Conducted By – Adam Ames
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Rubber Ducky.
My name is John Szymanski. I am the lead programmer and designer for Cr2cr Studios. I love God.
Rubber Ducky was supposed to be a week-long project, was supposed to be for only a friend, and was supposed to not be at all what it turned out to be. First things first; all of my normal team were completely busy with other things. So, Rubber Ducky was programmed, drawn, composed, written, and polished mostly entirely by me (although I cannot express how thankful I am to my team for their advice during development!). Also, hats off to David Szymanski for help with the music!
How did you get started in developing PC games?
Well, that’s a cute little story. Several years ago, I was watching my older brother program a survival game. On a whim, I asked him to teach me how to program. Anyone that knows how to program would realize that to teach a barely-13-year-old to program in one sitting is completely impossible, especially when the subject was as audacious about taking orders as I was. Being a very, very nice older brother, he showed me a few basics in an IDE called the Game Maker and left me to puzzle out exactly what I was trying to do in this whole escapade. Three hours later, I shoved him back into the computer seat, looked him in the eyes and said “try my game.” After a short 3 levels, he said “you might want to figure out a way for your character not to stick to walls.” I gave my best shot at arguing at how “sticking to walls is actually a gameplay feature.” Those were my very humble beginnings.
Where did the idea for Rubber Ducky come from?
A friend and I were having a very interesting conversation about exactly how someone could go about developing a competitive Professor Layton-esque puzzle game. After a particularly profound idea and a long silence, he looked over and said “let’s make a game called Rubber Ducky and the Rainbow Gun.” He and I both were playing in a string ensemble at the time, and we were at each other’s houses for several days that week. We agreed that, over that week, we would program a game with that name even though we had no idea what that game would turn out to be. What it DID turn out to be was a very basic design for what would later be Rubber Ducky as anyone can download it now. I guess, essentially, the idea spawned from the name and a completely unrelated conversation.
What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Rubber Ducky?
I definitely learned a lot about how to craft an environment that includes all aspects of the game. I wanted Rubber Ducky to do really just one thing; when you play it, not matter what kind of day you’ve had, no matter what has happened to you recently, I wanted the player to just be able to sink into a goofy little land where everyone seems to know each other and make it a place where you could relax and maybe have a better day because of it. I know my art wasn’t the best that has ever been done. I also honestly think some of the balancing of the weapons could have been better too. But, I really do think I succeeded in the place I really wanted it to work in. Oh, also, I think I learned how to draw a pretty cute lizard.
In its current form, how close is Rubber Ducky to your initial vision?
Although nothing major was technically changed, what I eventually was trying to make near the end of development was rather different to what the initial version was. The original version was meant to be a small, combat-focused arcade game. I can’t technically say that the released version of Rubber Ducky is anything other than that, but somehow I feel like the game gave me the slip and went off to become more of an experience for the player instead of simply an arcade title. Geesh, that almost sounds artistic.
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 Rubber Ducky and if you faced a similar challenge.
Ohh, yeah, I had some huge issues with that. Actually, from the feedback of the beta testers, I received so many comments about the difficulty curve that I ended up re-designing several of the levels. It’s very, very difficult to tell how difficult a game is going to be to someone else that plays it; mainly, this is because that the developer will play it more than anyone else and knows every bit about every design to boot. I think there’s a big element of what certain people turn out to be good at, too.
I might be good at seeing patterns in enemies, whereas Larry my neighbor might be good at accurately shooting at every enemy he wants to. So, if Larry was to make a game that he thought was pretty easy about shooting individual flies off of a can with a squirt gun that shoots backwards, I would have no idea how to even start playing it. But Larry is good at doing that sort of thing, so he might not realize how hard it would be for someone that lacks any sort of precision, like me.
Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Rubber Ducky would run on the various PC system configurations?
Thankfully, on the technical level, I was able to cheat completely. To program Rubber Ducky (seeing as it was supposed to be a small little game that I was going to make solely for a friend) I used the Game Maker. So, all of the nitty-gritty tech details were already done for me by the program (which I am very, very thankful for).
One small problem did come up, which, looking back, is really kind of interesting. All of the backgrounds in Rubber Ducky are in synch with the music. To do this, I simply set them on a timed track that, at certain points, would tell the background to spawn a fish or something like that. This track started as soon as the level started, as did the music. However, I found out that if the computer that was running the game was faster or slower than the computer I was programming on, it would load the music at a different rate and subsequently throw the background off the time track. It was a pretty easy fix of making sure all the music was loaded before the level started, but it really confused me before I found out what was going on.
Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for Rubber Ducky.
I am so very, very bad at art. I’ve never been very good at making those lines do exactly what I want them to. Well, after I pitched a partially completed Rubber-Ducky to my teammate, the artist, he told me that he was so busy that he wasn’t sure he’d really have the time to work on this game, but he was sure I could handle myself.
And I said “boxes!”
