did you have more students... Did you have other issues with people not doing work? Have did you guys handle that issue?

Craig: On previous projects for school, we did have a bunch of issues with people not doing work, so that's why we decided to go on alone on this.

Interviewer: Because you could trust each other to do the work.

Craig: Right, right. No one else showed much interest in helping us.

Interviewer: Did you guys show them a prototype?

Apollo: No, we just knew the students that we worked on previous projects, and really what it boiled down to was a lot of people say they wanted to make games but not everyone was willing to put in the hours at night to get it done and throw some finished product out.

Interviewer: Can you talk about winter break and exactly useful that was and if that was important for getting things done?

Craig: Our break was, besides Christmas, winter break was not winter break. It was working.

Interviewer: OK, good.

Apollo: That pretty much kicked off basically the point in the game where we really started spending tons of hours. At that point we had an idea and some cool mechanics that we wanted to eventually get together on a game. Come winter break, we had more time during the day, and we just started really putting stuff together.

Interviewer: Did you guys do any kind of... Were you in close personal proximity during winter break, or was it over IM or how did that work?

Apollo: We did some IMs.

Craig: I was out of town, not too far away but far enough where I can't just go over to his house and so, yeah, IM was good.

Interviewer: Do you guys then have any last words for student game developers out there if they want to get started and actually finish a game?

Apollo: It's all about just putting in your own time. I mean, learning everything you need to on your own and just as much as you want to. You can pretty much do what you want. You just have to find what it is.

Interviewer: What about working with a partner versus working alone?

Apollo: It's definitely a lot nicer. There's just so much involved. If you sit there and you have to do everything, you can easily lose yourself in small problems and spend days, weeks trying to do little things. With someone doing something else, you can come back together and you can both collaborate or have fixes for things.

Craig: Or bounce ideas back and forth. You've got to do that. Have a passion. Have a passion for making your game.

Interviewer: Thank you very much.

Take care,
Action

Video Interview: Developer from Tag: The Power of Paint, 2009 IGF Student Showcase Winner

Hey folks,

The GDC interviews are about ready for release...keep a lookout for the 50+ interviews coming out soon on the show :)

Here's the first one...winner of the 2009 IGF Student Showcase...one of the developers of Tag: The Power of Paint




Btw, if you want help out the show by doing an interview, post a comment with your e-mail info. The comment won't be published, but I'll be able to take the e-mail address and contact you :)

Take care,
Action

Podcast Interview: Developer of Galaxy Scraper, IGF Student Finalist...

Carlos, developer from Galaxy Scraper, talks about developing the game...

You can download the podcast here...
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/galaxy-scraper-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here...


Game Video:


Take care,
Action

Podcast Interview: Developer from Empyreal Nocturne, IGF Student Finalist

Reed, one of the developers of Empyreal Nocturne, talks about developing the game...

You can download the podcast here...
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/empyreal-nocturne-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here...


Take care,
Action

Podcast Interview: Some more Indie Game Developers from SF GDC...

Some more indie game developers + a student game developer (developer of Mayhem Intergalactic) talk about developing games for the Internet among other things...

You can download the podcast here...
http://www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/mayhem-intergalactic-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here...


Show Notes:
INDIEGAME DEVELOPMENT POD CAST SHOW
You are listening to Indie game pod cast show sponsored by curio soft kid’s game and the letter e visit the ww.indigamepod.com. Thanks again for listening to the show .this interview is inspired by quick meet up at the game developer’s conference.

HOST:
I m here at GDC and with me are two Indie game developers. How about you introduce you’re self?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Hi I am . I am a free lance game developer and next to me is Chris pelling also an Indie game developer.

HOST:
What types of Indie games do you guys develop?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
I have in the past three years developed retail tittles with a teem of three or four its me together with the sitting up long and we take roughly 8-9 months for a game with three or four people and yes we have been doing that for the last 4 or 5 years or something and we really like it.

HOST:
Are you thinking of staying in retail I mean this is whole trance suppose to be a digital distribution. Is this something that you guys consider?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Yes it is very lankly that the games that we are selling at this GDC is going to be our last retail title or at least last title last title that we make that is predominantly retail even the title we are doing right now is also available as a downloadable and as again the play station the web browser so we are definitely also feeling that! OH my God we are not going to make retail games anymore. Just hanging around this conference lately.

HOST:
Sure are you guys sticking up other things that actually laborites to internet as a platform? Since not just about single player. It’s not about single player games on the internet but its about I am not all sir. Are you guys looking for that kind of stuff?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
The online games can mean so much of like it could be a downloadable that you play against other people through other peoples it mean like a flash game. We are looking at most of that where like I guess everybody is looking at stuff like rune escape and plug cluppingwin and looking at OH my God looks at all the people playing those games. We got to do something like this well. So naturally we are I mean so us including we are looking at that but also at science like shockwave.com and congregate and just in browser games are also market that we are really interested in.

HOST:
Let me tell you about in browser games are you talking about stuff down in flash or THP stuff.

