With INDIE INTERVIEWS, I talk to the game developers hanging here on Cohost to learn more about new games you might love.
I'm a huge fan of Dicey Dungeons, the approachable and colorful turn-based roguelike. One of the biggest draws for me was the art and character design by Marlowe Dobbe. Chasing that trail of lovable characters and monsters brought me straight to Floppy Knights, the tactical deckbuilder by Rose City Games, who were also lucky enough to have Marlowe on their team! Next thing I know...I see lovably colorful art again on Cohost and lo-and-behold...@marlowedobbe is here with us! I reached out to learn more about her life as an artist-turned-gamedev.
Floppy Knights is available on Steam, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.
Dicey Dungeons is available on Steam, itch.io, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and Xbox.
Introduce yourself for everyone here on Cohost! Who are you? Hello! My name is Marlowe Dobbe, and I'm an artist/art director/game dev!
Is there a project you're working on currently? Tell us what you're up to these days!
I'm currently working as an artist on an unannounced project with Megacrit games! Besides that I'm always keeping up with little game jam games here and there!
How did you find yourself first getting into game development?
I've always been really into games since birth basically. I knew pretty early on I wanted to be an artist but didn't think that artists could really make games, and the idea of making games felt very gatekept and out of reach. It wasn't until college when I started doing research into game development and indie games that I began to break those barriers down for myself. I started attending meetups for my local games community (The Portland Indie Game Squad) and began doing game jams with them and becoming part of the community! Jams eventually led to contract work which led to full time work, and now I've been full time in games for about 5 years!
I think it's so interesting how games provide a whole new framework and set of constraints for artwork. You sometimes have to worry about exact dimensions, screen real-estate, framerate, asset filesize, fitting within a repeated template or pattern, telegraphing information to the player, and ensuring that the visuals are crystal clear. You also need to, of course, provide artwork based on the designers' requests and additions to the game. Do you feel that the medium of games constrains how you approach art, or was it a natural fit for you?
I think games just like any form of media have their own specific sets of constraints! I personally am the type of person who likes to have some constraints to work with cause it fuels my creativity a bit more. I'm much more interested in questions like "how can we make this framework look good" than I am in having a blank canvas for sure. I like to find those solutions. What's nice is (in my experience at least) each game I've worked on has been a very different beast and had very different sets of rules that art needed to follow, so it's never a dull moment!
As an artist, do you feel like you approach thinking about game design, programming, or general development differently than full-time programmers do? How does a background in art color how you see games as media?
I think everyone approaches these things differently! One thing I've found is that as an artist it has been substantially beneficial for me to have as holistic an understanding of game development as I possibly can. Because there are so many moving parts to making a game, as an artist (and sometimes art director) it really helps my whole team if I understand at least the basics of code architecture for example so I know what's possible and how to format things form the get-go. Thankfully I'm really fascinated by all aspects of development and like to research them (even if I don't regularly practice them!) It's hard to determine if my approach to gamedev is influenced by being an artist, someone who's played games all their life, a game-jam solo developer, or a big mix of all of that. My approach when working with a team is to really research what restrictions and needs the team is working with, and my approach when solo developing is "YOLO whatever gets it done!"
There's a lot of artists out there who play video games and would love to get into making art for them. Any advice for how an artist can get involved in game development?
Of course! I get asked this question a lot actually, and my answer is always to start out with game jams! There is very likely a local (or online) scene that is hosting game jams for participants of all skill sets. It's a low-stakes short term way of practicing making art for games. Usually game jams are around 48 hours, but some (like the ones we often host at the Portland Indie Game Squad) are up to two weeks long to avoid encouraging crunch. The best case scenario is you've worked with new people and finished the jam with a playable project (that can sometimes be a great portfolio piece!) and worst case scenario is you've gotten better at the practice of working on games and you've learned something. It's how I got my start, and my work on jams was enough to start landing me real gigs when I began applying for them. I'd say just get integrated with a community, don't put too much pressure on yourself to make your magnum opus right away, and get your hands dirty making very small games. I've evangelized a little but, but the Portland Indie Game Squad is a really wonderful community (I am now one of their lead organizers) and we do all our jams remotely these days with the community over discord! If you're looking for a good place to start (or lurk) I'd recommend checking us out.
Lastly, are there any indie games out there you've been playing recently? Any favorites to shout-out?
As part of my work for PIGSquad I write a monthly newsletter highlighting under-the-radar indies so I have played a LOT of smaller games that have been mega inspiring to me. The ones I've played this year that I haven't been able to stop talking about are Producer (2021), Franken, There Swings a Skull, and Sewer Rave!
Thanks for chatting, @marlowedobbe! You can all find Floppy Knights on Steam and Xbox. You can also find Dicey Dungeons on Steam, itch.io, Nintendo Switch, iOS, Android, and Xbox. I still have a lot of cool game devs to sort through here on Cohost, but that'll have to wait until January. See you all then!
