Today we have an interview with Craig Kemper of Little White Bear Studios.
Company: Little White Bear Studios
Games: Compression
Q: How long have you been developing for the iPhone/iPod touch? What did you do before you started developing for the iPhone/iPod touch?
I, along with the help of my wife Lindi, have been working on iPhone games for about two years now. Before that, I had been working as a programmer for an educational software company.
Q: How long did it take you to develop Compression and how many people were involved?
Compression took about 2-3 months to finish. Lindi and I designed the game together, and I did all the coding, art, and animation. Atomicon (www.atomicon.net) did all the music and sound. My family tested/refined the game, with additional help coming from a few key beta testers.
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Compression?
We were actually going to make an entirely different game. We had mostly planned it out in a single weekend. Unfortunately, the very next day, a preview came out for the game Unify, which was extremely close to the same concept we came up with. So we trashed that idea, and started fresh.
We knew we wanted to create a game that had the same addiction level as Tetris, yet not be Tetris. So we analyzed what made Tetris so appealing, and slowly started molding a game that could compete. Some people have assumed we based the game on Dr. Mario, due to the common goal of removing pre-existing pieces on the screen. But in reality, we started from the other side of the block dropping genre.
Q: What inspired you for Compression from initial concept to formalized game?
Well, Tetris was an obvious inspiration. But also, the music of Nine Inch Nails played a huge part in designing the look and feel of the game. We didn’t want to create yet another bright and shiny block dropping game. There were a ton of those already. We wanted something that felt, dark, moody, and dangerous. NIN fit that mood nicely, and one of their songs was actually the temp track in the game for a very long time.
Q: What inspires you? And is it different for each game?
It is different for each game, but we do like to try and pick a mood for the game as quickly as possible. If you have an emotional direction to go in, your design molds itself to fit. So yeah, the mood, over anything else, inspires us.
Q: What have you found most difficult about being an indie developer?
Wearing all the hats is very time consuming, which is why even the simplest game can take months for a small team. There’s planning, design, coding, art, coordinating with outside resources, tech support, testing, and marketing. Marketing is the most difficult one of all, as this is a fairly young, but fast moving, market. What worked a month ago, may not work today.
Q: Can you describe your development process?
Generally, we start any project by brainstorming ideas. Ideas can come from anywhere, and they don’t have to even be related to video games. Sometimes we just start with a mood, or a theme, and design a game around it. The emotional connection that the player has to a game is very important to us, so it tends to be the driving force behind most of our decisions.
Once we pick a concept, we start focussing on what would make it a fun, yet challenging, game. We use a lot of paper, writing lists, goals, and designing prototype layouts of our ideas. The end result usually winds up as a loose design document to guide us during development.
I then start thinking about the design in terms of code, to see if it’s something that can be created in a modular way, which can save a lot of time when you’re having to iterate over various portions of the game. Next, I start coding the framework of the game, making things very general, so certain things can be pulled and replaced easily. This may be a little different than what other developers do, but I like to have a basic sandbox to play in first, instead of making a prototype, throwing it all away, and then making another one. I spend a little more time up front, so we can play multiple prototypes per day, by just mixing and matching modular bits of code. This also allows us to use the same framework for future games. Our most popular games, TanZen and Zentomino, are based on the same code framework. And Compression’s framework can also be used in another game.
Once we have a prototype we’re happy with, we test it completely, and I fix any bugs. Then we take one of two paths. If Lindi is doing the art, she begins making art samples, while I flesh out various portions of the game. If I’m doing the art, I place very ugly temporary art in the game, so I’m motivated to finish the coding, and move on to creating the art. The art process is also very fluid, and we generally spend an equal amount of time iterating over artwork, as we do for actual gameplay.
With the gameplay complete, and with enough art in it to convey the general mood, we give it to a few people to play, to get some feedback. We make adjustments, and eventually we come to a game everyone seems to like. During this, we also send a build to our sound/music guy at Atomicon, so he can play the game, get a feel for the mood, and work it into his schedule.
While the music is being made, we’re putting final fit and finish on the game, and looking for last minute bugs. Once the music is complete, we submit the game to Apple.
Q: What does the creative process look like during the initial stages?
It’s a lot of talking, drawing, and hand waving. Very rarely does it ever involve a computer.
Q: Did you do any pre-marketing before Compression was released?
Well, we intended to have a 15 day pre-launch blitz, where we’d give away preview copies of the game, and really talk it up to players and review sites. Unfortunately, Apple had other plans. We submitted the game the day before the developer portion of the App Store was to close for a week for Christmas break. Normally, submissions take about 15 days to approve. We submitted right before the break, thinking that we’d be near the front of the line when they opened up again a week later. However, Apple approved Compression in about a day, along with tons of other apps. Unfortunately, everyone that got approved before the break did not appear on the New Release lists until a week later, which meant very little initial sales, and trashed most of our marketing plans. So live and learn. Never submit right before Christmas!
