#indeviews

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Andrew: My name is Andrew Sum, and I'm a game developer from Melbourne, Australia, currently working on Dungeon Dashers.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Andrew: I use Multimedia Fusion 2 for almost all of my games. I've been using it for over ten years now so I'm quite familiar with it and it allows me to produce games quickly. I like it for its speed, however it does have a few problems such as portability to other platforms. All of the game's content and engine is built from scratch in Multimedia Fusion 2. I also built my own level editing tools so that I could create levels and content for the game much faster.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Andrew: Yes! I use Multimedia Fusion 2 for all my game making needs, just because I'm so familiar with it and for its speed. It's great for gamejams.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Andrew: I use Multimedia Fusion 2's own esoteric language, which is quite different to most other languages. When I'm not using MMF2, I also quite like Python, once again due to the way it enables rapid development.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Andrew: I built my own level editor for Dungeon Dashers, and I used all of MMF2's in built tools.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Andrew: I have a Windows 7 PC with dual monitors. It has an i7 920 @ 3.9ghz, a GTX 560ti, 6GB of RAM, and a few TB of HDD space. I'd really like to upgrade my primary harddrive to an SSD next.

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Andrew: I think Harvest Moon on Super Nintendo has always been a big point of inspiration for me. I really enjoyed the open exploration nature of it, and the way you could create your own goals.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Andrew: Finish games. It's important to finish your games, not matter how small they are. You need to get finish a few small projects so that you know the process involved in doing so. Otherwise you'll have nothing but unfinished prototypes everywhere!

I will (probably) never work by myself again. While I work with a team of artists and a composer on Dungeon Dashers, I am still the sole programmer/designer/developer. It can be hard to motivate myself when nobody else is forcing me to work on the project. When you work in a team with equal investment, it's easier to help each other out and get motivated to work.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development "suites" like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Do you feel interested in using them for your next projects?

Andrew: They're fantastic. I think Unity has played a large part in growing the indie development scene, especially once it went free. I haven't used Unity heavily yet, but I think I'd like to work with it for some future projects in 3D.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Andrew: I'm currently working on Dungeon Dashers, and I occasionally do small games at gamejams, but I'm looking forward to finishing this game and working on some new things as well!

Thanks so much for this interview!

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Check all the previous interviews and stay tuned for the next episode! :)

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Tyson: My name is Tyson Ibele and I'm a professional animator who works for MAKE. I've also branched out to do indie game development in my spare time. The game I'm currently working on is called Zombox.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Tyson: I've only ever used Unity to develop games. I don't know enough about programming to create my own engine from scratch, and I haven't tried other out-of-the-box engines like UDK. I jumped into Unity after seeing how cool 'Interstellar Marines' looks (another game that's being developed with Unity), and found it so easy to use that I stuck with it. Also, Unity allows for fast and easy multi-platform support, so it is an ideal engine for me in that regard.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Tyson: Well, I've only ever developed this one game, so yes!

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Tyson: I'm currently developing with Unity's implementation of JavaScript. I find it very simple and easy to use and understand. Most people who use Unity recommend developing in C#, but I chose JavaScript over C# when I started developing because it was a bit easier to learn. I think now if I were to develop another game, I'd start with C# instead because it's a bit more robust.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Tyson: I use 3d Studio Max for all of the 3d models and animation for Zombox, Photoshop for all of the texture work, and After Effects for some other tasks (batch export of game icons, compositing complex textures, etc).

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system etc)?

Tyson: I use Notepad++ to edit all of my code, and Unity's built in profiler to test and optimize functions. I don't use any project management tools other than a simple backup system that works in conjunction with Dropbox.

Is there any specific library, framework that you always use on your games?

Tyson: I only use built-in Unity frameworks, so no, I haven't used any external libraries. That being said, once I get closer to release I'll be implementing some 3rd party systems to integrate things like in-app purchases for iOS.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Tyson: I use a PC for all of the main development tasks, and a Mac laptop for exporting builds of the game. The Mac is required for building because you cannot build for iOS from a PC without some shady workarounds (you can do it with VMWare but it's not Apple-sanctioned). The PC has a dual monitor setup and fairly good hardware, while the laptop is just a generic Macbook Pro that's a few years old. Zombox runs at a very high FPS, even on slow machines (because it's targeted for mobile devices), so a fast machine is not required to develop it.

Do you have any photos from your working environment & a screenshot of your typical development setup?

Tyson: I don't, unfortunately! Just imagine a computer desk in a small apartment, haha!

