GameSalad interviews quantumsheep

September 27 2009, 8:53pm

Quantumsheep is an experienced London game developer who has been at the forefront of GameSalad game creation. With two games already on their way to the iPhone App Store, quantumsheep shares his thoughts on game design, creativity, and GameSalad. So QS, what’s your background? How did you get into game design? I’ve been in the games industry for almost 15 years now, in various different roles such as retail, web and print journalism, marketing, portfolio evaluation and game design. My dad introduced me to video games when he bought the family a Pong machine for Xmas one year, when I was about seven I think. After that, years spent in arcades on holiday honed my skills as a player and gave me a keen eye for what works well in a game and what doesn’t. I still love those old arcade games! I used to program in BASIC when I was a kid on the old ZX Spectrum and BBC home computers, and my love of making my own games was born around then. Much much later I found myself making WAP games for mobile phones and even had a couple published – Oni, for Take Two, and Dragon Rage for 3DO. I’ve worked on a GBA and DS Disney title, and most recently was senior designer for almost three years working on an MMO. Bugzone - a new game by quantumsheep Wow, it sounds like you’ve got a lot of experience in the industry. With that kind of expertise, what drew you to GameSalad? I think any professional designer worth their salt is always thinking up new ideas for games, and of course everyone I’ve met has ‘the best game idea EVER!’ they want to tell me about! There’s always scope for creativity and fun working on other people’s games (and getting paid to do it!) but I think there’s also a constant craving to work on something that you, personally, have come up with, and that’s a very positive thing. Unfortunately, unless you’re Will Wright or Shigeru Miyamoto, your own ideas are very unlikely to see the light of day in a professional environment. So, as a consequence, my head gets overcrowded with ideas and it’s hard to get them out of my mind! I’ve used several game making programs over the years to try and exorcise these demons, but either time constraints, my own ability, or the limitations of the software, have meant that they’ve remained unfinished. Having switched to Mac a couple of years ago now, I was very interested in making my own games, especially with the introduction of the iPhone, and started looking around at game making software. I tried quite a few, believe me, but GameSalad instantly ‘clicked’ with me. It’s easy to learn, you can get results on the screen quickly, and you can experiment and fiddle about to your heart’s content, without having to write a single line of code! While it looks simple, you can actually write some very complex stuff if you feel the need to, so it’s very versatile too. Bugzone - Level 1 Oh, and it’s free to use, which also helps.
Tell us about your upcoming iPhone game, Bugzone. Where did this idea come from? Bugzone was originally ‘Bugz’, which was made in a week as part of a forum challenge. It’s changed quite a bit since then! The brief was to write a game that featured bugs in it, to celebrate the release of your very own Flutterby. I took the creative liberty of making the game about code bugs trying to infect a fictional game you’re writing, as opposed to our little insect friends (or foes!). I love shoot ‘em up games, especially the old 2D ones, and wanted to take the basics of that kind of game and add a few modern touches. As a result, your ship auto fires vertically or produces a ‘firewall’ horizontally. These weapons are switched between by pressing the fire button and different coloured enemies are killed with different shots as you move left and right along the screen. Additionally, your ship is indestructible, so the point of the game is to not let bugs get past you on the screen. It’s a really interesting game mechanic, having to align shots with certain enemies and switch between types of shot at the same time. Almost a puzzle shooter in some respects! Bugzone - main gameplay mode A “puzzle shooter,” that sounds really interesting… What inspired this type of mechanic? Bugzone’s puzzle shooter mechanic I think adds something new to a tried and tested genre. It’s what I try and do in a lot of my games – take something old, add something new, make something different! When it was first made, there were only two enemies and one mode. I’ve added two new enemies since then that really affect the game positively. Bugzone - time attack mode The Chameleon Bug changes colour randomly as it comes on screen, so you have to be on your toes to get them. And the Rebooter… well, let’s just say I curse them every time they come on screen. If they hit you with their missiles they ‘reboot’ your ship and switch the type of weapon you’re using. Evil! There’s now also a time attack mode in addition to the main game, with a nice twist on what happens if you let a bug past you, and a ‘Toyz’ section. This is just a bit of frivolity on my part, but that’s the best thing about making your own games. You can put in anything you want to and no-one can stop you! It’s pretty amazing that you were able to create a fully working prototype in only a week! How much time have you spent developing the game since then? Did you have help along the way? Most of the bug art assets were made by Dan at lostgarden.com – he did the art for games like Tyrian and Sinistar back in the day, good old-school 2D shooters, and very graciously allows complete strangers like me and you to ‘borrow’ his assets. He has some very interesting tales to tell, and some fantastic artwork, and it’s a great site to visit so please do so! I also got some help from your very own CodeMonkey on a couple of issues, which is always appreciated! Since finishing the prototype in a week, I’d say I’ve spent an additional three weeks on and off working on Bugzone, along with my other main game, Singularity Drive. Most of that time has been spent balancing the game, fixing bugs (heh), and optimising the title to run on a first gen iPod Touch. I included an option to turn off animations too, which helps things run a little better if you’re having problems, and then there was some general spit and polish that it definitely needed! Singularity Drive - new from quantumsheep What can you tell us about Singularity Drive? To all intents and purposes it’s a side scrolling shooter. It actually started out as a top down scroller, heavily influenced by Time Pilot. I ran into a few problems there, and wanted to do a side scroller anyway, so the viewpoint switched. What’s different about it is the control method and the weapons. Your ship is controlled by simply touching the screen – there are no movement or fire buttons. It actually works really nicely now that multi-touch has been enabled! You have three main weapons – a cannon, missiles and a very very special laser! These can be upgraded, along with speed, up to four times, and each weapon and level of weapon has different ammo costs. You have to be careful that you’re not reloading when a plane’s coming right at you! In addition to this, there’s Quantum Energy. This is built up as you destroy enemies, and can be used to set off your bombs. You have two bomb types: the Time Bome essentially slows down time, and allows you to move and fire at normal speed while everything else slows down. The Singularity Bomb generates a black hole at the centre of the screen! It’s a really cool effect and it’s great fun to use as it sucks enemies into it to destroy them! There are six levels, spread over different time periods, all with their own backgrounds, enemy types and a boss at the end of each level. Singularity Drive - missiles away! How does the upgrading mechanic work? And dare I ask… what makes this laser so very very special? You upgrade your ship by flying into upgrade pods sent back in time from the future! Obvious really!
