Game Developer Elite

Daniel Remar has been a Game Maker developer since 2004. His games, Hero and Castle of Elite have gained cult followings. He is currently working on a project called Iji, which has been over four years in development so far. He was kind enough to answer a whole bunch of questions that I had for him. Read on..

Introduce yourself..

Hi. I'm Daniel, 23 years old and studying game development in Sweden.

Systems owned and games played while growing up: what are they?

The systems I have now are a NES, SNES, Mega Drive (Genesis), N64, Gamecube, Nintendo DS and a six-year-old computer. I've played a lot of PS and PS2 games, some Atari 2600, Dreamcast and X-Box but I don't own those myself. I basically grew up with Mario, Sonic and Zelda and a lot of shareware DOS games like Tyrian, Doom and Jetpack.

How and when did you become interested in game development? How did you come across Game Maker?

I think I got a shareware copy of Klik'n'Play in 1995 or 96, then my parents got the full version. I was really hooked on it and made a lot of... um pretty bad and primitive games. "Hero" was among the last I made in Klik'n'Play in 2004, though I was getting tired of the limitations and random crashes. Earlier that year I had learned about Gamemaker from an online forum and I soon realized it blew Klik'n'Play away. I had started reading the manual and after finishing Hero in Klik'n'Play a few months later, I did a remake of it in GM in a week and went on to more complex games. I've always been too lazy to properly learn C++ and other "real" languages but I think Gamemaker was a good middle ground between that and Klik'n'Play, at least for smaller one-man games.

You've been working on your latest game, Iji, for quite some time now. Where did the idea for this project come from?

It's hard to say when I first came up with it. I remember being inspired by the fluid animation in Alien 3 and Another World / Out of this World and thought I could try making 3D models and animating them and taking snapshots in flat-shaded parallel projection to render the sprites. The result looked rather like the characters in Another World. So in August 2004 I made Iji's model in Blender 3D, did a few forward kinematics animations for her and started building a basic platform game around that. I made an enemy derived from her model and pretty much mashed out a couple of enemies and features without even thinking or having a direction after that. Since there was no goal, I enjoyed doing it without having to feel I had to "finish" it. My liking for System Shock 2 is what brought the stats, upgrades and "cracking" early into the game. I didn't form a gameplay vision or story until much later.

Is Iji just some random name you came up with or does it have more meaning than this?

Iji as a name and character is a combination of many characters I've made in the past, so it has no special meaning.

Your page on Iji says a good deal about the game. Is there anything else you can tell us about it?

Well... as you know it's a rather strategic platform shooter with stats. :p It's nothing special in terms of story or execution but everything put together, all the details, is what makes a game what it is. There's your standard hovercrafts, spaceships, alien assassins, hidden skills, giant end bosses etc. One particular feature will divide people though, there's 'between-level' saving but no 'in-level' saving, only checkpoints that revive you once. You get infinite retries on bosses though.

Yes many people do seem to complain about no in-game saving or halfway level save points. Did you make the decision to implement this feature to up the difficulty?

Yes, mainly. As an example, compare Perfect Dark to the first Half-Life. In the former you needed great skills and cunning to beat many levels on Perfect Agent, the highest difficulty. The easiest difficulty was pretty lenient though. But if you didn't have the skill, you had to practice and become better. That's what I'm aiming for in Iji. In Half-Life on the other hand, the game automatically saved your progress in every sub-area and you could even save and load whenever you wanted, taking all the difficulty out of the game. Half-Life had many brutal instant-death scenarios, where the game almost seemed to want you to constantly save. I don't want to punish the player, so there's no bottomless pits or instant deaths in Iji's levels and most bosses stop using their most powerful attacks after you damage them a bit, so they wont get a cheap shot in when they're nearly beaten. Finally there's technical reasons why saving mid-level in Iji is very hard to do.

Does Iji draw on any other influences aside from the games mentioned on your page?

I would say a little bit from Super Metroid but I don't think any game could seriously be compared to Super Metroid. So, um, don't quote me on that.

What influenced the decision to have a female as the main character?

I guess it's just the lack of non-sexualized female leads but it usually doesn't matter what gender the characters in my games are. While it's impossible not to somehow glorify violence in these kinds of action games, the males in Hero and Retrobattle were not "macho". Similarly Iji tries to avoid the female stereotypes and be an average young woman caught in a cruel setting and has a range of emotion. Ofcourse, I'm probably not a good enough writer to convincingly convey her personality but that's another story.

Do you see Iji as innovative compared to your other games or doesn't that term enter your head when you develop a game?

No, it doesn't really. But while I like to take various old concepts and see if they can make a fun new game when put together, I mostly make sure my games aren't complete copies of anything else. Such games aren't fun to make and only fun to play if they're executed very well. I also think it's far more fun coming up with your own settings, characters and "universes" than copying someone else or making fan-games.

How many hours worth of gameplay do you think it will have?

Hours of gameplay is a tricky question. Based on alpha tests the first playthrough usually comes in around 5 - 10 hours. Then there's more difficulty levels, lots of little things that change dialogues, some side stories, unlockables and secrets. For instance, each level has a hidden "poster" and finding them all should require some good thinking. The game is also made for speedrunning and has an optional timer.

Iji is without a doubt your largest and most ambitious project to date. How has development differed from previous efforts? Have you faced any difficult challenges?

It's very different. Retrobattle and Castle of Elite both had some grid paper scribbles as "design documents" and I made those in roughly two months each as I went along. Iji on the other hand is a project I have left and come back to periodically over the years, sometimes taking breaks several months long. I keep a ‘to-do’ list and a list of features for the game and strike them out when they're done. In terms of challenges, they've mostly been related to programming but there hasn't been anything a few looks in the Gamemaker manual hasn't solved, except for a couple of GM limitations I had to work around. I also had to learn new drawing techniques and become a (marginally) better writer. I had never really designed enemy races or pixelled landscapes and clouds before doing Iji.

