Indie Spotlight: Mr. Robot Part II
Couldn't get enough of Mr. Robot? Want to find out more about Moonpod's adventure through game development, and Asimov's encounter with the big three? ...Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, that is. Check out the rest of the interview below, as Nick Tipping answers some more of our questions regarding their upcoming game, Mr. Robot. Also, you'll find website and development diary links at the bottom of this interview, for even more information.
 View all screenshots
VG Core: On the question regarding development diaries and forums...do you think Moonpod’s community has grown into a niche, or has expanded into a broader market spectrum?
NT: It's hard to say, all I could really tell you is that the average age of our customers is about 23 - so, much younger perhaps than mainstream audiences (33 according to the ESA). Still, we hear from all kinds of people in all kinds of situations (Starscape seemed particularly popular with soldiers in Iraq, because apparently it was one of the few games that ran well on their laptops!). We probably are a niche, since we aren't pursuing portals or even the kind of game that appeals to the portal crowd, and we are making games over longer periods that aren't so easy to pigeon-hole. Trouble is, I'm not sure how you'd describe the niche we are in :) We could have been the top down space action-rpg-strategy game kings building on Starscape's success, but Mr. Robot doesn't fit in that mold either. Non-casual indie games perhaps... ?
VG Core: Perhaps. Nevertheless, Mr. Robot deserves a lot of exposure. Do you think the game has been receiving the right amount of media attention, or do you think it’s still being skipped over by under-eager enthusiasts?
NT: Thanks! Mainstream media definitely seems to be taking more and more interest in indie games over the past two years. Sites that wouldn't even talk about them before are now running regular articles, and many magazines are running small sections (like PCZone's 'IndieZone' section). I do think Xbox 360 live arcade has also piqued interest too, and downloadable game coverage jumped another notch because of it. GT has obviously been one of the sites at the forefront of indie coverage; of course, they already preach to the converted, but even gamespy has a section dedicated to downloadable games now. It's always going to be limited though; that's what 'indie' really means after all. We are the black and white subtitled films of the gaming world! There are no indie games out there that really get the exposure they should do, but whether Mr. Robot deserves more than any other is not really for me to say. Even so, a few indie games manage to kick up a storm of media attention; Introversion seem good at this with their quirky looks and contemporary scenarios, but we are generally not so in your face with our ideas - producing quite traditional looking games, with some pretty quirky gameplay hidden underneath.
 View all screenshots
VG Core: So do you think there isn’t enough coverage, or that the developers aren’t taking advantage of proper exposure...or that maybe the games just aren’t getting to the right sources?
NT: You have to remember that the average games buying public just isn't interested in indie games, the same way the average movie goer isn't frothing at the mouth over the latest Wong Kar Wai film. A really interesting bit of research is to check out indie game reviews on download.com. They are usually 50/50: reviews that discuss the game and its merits, and reviews that say 'sucks' or 'looks like ass'! A new feature on download.com allows you to see the other reviews those people have made, and if you look at the ones who are outright negative, they usually review only mainstream games, and a few indie games they've presumably come across by accident. Trouble is, that's most people, and so I'm not sure that more exposure to them is going to help. I do feel that there is a wider audience of people out there who would enjoy indie titles if someone introduced them, so perhaps it's just that the indie scene needs more coverage as a whole. This is still a young entertainment medium which is overly concerned with technical issues, first person shooters and next gen visuals. As people mature so do their tastes, they become educated gamers with a discerning palette, so perhaps the game players of the future will be different. You might even see a convergence, casual players wont be happy with colour matching word popping games forever :)
 View all screenshots
VG Core: Mainstream press seems to look at the independent scene as extra weight rather than an alternative source of gaming. Few sites seem to dedicate time or effort into exposing independent titles. Do you think this is in result of too many “puzzle games”, as some developers believe it to be, or do you think independent development doesn’t generate enough revenue to give mainstream press a reason to look into the direction of the indie scene?
NT: I think it used to be the case that casual (puzzle) games were just considered small fry, and certainly sites weren't (and still aren't) going to make a lot of advertising revenue from them. A couple of years back the shareware scene was also awash with rough looking Tetris clones, but that's not the case nowadays. In fact, casual games are some of the most professional looking games you can buy online and the casual market pretty much stands on its own two feet now whether it gets press coverage or not. A couple of big names like Real Arcade have also drawn a lot of attention because of the obvious revenues they generate. Portals aside, developers generally (other than a few of the big hitters like Popcap) don't make the kind of money that shows up on the radar for mainstream press and industry. People are starting to make a distinction now between 'indie' and 'casual' however, and I think the inventiveness of the indie scene is something that's worth shouting about.