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Tyson: Minecraft has probably been the biggest inspiration for the game, as development has progressed. That being said, the initial reasons for developing it came from inspiration taken from games like Left 4 Dead and Project Zomboid.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Tyson: Avoid burning yourself out! Don't be afraid to step back and take solid breaks from development, in order to recharge your creative batteries. Also, thinking and planning ahead is just as important as actual physical work on a project. I sometimes take days or weeks to plan a feature out in my mind before writing a single line of code. Doing that - instead of rushing to get a prototype into the game - almost always results in me having to do less code re-writing later.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Tyson: I'm currently working on Zombox as mentioned. There's still a lot of things to add to the game, so I haven't thought far ahead enough to decide what I'll do once the game is complete!

Thanks so much for this interview!

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Stay tuned for the next episode! :)

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Tyler: My name is Tyler Owen and I make games. Currently creating a Mars exploration game called Lacuna Passage.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Tyler: I started making terrible, terrible games with Game Maker several years ago. I never really learned any programming in school so I stuck to visual logic-based engines. The first games I created and released I built with Stencyl. If you haven't heard of it it's a great tool for creating games and really getting your feet wet with basic programming. I released Iceberg Frenzy on iOS and Protobotic for Flash, both created with Stencyl. During that time I was employed creating and managing game art in Unity, but I didn't transition to using it for my own projects until I found out about the Playmaker plugin that allows you to do visual scripting very similar to Stencyl or Unreal if you are familiar with their Kismet scripting. Playmaker is much more powerful than most people give it credit for. About 99% of Lacuna Passage is done entirely in Playmaker for Unity and I love it.

Editor's note: Here's a list of Unity plugins from Random Seed Games blog.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Tyler: Each game is it's own beast, but I have a general approach to most of my games, and that usually starts with some intense prototyping. I always get down and dirty making something that moves before even really putting my ideas down on paper. Planning things out too much before that tends to get you too attached to the ideas and not the merits of the gameplay.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Tyler: I've always been fond of visual scripting programs like Stencyl and Playmaker, but they can have limitations. I've run into enough roadblocks during the development of Lacuna Passage that I have started to dabble in C# and Javascript. For indie developers, really whatever gets the job done is the best language for you.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Tyler: My background is primarily in graphic design and 3D art, so I'm very entrenched in the Adobe and Autodesk suite of products. When I'm working it's not uncommon for me to have Illustrator, Photoshop, 3ds max, Mudbox, and Unity all open at the same time. One new program I've adopted specifically while working on Lacuna Passage is World Machine. If you are creating a game that requires any kind of custom terrain then I don't see why you would bother using anything else.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system etc)?

Tyler: I usually keep my production tools pretty lightweight. I do utilize the Unity Asset Server for some simple version control and project sharing functionality. One tool that I do find extremely useful though is Allway Sync for project backups. We have our main project folders and all our working assets automatically synced to several backup harddrives. I just can't imagine losing any of our hard work because of something as simple as a crashed harddrive.

Is there any specific library, framework that you always use on your games?

Tyler: Nope, I have yet to dive into more complex frameworks for creating games. Whatever is free or cheap and easiest to translate from idea to reality is what I use.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Tyler: I have a dual monitor PC that is starting to show it's age. It has a first gen i7 quad core processor with 8 gigs of ram and a mid range NVIDIA card that was swapped a couple years ago. I should really update my rig.

Do you have any photos from your working environment & a screenshot of your typical development setup?

Tyler: I'm too lazy to clean my desk for a good picture, but it's nothing very exciting. Monitors are mismatched and propped up on books on top of a particle board desk. Only thing you can't be cheap about is buying a nice chair. I have terrible back problems.

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Tyler: I draw inspiration from different sources depending on the game I'm working on. The inception for Lacuna Passage came after playing Dear Esther while being simultaneously enthralled with the landing of the Mars Curiosity rover. Games that inspire me in general are Braid, Portal, Journey, and many others. A developer that I really admire is Andy Schatz. In fact, he is really the person that spurred me to start creating games. I met him back at GDC 2010 when he won the IGF. At the time I was really struggling to decide if I wanted to go make art for some big AAA developer or create my own games and so I asked him for advice. I remember exactly what he said, he said "If you want to make games, then start making games. You don't have to wait for someone to hire you or give you permission." I really took that to heart.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Tyler: I like to add on something to what Andy told me and that's that you can't be afraid of failure. Start making games and actually show them to people and release them. If they suck then people will let you know and you will learn from the experience. Your next attempt will be better. As far as something that I avoid, I probably try to avoid getting burnt out. Sometimes you will hit a slump with one project and it's a better use of your time to just pick up something else instead of trying to crash through a brick wall.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development "suites" like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Given that you already use Unity for Lacuna Passage, is it safe to assume that you will use it for your next project or you will switch back to an in-house engine?

