The Gamer Studio

Interview with NigeC Studios

Being given the chance to talk to indie game developers is a great opportunity to see the development side of gaming from an amateur viewpoint. Sort of like a indie movie. The difference is, Indie Game Studios use the internet to converse and work on games. People from literally dozens of countries contribute in their own way. NigeC Studios have given us here at The Gamer Studio a chance to look at their lineup. They tell us about indie gaming, and let us know more about them.

Gord: What is your site?

NigeC Studios: My Site is NigeC Studios:
http://www.myspace.com/nigecstudios
or our main website is
http://www.nigecstudios.co.uk

Gord: First of all, how many people work on this site? Tell us exactly what it is you all do as well.

NigeC Studios: NigeC Studios is a small group of independent game developers based in the UK. We focus on Flash freeware adventure games at present, but we plan to expand into 3D games this year. There's no regular staff to speak of with the games being freeware, but we do have willing volunteers who cover voice acting, music, addition art, and characters. The stories, scripts, Flash coding, general art and characters are done by me. We use LASSIE AS game engine to build the games.

Gord: Ok, that's interesting. So could you give the readers some insight into how you guys work and contribute with each other?

NigeC Studios: Most of the collaboration is done via email or personal messages because we live all around the world. The character artist for our in production game lives in Holland, the female voice actress lives in America, and the original author of Night Of The Hermit lives in Israel who we keep in touch with. The only person that I could easily meet in person is the male voice actor. It's not ideal, it can get frustrating waiting for replies and feedback. It would be nice to have an open air ticket at times!

Gord: Could you also give us some insight into the life of a person who makes freeware games?

NigeC Studios: There doesn't seem to be a set pattern of the type of person doing independent games. The age can range from young kids to people in there 50's and 60's, from all walks of life. A lot aim too high and very quickly fail. In the LASSIE community, there are guys like John Green who is doing the game "Nearly Departed." He is a cartoonist for Disney. Matt Kempke, who did "What Makes You Tick?", is a college student. The man I did "Handyman Wanted" with deals in stocks and shares. Me? My real job is an auto electrical engineer, but due to health problems I can't work at the moment. Game making can be intense so it helps to keep one's sanity!

Gord: So what type of flash games are they? And are they usually influenced by the game developers native country?

NigeC Studios: We specialize in Flash Adventure Games, but it doesn't stop there. There's quite a lot the public hasn't seen. We're developing a Flash editor to make Flash platform games, like Mario, Sonic etc. We've also built templates to do Flash Myst type games. Every game we make, we try to make different from the last. Our first two games were small "Escape the Room" games, basically to do something easily achievable. HandyMan Wanted was done for the HP Lovecraft Commonplace Book Project in a set time frame of 6 weeks. It was in the style of the "Myst" adventures. Just before Christmas, we did a small "Dizzy" game. To some extent, native countries do influence how a game turns out. Handyman Wanted was set in America, the writer and modeler is American, and the general storyline worked best in that location. Also with the voice actress being American, it made life a lot easier for her not having to deal with accents. Luckily the male voice actor can do various accents.

Gord: When making these flash games, do you go for complex, deep, and philosophical games? Or just simple and fun?

NigeC Studios: The games we have planned will be a lot more complex. There's several on the table at the moment, ranging from a biker horror story, to a detective story and a kids game. Our current project is a remake of a AGS game called "Night Of The Hermit" which is based on the first Monkey Island game.
The big issue with complex Flash games online is the amount of bandwidth they use. Even a small 5 meg game can wipe out 10gb of bandwidth very quickly once HandyMan Wantedthe game is on the various blogger and gamer sites around the world.

Gord: So what would you say is your most successful game made yet? In terms of rating, not popularity.

NigeC Studios: Our highest rated game was 2D Assassin at 6.5 out of 10 on gamershood.com. That isn't bad considering it was a rebuild of a previous release. The most played game is HandyMan Wanted, it's also featured in the HP Lovecraft exhibitions around Europe. 8 months on it still gets regular hits.

Gord: So how are you going to plan for the future with the obvious limitations for this? Specifically with 3D games. Maybe use CD's or cartridges and distribute?

NigeC Studios: At the moment, we plan to continuie hosting with web downloads. Night Of the Hermit will be download only. As far as 3D games, we will have to look at different options as they arise depending on file size. Our character artist is looking into Adventure Maker which can do PSP games. If we can find a good C# coder we may branch out into XNA and Xbox, but then License issues and cost come into play.