If you’re using the cannon, for example, and pick up a laser pod, then your weapon switches to laser and upgrades the laser by 1. If your laser level is at 4, and you pick up another laser pod, your weapon gets overloaded and its level is reset to 1. I think it adds an element of strategy to what you pick up and when, and what to avoid. As to the laser… Oh, I LOVE the laser in this game. Like most good ideas, it’s very very simple but very very cool. But if said anymore, I’d have to kill you! In that case we’d better move on… What’s been the most fun part of working on these games? Oh, I enjoy the whole process! However, I do enjoy watching something that existed only in my imagination come to life on the screen, and quickly too. When I worked out, for example, how to slow down time (in the game) there was much hollering in the sheep abode, I can tell you! Also, seeing your ideas on an iPhone is a special thrill. There’s nothing quite like playing your game on an actual iPhone. It’s awesome.
The GameSalad community has a lot of really helpful people involved in it too. I love how everyone’s so encouraging to others and so helpful. It’s a great place to hang out, and is the source of some very useful info. I enjoy being part of that and of course seeing what all these talented people come up with! How about the most challenging part? Well, I’m not a great artist by any means, so the hardest part for me is getting the right art assets for my game. In Singularity Drive, for example, all the enemy planes are free 3D models that I’ve had to animate, convert into images, and then optimise for use in the game. That takes up the most time I think. Fortunately, actually using GameSalad is very easy! There’s a very shallow learning curve, and you learn something new with every game idea you try. Unfortunately, I suck at math, so that’s ALWAYS going to be a challenge for me!
Singularity Drive - boss incoming! What are your ambitions for Bugzone and Singularity Drive? Do you expect them to make a lot of money, or are they more of a creative outlet? That’s actually the hardest question you’ve asked. I don’t honestly expect to make my fortune making these games. I am charging for most of them, but no more than the lowest price you can, which is just $0.99. I’m certainly not relying on them for an income. However, I hope that some people will enjoy playing them on their phones when they have a spare five minutes to waste and find them interesting! Also, I think it looks good on your resume if you mention you’ve made and published an iPhone game. Mainly because making games is hard work. It’s easy to come up with an initial idea, easy to get a prototype going, easy to have fun. But to actually finish making a full game takes a long time and a lot of motivation. But you made Bugzone in just a month, while polishing up Singularity Drive as well… and I understand you even have another secret GameSalad project or two in the works! That’s not a long time at all, especially when compared to the work you’ve done on large-scale games like MMOs. More like another 10 secret GameSalad projects! Don’t get me wrong, GameSalad makes it a LOT easier to make games, no question about that! But to actually finish off a game… once the initial excitement for a project dies down, it becomes difficult to find the motivation to actually finish it. I had another idea for the sequel to a game that’s half done at the moment on my hard-drive. The temptation is to jump ahead and work on the new idea, because it’s new and exciting, but Bugzone and Singularity Drive are taking up that time instead. There really aren’t enough hours in the day! You have to be motivated to finish a game, have to know when to stop adding features, have to know when to say ‘it’s done’, have to know that it will take effort on your part. GameSalad is a great enabler – but it’s really up to the inividual to get past their own hurdles and make the most of it! Any word on when Bugzone and Singularity Drive will be available on the App Store? I’m hoping to submit Bugzone to Apple on Monday, depending on what the testers tell me – so hopefully not long after that! Exciting, isn’t it?
There’ll be a release of Singularity Drive: Prologue very soon also. This isn’t a ‘lite’ version of the game, more a separate chapter to the story before the main game’s ready. I’m still thinking about whether it should be free, or if I should charge for it and then update the prologue version with the full game when it’s done. Both versions are complete games in their own right really. Look out for that soon! What advice would you give to new game developers just starting out with GameSalad? Firstly, try out the tutorial games. They can give you some insight into how some of the basics work. Also check out examples that are downloadable in the ‘games’ section of the website. Secondly, experiment! Try things out. Take what you’ve learned from the tutorials and change things around. It’s a great way to learn how GameSalad works! Thirdly, if you need help, ask on the forums! We’re all in this together, and there are some experienced people on there that like to help out. Make sure you check the wiki first, as it’s a vast library of information that will probably have what you’re looking for. Finally – have fun! But don’t upload a template game, kids! A little kitten dies every time you do! Thanks, QS! Thanks for the opportunity – great stuff, really enjoyed it! And thanks to everyone at GameSalad – I bloody love using this tool!
Want to know more? Visit quantumsheep’s website or GameSalad profile page, or check out the teaser trailer for Bugzone below!