Interviews

Interview: bringing GoNNER’s trippy, vibrant world to NVIDIA SHIELD

Take a trip with Ikk

Interview: bringing GoNNER’s trippy, vibrant world to NVIDIA SHIELD
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| GoNNER

Set in a procedurally-generated, pastel colored world, GoNNER casts players as the headless, skull-wearing Ikk who sets out on a journey to cheer up his best friend, a landbound whale named Sally. The charming indie game recently hit PC and received high praise from both critics and gamers. Now NVIDIA SHIELD owners can experience one of the most imaginative platforming games as GoNNER is now available on Google Play for SHIELD.

In the following exclusive interview, GoNNER’s creator Ditto discusses the genesis of the game’s strange world, what it means to be an indie developer, and working together with NVIDIA to help bring GoNNER to a whole new audience on SHIELD.

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GoNNER features an unusual storyline that casts players as the headless, skull-wearing Ikk. How did this delightfully odd premise emerge?

Almost everything about GoNNER—the mechanics, the visual style, soundscape and the story—formed very organically throughout the process. Every detail in the game has evolved from something else.

Sally was originally going to be another Ikk-like character, but we simply got bored by how predictive it all looked, and I was struggling with drawing a good looking house for the friend to live in. It seemed easier, and more fun, to draw a whale.

In fact, most of the design decisions throughout this project have been based on trying to find something unpredictable in every little detail.

Just as memorable as its characters, enemies and procedurally-generated world are GoNNER's vibrant pastel visuals. How was this distinct art direction achieved?

The visual style in GoNNER basically emerged from the limitations I set on myself. I’m a programmer/artist, so my way of working is often a mix of coding and drawing pixels. For this project I decided to not use the alpha channel on colors, no anti aliasing, anything that is a part of the world must be wobbly animated and there can only be five different colors. There’s something very interesting with working under a lot of constraints. All of the effects in the game are then just visual experiments within those constraints.


What inspired you to have challenging "roguelike"-style gameplay that isn't as forgiving as many games, especially within the platforming genre?

That’s the type of game I most enjoy playing myself. GoNNER really proudly borrows game mechanics from a myriad of other games and mixes them together into a big stew of video games. On top of that, if I ever find the game I’m working on easy, I tend to make it harder just to challenge myself.

Short answer: because I get bored of playing my own games.

GoNNER is one of the most exciting new titles to emerge from the thriving indie gaming scene. What do you attribute to indie gaming's growing appeal and ability to capture the attention of so many gamers?

I’m excited about indie games because they’re usually purer games than what you find in the AAA scene. You’re usually spared all the shoehorned cutscenes, 20-hour tutorials, mini games, travel distances, etc. Indie games are, most of the time, straight to the point, pure gaming

What was it like working together with NVIDIA and optimizing the game for the SHIELD hardware?

The team is super involved and helps out in places you wouldn’t even expect them to. We had some really good talks, one of which involved me losing my temper over source control. The NVIDIA team helped me both get in a better mood and solved the issues I was having.

With the game's new release on December 22nd, what are you most excited about getting into the hands of gamers?

I’m really excited to see how people will play the game. There’s so many little mechanics hidden in there that you can discover to master and exploit the game. I’m also excited to learn from the players what works and what doesn’t in my game design. It’s always a learning experience, you know?

But most of all, just knowing there’s people playing and actually enjoying something that I’ve created. That feeling is magic. It surpases excitement.

GoNNER is now available on NVIDIA SHIELD
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