Tyler: I love free and inexpensive tools. Anything that brings game development to a larger group of people I think can only result in better games being created over time. I can't say for sure if I will continue using Unity for projects beyond Lacuna Passage, but I find it difficult to think of anything that would necessitate a change to another development environment. I'm comfortable with Unity and it's always evolving and updating.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Tyler: As the primary developer for Lacuna Passage I have a lot of work ahead of me, hopefully leading up to a Kickstarter in the next month or so. Crowd funding I think will be a critical component for the success of the project. If we are successful in raising our required funds then we still have a long road ahead of us, but at least we will have enough gas to get us to our destination. People can follow our development on our website at www.randomseedgames.com.

Thanks so much for this interview!

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Stay tuned for the next episode next week! :)

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Michael: I'm Mike. I do all the programming for Code Avarice. I also do most of the PR stuff as well. I work with Travis, a tattoo artist turned game artist. He's crazy talented, and tons of fun to work with.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Michael: I wrote several engines using OpenGL and C++ back in the day, before I was really seriously making games. I've also played around with lot's of 3rd party tools. From simple C++ libraries like SDL and Ogre, all the way up to engines like Unity and UDK. I always liked writing low level OpenGL and C++ code. The mystery and sense of discovery I would get implementing new features as almost a game unto it'self.

For Paranautical Activity, we're using Unity. It was recommended to me by a game developer friend of mine, and I'm really loving it. I've been using it for several months now, and it's got everything I need. It's a powerful engine that supports rapid development and has a great license. Not much more I can ask for. I kinda miss the excitement and freedom of C++, but it's hard to argue with the productivity boost.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Michael: I haven't worked on 2 games the same way yet. Thus far I've used a different language, framework, engine, ect for everything I've worked on. Mostly just because I was trying to find something I really liked. I think for the foreseeable future I'll continue to do things how I'm doing them now though. We've got an efficient pipeline going with Unity right now, and I can't think of anything that would make me switch to something else. In terms of the creative side of the development process, that's been pretty consistent. Either myself or Travis will come up with an idea, we'll spend some time fleshing it out, then dive into working on it and see how it evolves. Our process tends to be very organic. No matter how much we try to plan out a game, it always ends up really different from what I expect. It's more like we're discovering the game than designing it, which is always really fun and exciting.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Michael: Right now I'm working with C# in Unity. It's a fun language to work with, since it's really simple and hard to mess up. I'd still have to say I prefer writing C++ code. C# is almost too easy to write. It removes all the fun and excitement that comes with writing C++ code.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Michael: Unity provides us with most of that stuff. For asset creation, Travis uses 3DS Max for modeling and animation, and occasionally ZBrush for high poly sculpts depending on what the asset requires.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system etc)?

Michael: We use Dropbox to send assets, builds, ect back and forth, and that's been essential to keep the pipeline really quick and efficient. I keep a backup of all my code in there as well, but other than that I don't use any version control, even though I know I really should. I've used Git in the past, but I've never really gotten into a good routine of using it.

We use AIM to keep in contact (since we're not in the same room, or even same state for that matter). I usually use Skype to chat with press and the musician we're working with.

I really like Visual Studio as an IDE, and I've also really enjoyed my time with Code::Blocks as well. Right now I'm using MonoDevelop, though. Really for no reason other than the fact that it's the default IDE that Unity links to, and it's good enough that I haven't really had a reason to use anything else. My favorite though would probably be Visual Studio, especially when I'm writing C++.

I use Notepad++ as a sort of digital whiteboard to keep my ideas and to-do list in check. I used to use an actual whiteboard for this, but I found that having it all stored on my computer makes making easy changes more efficient, since I don't have to get out my white board markers and eraser every time I want to jot something down or remove something from my to-do list. Plus, with Notepad++ I don't have to worry about reading my awful handwriting.

Is there any specific library, framework that you always use on your games?

Michael: Unity. Previously SDL was a favorite of mine for render context creation, 2D asset importing, and keyboard/mouse input. If I ever do go back to writing my own engines, SDL will definitely be a part of it.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Michael: I use Windows. I dual boot linux, but that's mostly just to test linux builds. I'm running a GTX660 2GB with 16GB of ram and an Intel i7-3770K clocked at 3.5GHz.

I have one standard monitor on my desk, and a second monitor that is actually just my 42" TV. I usually either keep Youtube videos or Spotify on my second monitor.

Do you have any photos from your working environment & a screenshot of your typical development setup?

Michael: Development setup:

Working environment:

That's my messy and haphazardly slapped together work environment. Got my standing "desk" on the left, and my TV/second monitor on the right, teetering on a bar stool. I usually have a podcast or a lets play up on the second screen just to have something to listen to and occasionally glance over at so I don't go crazy staring at code in silence all day.

