In a previous article, we introduced the experience of the creator of Fruit Ninja who left Halfbrick to start an indie game studio. Today we bring readers the same indie game studio, Alike Games, and their debut title, Love You to Bits.
In short, it’s a traditional “point-and-click” crossover puzzle game, but the highlight is the exquisite graphics and easily moved plot, which made the game a favorite of Apple editors and ranked third in the New Game Recommendations.
Touchdown interviewed game developers Marc and Xavi, brothers, from their best-selling work “Little Thief”, to discuss the heritage and innovation of the new “Love You to Bits”, and he also shared some experiences about horizontal puzzle games and independent teams.
Rewind to 2012.
Marc and Xavi were working on the game “Little Thief” at 5 Ants. A year later, they licensed the game to Rovio, and it did well in the market, attracting a group of loyal players. We can still see a lot of fans in the game’s posting.
Later, Marc and Xavi founded Alike Games, while Enric Jorda, the game programmer, joined PATI Games. after some time apart, Alike Games decided to develop a new game “Love You, Every Piece”, and they re-found their old buddy Enric Jorda to make a game that is really their own and not cooperated with big companies indie game.
In 2015, “Little Thief” was no longer available on the latest iOS platform, and the new game was long overdue. In December last year, the official Twitter announced that the game skipped to February 2016, due to the desire to present players with a more perfect work.
“Love You, Every Piece” is the spiritual successor of “Little Thief.” Last week, they arrived with the new game as promised, and our conversation began with these words.
There’s no getting around Tiny Thief
It was our first game, and it brought us into the game market and into the real game development process,” said Marc, “but when a developer has a masterpiece that is “the pinnacle of its career”, the successor always faces comparisons. “Love You, Every Piece” is the spiritual successor of “Little Thief”.”
Judging from the market response so far, the new work is the winner of the comparison. “It’s 10,000 times more brainy than Little Thief” and “If you’ve played Little Thief, you’ll know how fun the game is.” In the comment section of the game, many veteran players believe that the new game surpasses its predecessor in every aspect.
“We’re happy to see the positive feedback from players, and a lot of the credit here goes to Little Thief.” Marc believes that every detail of “Little Thief” is full of joy – the art style, the plot, the action – and that this is the gene they carry over to the new game. “For example, the interaction between the thief and his pet ferret, the protagonist must be small to facilitate his hiding at any time, the ferret is cute and mobile, and the “Grand Theft Robin Hood” style protagonist is very compatible.”
Picture the game they made, in a phrase – “cute is justice”
Marc was an animation director before he made the game, and his work was shortlisted for the highest award in the field of animation – Annie Award, and when he created “Little Thief”, he liked to add animation to the game. “Some ideas are presented to readers through small animations, and they are more easily accepted.” And in the new work, the protagonist Kosmo can collect hidden props at each level, and each prop is a sweet clip of him and the heroine.
They also used some of the puzzle designs from “Little Thief” in the new game, saving a lot of time for development. “The game attracts a large number of players and we get a better understanding of their preferences. Some people are willing to spend money for the game and leave messages to support us to continue to do a good job; the game uses a F2P fee model later in the game, and some players will complain that they prefer the pay-to-download, free-to-play model.” The new game’s $25 pricing, no insider purchases setting resulted.
As Marc said, after players open the game and play it for 10 minutes, they can feel the shadow of “Love You, Every Piece” with “Little Thief” on it, “Hey, that’s the feeling.”
Sci-Fi, Animation and Tribute
In “Love You, Every Piece”, the expression of the theme of “love” is the highlight in the eyes of many people. The boy Kosmo robot girlfriend Nova’s spaceship was attacked by aliens, Nova was broken into pieces and scattered all over the universe. The game begins with Kosmo embarking on a journey, and players will follow him to 25 alien planets to retrieve the pieces of Nova and resurrect the love of his life.
Players look at the male protagonist all the way to find has been some moving, the background music also occasionally stimulate the tear ducts, many players may not be able to hold back a moment, will flow tears. In fact, the theme of “love” is not the focus of the developers want to express, “science fiction” is the earliest they determine the theme.
“We set the background in the universe, level design and different planets and environments, the main character’s journey is in too space shuttle.” Marc and Xavi are both sci-fi fans and always wanted to make a game with a “sci-fi” theme.