Q: What are you working on now?
We just started working on a new game. We started with mood on this one. We’re thinking it might be a comedy. We have an initial design worked out, but we’re still working out the details before I start working on the framework.
Q: Any plans for updates to Compression?
Compression had its first update recently, where we added a few informative stats in various places in the game, as well as the newest version of OpenFeint. Future updates will really depend on how successful Compression is.
Q: What was your most frustrating task while developing Compression?
The art was very difficult. I am not an artist, but I do dabble in Photoshop a lot. I had to learn quite a few new techniques to create Compression. The art took longer to create than the actual game. But, I now have skills I didn’t have before, which will help on future games, so the time was well spent.
Q: What have you found to be the most successful way to market Compression?
Word of mouth, mostly. Twitter, gaming forums, etc. are all good places to get people interested. If gamers are talking about it, reviewers will notice, and possibly Apple as well. Another good method is to advertize inside your other games. Anything that will let your fanbase know you have something new helps a lot.
Q: How much does user feedback affect your planning of updates and also future projects?
Quite a bit. There’s always going to be various requests, some good, some bad. Some are really good, but much too expensive to implement. We look at the volume of the requests, and mix it with how feasible it is to do from a business standpoint. But obviously, if there are bugs, we like to get those fixed quickly.
Q: Do you write games for yourself or for others? And why?
We write games we want to play. If we don’t, it’s not very much fun at all, and becomes more of a chore. If we don’t believe in the game, why should anyone else?
Q: What process do you go through to overcome coder’s block or even a creative block?
For code, I try to come at the problem from a different direction. A lot of times that involves writing down the problem in words, instead of code. If I can solve the solution with words, I usually discover a very simple way to do it in code. For creative blocks, we generally move on to a different portion of the game, and eventually the solution comes to us as a natural offshoot from the other thing we were working on. Sometimes the answer to a problem comes from defining everything around it.
Q: Since its release what you do differently looking back?
We would have waited until after the Christmas break to submit the game. We also probably would’ve started the buzz when the art was complete, rather than when the audio was complete.
Q: What was the development atmosphere like? What kind of music did you listen to?
Nine Inch Nails was pumping through my headphones for the latter half of it. We develop in our house, with three kids, and a very large dog. I would have to say the development atmosphere was noisy and chaotic!
Q: What was a must have during the development process of Compression?
Lots of NIN. And lemonade. 🙂
Q: What games influenced you in your decision to make Compression?
Tetris was a big influence. And also Unify. If Unify hadn’t existed, we would’ve made that game.
Q: To what do you attribute to Compression success? Did you expect this level of success?
Well, Compression has gotten a few nice pro reviews and comments from players and fellow developers. For many players, it has become fairly addictive. I wouldn’t say Compression has been a huge success yet, compared to our other games, but we have faith it will eventually find its audience.
Q: How close was the end product to your initial conceptualization?
Compression was more an evolution of ideas, so I can’t really define the initial concept for the gameplay. We wanted something fast, dangerous, and addictive. I think we accomplished that. The mood of the game was something I’d wanted to do in a game for a long time, and it turned out better than I’d ever hoped it could.
Q: Before the release of Compression were there any huge last minute changes?
Nope, nothing huge. The last few weeks of the project were mostly spent doing art tweaks, performance improvements, and defining the look of the pieces.
Q: How did you keep yourself motivated? What tips do you have for people with AADD like me?
Don’t make the scope of your project too big. Try to define a game you can complete in two months. You’ll probably spill over into three months, but design it for two. If you’ve never made a game before, keep it very very simple, or you’re going to give up. Our first, and still most successful game, is mainly just moving seven shapes around on the screen. Take a simple concept, and execute it well.
Q: How much did the art drive the game? The vision of what it was to look like how much of that was the driving force?
The art for this game mostly came after the game was complete. Part way through the coding we decided to go in a dark direction with the art. I had wanted to do a steampunk/industrial theme in a game for awhile, and with all of the moving parts, Compression seemed like a good candidate for it.
Q: What tools of the trade are a must have for you when it comes to programming, art and music?
We use Xcode and Photoshop. Some of our games use hand painted artwork, so a decent scanner is always helpful. Sometimes we use Audacity to tweak sound effects, to help communicate our ideas with Atomicon. Pencil and paper are very useful at the beginning.
Q: If you were stuck on an island with a laptop and no internet access what apps would you have loaded?
Oooh, that’s tough. Most everything on my computer uses the internet. I’d probably have to say some sort of game like Civilization, where I could spend days playing it at a time, yet never get the same game twice. Second app would be some sort of survial guide. And I’d need a photo viewing app so I could view pictures of my family.
Q: Is there anything else that you would like to say?
Being an indie developer is the best job in the world. You control your destiny. It can be very stressful, but incredibly rewarding!
We want to thank Craig for his time and can’t wait to see what comes next from Little White Bear Studios!