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Michael: For Paranautical Activity, Doom and Binding of Isaac are huge influences. I really love old school FPS, and I've been falling in love with a lot of indie roguelikes lately.

If I had to choose a favorite developer, it would definitely be Jon Blow. He's one of the smartest guys in the industry today. I could listen to him talk all day, and fortunately for me he's done tons of lectures and interviews. A close second would be Ed McMillen. He's a really cool guy, and an extremely talented artist/designer.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Michael: I think most people would say "start small" and I would definitely tend to agree. It's shockingly easy for even a simple project to spiral out of control and end up never finished. Even our last game, Eris had that problem. We should have finished it (or at least reached a public beta) in under 6 months. But we kept getting distracted and adding silly features. The game quickly became too ambitious for our 2 man team to tackle. We may go back to the project in the future, but we'll need to do some serious trimming of the fat. If you want to make indie games. Start super small, and slowly work your way up.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development "suites" like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Given that you already use Unity for Paranautical Activity, is it safe to assume that you will use it for your next big project or you will switch to an in-house engine?

Michael: A year ago I would have said that using an engine was a cop out. I was a hardcore "write your own engine or go home" guy. Now that I've spent so much time with Unity and similar engines, I definitely see the value in them. There isn't a single project I can think of where I would rather spend ages writing my own engine when I can use one of the excellent 3rd party engines available. I'm definitely going to continue to use Unity for the foreseeable future.

The only problem they have is that they are almost too easy to use. Tricking young developers into thinking they're making a great game, when all they're doing is throwing together a bunch of crummy pre-made assets that come with the engine.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Michael: We're still working on Paranautical Activity. We're hoping to get the game out of beta in a few months, then we'll be moving on to our next project. We know what we're gonna do for our next project, but the concept isn't quite fleshed out enough for me to be able to describe it easily. It's a first person game like Paranautical, but it's gonna have a much bigger focus on 1v1 combat, without guns.

Thanks so much for this interview!

Michael: No problem! :)

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Stay tuned for the next episode next week! :)

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

E: I'm E McNeill, a designer/programmer who went indie in late 2012. My biggest project so far was Auralux, an ultra-minimalistic RTS, but I've made a bunch of other games and prototypes which you can check out at my site.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

E: For a long time I worked exclusively in XNA, but when I went indie I switched over to Unity, and I'm sooooo glad I did. The community is larger, it's easier to go to multiple platforms, and the plugins are a godsend.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

E: I've always been partial to C#. It seems to offer the sweet spot in terms of performance vs. ease of programming.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

E: I use the 2D Toolkit plugin for Unity, since it's otherwise very 3D-focused.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system, project management etc)?

E: I'm all over the place. I usually have Unity, Visual Studio, Notepad++, GIMP, Audacity, and pen and paper open on any given day.

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

E: I was a PC gamer growing up, and my early influences were classics like Heroes of Might and Magic, Lords of the Realm, Command and Conquer, Morrowind, and Battlefield 1942. I'm finding inspiration even more often now, thanks to the explosion of the indie scene. I'd call out Proteus, Dear Esther, Flower, Limbo, and Bastion on the narrative side, and Eufloria, Minecraft, Braid, flOw, XCOM, and Dota on the mechanical side. Is that too many?

It would be tough to name a favorite developer, since I tend to idolize so many. Other indies have been hugely inspirational for me on a personal level, but that kind of admiration has been a little problematic for me. I wrote a blog post about that, if you're curious.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

E: Be honest with yourself and go with your gut. I think that's how you have to evaluate your work, choose your partners, and run your life. My biggest mistake in my game dev career came when I was choosing between two paths and went with the more "logical" one, against my instinct. Those gut feelings are there for a reason, even if you don't always know what it is. Pay attention to them.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

E: I'm currently working on finishing Bombball, an OUYA eSport game that I first made for a 10-day game jam. Aside from that, I'm also prototyping a choice-based conversation game, a strategy card game, and a few other abstract touchscreen game mechanics. And once my Oculus Rift dev kit arrives, who knows what I'll be up to?

Thanks so much for this interview!

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Stay tuned for the next episode next week! :)

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Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Liza: My engine of choice is ImpactJS. I originally chose it when I was first starting to learn JavaScript for game development and saw that it seemed to have the best documentation and a fairly active forum community.

The only game that I did not use this engine for was KROOG (source @ Github) - it was made as part of a challenge where the final zipped up package size can be no greater than 13kb and ImpactJS would blow this limit out of the water.