I've noticed that the press in general is starting to take more of an interest in inventive titles. A lot is said about innovation, and the expectation that indies have to deliver this, but I think indies often provide something that isn't necessarily innovative, but is something you can't get anywhere else. There's obviously an audience for them, and people are starting to notice.
 View all screenshots
VG Core: Would you ever consider producing Mr. Robot for any of the next-gen console on-line services, such as Xbox (360) Live or the Virtual Console on the Wii?
NT: We've pretty much talked about nothing else for the past 6 months! We've spoken to all the big 3, and they were all approachable and helpful (quite the opposite of how they are generally portrayed in the media). However, they all have various issues for us. I'm probably saying more than I should here, but I think it's worthwhile to discuss our thoughts on the 3 services (Hopefully, as they were generally favorable, they won't dispatch ninjas after us!), here's our impressions so far:
Microsoft:
MS are happy to take any nicely polished casual game once the front end has been remade for live arcade, and all TCRs are met. They are also interested in more esoteric indie titles, but they are actively pursuing titles which push the hardware. Totally makes sense to me, as in a game with more limited scope, you might have the opportunity to do something really clever with
shaders and/or multiple processing threads that utilise the 3 processors in a clever way. Mutant Storm Empire (by the always inspirational PomPom) looks like it's really going to excel in this regard, adding to an already fantastic game (If the original Mutant Storm is anything to go by.)
VG Core: Is there a flipside to Microsoft’s Live Arcade for Indie developers, or a possible drawback?
NT: The downside here is that Microsoft are utterly, utterly snowed under. Unless you are a big player, you are talking months to get feedback/approval of proposals. You also run a very high risk of completing a game, and then having to wait an undetermined amount of time for your release slot to come around. Competition is extremely fierce and with mainstream developers now taking an interest, and a retro back-catalogue set to storm its way onto the console, it's going to get fiercer. To do an X360 version of either Starscape or Mr. Robot would involve quite a bit of work (We have some cool ideas for using the live features with Mr. Robot, and Starscape would benefit from a much slicker front end, and effects utilising the high end hardware.), so it would actually be the riskier route for us rather than concentrating on what we are already doing.
Nintendo:
Again, very approachable, but I think currently they aren't focusing on indie titles until after launch. I'm sure they already have their work cut out with the wealth of retro titles they have to bring to the table. They were keen to talk about games we could make that utilise the wand
controller. It's astute of them to focus on that now, but for Moonpod it was another risk. If we made a wand only title, we'd be tied in to Wii only sales. Although I'm sure there's a real opportunity there for indie companies to come up with Wii wand launch titles, we really don't have the resources to gamble on such a venture.
VG Core: How about porting over Starcape, would that be possible on the Wii?
NT: We did talk about Starscape (which has a GL renderer so would be a possibility on Wii) but we were talking to marketing people, who seemed to have some bizarre notions about the game not being a console title. Odd, because the game was designed originally to run on consoles. I actually suspect they hadn't played it, and were more interested in pushing the Wii Wand concept, which is understandable. It's still early days, but the good news is I came away with the impression the console would be quite open to developers, and that we wouldn't have much trouble becoming approved developers once they had launch out of the way and had time to sort out the finer points of how it would all work.
Sony:
It was harder to get any real information about what the deal was here, as I think they still had a lot to finalise (this was some months back) but Sony seemed keen to push the idea of exclusive titles. I suspect this is where the PS3 and 360 war will be won, since there's little difference between the hardware performance-wise, but I didn't expect that to carry over to indie downloadable titles. We actually submitted an idea, but whilst they liked it, they weren't convinced we could pull it off being such a small team. I think this may have been a problem with our proposal - the technical aspects of which were illustrated as screenshots, and at no point did we mention they were taken from an already up and running technical demo we have been working on for a few years.
 View all screenshots
VG Core: So is it possible you would go forward with showing Sony newer material of your demo?
