This is the second part of my unpublished apology trilogy of interviews with gamemakers. You can read the first here.
This one is with Tõnu Paldra aka Tonypa from 2007. I could find no current way of getting in contact with him to apologize, as his website isn’t up and his e-mail bounces back. I’m hopeful that he will see this.
Luckily, Tõnu’s games aren’t that hard to find. Be sure to give them a little of your time.
This interview gives a snapshot of what it was like as someone that made flash games and the perception of flash games way back in 2007. While Tõnu was well respected within the flash community, I never felt like he got the respect he deserved anywhere outside of its boundaries because at the time, there was a negative stigma attached to flash games and many put them all in the same basket.
Hello, my name is Tõnu Paldra, I live in Estonia and will be 40 this year. I don't have full-time job, in the past I have worked in newspapers and magazines as a designer.
When did you become interested in game development? When did you start using flash and why did you choose this tool over others?
I discovered Flash about 8 years ago. It is pretty much only tool I have ever used. I did look around for other programs but they were all either too complicated, too costly or both. Flash4 was easy to use, did not cost a fortune, allowed both coding and designing/animating and was on the web.
Do you play videogames – what systems did you own growing up and what games are responsible for influencing your own work?
Not really. Growing up in Soviet Union means I never owned any game consoles except cheap copy of Spectrum ZX which never managed to work correctly with cheap copy of cassette recorder and was generally not much fun so I can't remember any games from that system. First games I played for long time were on PC.
Is there any other type of media or anything else that influences your games?
Not directly, but everything you see, read, hear or do has some influence. Images you like tend to creep into the colors in my games for example.
Do you make a living from making flash games?
I guess so since it's pretty much only thing I do. Living in relatively cheap country and doing business with more wealthy world means I can quite happily live with only fraction of income needed in US or UK.
Was there a point where you started to take your game development more seriously and treat it less like a hobby?
Probably when I quit my job. I still consider making games as hobby. It's fun!
Your games seem to either be a set of unique mechanics or 'take an already existing concept and give it a twist'. How do you come up with your concepts?
Sometimes I simply experiment with Flash without any clear attempt to "make a game". I also browse the web a lot and try small games. It is fun to play a game and try to figure out how you would change the game if you could change it. Can't say I understand the idea of remakes. If you love a game and want to create something similar, you would not make it exactly same. Copy machine is for making copies.
Your games generally have a very stylized, minimalized look and this seems to be accompanied with a straight-forward set of game rules that are easy to learn: what drives you to make the design choices that you do?
Basically I try to make games that I like. I don't like to play them once they are finished. I know them too well.
The visuals are simple mostly because they take a short amount of time. I don't mind hundreds of great animations and realistic characters, but it would take me couple of years to create and would remain unfinished. Also, when most other games go for fancy visuals, I find simple minimal graphics different enough to be called "style" and they are nice to my eye.
One thing about keeping simple visuals is how much more players can see using their imagination. If you have red rectangle, players may imagine it to be whatever they like. If you have a WWII german tank Mark 2 then for everyone playing the game it will be same WWII german tank Mark 2. Same. Boring. That's why reading a book is more interesting then seeing a movie. As a reader you use more imagination.
Some ideas just appear pretty clearly, I can see the gameplay and theme in my head. Only needs to be made.
Tell me about your development process..
Not much planning is involved, most I have is couple lines written down for basic idea. With Flash you can quickly put together a simple test to see if there is any point to continue with the game or if it is going to fail. If there is potential, I will continue until its finished, resulting commonly in a big mess of code. I don't like to improve finished games later. It would be easier to rewrite whole thing, but remaking it would not be fun. It is normal for an idea to transform completely during the process (this does not work - let's try that).
I don't make big games so they usually only take a week or two. Near the end I tend to lose interest and want to get it done quickly. While I am working on a game, I probably spend 4-6 hours on it every day but between games, I don't even open Flash.
Do you enjoy the development process?
Yes, I do. Mostly the part when I don't know exactly what the result will be. It's like being a God - change things as you wish and the whole world inside your game may change too.
How many projects do you have in development at the one time or are you strictly a 'one game at a time' person?
Usually I only have 1 project that I am working on.
Do you always have a lot of ideas for future projects?
Yes, I have hundreds of ideas and half-finished test files laying around.
Do you ever pick up a project that you abandoned and decide to finish it off?
I have some projects which I have tried to finish several times. Since I have worked with Flash through several versions, every time a new version of Flash is released, I attempt to try out new things it offers. It means I don't just continue with an old project but I start it again.
A lot of people talk about the distinction between 'hardcore' and 'casual' games, where casual games are generally considered to be games that you 'pick-up, play for five minutes, put down, repeat'. Since most flash games are played in a browser and don't incorporate save features they are labelled as casual. Do you agree or disagree with the general perception of flash games being casual? Do you think this distinction is even important or just a bullshit way for people to pigeon hole things?
No, I don't know about games being hardcore or casual. There is sometimes clear target audience, some games are made for teenage boys only, some are made for everyone. It's like the music industry, you have special products for some age group or gender and you have some products that appeal more generally to many people. The best games are not specifically made for the public but for yourself. If the creator does not love it, why would anyone else care about it?
Do you have a favourite among your own catalogue or is it usually your most recent release?
Normally it's my latest game. But I am proud of all of them.
The flash community seems to be constantly evolving – quality developers have emerged, new avenues are opening up for flash developers to make money and content stealing is still common. What is your opinion about where the flash community is headed?
Flash has never been specifically designed for games. I am pretty sure Macromedia was quite surprised to see popularity of Flash games. Over the years they have always been more concerned about "Rich Internet Applications" (whatever those are). It is very sad that developers of Flash continue to overlook the real reason of why Flash became so popular: easy animation and interactivity. And when I say easy I mean easy as drag and drop. Flash CS3 and Actionscript 3 are not easy and not much is there for the designers, animators or anyone that is not some sort of programming genius. I could not care less if Actionscript follows ECMAScript standard but it should not take days to learn how to make a simple button. Fine, I understand the need to push out a new version every year to make more money but it's pretty stupid to forget what your product is good at and simply make it more and more complicated. Eventually you end up with a product that takes the same amount of effort to learn as C++ while giving only a fraction of the possibilities.
To make good games you don't need OOP or ECMAScript standard, instead you need a simple and easy to learn environment. Good games hardly ever need complicated programming patterns. The greatest Flash games ever made (Samorost, Grow) can be created with couple of clickable buttons, if..else statements and picking animations to show. Sadly Flash has become something of a nightmare for creative people.
More money in Flash community is great of course. While it means we get bucketloads of really bad games it could still potentially bring up some great games too. Flash can already handle everything required to make quality games but there is not enough money to spend years developing huge games (not to mention there will be 2 new Flash versions out before you finish your game).
Are there any particular flash developers that you admire?
I don't play games, even Flash games after I try them once. Samorost and Grow series are things I admire, mostly because of their visual style and knowing I could never achieve something similar.
Have you ever collaborated?
Guess I am more about doing everything myself.
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