I like Impact because it is flexible enough to cater to different types of games. I've heard people say that it's only really great for platformers, but in my opinion this is not the case. Yes, Impact is a wonderful engine for platformers - in part due to its level editor - but it's certainly not limited to them. The majority of games I've used it for so far have not been platformers at all and I haven't run into any limitations on that front.

I also like that it still requires writing actual code. There are great engines like Construct 2 out there that don't require any programming, but I actually enjoy that side of things. In addition, you have access to the engine source and can easily modify it to suit your needs if required.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Liza: I've found a rough process that works for me, but I'm open to experimentation and change as I learn and find better workflows.

Ideas usually come suddenly and out of nowhere so I jot them down in a notebook. Usually I don't get started on them right away because I'm finishing another project, but I start planning them out with paper notes that are usually completely illegible to anyone else. By "planning" I mean both the core design concepts and the general code structure.

When the time comes to start the next project I take my boilerplate template (an ImpactJS installation with some generic stuff added that I use in every project) and start coding (with placeholder art).

About halfway through the project I start feeling like I can't really tie it all together without a proper feel for how it'll look, so that's when I take the time to work on art assets and such and fiddling with styling/colors/etc.

This does vary a bit from project to project, though. One of my favorite things about working on my own games is that when I get bored with one task I can move onto something completely different and still have it be useful to the project. If I'm tired of coding, I can go draw some sprites or design a title screen, look for sound effects, work on documentation, etc.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Liza: I prefer to build my personal games with JavaScript and HTML5. I chose it over the others because I already had a background in web development and it seemed like the most intuitive step when it came to moving into games. In addition, there is so much activity and new ideas, demos, browser advancements, etc with JavaScript and HTML5 that I just find it an exciting area to be in right now. However, that's not to say that I'm not interested in other languages as well. JavaScript was a great entry language into game coding for me and I'm advancing further from there.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Liza: The engine I use has a level editor built in and sometimes that comes in useful depending on the kind of game I'm making, but most of the time I stick to the general tools like my code editor and graphics program.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system, project management etc)?

Liza:

Code editor: Sublime Text 2

Graphics: Photoshop CS5

Local server: MAMP

Browser: Chrome Canary

Source control: GitHub (with SourceTree as the client)

Project Management: Varies greatly, but recently I've been using GitHub issue tracking quite a bit

Sound: Audacity

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Liza: I enjoy being able to work in different locations (cafes, parks, planes...) and use a 2011 MacBook Air running Mountain Lion. I'd normally also do some work on my Windows PC (Core i7 3.4Ghz, GTX580 GPU, 8GB RAM), but that is currently still in a suitcase after my move, waiting to be put back together.

Do you have a screenshot of your typical development setup?

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Liza: The games that inspire me the most tend to be simple ideas made fun; the games that make me think: "Why didn't I think of that?"

I like these kinds of games because they show me that these simple but original ideas are still out there to be discovered. You don't have to make some convoluted game that is a mixture of five other games that get rehashed over and over, but tries not to look like any of them. Somewhere out there is an idea that is wonderful in its simplicity and perfectly basic at its core. The last game that inspired me this way was Super Hexagon.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Liza: Everyone will find themselves in their own individual circumstances, but based on my own experience my advice would be to learn to code. The one thing that has brought me the most benefit when it comes to game development (both professionally and in a hobby dev environment) is practically holing myself up in my house for a year to learn a scripting language.

The single most "powerful" and self-sufficient role in game development is, in my opinion, programming. Before I started learning to code my own games I would have all these great ideas with no way to implement them - I'd either have to convince or pay a coder to help me. When I went to a Game Jam I'd have this tiny nagging thought in the back of my head about what group I could fit into, if I'd find a programmer to work with, etc. It's very liberating to not have that worry cross your mind anymore.

One thing that I will never do again is feel helpless or have to rely on someone else to help me build the games I want to make. This will require continuous learning and improvement when it comes to programming. That's not to say that I reject collaboration (I've collaborated with artists, composers, and will likely collaborate with other coders at some stage), more that I don't need someone else to build my games for me.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development "suites" like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Do you feel interested in using them for your next projects?

Liza: I think they're great and it's great that there are so many options out there for people to develop with. I'd love to start familiarizing myself with Unity when I can find the time.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Liza: For the future I just want to keep learning, and keep coding. I want to become more comfortable with C++ and C#. Currently I'm taking part in the One Game a Month challenge, so completing one game each month in 2013 is the goal for the year. The immediate goal is to release my March game, Promiscuous Flea (in what is hopefully a playable state).

Thanks so much for this interview!

Liza: Thanks!

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Stay tuned for the next episode in seven days! :)

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For those who don’t know you, who are you and what do you do?

