This is an interview of Clysm (author of Seiklus), conducted by Eden B for this blog. All three of us are members of Eo. I edited it and am posting it for her.


EB: what's some games that you've been playing lately (if any)?

Clysm: I played Portal and Half-Life 2 a couple weeks ago. It's pretty unusual for me to play FPS games, though. Other than Metroid Prime, I haven't played any since Doom many years ago. I've also been playing the Aquaria demo.

EB: What do you think of the storytelling in HL2?

Clysm: I thought it was very effective the way the narrative was generally a seamless part of the game.

EB: Although, Valve's sort of dug themselves into a hole, producing only FPSes.

Clysm: I would like to see games of other types with the quality of HL2. Maybe they'll try something different eventually.

EB: I don't play FPSes, they make me feel sick. How was Portal?

Clysm: It was very clever, both the design and the writing. They made it fun just to walk around and play with things, which is a good quality in a video game.

EB: For surely. The concept of "play" seems to be lacking in most games. Although, in Aquaria it's quite fun to just swim around.

Clysm: Yes, I haven't played a lot of that game, but it seems as if it has that, too.

EB: Is there a story to your new game? You've said it's a "rescue game", but is it as minimalist as Seiklus?

Clysm: Yes, it will have quite a bit more story than Seiklus. I haven't decided exactly how much yet, and I still have to make a few final decisions about which way I will take the story.

EB: How're you planning to communicate that? The story, that is.

Clysm: There will be actual text. Probably in the form of journal entries. But it will not be necessary to read any of it to play the game.

EB: Uh oh, text. are you sure gamers are going to be able to handle this "text" business?

Clysm: Well, there are a lot of things about this game that may or may not be well-received by those who happen to try it out. I'm really not sure how it will turn out, overall. It might turn out to be one of those games that's more fun to work on than to play, such as the little life simulators I made.

EB: What sort of features are you talking about there?

Clysm: Well, most of the things I'm talking about are kind of secret. :) I mean, I want the game to have the quality I mentioned, that you don't really know what to expect.

EB: "What is a video game? A miserable little pile of secrets!"

Clysm: But I realize that in saying that I'm probably making it sound like something more interesting than it really is.

EB: Heh. In screenshots that you posted on your rarely updated Eo blog, the graphical style had an odd 3D-ish look to it in parts.

Clysm: Well, the look wasn't really finalized, and it will probably change unless I get too lazy.

EB: Haha. What'd you think of Knytt, a game that was partially inspired by Seiklus?

Clysm: I liked Knytt, but never finished the game. I was pretty impressed with Knytt Stories, however, and I played through all of Nifflas's levels and several by other people.

EB: What was better about Knytt Stories?

Clysm: Maybe I just have a short attention span. I guess I found the atmosphere more varied, and I liked the music.

EB: What music are you listening to these days anyway?

Clysm: A lot of darkwave and chiptunes, mostly.

EB: Darkwave?

Clysm: That's a term I learned a few years ago that seems to include a lot of what I like. Some of my favorite music groups include Deine Lakaien, VNV Nation, and others that are sort of in the same general category as Depeche Mode. It's a pretty big category, though.

EB: Ahh, that sort of thing. Do you support Ron Paul :p?

Clysm: I don't know enough about him to answer that, really. I haven't started deciding who I might vote for, other than things I happen to read.

EB: Well, I know Rinku likes him (which is why I put that question there).

Clysm: I'm not registered as a member of any political party, or even as an independent. I do vote, though.

EB: have you had a chance to look at this years IGF finalists?

Clysm: I tried The Zoo Race and Aquaria, and there are others that interest me. Oh, you said finalists. Yes, I looked over the list.

EB: Zoo Race should've won everything!

Clysm: I would have given it some sort of special award.

EB: It's nice to see more arty games like The Path getting in as well.

Clysm: That's one I haven't looked at.

EB: It certainly looks interesting. Why do you like Mr. Kubus' games? (Note to readers: Mr. Kubus is the somewhat infamous creator of the Johnny games.)

Clysm: I guess because they are different from everyone else's games. I don't really know. I guess he's someone who realizes that you can do whatever you want when you create independent games. They don't have to look or play like any other games, and it doesn't even matter whether anyone likes them.

Labels: clysm, interview, interviews

A new interview with James Whitehead, developer of Satan Sam and the upcoming Tormishire, can be found at Clickzine.

Labels: interviews

The New James Whitehead


James Whitehead was responsible for developing the New Satan Sam, which was most memorable for its adorable pixels and ridiculous amount of levels. Most other developers would have started on something slightly smaller for their next project but not James. Not content with how the New Satan Sam performed, he returned with an improved engine and a whole new bag of tricks up his sleeve in the form of a work in progress game called Tormishire. From the first glance (and bear in mind that there isn't even a playable demo available yet), it is easy to see that Tormishire eclipses the New Satan Sam in every way possible, from its size, level design (with many multiple routes and sub-quests planned) and graphical appearance (which is absolutely stunning by the way). It doesn't really take much to realise just how passionate James is about Tormishire. You wouldn't expect anything less from someone that spends so much time and effort on the development process. And this makes James all the more pleasurable and interesting to interview. So without further ado..


Give us some background about yourself..


My name is James Whitehead. I'm 21 and currently live near Manchester in England. I've just graduated university and heading back to college to start work as a lecturer.


What systems did you own and videogames did you playing growing up? How have they influenced you?