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
We actually develop a lot of stuff for the shockwave player. So that is mostly 3D action games and 3D adventure games and that’s really allot of other people are making consensive flash which is also great. So but we mostly are 3D games to deal .We mostly talk of the shockwave player.

Host:
A side from 3D the shockwave really offers a lot of benefits over flash it seems like flash is becoming a predominal platform for like Indie games on the web.

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
It is. I mean you really have to pick the technology on what you want to do. I mean you could also do the other way around. Unfortunately I also have to realize that if you do not have to do 3D that is flash is just a better option the shockwave I mean like years ago people say well yes you could do very only shockwave and its faster and action script is slow but flash cut up with all this stuff. It has video it has lightning fast.

HOST:
Freaking introduce 3D player?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
You know more then I do! I would say that there will be press breakfast with a announce director 11 which is tool that creates shockwave consense. I know there are a lot of people messing around with 3d and flash like the paper fishing guys but which buys the definition is indeed 3D and flash but it is got using action script to do actually the 3D transformations which is horribly slow so they are not yet really using 3D hardware to be able to do this for D. But I would definitely not be surprised if it they will be at 1 point at 3D engine to flash which would really rock my day.

HOST:
Nice! What are you’re favorite Indie games?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
You know the guys in retail. It’s a really embaracing question actually for me because I hardly play games its whenever we develop games my game designer tells me like yes well I wanted to be a bit more like a Zelda and I would honestly be like could you like show me a trailer of the game like whenever they use the game is an example I certainly done as a. S o I think lion rider is a stroke of genius and then what’s this game recently I am not sure if it got published but its on YouTube like crayon physics or something . I think that is a stroke of genius I owe that guy.

HOST:
That was huge actually.

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
I hope that guy makes a shit lot of money of that guy because its really. NO line rider is also an innovative game but there is also I think its crayon physics. Yes its in IGof this year so check it out.

HOST:
Welcome I am here at GDC. I have another Indie game developer. How about you introduce yourself?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Hi I am . My company name is Impansy ginger and I have made mayhem intergalactic which is at the students show case would be independent games this looks yes.

HOST:
Nice what kind of game is it?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
It’s a turn based strategy game setting space. Its very stream lined. Very simple. There is only 1 type of ship you have looks of planets and all he do really is just produce shifts a planet which happens automatically and then he moves ships from planet to planet to take over the entire map.

HOST:
Could you talk about the glomming process of balsam which you do any product typing or anything different?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Interesting sorry about that it was actually product type do not very little known game development system called byond that’s BYOND just to be confusing and so quintal type in this listening and put that on the nap and some people it and they really really like it and a little while after that a sort of I started thinking that I really wanted to start getting in this for money because it’s a portal type its free and so I felt what game can I make what’s the best game the most popular game that I have made and it was this so I believed in that 1 off the web thing . You know tied us about it because I won’t be able to buy the new one and I started to make a new one and I thought OH yes he knows after about the three months the game was done and I mean done in you know quotes and it took about another 18 months after that but actually be word selling and it was about 6 months ago. So you can tell it like 6 months.

HOST:
During that time did he pooped when you initially play the game I mean where they in a community or a form that where you could like found side is a mantasto?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
The product type was in all community was BYOND.COM. That really help full yes I got some people from their to better test new version downloadable version and it was going to be great task back community since I have been getting into the sort of Indie downloadable games kind of space I have been loosing contact with them and that means you know they are not so much invested in development anymore.

HOST:
Like you have other people or may be your forum that helps you co-develop your game?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
I don’t really have any forums something I am looking to develop a community around my games. I have contractors you know who do act sort of thing.

HOST:
Sure! You talked about you know it was done cut down in three months but it did not took 18 months actually get it done. Can you talk about why it took that long in some of the years you said that you may be you wish you would have known before it is time.

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Interesting question! Well the three months done is sort of like very rough I want to fetch it when its actually their. I felt like it was a done playable game but when I took a step back and when I looked to that and I realized there will be a tax in the court its all very nasty there are a lot of things which are not smooth you are going to need to know how to play the game before you are going to play the game and so. The process of over 18 months so just going through step by step fixing each part of the game one by one fixing the bugs was halted from fixing bugs and because I was actually doing this while in the university so I am student of national university and there was huge blocks of time during the terms I had to took class I couldn’t work on games so I say 18 months but really I was not working on that all that time and the three initial months we were just doing a period of Apollo days.

