The boys over at Cadenza Interactive were nice enough to answer a few questions about thier great tower defense game, Sol Survivor. You will get their take on Steam, Valve, DRM, life as an indie dev and much more.
Adam:
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Sol Survivor.
Dylan:
My name is Dylan Barker, and I was both the lead PR guy and a game designer for Sol Survivor.
Adam:
How did you get started in developing PC games?
Cadenza Interactive was formed by a group of guys interested in going into business with their friends. The idea was that we'd be able to keep the group together and enjoy ourselves for a few years after college. PC games came naturally because we all were heavy LAN games, and our group also had several computer science graduates who were itching to make something fun.
Adam:
Where did the idea for Sol Survivor come from?
Dylan:
The main LAN party group at Cadenza was big into Warcraft III tower defense maps. We had an idea for a very large title, but when we realized that we needed something more appropriately sized for our first game, we decided to try to distill the tower defense genre into a game we'd really enjoy playing. To us, that meant finding the best parts of Warcraft III tower defense mods and combining them, and adding a twist or two ourselves.
Adam:
What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Sol Survivor?
Dylan:
Timing is everything. We thought we were ready to show the game the second it became playable, and we were excited to tell everyone about it. Unfortunately, the game was nowhere near impressive to people who weren't working on it. We had to learn that game ideas and concepts are commonplace, but finished games that actually demonstrate those concepts are what carry weight.
We were successful, in the end, in making a tower defense game that almost had something for everyone. It had action, it had casual single and multi-player modes, and it had endless modes for people to dig in and take the game math to the extreme. The game came out a little unfocused because of it, but I think we owe some of our success to meeting the demands of so many possible tower defense aficionados.
Adam:
Were there other video games, books or movies that were the inspiration for Sol Survivor?
Dylan:
Warcraft III tower defense was the primary inspiration for the gameplay of Sol Survivor. We had another project that we'd had in mind for starting the company with, one that was much larger than Sol Survivor, and we used that world as a setting for this smaller game.
Adam:
Some indie devs admitted their games were too hard upon release because they became experts as they developed the game. Talk about setting the difficulty levels for Sol Survivor and if you faced a similar challenge.
Dylan:
Sol Survivor's combat math is actually fairly straight forward. During the first pass on each level, we'd put in enemies and set a default amount of player resources earned per wave. From that, we could determine about how hard each wave would be, and how optimally the player would have to use their resources to do enough damage to defeat the wave. It took some tuning from there, but the bulk of the work was done by tweaking a damage potential curve until we hit a sweet spot.
Adam:
How did you quality test Sol Survivor through the various development cycles? Who was involved and how was the testing set up?
Dylan:
Testing was difficult for us, being that we were a small team and we were already burning much of our stamina on producing the game. We recruited friends and acquaintances for testing events where we'd buy pizza and beer in exchange for their compliance. This was fun, but unfortunately not always productive. The best QA we had was our core guys grinding for hours. In future, I think we're likely to hire a few people on a temp basis to crunch through it with us.
Adam:
Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Sol Survivor would run on the various PC system configurations?
Dylan:
Absolutely. There are so many possible PC configurations that, even after you cut out the lower 5% of the performance curve, you're still going to bump into that one system that just makes your day miserable. The Steam hardware survey is solid gold in looking at what hardware you need to support, as an indie developer.
Adam:
Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?
Dylan:
As an indie developer, money is always the eight-hundred-pound gorilla in the room ready to snap your neck if you're not careful. We scraped the bottom a few times, looking for ways to make just one more month of bills. Handling a production budget properly is critical, and mustn't be overlooked.
Adam:
Tell us about your relationship with Valve. How did making Sol Survivor available via Steam come about? Also talk about how you created Steam Achievements.
Dylan:
You'll hear this time and again from indies, but Valve is an absolute dream to work with. This is repeated so often, and by so many, that it's easy to assume that everyone is sucking up to them. As it is, they're equal parts logistical partner and amplifier, and we wouldn't be in business without their attitude toward indie companies.
Steam was always in the plans, but we actually shot for Xbox LIVE Arcade first. We assumed we'd get onto that platform, but that assumption was based on a sort of naivite that, in retrospect, makes us look back and laugh. Sol Survivor wasn't ready when we sent it to Microsoft, and we definitely did not put forward something worthy of Xbox LIVE Arcade.
You can imagine, then, that when we applied for Steam, we were much more patient and were prepared to send them a demo only once the game was essentially finished. Once the game was done, the process took only a few weeks, with paperwork and Steamworks integration rounding out development.
