How long have you been developing games?
I started working on small text based games 25 years ago. I learned programming by making games.
However, my first serious game development started 2 years ago.
Have you ever worked at a AAA studio? If so, which one, and how was that experience?
No. I am independent.
What game are you currently working on, if you are, and what is it about? How long has it been in development? Do you work on one part specifically (like just programming) or on multiple (say, programming and 3D Modeling?)
My current game is Block Story. It has been described as Minecraft + Skyrim for mobile. It has an infinite procedural generated voxel world mixed with RPG elements like quests and leveling. This game has been selling for the past 4 months.
Simultaneously, I am working on Block Story Online, which will be an MMO version of block story. I hope to release it in a few months.
It has been in development for almost 2 years now. I wrote the voxel engine, collision detection, quest system, inventory, crafting, shaders. My partner does all the artsy stuff.
Have you had any successful games? If so, what were/are they?
In the past 4 months, Block Story has sold about 30K copies. We consider that successful.
If you could work at any one studio (that you don’t already work at), and do any job you wanted to at that studio, what studio, and job, would it be, and why?
I rather have my own game and my own studio. However, if I was forced to pick someone else, it would probably be Lego, I would have loved to bring a block building game with a Lego brand.
What do you think of games like Call of Duty, where each release is roughly the same, without much innovation?
If people keep buying them, then it means they are doing a good job.
The purpose of a game is to entertain. If you can entertain people by simply changing the story line, then mission accomplish.
The only way you can measure how much value you bring, is by looking at sales.
People will not buy a game if it does not entertain them or if the price is too high.
They only buy it if they value the game more than the money they are giving up for it.
If people value a different story line enough to buy it, then you have successfully created value.
Do you believe Indie developers are the “lifeblood” of games? If so, why?
I could be mistaken, but I think the bulk of the sales come from big studios.
The market has spoken, and determined that they are the ones doing the best job.
I see it as natural that a group of people with lots of experience, money, and time, *come together, and are able to create better titles than individuals that often work alone, part time, with little experience and limited resources. *I think economies of scale apply, and major studios have a natural advantage.
Is Indie Game Developers where all the innovation is at? Why or why not do you believe that?
Absolutely no. I am an Indie developer myself. I think I bring a lot of innovation. However, I think major studios also bring a lot of innovation.
For every major title, there are thousands of indie games. By simple chance, you will find most new ideas were done in Indie games first. But that does not mean that new ideas cannot come from major studios. It is like saying 99.9% of the people that are stricken by lightning do not live in New York, therefore New York lightnings are imported from the rest of the world. In fact, I would argue it is worse than that because the major studios have a disproportionately higher amount of innovation than the rest of the industry due to the disproportionally high amount of resources they can throw at R&D.
Nowadays it is nearly impossible to come up with something completely new. All games now combine ideas that someone else has done in one way or another. Even if you do have some truly new idea, the other 99% of your game will still have ideas already done by someone else.
Combining preexisting ideas in ways no one else has done before IS innovation. I would argue this Innovation is what is driving most of the gaming industry now, indie or not.
Whether Game studios copy ideas or not, is immaterial, and no different from what indie devs do. The fact remains that they are doing a lot of innovation, and the market recognizes this with sales.
What game engines have you worked with? Which one (besides Unity, since this is the Unity forums…) would have been the best to work with? Why?
I have only used Unity, but I chose it very carefully. Other engines were less suitable for my game for one reason or another. Either they were not multiplatform enough, were too expensive, or were too hard to use.
If I was not working with Unity, I would most likely be working with xna.
What tips do you have for a high school senior working on his first game?
Start small and move your way up.
Release early and often. Do a forum thread somewhere, where you engage beta testers early on, and release as often as possible to keep your users engaged.
Have a thick skin. The internet can be very hostile, so try not to engage in endless flame wars about what you do.
Value your time. Don’t waste hours and hours making a 3d model that you can buy for $50 in the asset store.
Thanks for taking this interview, and this may (or may not) be used in my senior project research paper. Have a great time developing your game(s)!