 

Gord: You've talked about what path you hope to take development wise, but what path do you plan to take for the Studio as a whole? Do you see this as a profitable business venture?

NigeC Studios: Like everyone doing Indie games, we'd love to go all commercial and heavy! But right now, I'm under no illusion that we are anywhere near the level needed to be successful in the commercial world. The plan is to build up a portfolio of games and projects and try to get noticed. We chose to remake Night Of The Hermit for several reasons. The original was successful in its own right, and we wanted to totally change the style and stir up some controversy among the the old school adventure gaming community. The original author is quite happy with all the changes in the art and design. A bit of controversy can have some amazing effects. Turning this around to a profitable business venture is quite a scary thought. Right now, our only real commitment is time and effort. We're all free to pick and choose when we do any work. The ability to walk away for a while is great, but the disadvantage is there's no financial incentive to hold people to the given project. It's a fact of life that you'll have disappointments and people will fade away without doing anything. You just have to adjust, do it yourself or find someone else.

Gord: Following that, how do you plan on recruiting people to handle the bigger games that require more work?

NigeC Studios: Getting help isn't that hard, IF you having something to show. I would think dangling money under folks noses would make it even easier lol. As the games improve, more offers come rolling in. The only time you have problems is if its a Fan Game. Most people would rather work on something unique. The Indie scene is swamped with young kids who want to build up teams and make the "biggest, best game ever", which effects things badly. Genuinely creative people often get passed by because "Team Required" threads on forums are now getting ignored.

Gord: Could you give us a little bit more detail about your next big project? Maybe a projected release date? What type of game it is and what are its influences?

NigeC Studios: Its hard to say which project we are going to do! Each idea raises the bar so extra knowledge is needed. If we go with the Myst style idea, we would like to use the SCream engine. so you are talking years before the public sees anything. The SCream engine was used for the game Scratches.

The biker horror story is based on a local biker ghost story. It's 3 different ideas combined to be able to make a full game. The big problem with writing stories for games is its very easy to think up a beginning and an end. Its the parts in between which are hardest to fill. This game has been on the table 3 years in various different forms, its been started twice but never got past 2 rooms! The game would be set in the UK. Backgrounds would be based on 50's industrial Britain, maybe with Sin City style graphics which cause problems on their own. I ride bikes so it was always going to see its way into a game at some point. The kids game is very sketchy at the moment, its an idea by our character artist and is probably the one we'll do first. All I can say is it will be a Flash game and it'll be very cute. Unless we take it along a more adult route lol. The idea is very fresh and we have haven't thrashed the story out yet, but its a chance for the artist to show what he can really do and have more control on what he's doing. Time wise, we're probably looking at 6 to 8 months. A lesson I learned is not to start raving about games before they are well underway. It just seems to be a kiss of death, maybe it adds pressure to get it done.

Gord: Anything you have to say to prospective indie gamers and people who may be interested in playing your games?

NigeC Studios: Anyone can make games, they just need basic computer skills and the ability to read tutorials. The best advice I could give would be to start with 2D, forget about 3D to start with its very involved. And "THINK SMALL!" Maybe do an escape the room game? AGS does a "game in a month" competition called MAGS which is an exellent way to learn. You have a set time period, storyline, etc. It's how I started 6 years ago. All you need is AGS, art software such as MS Paint, and a bit of enthusiasm! The AGS community loves pixel art used in 90's type adventure games, so you don't need to be the next Da Vinci to make a game they would like. Lassie AS, which I use, is very simple but has the extra expense of buying Flash. Also, the engine is in development, so there are still a few issues with it. It's hard starting out. You're doing everything on your own, but as you get better the offers for help start coming. The trick is to know when to leave it and walk away, have a break and try again later. Most people doing Indy games would like more feedback from the people playing them. Unless the game has a bug you rarely get any feedbback at all directly. All you can go by is webstats on the amount of downloads, visits to the game or trolling around blogs and sites to see what people are saying.

Gord: Thank you for your time. :)

NigeC Studios: Thank you! Its been a pleasure! :)

 

MAGFest VI - "chaotigamerfun"

 

Excitement is at an all time high around the studio. It isn’t just that the games we are playing seem to be coming out at a great pace, or the fact that more are soon to come. Oh no, we're excited because we all know that MAGFest VI is coming. We sat down with director Brendan Becker to get a look at some of the happenings this year, and why MAGFest isn’t just some convention, its an experience.

