September 1, 2009

Indie studio talks about what it takes to bring a game to life, and the masses
By Michael Lafferty

“Overall, we want to maintain a high level of quality and balance in our work …”

The games industry is a growing concern, not only from the standpoint of entertainment dollars produced, but also in terms of those who have ideas for games. But when you combine vision as well as the talent to realize that vision, you are talking about a development studio – no matter how big or small it might be.

Hemisphere Games is an Indie studio that is quite small, but they have the vision and the talent to create a game that while not totally original, has an elegance and beauty that has drawn some very favorable reviews.

GameZone wanted to know more about the title, as well as what it takes as an independent studio to make it in the video-game industry. So we turned to Eddy Boxerman – the self-proclaimed chief, cook and bottle washer – at Hemisphere Games for some answers.

Question: How hard is it for an indie developer to break through and find a way to publish a game?

Eddy: With digital distribution these days, it's amazingly easy to self-publish on PC, Mac, iPhone, Linux... All you need is some basic hardware, some open source tools and libraries, skills and time. Breaking through is another matter however. It's actually quite difficult, and requires a lot of dedication, hard work, skills, and luck. But festivals and competitions such as the IGF, PAX 10, IndieCade, etc. are great venues for those who want to try to break through, without requiring a huge budget.

Osmos is a physics-based game that seems to step-back to a time games appeared simpler but still had a great deal of challenge to them. What made you decide on this type of game?

Eddy: I'm a fairly old-school gamer and grew up with those games. And I still love them. I think Osmos has the simplicity and depth of those games, but with an artistic sensibility that is fresh in the games industry. The game begins very simply and gently, but it holds definite challenges in its later stages. There are concepts and skills to learn in Osmos, and the player must master them in order to beat the game. I think that's a good thing.

Once you had the type of game picked, what sort of brainstorming sessions took place to finalize the form and look of the game (as in, how did you decide on those aspects)?

Eddy: The basic gameplay concept was conceived all at once, but there was a great deal of brainstorming, design and iteration throughout the game's development. The visuals underwent a number of different incarnations, until my friend Kun sat down with me and fleshed out some beautiful concepts. From there it was a matter of production and tweaking, especially on the particle-system side of things. For music, I knew almost from the beginning how I wanted Osmos to sound, and spent a fair bit of time seeking out music that fit. I started with Loscil, but soon found Mat Jarvis (Gas, High Skies), Julien Neto, Biosphere... I'm really pleased that we were able to include all their wonderful music in the game. Finally, on the gameplay front, there was a great deal of experimentation to flesh the original concept out into a "complete" game, and many concepts and features never made their way into the final game. Dave Burke and Andy Nealen (and a few other friends) helped a lot with this brainstorming process, and we kept a minimalist philosophy with Osmos -- if something didn't significantly add to the game, we cut it; not always easy to do as designers. Finally, we spent a lot of time tweaking, tweaking, tweaking and tweaking every aspect of the game.

What do you feel sets this game apart from other games of a similar nature?

Eddy: Osmos is in a fairly niche genre of game, and is quite different from the majority of what's out there. That said, it gets compared to games like flOw, Orbient, and Spore's cell stage more often than anything else. It's really a physics- based game though, and so I feel it has more in ommon with Orbient than the others. Even then, the nature of the controls is very different from Orbient, as is the variety of level types, the music, and the visuals. A truly unique concept in Osmos (as far as I know), is the concept of propelling yourself by ejecting bits of your own matter, thereby shrinking. I believe this addition to the "eat 'em up" genre adds a lot of interest.

How many levels does the game have and how does the challenge ramp up?

Eddy: It has 47 "regular" levels, plus bonus content. The first 8 tutorial levels are gentle, and the next wave of 10 levels are "pleasantly challenging". From there, it depends on the branch of levels you choose; some are challenging but slow-paced and thoughtful, while some are truly difficult. So far, a little over 1% of the players have managed to "beat" the game, and not for lack of trying. That said, there's a lot of replayability as well, including the ability to play random versions of any level. We try to encourage players to pick their level of challenge/comfort and spend time enjoying those level variations. When they start finding them too easy, they can always move on and up the ante.

What do you like the most about this game and this genre?

Eddy: I like the simplicity and emergence of the Osmos "game world." I enjoy being able to play games like this to relax at night. And I love the music.

Graphically, what sort of engine does this game use and what did that engine allow you realize in the context of the game?

Eddy: It's a homegrown engine, built using OpenGL, OpenAL and various other LGPL-style libraires -- which we're very grateful for. We make enormous use of transparency in the game, and would use even more if on-board graphics cards had better fill-rates for overdrawing. The richness one can get from layering is amazing, though it is a time consuming process to design and refine everything to work and blend together nicely.

How many people work at Hemisphere Games and what do you plan to do for your next project?

Eddy: We're two people full-time these days: myself and Dave Burke; though we hope to continue working on and off with our friends Kun Chang, Andy Nealen, Mat Jarvis, Owen DeWitt, Bill Matthews and others. As for what's next: there are still a few Osmos surprises in store. After that, we're really excited about getting back to the prototyping stages on a few ideas we've been tossing about. Overall, we want to maintain a high level of quality and balance in our work, and only put out games that we can be proud of and want to play ourselves: games that are fun, unique, and interesting.

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