With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.
Whether you're an industry professional or a beginner creating their very first game, game jams are a great way to get experience and get projects done! I had a chat with @tayl1r about doing jams, as well as their two bigger indie projects. They put out two games that, at first glance, couldn't be more different: an isometric programming puzzle game, and a Touhou dodge-em-up!
You can play all of Alex's games (there's like 20 of them to choose from!) over on itch.io!
Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?
Hello, I am Alex Taylor! After working in the games industry for a while I recently started making some indie games. So far I’ve released two games: SOKOBOT is a programming puzzle game and Touhou Library Survivors is… you probably got it from the title! While they haven’t set the world on fire they are keeping the lights on and I’m finding it to be an interesting experience.
Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us about it!
There is! A tile-matching roguelike where the player draws a path for a character to follow and jostle with enemies. It’s very work in progress but I have started posting about it.
How did you find yourself first getting into game development?
Making maps for Half-Life is probably when I started thinking about design and player experience rather than just sticking fifty monsters into a fully lit square box. I also really got into Warcraft 3 where scripting let me experiment with systems design and game balance, which I found much more engaging than level design. And with a little portfolio of those two things I managed to land a job at a games studio.
Based on your history, I would call you a Certified Game Jam Expert. Can you explain what you enjoy most about participating in game jams, and what your creative process is like when you have such a small window of time?
Thank you! I actually do wonder sometimes how healthy my relationship with game jams is. Derek Yu wrote out some indie developer archetypes and I am definitely the Inventor (https://www.derekyu.com/makegames/archetypes.html#inventor), and doing a lot of game jams probably does reinforce this somewhat.
I think there is a lot to love about game jams. You can learn something new, try out a new idea, not have to worry about having the best code or art, and if the game doesn’t work you can just walk away from it. It’s also a gateway into a lot of communities and means to socialise... I imagine? Admittedly, I’ve only worked on a team once, but it was a lot of fun! They are also just a nice creative outlet for someone with my skill set. I imagine if you graphed my game jam activity you would see them spike when my day job was balancing battle passes for gacha games. Appreciate not everyone can spare the time, though.
Generally I try to have a plan before I start. I don’t write a nerdy design document but I will hit a google doc with a stream of consciousness and try to refine it into what I want to make. You can do a lot of fast iteration when you don’t care about your code, but it’s nice to have a core you’re fairly confident about, especially when you start cutting scope massively later!
I've always been curious about creating a Touhou game, because of how that series exists in a sort of quasi- "public domain" space. Was it difficult working with these pre-existing characters, or did having a framework to build off make it easier to focus on the other aspects of game development?
It is really cool that ZUN is so relaxed about fan work. There is a lot to be said in favour of releasing your property rather than chasing people around with lawyers.
Once I had decided on the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil cast in the Scarlet Devil Mansion Library I could rough out a lot of the game for sure. This put some constraints on me, but they were largely fun restraints like how Cirno is going to fight you, and incorporating aspects like Patchouli’s magic being tied to weekdays or how the library added a swimming pool in Silent Sinner in Blue.
But I was already a superfan and I wonder how penetrable decades of Touhou fandom would be for someone just looking for a game theme. Something I found really interesting was people's reaction to Koakuma showing up and attacking. “Hey, she wouldn’t do that!” And there is a line in the story to lampshade this where Patchouli is upset about it, too. But it’s interesting to see that powerful reaction when officially Koakuma doesn’t even have a name.
Although, having said that, I find Touhou is quite malleable and fans seem pretty relaxed about different interpretations of characters and settings. Honestly, I think the average fan just wants more stuff (especially as it is culturally losing ground to mobage).
Both SOKOBOT and Touhou Library Survivors started off as games about Nitori but one changed to Abstract Puzzle Void and the other to EOSD. So I hope I can make a Nitori game at some point.
As someone who has worked in the "proper" industry at larger companies, what would you say is the biggest difference between working a job like that, and working on your own projects?
A major difference is you will be wearing multiple hats. Probably all the hats! As a designer in a larger companies I did try to educate myself on other disciplines to know what they want from me and to have better conversations, but I never had to go splashing in the guts of the code, models, shaders, etc. Sometimes this is great and you’re learning new skills all the time. But sometimes you notice your fonts are surrounded by little transparent squares, and realise someone is going to lose an entire day fixing that, and that someone is you.
Any advice for aspiring indie devs out there?
Maybe this is super obvious to anyone who isn’t me, but as “your own boss” you should aspire not to become the worst boss you’ve ever had. We all know crunch is destructive. You need to get away, unwind, do something else and move your limbs, or you’re going to have a miserable time and produce junk anyway.
Lastly, are there any indie games out there you've been playing recently? Any favorites to shout-out?
I’ve played lots of cool indie stuff lately. Sephonie, SIGNALIS, Gunvein, Like Dreamer, I Wanna Lockpick, TOKOYO: The Tower of Perpetuity, Potato Flowers In Full Bloom, Yoiyami Dancers… we’re spoiled for choice! I originally wrote way too much about all these and this was my longest answer by about a page… so I’ll just say instead they’re all recommended!
Thanks so much for chatting! Everyone be sure to check out Alex's work at @tayl1r on Cohost, and check out his itch.io page where you can find all the games! As for me, there's more devs to find and talk to...until then, have a good one!
