Goodbye Galaxy Games talks Flipper DSiWare and why Voxel graphics are the future
Indie developer spills the beans about developing for Nintendo’s handheld
The recent proliferation of gaming download services has offered small-scale developers a vital route to market, with low-costs, low-risks and easy distribution of product.
However, while the likes of Apple’s iPhone App Store and Google’s Android Marketplace boast massive catalogues of indie titles, Nintendo’s fledgling DSiWare service has - by and large - been dominated by large publishers thus far.
This could be set to change. With the likes of Alien Havoc, Mecho Wars and Pop Island on the horizon, it would seem that smaller studios are finally finding their feet with Nintendo’s latest distribution platform.
Another indie title that has recently been announced is Flipper, courtesy of Goodbye Galaxy Games. We got in touch with founder (and sole staff member) Hugo Smits and quizzed him about this upcoming title.
Pocket Gamer: Can you give us a little information on how Goodbye Galaxy Games was formed? Has your team previously worked on any other notable projects we might have heard of?Hugo Smits: The team consists of ‘me’. I do everything on Flipper: programming, art and promotion. I’ve worked in the game industry for quite some time now, mostly as a 3D engineer/programmer working on engines for low-end systems (such as mobile phones and the Game Boy Advance).
Where did the concept for Flipper originate?Last year, in the summer, I did some research on voxels. Right away it became clear to me that voxels would be the next step forward in gaming. When I finished the engine and tech demo my programming friends were really impressed, because they knew how much data was involved and how hard it was to render all those voxels.
However, ‘normal’ people (such as publishers) didn’t see it. So I decided to make a test game to show all the advantages. I liked the concept so much that I wanted to create a full game out of it.
How does Flipper work? What’s the objective of the game?The player starts at some point in the level and needs to find his goldfish - named Flipper - who is located at another point in the level.
You need various power-ups to change the landscape so you can get to Flipper. It’s pretty simple but the puzzles and the freedom of the game engine make for some really interesting gameplay. You can use the power-ups on whatever part of the level you like and because of this there are many solutions to a level.
The game appears to have a focus on destruction, yet you’ve said that there is no violence in the game at all. Isn’t this a little bit of a contradiction?
It’s not focused on destruction - that’s just one of the power-ups. It’s focused on dynamically changing the world to your advantages.
Sometimes you need to blow things up, other times you need to restore or build things.
What I meant with ‘no violence’ is that it’s not possible to hurt or kill living things. The destruction is directed at the environment. I suppose you can call destroying your environment ‘violence’ as well...
The visual style is very unique. Were you inspired by retro games in any way?Yes! I really wanted to make this video game a video game. Most commercial and professionally-produced games are trying to be Hollywood blockbusters and most indie-games are trying to be art. People are forgetting to make video games.
How is the game controlled? Are you using the traditional ‘pad and buttons’ interface or will you make use of the DS touch screen?The game is completely controlled with the touchscreen. You can tap anywhere on the ground, and the character will walk to the spot. It can detect staircases, holes and bridges. So it’s pretty smart.
If you want to use a power-up, just hold one of the shoulder buttons and tap where you want to use it. It’s that simple! I really love the control system, because Flipper is a really ‘hardcore’ video game at heart but thanks to the easy controls anyone can play it.
How long will it take for gamers to complete the game?
I can’t give an exact time, but there will be plenty of levels which can be played in Normal and Timed mode. Every world has a little mini-game that uses one of the power-ups.
There are also stars to collect (they are hidden in every level) and besides that there are multiple solutions to the levels, so it should keep you busy for a while.
Can you tell us about the ‘Galaxy engine’ used to create the game?The Galaxy Engine is a true 3D voxel engine. After six years of work as 3D engineer/programmer I came to the conclusion that voxels are the future for graphics. Sure, they look blocky right now but that’s because video cards don’t support them, so everything needs to be done in ‘software mode’ which is really hard to do because it drains CPU power.
But if you look past that, you can see why they are the future. Basically you can view voxels as 3D pixels; you can assign parameters to them but also other things like what kind of material the voxel is made of.
Voxels are also used in CAT scans in hospitals (they are basically 3D images of your body). Now, try to imagine using a CAT scan for enemies in a shooter. Right now, if an enemy gets hit in the head, it’s game over for him. But with voxels you can calculate how he got hit, and how bad the wound is.
For example, you could shoot his ear off. This would be really nasty, but not deadly. However if the bullet gets to the brain, it’s Game Over.
Other things can be calculated as well. For example, if the player jumps of a rooftop, you can calculate the impact on his bones. If the roof was high enough, the player might break his legs.
Furthermore, with voxels you can dynamically change the environment. It’s really easy to add or delete new voxels. For example, you could shoot a glass window and calculate where/how it got hit, and dynamically destroy the glass window according to it. This adds great realism to games.
The DS doesn’t have enough RAM to handle these examples but I managed to get some great results anyway. Thanks to my compression routines I can render a 256x256x256 voxel model on a normal DS (4MB RAM) which can be completely changed dynamically.
Is there potential for this engine to be used for other titles in the future?Right now I don’t have any plans. I want to finish Flipper first. I might license it to other developers but that would require some serious effort from my part. Because the toolset is built with the Flipper game in mind and not just ‘any game’, it would require more work to suit other titles.
What kind of price point to you expect to release Flipper at, and when is it likely to appear?I would like it to be 200 points because I want as many people as possible to play the game - that’s more important to me than getting rich right now. I know it sounds pretty lame, since everybody needs money and I had to make some pretty big sacrifices myself to get it made.
I decided to work on Flipper full time and drop out of college. The publisher went bankrupt, so I have to pay for development myself which resulted in me having to choose between working on Flipper or getting a ‘real’ job so I could pay the rent and buy food. I ended up choosing Flipper and having to move back to my parents' house.
I did this because I really believe in the game. It would break my heart if people don’t want to try Flipper out because they don’t know anything about it and find it too expensive. Obviously I’m not the only one having a say in this, so I don’t know for sure, but I will surely try to get it in the DSiWare shop for 200 points.
What has it been like working on the DSiWare platform?
Development for DSiWare isn’t that different from for a normal DS - at least not for Flipper. This is mainly because I don’t use any of the new features of the DSi (such as the camera). It’s nice to have more RAM and CPU power, though!
Do you have another publisher lined up for this title and do you know when it's likely to appear on the DSiWare store?
Right now I’m talking to multiple parties about publishing. I don’t have an exact date, since there’s still a lot to do, but I’m aiming for this September.
Do you have any other DSiWare projects in the pipeline that you can tell us about?I have some ideas, but they are just that - ideas. Right now I want to finish Flipper and get it out there. After that, I’ll start looking seriously at those ideas for my next project.
If anyone is curious about Flipper developments or any other games/projects I might come up with, you can check out my blog at: http://goodbyegalaxygames.blogspot.com and my twitter at http://www.twitter.com/HugoSmits
Thanks go to Hugo for his time.