Johannes: My name is Johannes and I am one of the three people that make up Tribunal Games. We are still working on our first game - a pirate themed open-world game called Freebooter for PC - so there isn’t too much to know about us yet. Since we’re only three people on the team, everyone does a bit of everything so despite being mainly a programmer, I do much of the PR and business side stuff for Tribunal as well.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Johannes: For Freebooter we are using Unity as a game engine and an IDE. Ogre3D was mandatory for the first project I did during a games development course I took at university and Unity was mandatory for the remaining games I worked on during the course. It’s been years since I’ve worked with Ogre3D but back then it was a pretty barebones rendering engine, so if that´s all you need then it’s great. Now, I am more of a gameplay programmer than an engine programmer, so Unity is right up my alley. There are similar engine/IDE combos out there but the more I work with Unity, the happier I am with it, so I never really felt I had cause to look elsewhere. Actually when we were just starting out, I wanted us to make our own engine but Jakob talked me out of it and in hindsight I think it was the better choice for us to capitalize on our familiarity with Unity.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Johannes: We prefer Agile development, in the sense that we do one iteration and then plan for the next - we keep our long term plans pretty vague. Myself and Jakob live in Denmark, while Nissanth works out of London, so we have regular meetings over skype to keep everyone up to date, though since we’re only three it is not too much to manage.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Johannes: I did my first programming in C++, so C# was the obvious choice when working in Unity and again being fond of high-level programming, I am quite happy with C#. I haven’t thought about it before but I guess I have an “if it works, don’t fix it” mentality.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Johannes: We use Blender for 3D Modeling and GIMP for the admittedly small amount of texture work (our sound is provided by a hired audio designer).

Jakob has been making Blender Add-ons specifically for the kind of assets we need for Freebooter - so far I believe he has made 2 mesh generators (one for the sea and one for islands), as well as some specialized optimization and UVmapping tools for the type of art we use for Freebooter.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system etc)?

Johannes: For C# I use VS2010 and I don’t think I would be nearly as efficient without it. We use TortoiseHG for version control and BitBucket to host the repository. I usually use Google Docs for text documents - I like having a spell checker and being able to access all my documents via my Gmail account.

Is there any specific library, framework that you always use on your games?

Johannes: Nope - Unity comes with most of what we usually use.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Johannes: I work on a PC with a single monitor - I don’t remember the exact specs but it has a GTX 650 Ti and an i7 CPU.

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Johannes: I try to play a good amount of games to see what other people have come up with and how it worked. In terms of inspiration, I would say Magicka, Indigo Prophecy, the Majesty games, Star Ruler, Magic: The Gathering and Morrowind are big ones for me. I know Nissanth who does most of our art is a fan of Dark Souls/Demon Souls, Wind Waker and Morrowind. Jakob doesn’t think much about inspirations - he tends to want to make a version of whatever he is playing at the time.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Johannes: Don’t overthink things - if you’re not sure what will work, implement the simplest solution and go from there. Don’t be afraid of scrapping a lot of work to get past a particular hard problem - sometimes patchwork solutions just won’t cut it. Even if you are horribly behind, be sure to take some time off - you are not a machine, you can’t work non-stop. Try not to let your ego get in the way.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development “suites” like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Given that you already use Unity for Freebooter, is it safe to assume that you will use it for your next big project or you will switch to an in-house engine?

Johannes: We’re planning to work on Freebooter for another half year minimum, so we’re not thinking about the next game yet. That said we’re most likely sticking with Unity. As I see it, Unity and similar development solutions allow for developers to take more chances and try more interesting ideas for games by cutting down on costs and development time - for a small indie game developer that is not looking to push the envelope in terms of technology, like us, I think such a solution is the obvious choice.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Johannes: My future plans are limited to making games and if possible losing some weight. I am only working seriously on Freebooter, though I think every game developer toys a bit in the spare time.

Thanks so much for this interview!

Johannes: Thanks for having me!

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Stay tuned for the next episode in seven days! :)

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For those who don't know you, who are you and what do you do?

Sam & Seth: We’re brothers Seth and Sam Coster. We make ridiculous games about ridiculous things, like enraged 4 legged quadropi or monocles that fire blood-hungry animals. We founded Butterscotch Shenanigans, our indie studio, in St. Louis so we can devote our lives full-time to building absurd things and giving people great gaming experiences on their mobile devices.

Which game engines/game making tools do you use for your games? Did you build your own? If you have used different engines/game making tools, which one is your favorite and why?

Sam & Seth: We have used Game Maker: Studio and Unity3D primarily, though we’re sticking with GM:Studio for the time being. It’s extremely fast, doesn’t require us to use expensive plugins, and has built-in support for all kinds of monetization options like ads and in-app purchases, which will be crucial to our sustainability in the months and years to come. As far as we are concerned, it is the best tool for the job when it comes to 2D game development.