The Gamer Studio: How's it going?

Brendan Becker: Not too bad!

The Gamer Studio: Thats cool, because I am sure the workload for MAGFest is getting quite heavy.

Brendan Becker: Yeah, we're almost at the one-month point. Things get pretty hectic around now.

The Gamer Studio: Well, MAGFest is nothing if it isnt hectic. For those who do not know, how did it start?

Brendan Becker: Yeah, true. MAGFest kind of has an interesting history. The torch got passed onto me after only one year of its existence (well, I had to buy it), but still, I'd had the idea for something similar to MAGFest for a long time. It started as gaming tournaments and party-type things that the original founder, Joe, did from time to time and evolved into an event that needed a hotel. When that finally happened, Joe decided to add some video game bands into the mix and really flesh out the event into a convention. And actually, the game bands were what lured me to MAGFest 1. I wanted to demo a game I was writing at the time but I wanted to hear the Minibosses play even more.

The Gamer Studio: Demos? Can we expect some bright independent developers to show up and demo their games?

Brendan Becker: Well, you won't see anything from me. Around the time I went to MAGFest, I actually got some good coverage on the game I was working on. But once I bought MAGFest, it became clear that to ensure its continual success I would have to pass my game's torch onto my other primary developer (another Joe, ironically). However, this year we're going to see a few game devs at MAGFest. Brian Colin, CEO of Game Refuge (the original creators of Xenophobe and Rampage, among other funny games from that era) will be attending this year. Additionally, we have a handful of people that are a bit more indy than that, and we should see a few cool, possibly unreleased demos from them.

The Gamer Studio: That’s great that indy game developers from the east coast can get some pub. As a game developer at heart, were there any demos that impressed and inspired you?

Brendan Becker: Inspired me to write my own game? Or do you just mean things I've seen at the event?

The Gamer Studio: Things you’ve seen at the event.

Brendan Becker: Ah. To be honest, we haven't really focused on that aspect at MAGFest in the past (not that we couldn't in the future)... and as much as I hate to say it, I'm usually busy running around like a madman at the event to make sure everything goes down without a hitch (it never does).

The Gamer Studio: Hearing about the madness is interesting, what are some crazy things you have seen while at MAGFest?

Brendan Becker: Well, every year provides us with new entertainment, not only by the guests but also from the attendees. The first year, we had a straight-edge dude licking the walls after a few drinks. Also, I heard about (but unfortunately did not witness) a shopping cart race across the street from MAGFest 2 (I think?) There are of course one or two bad things that happen every year, and we can't really do anything to avoid that. On the upshot, we're still friends with the guy that got carried away in a stretcher for alcohol poisoning. How he managed to sing the Katamari theme while that far gone is beyond me!

The Gamer Studio: Hilarious! Sounds like there are tons of good times to be had and stories to be shared. What bands should we be expecting this year?

Brendan Becker: We've got four bands on Friday, and four more bands on Saturday. We haven't exactly figured out how we're lining them up, but they are: Advantage, ArmCannon, Planet Skill,  PowerGlove,Select  Start, Smash Bros, Temp Sound Solutions, and This Place is Haunted. We've also got a thing we're trying this year called "JamSpace" which is sort of an "I came to try and play some game music with people but I don't have a setlist" or "I'm a solo act, wanna hear a song or two of mine?" type area.

The Gamer Studio: Sweet, I play a bit of bass myself. Is this with live instruments?

Brendan Becker: I expect some people might come with some electronic setups (gameboys from the chiptune artists, etc) but it will be, at the very least, performed live.

The Gamer Studio: Maybe we shall see some new bands formed on site, and at the very least it should get interesting when people get a little booze in their systems.

Brendan Becker: Yes, in fact, one of the bands at MAGFest (Smash Bros) formed to play MAGFest 2, which is kind of neat. They were an exclusive house band for awhile and played their first gig away from the festival this year. Though I should point out that we try to put a nix, for the most part, on the booze. We can't enter and stop room parties, which makes it that much more important that we keep the hotel and authorities happy.

The Gamer Studio: That’s fair, it is a beautiful location and you definitely want to keep them happy. How did the location come about?

Brendan Becker: Well, every year we "shop" around for hotels, so we were just calling around and happened to run into a hotel that had emailed me. They expressed interest about having MAGFest there. Their email got filtered as spam and I never knew until I talked to sales!

