With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.
I've been in the mood for indie sidescrollers lately. It's not that there's a lack of them or anything, but at some point around 2018 I told myself for some reason that I had to keep looking for different genres. Enough time has passed and lately this feeling came back, like...I just want to go back to a nice sidescroller. So now I'm treating myself! And having a great time with all sorts of platformers and such. And lucky for me, I found a few here on Cohost to scratch the itch, like Virtue's Heaven and GB Rober from @MOKKA.
GB Rober is available on Steam and itch.io, Splinter Zone is available on Steam and itch.io. You can wishlist Virtue's Heaven now on Steam!
Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you?
My name is Eric and I'm a German sort of non-binary/agender (it’s complicated) person in their late 30s. I’ve released two commercial games so far, both 2D platformers that heavily borrow elements from Mega Man games, as well as a bunch of other smaller stuff.
Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us what you're up to these days!
Right now I’m working on a game called “Virtue’s Heaven”, which is an action/adventure platformer (some might also call it a Metroidvania) about infinite Dogs, radical Friends and the End of History. I’ve tried turning this project into something since early 2018, but always ran into problems. This current attempt has been going for about a year now and though it still some ways away, I’m reasonably confident that this time I will actually be able to finish it.
How did you find yourself first getting into game development?
Through a very convoluted way, to be honest. I started getting an interest in game development back in 2009/2010, but had no idea where to start and also was of the opinion that I had nothing to say and was just bad at any kind of creative task. Still, I kept poking around and actually made a small weird Unity thing in early 2013, but things only really fell into place in late Summer of 2015. By that point I was over a year removed from graduating University with a degree in Physical Anthropology and had lost any hope in actually finding a job in a field even remotely related to said degree. So out of sheer boredom I dug out my version of Game Maker Studio with the intention to make a small platformer for a Ludum Dare. It actually took me two Months to finish that game, but for some reason things started to click into place. This then led to me making the decision that maybe I should try and make videogames for a living, which in hindsight was very optimistic (none of my games have made any substantial amount of money so far). However, despite all the frustrations I have with the industry at large and how incredibly difficult it is to get to a state where things are actually financially sustainable, I still tremendously enjoy making games and I want to keep doing it.
Both of your games, at a glance, might be called "retro." But on closer examination, they really seem quite "modern" in subtle ways. What specific decisions do you make in your development that make your game feel like it's right at home in the 80's/90's, and what decisions do you make to give it a modern playstyle, modern look, or modern features? Is it difficult to combine those two approaches?
For me, there are two big questions I consider when I’m making a game:
How can I actually make the thing I want to make, with the little resources I have and without spending the rest of my life on it? What do I want to express with this game and what systems and further elements can I use to support these ideas?
The reason why my games look the way they look has much more to do with the first question, than with any notion of authenticity, really. For example, using a colour palette with four colours makes it much easier for me to quickly create assets that are visually coherent, which in turn makes it easier for me to get to the point where I can actually build the game itself.
Same goes for the design of my games: Adding a specific system to a game for me has to make sense in some way. It has to be tied to the game’s overall theme and narrative, or it has to interact with other already established systems, that then loop back into what the game’s actually about. I’m trying my best to not just put something in my games, because of some perceived obligation to existing genre conventions. Sure, there’s probably a reason why these conventions exist in the way they do, but you still should think about how, where and if these still have a place in your game.
There's a part of the Virtue's Heaven pitch that immediately jumps out to me: the potential to upgrade your character in different ways. To me, different platformers are defined by how one game might be generous with health, or another might be generous with movement, or another might be more combat or reflex focused. How will tweaking my character affect how I approach the game?
The upgrades won’t fundamentally change how Virtue’s Heaven is played. The main focus of the game lies in fast movement and weird, almost out of control improvisational combat. What these upgrades do instead is reinforce certain elements of your character, or give you situational benefits. Think about it more in line with something like the Chip system in Nier Automata, or the Charms in Hollow Knight, but with some added specialties. For example: The first upgrade that you get, makes it so that you take less damage from spikes and other environmental hazards, or if you enter a specific state, completely nullifies it.
Not to get too into the weeds here, but one very simple, but for me personally important, difference to these aforementioned systems, and the one in Virtue’s Heaven, is that each upgrade in Virtue’s Heaven reflects the belief of one of your friends. So the main source of your strength in this game comes from the trust that other people put into you. Overall this specific system is probably what I’m most proud of right now, because of how it ties back into the game’s overall theme and how it kind of serves as an anchor point for a bunch of other things.
Any advice for aspiring gamedevs out there?
- Do not fall into despair in face of the sheer impossibility of everything.
- Your value as a human being and the value of your work is independent from whatever commercial success/failure you might experience.
- When working on your own: Be very sceptical about any advice that assumes that every game developer has a team around them.
- When you see business-y types talk about “good games” what they primarily mean by that is games that sell well, not necessarily games that are actually interesting.
- Most people that come out of nowhere with business offers do not have your best interests at heart.
- Projectiles need to be at least half the size of your player sprite.
- If your explosions don’t take up at least half of the screen they’re not big enough.
- Don’t be afraid of players breaking your game.
- Adding assist options/gameplay modifiers, or straight up cheats gives you an opportunity to create a cool early 90s cracktro menu for them.
- Consider adding a mode to your game that removes all enemies.
- When you’re wondering, if your game is good enough to be submitted to some kind of event, the answer is always “yes, it is.”
- Do your best to survive in this space without making things substantially worse for the folks that might come after you.
- As long as you enjoy it, please keep making things.
And never, ever listen to Business Indies.
Lastly, are there any indie games out there you've been playing recently? Any favorites to shout-out?
The only new Indie Game I played the last few Months is called “For a Vast Future”. It’s a post apocalyptic JRPG with Gameboy graphics (maybe you can guess why I had an interest in playing it?). I wouldn’t say that it’s incredible or anything, but it has some nice ideas, parts of the soundtrack are cool and I really like some of the larger pixel art pieces. It’s just a nice, solid game and I personally think it should have more than just 11 positive reviews on Steam.
Thanks for talking with me, Eric! The first interview of 2023, and hopefully the first of many. For everyone else, find Eric on Cohost at @MOKKA and remember that you can wishlist Virtue's Heaven on Steam! You can find GB Rober on Steam and itch.io, and you can find Splinter Zone on Steam and itch.io.