2013-12-02

Conducted By – Adam Ames



Anthony Beyer takes some time away from his development duties to give TPG the lowdown on his upcoming stealth puzzle-platformer, Interference.

 

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Interference.

My name is Anthony Beyer, I am a 28 year old French graphic designer and I am currently developing Interference. On Interference, I do game design, level design, programming, sound Fxs, graphics, well… everything except the music which is done by Ryan Ike and Music Vortex .

 

How did you get started in developing PC games?

For me, this is my first PC game project. But the first time I tried to make a game, I was something like 10 years old. I did a lot of game prototypes to learn but never show them to anybody.

 

Where did the idea for Interference come from?

At the beginning it was a really simple platformer where you play simultaneously as the main character and as the level. By using the mouse scrollwheel, you can progressively switch between 2 or 3 level design iterations (prototypePic01.jpg). I just did a sketch of this idea and put it aside. And then, some months later, I come back to it and re-think the game mechanic into something more modular and decided to prototype it. The basic idea was here and sounds interesting to me so I continue to work on it.

 

In its current form, how close is Interference to your initial vision?

My initial vision of the game was a 30 levels platformer game in pixel art for iOS and Android. 6 months later, I can say it’s really far from this vision!  By now, I have a clear vision of what the game will be and should look like.

 

Some 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 Interference and if you faced a similar challenge.

When I released the first “pre-alpha demo” of Interference, I wasn’t aware of the difficulty. For me, the levels were simple and enough challenging for a demo.

But a lot of people find the demo very hard and frustrating   I think there is a lot of solutions to avoid this kind of feelings. A game can be very hard, but if the player can’t blame the game for his fail, the only thing the player want to do is to retry and play better.  Personally, I don’t think Interference needs several difficulty levels because it can break all the game design and challenges.



Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Interference would run on the various PC system configurations?

Using Unity as an game engine make these things easier, but there is still some things I will have to code myself (like supporting various controllers)…

 

Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for Interference.

Art style of the game has changed a lot, it started with pixel art style to end up with something more like a concept art style. It evoluates this way because I’m not good at pixel art, so I choose the art style that I feel better with (artStyleEvolution.jpg). About the artistic direction, my main references are Blade Runner for the lighting, mood and colors and Brazil for the visual aspect of the city (labyrinthine city with complex pipes’ network everywhere).

About the music, I asked Ryan Ike and Music Vortex to make something with chiptune/synthetic sounds in an ambient style, and they have already done a great job on it.

 

Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?

Definitely, talking about the game! I mean it’s really hard to communicate about the game when you are aware of all the bugs and other things you have to fix and complete. Because of all thoses production issues, it’s hard be confident on the communication. Beside this, of course there is the problem of money incomes which is the same for every indie / freelancer.

 

How did you go about funding Interference and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?

The crowdfunding campaign is still in progress, you can find it here. Friends and family are also a great support in this campaign especially for self-confidence.

 

Tell us about the process of submitting Interference to the various digital distribution platforms and if you encountered resistance in doing so.

Interference is on Steam Greenlight and the game is doing not so bad on it. I’ve also been contacted by other digital distribution platforms (like humble bundle) but since the game is still in early development, I can’t tell more about distribution.

Did you research similar titles when trying to come up with the launch price?

Yes, for the crowdfunding campaign, I look at other titles to find the right price for Interference.

 

Can you tell us why you chose to release a demo for Interference?

I chose to release a pre-alpha demo because this is the best way to show a game. Without any interactivity, it’s hard for people to judge the game and its potential.  I prefer to give something real and functional rather than a wonderful trailer with a lot of promises.

 

How important is it to get instant feedback about Interference from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?

Feedback are very important for me to know what part of the gameplay I have to improve. They are also great to validate some of my choices.

 

How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Interference professionally?

People who review Interference professionally are very important because they are experts and have seen a lot of games. Reviews are also more detailed than short comments and give more information about the good and bad points of the game which help a lot me to improve the game.

 

How do you feel about the various indie bundle promotions and the “Pay What You Want” pricing methodology? Would you be interested in contributing to a project like that in the future?

It’s a good initiative! If I can, Interference will definitely be part of these bundle promotions.

What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?

Personally, I have no thought on piracy because it’s not specially related to the gaming industry. But DRM is really a disrespect for people who pay for a game.

 

How do you feel about individuals posting videos and receiving monetization of Interference?

I have absolutely no problem with this. It’s good for everyone (well… except for the viewer who has to see ads before videos).

 

How do you feel about DLC and its current implementation in the PC gaming industry?

Well, in my case, I’ve tried some and find them not very interesting, so now I prefer to ignore these DLC. (But I understand why DLC are good for gaming companies, with all the money they put into the game development, they want to extend the life of the game as much as possible, and they don’t have a lot of choices to do it : Sequel, DLC or giving tools and assets to the modding community.)

 

How do you feel about the online modding community in general and specifically if mods were created for Interference?

Modding is something really cool especially to learn tools of game creation and to see how people who play games can be creative, but as a gamer I don’t like the way some games rely mostly on the modding community and forget to give a fully designed experience at the release.  That’s why first, I will focus on the main adventure/story of Interference, and maybe later, add some modding tools.

 

What advice would you give up-and-coming indie PC developers who are trying to break into the business?

Well, that’s what I’m trying to do So my advice will probably be the worst : Kill yourself at work on a game project you really believe in. I don’t see games as products, but more as the most complete form of art today. So, if what you do is heartfelt, it will find a public.

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Developer Quick Look:

Official Game Site

Indiegogo

Twitter

Steam Greenlight

Headquarters – Concarneau, France

Release Date – September 2014

Available PC Platforms – Windows and Mac

Team Members – 2

Publisher – None

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