The Gamer Studio: Wow, they say one man's spam is another man's treasure. That had to be different from MAGFest's beginnings.

Brendan Becker: Well, we've had it at different hotels from year to year. Only one year did we book a second year. The other ones, we outgrew! But hey, that's definitely not a bad thing.

The Gamer Studio: That’s excellent! Speaking of growth, you guys are having more than bands and indy game developers. What other big name guests have you pulled?

Brendan Becker: We've kind of become a "cool spot" for fan-based videogame projects. Since we ourselves are just a bunch of gamers, we tend to associate more with other gamers rather than big industry types (even though we invite them to attend). Fortunately, that's not to say they're not well known. OC ReMix is probably one of the biggest names in videogame music websites. They're organizing a huge get-together at MAGFest, and they plan to do a few panels. Another cool guest is videogame remixer-turned-composer Jake Kaufman (aka "virt"), who is responsible for the soundtrack for the just-released Contra 4 on the DS. He's actually been a guest for every MAGFest to date. We also recently invited ScrewAttack to join us at MAGFest, and they accepted. We'll be having the Sidescrollers Tom and Craig, PBC Productions (Captain S), and last but not least, the Angry Video Game Nerd.

The Gamer Studio: That’s awesome! We at the studio love music, and we definitely love OC ReMix. Contra has always had memorable music, and Contra 4 does not disappoint. We are also huge fans of the ScrewAttack team, and I can’t say they didn’t have an influence on us at The Gamer Studio.

Brendan Becker: Yeah, there are so many fan-related sites and projects. It's really great to see a love for videogames turn into something neat. Tons of our guests are like that (ever heard of X-strike Studios?) and it's really great to watch them go from "hey uh, we do stuff with games, um, maybe we can be guests?" to folks that are still doing things and becoming better and better-known across the Internet.

The Gamer Studio: We know the feeling. Speaking to some of us newer players in the videogame industry, what kind of panels will be available?

Brendan Becker: Most of the panels are geared towards the things our guests are up to, or alternatively just "fun things" for gamers to do. Popular examples include name that tune and trivia contests, community meetups, listening parties, and other, similar stuff.

The Gamer Studio: Awesome. I know with that many gamers in one place, I can bet that tournaments will be going on.

Brendan Becker: Oh, definitely. There's a decent amount of gaming chaos in the gameroom. Usually there's around a dozen or so tournaments, and we also have a "gaming challenge" corner, with single-player stuff, like "beat this boss" or "speedrun this level". Also, sometimes gamers that are good at a certain game will hold an exhibition and just beat the game for an audience.

The Gamer Studio: Will we see newer games like Rock Band or the classics such as Street Fighter Alpha III and Virtua Fighter?

Brendan Becker: Hopefully both, and everything between. There's news that we might be getting several Rock Band setups. Don't know for sure yet.We definitely have lots of oldschool gamers though, so there should be a good chunk of 8- and 16-bit era gaming as well. Basically, if you enjoy games on a whole and not just one specific game, there should definitely be something you'll enjoy in the gameroom.

The Gamer Studio: Good stuff, I’ve been working on both my drum sticking and my Shoryukens.

Brendan Becker: Keep in mind even if you're not tiptop at whatever game we really encourage a laid-back, "have fun" environment where you can just do exactly those. You're not paying to enter the tournaments. So why not do it and see how well you do? And in the other direction, if you don't want to, it doesn't matter, the games will still be set up for non-competition play so you don't have to feel pressured.

The Gamer Studio: That’s something I like to see, isn’t it all about fun in the end?

Brendan Becker: Exactly! You'll find the entire event kind of works like that. We try to stay away from getting called a convention because really all of MAGFest we just want people to relax, meet other like-minded gamers, and have a great time with friends.

The Gamer Studio: I think that is what anyone and everyone can look forward to, and a key reason for the growth you've experienced. In closing, if you can describe MAGFest in one word, what would it be?

Brendan Becker: Hahaha! I don't think I can, there's just so much going on. Maybe I can make up some cheesy term like 'chaotigamerfun'?

The Gamer Studio: Sounds like a blast to me!

MAGFest is scheduled for January 3^rd - 6^th, Thursday through Sunday, the first weekend of the year, and will be held at the Hilton Mark Center in Alexandria, VA. Register and get to see all the guests as well as us in our full gaming regalia just trying to keep up with the excitement!