NT: We were really impressed with how Sony were open to discussion of the finer points of the game design, and what it was they were looking for, so it's likely if we re-submitted the concept we would be able to take it further. However the exclusivity and the difficulty of developing for the platform makes us question whether it's the right path for us to go down. We need to think about this some more.
VG Core: So what’s your overall impression of all three?
NT: Overall impression was that there's many opportunities and that all 3 console manufacturers were really open. I do think the kind of game we make is going to be missing from all the download services until somebody high up decides to take an interest in having titles with a bit of depth on their services and does the groundwork to get them on there. Right now, we have an audience on the internet, and we don't want to lose sight of the fact that they are the ones who supported us all this time. So, we are very interested, but I don't think we are in the best situation to go ahead...yet... Sooner or later someone will wake up to what Manifesto are doing, which is really just copying Amazon, creating a community who share reviews and "if you like this, you might like this" type user lists to create something called "the long tail". Instead of a portal which just has a top10 list, which is what all the console manufacturers are copying, you create a huge mine of crazy games and let the players themselves dredge it and sort through it. Then instead of 10 games making $5million you have 100 games making $20million, it seems a really obvious thing to do, as Amazon demonstrate on a daily basis, yet the technique is ignored by portals and apparently console publishers too. Lets hope Manifesto is a big success.
VG Core: Speaking of which, do you think the Xbox Live has managed to create a legitimate source for creative independent developers to share their products? Some of the indie games on Xbox Live are okay, but there’s a lot out there that are better than what’s on the Xbox Live Arcade. Or is it possible that too few indie developers have managed to get their ideas exposed to something like the Live Arcade?
NT: I totally agree, it's definitely a problem that is not being addressed; I'm not seeing the kind of titles I already download and buy for the PC appearing on Live Arcade yet. MS have Casual, and (soon) retro titles sewn up, and also look like they have some promising arcade-action titles that show off the 360 hardware, but I think there are some quirkier indie titles out there that should also get a look in. Smaller developers who are offering more innovative titles are being overlooked, but I don't blame MS for this situation. The bigger, multi-title casual developers are able to pump out their games quickly because they have more resources and because the games are uncomplicated; smaller developers would need a lot more support. In the short term, what they are doing makes sense because they gain a catalogue of high quality games for their platform with the least amount of effort.
 View all screenshots
VG Core: But what about the long term effects of keeping such a limited span on available indie titles for the Live Arcade?
NT: In the long term, the variety of that catalogue suffers. I'd like to see 360 Live Arcade attract a slew of games from developers that push gameplay a little further than arcade action or Zen-like clicking of coloured gems. The problem being that many of the titles that should be on there don't have front ends which are up to the console standard (casual developers are on average far more professional at creating slick, ergonomic front ends than indie developers who instead tend to concentrate on bigger gameplay ideas). Even our own game Starscape, which I genuinely believe could rock as a downloadable console title, would need the front end reworking to be up to the right standard. When you have more to offer, you have more work to do to bring it to the table. It would be cool if MS put a team together who actively courted these kinds of titles and did whatever was necessary to get them on live arcade. Once the furore surrounding live arcade dies down a bit, hopefully they'll start thinking about how they can bring a little variety to the marketplace, but for now, I think they are struggling to cope with the massive developer interest despite putting a lot of weight behind it.
VG Core: And what do you think of the overall success that Live has had with the casual market?
NT: I do think Live arcade has totally broken the mold and surpassed expectations. Despite my misgivings, it has given developers a fantastic new outlet for their games, but I hope MS continue to innovate in this field by trying to attract more esoteric indie titles and help get them up to the Live Arcade standard. I wouldn't be surprised if MS actually do that eventually, as it makes sense to offer as broad a range of titles as possible. They would certainly gain a wider audience (people like myself) who appreciate titles with greater depth. XNA may be a solution to this in the long term, but I doubt you will see the fruits of that labour for quite a while, and I'm still not sure it will improve the access live arcade users have to indie games with some depth to them. I have to say though, that MS are about the best people to talk to currently; they are very clued up, very approachable and have trailblazed the console download market.
 View all screenshots
Our thanks go out to Nick Tipping from Moonpod for answering our questions. You can visit Moonpod at their main website, Moonpod.com, to keep up to date on all the latest happenings with Mr. Robot. There's also a development diary which you can view here. And be sure to stay tuned in with VG Core for more news and information regarding all the latest and upcoming games.
Article By: Cyguration
|