They like complex science fiction stories, as well as robots, cyborgs and other artificial intelligence stuff. “We looked to anime and movies for inspiration: Osamu Tezuka’s manga works, The Chaos Warriors, The Matrix anime and Star Cowboys, produced by Shin’ichirō Watanabe, as well as classic American science fiction films and novels.”
Starship Troopers
After the theme of “science fiction” is established, the characters and plot are the details that fill it. “The ‘love’ is easy to attract the player’s attention, and with the level format, it will bring a continuous emotional impact.” The same robot love, the same search for his girlfriend, the same hardships along the way, many players see the plot, the first time associated with Pixar’s famous animated film “Robotech” (Wall-E).
“Pixar’s cartoons are very warm. Especially Robotech, in my mind it is the perfect animated film.” Marc makes no secret of his love for Pixar, which he believes stretches the boundaries of its audience, not only to children, but also to adults who will think after watching the cartoons. “That’s what we want to achieve.”
In addition to the tribute to classic science fiction films and novels, the game level design tribute to classic adventure games are also numerous. We can see the “Hell’s Frontier”-style abandoned factory interpreted in black-and-white gothic style; the spherical exploration of “Mario Galaxy” and “Ricky and Tinker Bell”; and the misplaced space of “Monument Valley” – in the game’s third level, from the style to the details within the scene, it is almost a complete replica of the original
“If there’s still a set procedure for puzzle design, the art is the most challenging job.” For the sake of the legacy and tribute just talked about, the importance of the art cannot be overstated, and Marc wanted each level to bring the player a unique experience. “We don’t want to repeat ourselves, and it’s hard to make ourselves happy.”
In fact, they ended up presenting results that have wowed players. In level 13, the game narrowed down the design concept to a single room, with the “universe” theme expressed through the strange aliens in the room, and players solving the puzzles in a prank-like way; level 18 is the opposite of level 13, tending toward grand and complex puzzle solving. “This level is filled with various props and the player has more than one choice, you first have to search each area to master the entire level, which is my favorite design.”
From “Little Thief” best-selling to “Love You, Every Piece” good reputation, they seem to have a lot to say about how to develop a successful traditional crossover adventure game on mobile platform. marc also shared with me the qualities he sees in a good crossover adventure game.
1. attractive graphics, this applies to every game, and is the most important point.
2. simple gameplay. The traditional horizontal game and the characteristics of the mobile platform is not very consistent, so simple gameplay is more important. This can make every player can easily get started.
3. Balance the proportion of simple puzzles and complex puzzles. My suggestion is to crossover multiple simple puzzles to increase the difficulty, so that players can build up the thrill in the process of solving them and keep playing.
4. The original purpose of the puzzle design is not to make it difficult for the player, but to reflect the fun of the game.
Having no money is the difficulty of almost every indie game developer, and Alike Studio is no exception. But Marc thinks the financial difficulties will always be solved, the energy difficulties are a bit more troublesome. “With the brain multi-threading 3 or 4 jobs and working more than 15 hours a day, developing games is a tough journey. We have to face everything independently.
On the flip side, this is one or two of the blessings that being a developer brings to Marc. “We are given the freedom to create without having to think about what other people think, without any worries as long as we like it. This free and unrestrained attitude is passed on to the players through the game and will be felt by everyone who plays the game with care.”
Alike Studio’s next title is still under discussion, and with the foundation of their first two titles, we have reason to look forward to their next adventure game. marc also shared with me some advice for indie teams. “These are points every indie game developer understands, persistence is the most important guideline.”
1. Work hard to make the game. You have to focus all your energy on it, don’t spend money and energy on superfluous things. But nowadays the market is competitive and you have to keep your eyes on it all the time, so it’s a difficult thing to manage the two.
2. Let more people know. Indie game developers don’t have a lot of resources on hand, and it takes some skills to win with the only cards they have. I suggest developers to translate the game into multiple languages, the cost is low and the effect is good, but make sure the quality of the translation.
3. Create unique and new stuff, which is the most important point. Nowadays, the market is getting more and more competitive, and for indie games to stand out, at least one aspect must be guaranteed to be different (art, gameplay, story). In my opinion, probably the easiest part to stand out is the graphics, which can bring the most intuitive enjoyment to the players.