We have built a 2D game in Unity, but it took several hundred dollars worth of plug-ins to get Unity to be almost as capable as Game Maker with things like sprite management, and there was virtually nothing that we did in Unity that couldn’t have been done in Game Maker in one-fourth the time. Unity is great for 3D, but awkward for 2D.

Still, we don’t like to promote the fact that we use Game Maker. We have noticed an industry perception that Game Maker is an ineffective development platform, primarily for amateurs or people who can’t program. This couldn’t be further from the truth. But we realize that if we went out actively announcing that we use Game Maker, people would start to see how amazing of a tool it is, and we would have a lot more competition. So hey...let’s keep this between US.

Do you use the same development process for all of your games?

Sam & Seth: Yes.

We got our game development chops doing 48 hour game jams. Our development process is basically a long-form jam model. Since there are only two of us and we lived together for 20+ years as brothers, we know how to communicate and quarrel constructively. The feedback loop on our games from idea to implementation is both tiny and nearly frictionless.

We start with a core idea/theme and build out the first piece of the game, which is the basis of all the interaction the player will be doing within the gaming world. For example, in our upcoming game Quadropus Rampage, the primary mechanic involves nimbly maneuvering the character and stabbing enemies. Once we have the basic mechanic in place we spiral out from it, only including new mechanics that serve to enhance the original experience in interesting and fun ways. We iterate and iterate until the game is distilled down to only those things which serve the core mechanic, and then deepen the content from there.

Usually a few days/weeks into a game we discover a sort of core mantra for each game we’re working on. For Towelfight 2, this mantra was “One More Room.” Anything we added to the game had to increase that feeling, that need of discovery and challenge and curiosity.

Once all the systems are in and the mantra is thoroughly bolstered we spend a good deal of time juicing the game to make it really feel great to play, and look great, too. That means spending time tweaking menus, moving interface elements about for better thumb-love, or making the explosions more glorious.

Basically all of our design/juicing discussions end with the thought that we should probably add more explosions.

Oh, and then we contact Joe (Joe Fraioli), and he makes amazing music within 12 minutes. Everybody needs a Joe.

What programming language do you prefer developing your games on? Why do you choose it over others?

Sam & Seth: Since we use Game Maker: Studio, we do all of our work in GML (Game Maker Language). The language itself is very easy to use, although the Game Maker IDE isn’t very user-friendly. Still, the team at YoYoGames puts out patches virtually every other week, and it’s getting better all the time.

Do you use third party tools (map editors, sprite managers, animation suites etc) or you build your own?

Sam & Seth: Sam uses Inkscape to do all of the artwork for our games. It’s the open-source equivalent of Adobe Illustrator, and it gives us pretty fantastic results when used in conjunction with Game Maker. The one big downside is that we have to use frame-by-frame animation, since we’re in the 2D world, so it can get tedious when things get more complex.

If we get some downtime between games in the near future, Seth will be putting together a flexible skeleton rigging engine within Game Maker that should be a lot of fun to play around with, but that’s still on the drawing board.

Which tools and applications you usually use when developing a game (favorite IDE, text editor, do you use static analysis tools, revision control system etc)?

Sam & Seth: GameMaker Studio is our dev environment, and Inkscape is our arting tool. Aside from those that form the core of our content creation, we use BFXR for sound effects, as we don’t currently have the space for a sound guy, and git for our revision control system.

All you need is a free Dropbox account, a free Git account, free Inkscape, and a copy of Gamemaker Studio (plus the modules to port to iOS and Android) to be where we are from a tech perspective. Making games is cheaper than going out for a night if you take some time digging for the best value out there.

As far as video production goes, we use Cyberlink PowerDirector 11. It’s one of the cheapest full feature video editors around and has allowed us to make some pretty stellar trailers (Towelfight, Quadropus).

Is there any specific library, framework that you always use on your games?

Sam & Seth: We have a suite of Game Maker scripts that Seth has written over the past year and a half, many of which are generally applicable to most game development. So those scripts tend to drift from project to project as a package, which we guess you could call a library.

What is your computer setup? Do you use Mac or PC? What specs? Do you have a dual monitor setup?

Sam & Seth: We both develop in Windows 7 using dual-monitor setups, though we need to have a Mac handy for making iOS builds and dealing with the iTunes store. As far as specs go, just know that we have more RAM between our two computers than North Korea has within its entire nation.

Sam has the bad habit of making all of the artwork for a game live in the same Inkscape file. This works handily as an anti-theft tool as no other computer on the planet could open his files. Here’s a screencap of Towelfight 2... LITERALLY ALL OF IT.