Steam achievements came during that last step with Steamworks integration. Steam offers a set of tools that allow indie developers to use features of bigger games, like matchmaking and achievements. We used that system to make the achievements, and the actual tasks themselves were all wild ideas and milestones we thought would push people into understanding the game as we intended it to be played.
Adam:
How much pull do you have when setting sale and regular pricing through digital distribution channels?
Dylan:
Valve has information to help guide pricing and sales decisions alongside indie companies. It's a two-way relationship, in any case, and we've been fortunate for their partnership on that.
Adam:
How do you feel about the digital distribution platform as a whole?
Dylan:
Digital distribution has enabled our entire business model. Without it, we don't exist. If you have the talent, and the near-masochistic work ethic it takes to finish a quality indie game, you can get your game out to the masses and have a legitimate shot at making it in your own little corner of the games industry.
Adam:
Are there any plans to take Sol Survivor to retail stores?
Dylan:
Unfortunately not, the costs are much too high.
Adam:
You released a PC demo for Sol Survivor in an age where demos are becoming scarce. What made you release a demo and was it difficult to develop one?
Dylan:
Unknown companies have to prove that their first game is worth the asking price. A demo goes a long way toward doing that. I think indie games owe it to fans taking a risk on them to offer a sample, because it's not always easy to see what you're getting as far as quality of production from a trailer.
Adam:
How important is it to get instant feedback about Sol Survivor from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?
Dylan:
Feedback actually helped shape the game post-release. We added whole game modes to the finished product based on player requests. The community was also able to help us squash bugs and establish a knowledge base for tech fixes using the forums. Getting so much feedback was helpful, though we did have to learn early on how to tune out the general internet background cynicism.
Adam:
How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Sol Survivor professionally?
Dylan:
At first, we valued them too much. The fact is, we're a small game that takes time to get into. Big reviewers don't want to spend lots of time on small games, so when we got reviewed by larger outlets, we found they missed simple things like difficulty scaling or multi-player entirely. With that said, we learned our lesson: if a game isn't fun in the first five minutes, its reviews are going to be average at best.
Adam:
How do you feel about the Humble Indie Bundle and "Pay What You Want Pricing"? Would you be interested in contributing to a project like that in the future?
Dylan:
The Humble Indie Bundle is a success on so many levels, not the least of which is what they manage to collect for Child's Play and the EFF. It would be an honor to participate in one of their sales at some point, either with Sol Survivor or our next project.
With regards to the pricing structure, it's definitely worth doing once you've gone through the initial cycle of big release attention and declining sales. There comes a point as an indie game where the biggest battle is against obscurity, and nothing in the Humble Indie Bundle can be obscure once it's among such excellent company.
Adam:
What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?
Dylan:
Intrusive DRM is unacceptable. Steam's default anti-piracy measures are enough for us, and even with those in place, we accept that the game will be pirated. The bulk of our new Google results each week are new spots to download a pirated copy of the game. As I mentioned before, our biggest battle is against obscurity, and frankly, piracy helps us fight that in its own way. We realize that games are overpriced, and that people will pay for games that they love when they don't feel like they're being exploited.
Adam:
What are some of the games or genres you like to play? Are you a fan of other indie developers?
Dylan:
Between all the devs, we play a little of everything. Personally, I'm a competitive player, so I'm going from Starcraft: Brood War to Starcraft 2 in a big way. As a company, we also have a philosophy that we must play a wide scope of games so we're aware of the state of things at all times. Our lead programmer buys almost everything that goes on sale on Steam, and picks through games as both a gamer and as a researcher, which leads to a lot of interesting discussion.
As far as indies, the list could go on for a long time. We've gotten quite a bit of play out of Amnesia, Audiosurf, Magicka and Gratuitous Space Battles. This is in addition to the indies that broke out of the traditional indie niche, like Braid, Minecraft, Monday Night Combat and League of Legends.
Adam:
What advice would you give up-and-coming video game developers who are looking to break out of the crowd?
Dylan:
Read everything. If you're new, make sure you realize very quickly just how little you know, and appraise every decision you make against the best information you can gather. Make an hour a day to go through a stacked google reader and read game reviews, announcements, criticisms and developer blogs. It is time well spent.
We would like to thank Dylan for giving us a fantastic insight on PC indie development and PC gaming in general. You can pick up the demo of Sol Suvivor on Steam .
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