4 years is a long time. Ever thought about giving up? What kept you going and how do you think you will feel once this is finally released?

Yes, I've thought about giving up many times, especially when the game lay on ice for a long time. But I guess there was a point of no return somewhere, where I had to finish what I had started, otherwise it would've all been in vain. The question is if it's worth pushing yourself to do a game when it feels like a chore and the answer to that is individual to each person and project but to me, I guess I wanted to prove to myself that it was possible. Especially after discontinuing my webcomic "Ultimortal" halfway through, which was an equally large project. I'm more proud of Iji than Ultimortal though. When Iji's done, of course I'll be relieved.

What is the most rewarding aspect of such a long-term project like this?

The most rewarding aspect is however simply that I've finished a large game - it's more niche than my others, meaning I predict it won't be as well received. But there's no pleasing everyone, so why go mainstream when I can turn it into just the kind of game I really want instead. That's the most fun part of game making as a hobby to me, doing what you like.

You predict Iji won't be as well received because of its strategy elements and stats (that possibly slow down the pace)?

Yes, pretty much that it's not as casual and fast to get into as the others. It demands more of the player - it's a more "hardcore" game after all. It's not as deep as I'm probably making it sound now though.

Surely you will be looking forward to taking a break after development finishes up on Iji. Do you have any future projects in mind at this stage?

Ideas for a sequel to Hero are always there but we'll see how long of a break I'll need before doing another serious game again. One thing I know is that I'll never make another game this big again - I feel it's more worth it returning to two-month games. I may make a new puzzle game as part of a university course this spring though - it would overlap with my work on Iji.

Are you into any other Gamemaker, indie or commercial games? Any favourites you'd like to recommend or developers that you keep an eye on?

I don't play as many new games now as I used to do but there are many underdogs and / or old favourites I can recommend. Mischief Makers (N64), Sin & Punishment (N64), Ikaruga (DC/GC), TreadMarks (PC), Skies of Arcadia (DC/GC), Tyrian 2000 (PC), Operation Carnage (PC), Cave Story (PC), Lylat Wars (N64), Kid Icarus (NES), Yoshi's Island (SNES), Equinox (SNES) and the first Toejam & Earl (GEN). Some of these are very hard to find or even emulate properly nowadays though. As for GM games some of my favs are The Cleaner, An Untitled Story and what I've played of Gust Buster.

Do you have any ambitions to take your game development skills further and work in the commercial industry or is making free games as a hobby enough for you?

I'll start looking for a job in the field soon. Ideally I'd join a small studio or start my own with friends but we'll see how that goes. As a friend suggested, if all else fails, a "grunt job" with free indie game making in my spare time may also work, as I would then remain free to do what I like with my games, whenever I like.

What were your influences for Castle of Elite, Retrobattle and Hero?

Castle of Elite is like a combination of Jetpack, Solomon's Key and Tetris, Retrobattle is a combination of my memories and experiences with NES games but mainly draws inspiration from Clu Clu Land, while Hero is loosely derived from H.E.R.O., Metroid and Section Z. As I think it's very hard to do something completely new and still make it fun, I guess I prefer picking out the fun parts of games I like and make something new from there.

Which game do you consider your proudest achievement and why?

So far I think it's Castle of Elite, despite its flaws, thanks to the level editor. It's still the most downloaded on my site - about 8 times more than the others. Excluding Garden Gnome when it was released, which got downloaded 4 times more than Castle. Statistics can't tell how much people actually enjoy the games though - I rarely get any feedback unless I ask for it or look at the comments where the games have been posted.

In terms of new challenges, did you ever think about working on the game with someone else or getting help? What are your thoughts about working in a team? Do you prefer to have total control over your own concepts and ideas?

I prefer working alone on my hobby games, as then I don't have to worry about someone not having the time to do their part or having to convey what I'm thinking in proper words and images when I come up with an idea. Most importantly though, it's just easier to work alone and have full control of the resources and code. Obviously I couldn't work alone if it were my job! When it comes to music I most often have to ask someone for help though.

Ever thought about working on a commercial Game Maker project?

Nope. If I would in the future, it would probably be shareware (free demo, pay for the full game if you liked it).

Ever considered entering next years' IGF with Iji?

I'm not even sure exactly what the Games Festival is, even less what it would mean for my games at this point.

What is your opinion on the direction Yoyo Games is heading (with Instant Play it almost seems like they want to aim for the flash crowd)?

Actually I'm not really active on YoYo, I mainly signed up to post my old games. But on a site where people can (and do) post whatever half-hour games they want, many of the games there aren't more involving than the average flash game anyway. The games that are high-quality and / or long-lasting ones, I download instead of Instant Play so I don't need to revisit a website just to play them again – it seems a hassle, since the Instant Play feature pretty much downloads the game to your computer anyway. Haha, now I'm suddenly sounding rather negative... but it's a nice feature for people who play many different games there.

Are Videogames (or have they evolved enough as a type of media to be considered) Art?

To be honest? I think people should stop arguing about whether something fits into folder A or B and just enjoy it for what it is (it may not even fit into a single folder). That goes for defining what "art" and "games" are, what genre a game or piece of music is, etc. Quite a non-answer perhaps but when I play Pikmin I don't worry about whether it's real-time strategy, real-time tactics, adventure / exploration or action. I'm too busy tossing the little guys at flowers and making sure they all get home safely before nightfall. The feeling and excitement you get when playing a game such as Pikmin doesn't change no matter what "folder" you want to put it in.