I grew up on the Amiga. I think we got an A600 when I was about 6 years old and I still used it frequently until the N64 era. Games like Turrican, Flashback and the whole public domain scene really inspired me at a young age. Turrican 1 and 2 are easily my biggest influences just for the soundtrack and level design. Factor 5 really did produce something spectacular there.


At what point did you become interested in game development? Why did you choose MMF as a game development tool?


We didn't have many NES games since the Amiga was the console in our house. Through boredom I used to draw my own NES carts and design boxes for them. A few years later we bought our first PC and ordered Klik and Play from some magazine. Then it all started! Picked up the Games Factory in high school, then MMF1.5 during college, MMF2 at university. I’ve taught myself bits of other languages too but to get a game finished quickly MMF2 is my preferred application.


Where did the concept for Tormishire come from?


During The New Satan Sam development I planned on breaking the linear design with a sprawling world map where levels would be represented as dungeons. I split this game into The New Satan Sam and Red Lands - the working title for a new adventure game using the Sam engine. I ended up scrapping the whole thing and starting afresh, basing it around a neat little physics engine. I decided to split the game completely from Sam and start with a whole new game.


So how far into development did Red Lands get? What made you decide to scrap it?


I suppose it was more a transition than a scrap, so much that the player sprite is still called "Sam 2". I just felt I could build a much better engine (more efficient), since Sam's was a bit of a bad performer, system wise. I built everything around a unified physics engine this time round and there’s a much more consistent feel throughout the gameplay for it.


Do you have any other abandoned projects?


Madventures of the Love Rockets was an RPG I started a few years ago. It was similar to Golden Sun in gameplay but the project just lost steam and it was cancelled. This was my first project that Mr. Pineapple produced music for and has been essential contributor to my games ever since.


At what point did you decide to make it shareware?


The decision to make it shareware didn't come lightly, it's all down to the scope of the project. It’s definitely the biggest game I’ve worked on and it does take up a huge chunk of the day just making this. The full version will come with at least 1 other short game too, but I’ve only just started work on it so even I don’t know the full details. Um, stay tuned!


Tormishire will be your largest project to date with multiple paths to take, also creating a large replayability factor. Do the features that you add to your projects stem from things that you, yourself would like to see in videogames?


I love replayability, whether it’s achieved through unlockable playable characters or new modes. Because of the nature of Tormishire, there will only be a few unlockables but the replayability here lies in the diversity and optional areas. I want to make something truly giant in terms of level design. I've also always wanted to play a game where the player can get hopelessly lost but still find a sub-quest and to change the overall story through their own choices. It’s a complete nightmare to design and code since you have to take so many items and previous stories into account but it’s worth it.


What has the development process been like so far?


It’s been good and bad. Team Fortress 2 and Knytt Stories don’t help much! I normally get around 2 - 4 solid hours a day working on it, more if I’m doing the concept art pieces or music. Music is terrible for me. I can only get musical inspiration when I’m as far from my computer as possible.


Since all I have to do now is expand the game, I just sit down, put on some Tangerine Dream tracks and get designing!


Have you experienced any unique challenges in the development process?


The online side of the things have been a constant source of troubles. It’s something I’ve always wanted to put into a game but too overwhelmed by it. It’s certainly a challenge for me but I’d get bored otherwise. Once I got the online parts sorted I went ahead and added in custom servers for anyone to run.


Best and worst aspects of developing games - what are they and why?


Level and enemy design is something I enjoy doing. I’m a media artist by trade so I like to fuse together everything I’ve been brought up with, trying to create games as good as those I played growing up. I can’t stand bug testing but that’s been solved by a very helpful group of testers.


Since Tormishire is your most ambitious project to date, do you find it hard to keep motivated throughout such a long development process?


Motivation is certainly hard to keep up, whenever I get tired of a certain area and design I'll just switch to another area or shake up the current layout a bit. It’s all down to moderation. Spending all day just designing levels breaks my eyes, doing more than 1 track a day makes all the tracks sound too similar.


Do you always feel that all the blood, sweat and tears are worth it in the end? What is the best reward about creating games like this?


Oh they’re always worth it. I don’t play that many games really so it’s how I spend my free time. For Sam it was seeing guides popping up, knowing that people had played the game and uncovered every inch. Just little silly things like that really.


You have stated that this will be your last game. Do you think that the game development bug will catch you again? Do you ever catch yourself thinking about projects beyond Tormishire?


Tormishire will definitely be my last game of this scale, at least on my own. I’ll probably throw out some smaller games for my solo work. I’d actually love to make something beyond Tormishire pushing it into a series of sorts. But I don’t want to plan ahead just yet!


So game development isn't something that you would like to make a career out of? Just as a hypothetical, what if the release of Tormishire went really well and you made a decent amount of money, would this make you re-evaluate things?


I wouldn't mind a career in the industry. If Tormishire did perform well, then I'd just grab a bunch of the most creative people I know and get us producing games. I suppose we'll see what happens next year round!


Are you entering IGF?


I have entered Tormishire yes and I've been working my socks off to get a proper demo together! It's certainly given me a nice solid deadline to work towards.


In the indie community, exploration platformers seem to be more in fashion then ever. Have you had the chance to play many of these? Do you have any favourites? (Knytt, Knytt Stories, Alex Adventure, Lyle In Cube Sector).


I adored Knytt. I linked it to my friends and demanded they play it. Nifflas achieved something great with that style of his. I’m a sucker for these stylized platform games! I really enjoy these and hope designers can take note that there’s an army of players screaming out for these games.

Labels: interviews