Do you have any photos from your working environment & a screenshot of your typical development setup?

Sam & Seth: Guess which belongs to the artist and which to the programmer!

Which games inspired you the most? Do you have a favorite developer from the games industry (indie or not)?

Sam & Seth: We take inspiration from a huge number of games, though from a development perspective, just about any successful 2D indie game is inspirational to us. This includes pretty much anything from Team Meat, as well as Braid, Spelunky (which was originally made in Game Maker), and many others.

Any small team that has interesting ideas and can beautifully execute those ideas is a team that we admire.

What’s the single piece of advice that you would always give to someone, and what is something that you will absolutely avoid/never do again?

Sam & Seth: ADVICE: Spend a lot of time talking with other indie developers, potential players, and generally building up your social network. When you release your game, you need to have a large audience of people listening. Because if nobody knows about your game, you would have done just as well if you had never made it. Too many developers focus on the “building” of the game and ignore the “salesmanship” side of things; they hole up in their development cave for a year, crank out something cool, and when they emerge from hibernation, they’re alone in the forest. Whether we like it or not, we have to realize that game development is just as social an undertaking as it is a technical one.

We’ve taken the time to forge relationships with the startling number of devs in St. Louis, helped create a chapter of the IGDA here, and attend every local jam we can manage. In response we’ve gotten help with testing, media coverage, and had a number of insights that never would’ve surfaced if we were truly going it alone. “Independent” is a misnomer. Find and grow your tribe and they’ll do the same for you.

OH CRAP DON’T DO THIS:

Don’t release a paid game until you have a following.

We released Towelfight 2 a few weeks ago. We wanted to avoid IAP, ads, and the lot of it, and saw a lot of shouting about how IAP is evil and roughly the worst thing next to waking up with a horse’s head beside you. So we decided on selling our game as a “premium” title, at with the full game intact and no IAP or anything of the sort.

The thing we didn’t realize was that because we were an unknown developer, no one particularly cared about our paid game. We’ve only made back ¼ of the money TF2 required and have seen our sales figures drop precipitously. This is despite getting featured on Touch Arcade, PocketGamer, Kotaku, IGN, a variety of other news sites and even making the front page of the App Store. The vocal minority, which is the group that prefers to pay-up-front, convinced us to do something that, had we spent more time on our game, would’ve bankrupted our fledgling studio.

It’s important to be aware of your stance in the market before going to market. The latest statistics show that most mobile users simply prefer free-to-play games. As odd as it is, we both recognized after our miscalculated launch that the games we play most are in and of themselves free-to-play titles: Tribes and League of Legends (if you want to play with us give a shout on Twitter!). And we don’t feel violated by them in the slightest.

So we’ve undergone a paradigm shift. We hope that some indie dev about to release their beautiful game at a premium will take a moment to consider this failure of ours and perhaps avoid the same fate.

What is your opinion on the rise of free game development "suites" like Unity, UDK, CryEngine etc? Do you feel interested in using them for your next projects?

Sam & Seth: Without them, we never would have gotten into game development in the first place. They smooth out much of the process and are generally amazing for fledgling developers. Having said that, we are in the midst of a unique age of video game development, where the ease of development has caused supply to begin outstripping demand.

As players, we love that more and more games are being made all the time, because no matter what we enjoy, there’s something for us out there. But as businessmen, it’s a bit more difficult to be excited about the cornucopia of competition we face every day. Considering the hundreds of apps that hit the AppStore daily, having your game stand out amongst them, as well as securing media coverage for your games, becomes a job that very few developers can consistently manage. But at the end of the day, we are up to the challenge and are excited to continue diving face-first into it.

What are your future plans? What games are you working on right now?

Sam & Seth: We’re entering into rapid build mode. When we started Butterscotch Shenanigans we wanted to take our jam methodology and refine it to the point that we were making a quality mobile game every month or two. With Towelfight we got in a little too deep and accidentally picked a mechanic that relied too heavily on content and story in order to work, resulting in a 3-month development cycle.

We’re getting back to the spirit of our company. Our next game, Quadropus Rampage, the product of our 7 Day Roguelike jam, will be done in under a month and released shortly thereafter. We’re experimenting with a free-to-play model with IAP that doesn’t leave players feeling alienated and provides real value, rather than replacing things that should’ve been available in the first place.

Sam & Seth: We’re also looking forward to helping out other St. Louis devs like the Happy Badgers (who are doing a wonderful Kickstarter right now) and Third Party Ninja once we get some financial breathing room under us. Our dream is to provide a scholarship/housing option for new indie devs in the area so they can get the breathing room we’ve managed without having to damn near die of ramen deprivation in the process.

Thanks so much for this interview!