HOST:
Now as it is released. What are your goals and how are you marketing this game?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Well I am I have just racing the released on update which is a major milestone for me because I have been painting the game I have not you know released it and then say it okay pronto under it. I am developing it more and more and more as time goes on so major update out recently just before GDC just few days going back so now I am sort of at GDC figuring it out what I am going to do next and I think what I am going to do next is work on the game a little bit more I talk I want to do on and want to put it to mach this kind of thing after that I am going to stop moving on to other games particularly to the flash games because I think there is a long period that I have been working on this game and I have got seriously burned out several times I am burned out right up the moment its been a long argues process and somewhere along the line fun when I have to make in games I use to mess around making games free and that all was really fun that’s why I didn’t expected any profit from it now I am making downloadable game its 19.95$ you got into form and you are into your and you enter your credit card deal a thousand dollar and available to stop you have to deal excepting payments even if you are finding out credit card and stuff with someone else you know there will be bugs in your system you have to fix there will be customer support there will be patches there will be overt kind of stuff and having it downmotible and paid full upfront with the try by model it just add so much stuff I find out that I am not making games anymore I am fixing bugs I am doing customer support that does make any game there is nothing to do with making game I don’t want to be doing that its boring its crap you cant outsource it this is important that is done by the developer so what I am going to do I am going to get in flash games and I am thinking either just screw it make it free and I will get a real job o0r may be looking to add supported.

HOST:
Yes the add support model what do you think about that is that something that you are really working towards or do you think its going to be the same down notable?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Well I use to be really down on it quite recently in fact as looking to my heads I really do I go to extra ordinirary links to blocking out. So it’s sort of like I have done this great big about face like why am I putting ads in games that I make and the reason I s it’s a revenue stream which is so much easier everyone involved. People don’t have to quip out their credit card and into bother ad excepting credit card. I dint keep tracking fools register the games so I can send out the day’s student. I don’t nee d to worry about the rate conversion and piracy and sort of stuff it’s a so much simpler. People got to the page. The advertiser page using money and the play doesn’t have to think about the money they can book the ads as they want you know I don’t really care.

HOST:
What are your favorite Indie Games?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
I am going to put a huge plug here for a cuovierian which I actually just bought. It’s the most beautiful game I have ever seen big crops big blot amazing game acquire good bay now. I am not being payed to plug it its just awesome. Other games I bought in the past includes stars gate, moon pods doing some really good stuff and you know there was another game it was going to be mention but its fallen out of my head.

HOST:
SURE! Do you have any last suggestions for the Indie game developers who are going to make a game? There first game?

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
If they are making their first game. It’s going to take a work one as anything. Its tough, its hard you will get burned up it will suck. You will feel like quitting. Keep at it or if you think you should keep at it then you know may be something else but I don’t want to discourage anyone it gains as what you want to do then do it its not what you want to do? Then why the fuck?

HOST:
Thanks for your time.

(INDIE GAME DEVELOPER):
Thank you.

Take care,
Action

Podcast Interview: Ryan talks about student game development...

Ryan, talks about student game development...

You can download the podcast here...
http//www.indiegamepod.com/podcasts/ou2-podcast.mp3

or listen to it here...


Show Notes (thanks to Grace):
Interview with Ryan , on sound effects, gaming, and animation.

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

Ryan was part of team of 9 developing a platform, puzzle, interactive environment concept game called “Death by Design”. The team consisted of 3 designers, 2 programmers, 1 sound person, and 2 artists. [yes we’re missing somebody]

The game started as a class project with a deadline of 20 weeks. The team started with a couple of different ideas. One idea was an incredible machine type game, the other was something called “Death Quest” where the idea was to get your avatar killed in the most extreme way.

They did rapid proto typing using paper and a magnet board. They used this method along with design documents and had their idea pretty well done before beginning programming or artwork. Once they had their idea down they then let their imaginations go wild, taking the concept as far as they wanted without limitations of reality (programming concerns for example). If they hadn’t done this then they would have self-sensored and it wouldn’t have been as good. They ended with a fully realized concept.

Most people who create platform games follow a standard formula: Run right, keep the character alive for as long as possible, pick up a few objects, and then move onto the next level. They chose a static world, still picked up a few objects, but then completed some crazy objectives, and then something really silly and stupid would happen to the avatar. It was a lot of fun.

The team would have something called game jams every week at coffee houses. Here they would take 24 hours to work out concepts and levels to the point where they were complete.

Initially they came up with 12 levels but in the end the game was completed with only 2 levels. They were working on it up until 3 hours to deadline. They felt successful that they had actually completed the game. During the whole process there was never a slow period where they felt like they were just finishing up. The whole time they were like “Oh my God! There are problems!! There are problems!!”. Once the game was done though, it was the best feeling.

There were issues. One issue is that everyone wants to be a designer, so if you are on the design team you should roll with it and listen to all suggestions, take it in, because everyone has something to contribute. If these people are working in games, then their gamers, and they know what gamers like. All their input is useful. If you then get a chance to use testers outside of the team, listen to all of their suggestions too.

As part of the design team you need to keep your team moving, but you also don’t want to beat them into the ground.
Top 3 things Ryan learned:
1) No matter what you think it’s going to look like in the beginning, it won’t look like that in the end – and that’s not a bad thing! It probably means you learned something. Also be open to outside input, it’s very valuable.
2) Don’t take ALL the outside input! You can lose the integrity of your personal touch.
3) Working with people is challenging, but rewarding in the end.

Advice to wanna be indy game developers – Come to Austin Game Developer’s Conference!


Take care,
Action

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...


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