So, Rubber Ducky is really my first true shot at doing art, like EVER. I figured the best thing I would be able to do is make everything as cute as possible to make up for my artistic ne’erdowell. So, after a little experimenting, I figured mimicking the little head tilt that kittens do when they look at you on all of my animals would help. I did what I could, which ended up being mostly square things. I wanted to make the level design as unique as I could in each level (of course!), so I started taking some liberties within my own design to be able to do that – levels where you can’t use weapons, levels that specifically try your reactions, levels about dodging instead of zapping – I thought it would help to vary up the gameplay a bit.
The music. . . actually, the music as a whole is really an interesting story. Until partway through development, I had absolutely no way to any sort of music (that was something another team-member always does). One day, a company accidentally shipped an extra midi keyboard to my brother, and, after being told they really didn’t want it back, he gave it to me. I’ve always loved video game music that pushes what one really can do within its own environment, so keeping the music totally unique was something I really strived for. Being that, I couldn’t help myself but want to add in backgrounds that were in synch with the environment as well, even though it added a lot to the development time.
Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?
For Cr2cr Studios? Probably visibility. There are a ton of awesome indie companies out there that are making awesome indie games, and every last one of them have the advantage over us when talking about funds (to date, we have officially made something around 30 dollars). It’s not rocket science, really; once we start actually selling any games we make, we will start to have a budget. But, until then, it’s very, very hard to get anyone to know that we exist when we have no advertisement money and no good way to get on any upper-class distribution systems.
How did you go about funding Rubber Ducky and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?
Emotionally, I can’t even begin to describe how supportive everyone in my family and friends were (they said my art looked good! Imagine that!). And for anyone that knows what it’s like to have a relationship with God, let me tell you that the emotional support I received from Him was very, very acute.
My financial support consisted solely of a midi keyboard accidentally being shipped to my brother’s house. And, you know what? I didn’t need a penny more.
Tell us about the process of submitting Rubber Ducky to the various digital distribution platforms and if you encountered resistance in doing so.
With our previous title, Chromophobia, me and my team went through a lot of different ways to distribute online. So, with Rubber Ducky, we had a pretty good idea of how we were going to proceed. Currently, RD is only available off of our blog, www.cr2crstudios.blogspot.com . We’re currently seeking admittance to Indivania, and, like anyone would want, we’ve also slapped RD on Greenlight concepts in hope to garner enough support to actually try it in Greenlight. The only resistance we’ve encountered is not having many people get back to us, but that’s pretty common.
Can you tell us why you chose to release a demo for Rubber Ducky?
It might sound a little funny, but mostly for the experience of creating a demo. There’s a certain little touch that I’ve noticed a demo should have: exciting, easy enough to play, in some way very grabbing. Well, I can’t truthfully say I managed to do that with the Rubber Ducky demo, but I think developing it was a great exercise for me to really see how to make a bite-size portion of a game really work.
How important is it to get instant feedback about Rubber Ducky from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?
Instant feedback is not terribly important. Feedback in general definitely is.
How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Rubber Ducky professionally?
I definitely value very much what the professionals of the industry have to say about it, and I hope very much that everyone will get a good smile and a bundle of laughs from it if nothing else. However, in the end, the game was truly made for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. When all is done, He is the one I want to please with it; and I think I have.
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?
The notorious Humble Bundle is great, giving away both for developers to donate their products to charity and buyers to pick up a lot of games AND give away to charity. Ever since I started in the game industry, I have wanted to be in a Humble Bundle with one of my games. Other box deals, which exist just as a pay-what-you-want ideal and no charity included, are fine. I have nothing against them, but I don’t think they’re any better than simply distributing a game in any other way. I would be very interested in contributing to a project like the Humble Bundle; other box deals I would not be quite as excited about joining, although I suppose that depends on the box.
What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?
DRM is not a pleasant little beast. I guess I would say this; in a perfect world, DRM would not exist. However, if DRM keeps awesome indie companies alive because it avoids piracy, I hate to say it, but I think it’s needed. Nevertheless, there is no reason to use DRM if there is no real chance of sales being hurt. I don’t plan on adding any sort of DRM anytime soon.
How do you feel about individuals posting videos and receiving monetization of Rubber Ducky?
I have absolutely no problems with any person using footage from playing Rubber Ducky to help them on their YouTube channel or website. In fact, I would even encourage it, if it helps them with their own business. I really don’t understand what companies like Nintendo have against their user-base that have screen-recorders. Personally, I see it this way; I make my games to be used. Use them as you want! Go do a Let’s Play!
How do you feel about DLC and its current implementation in the PC gaming industry?
I can’t give any technical reason why there is any problem with DLC, but some kinds of it just ring wrong to me. If it’s true, post-release-made DLC, I think that’s great! More game to play! But, now that developing and releasing DLC along with the vanilla game is becoming more common, I’m starting to get the feeling that it’s just a way to sap some extra money out of users. And I really don’t like that mentality. Personally, I’d much rather just give out the DLC and potentially make somebody’s day better. That means a lot more to me than some extra cash.
How do you feel about the online modding community in general and specifically if mods were created for Rubber Ducky?
I think the online modding community members are nuts, but more power to them. I was recently going through a list of mods for Tripwire’s Killing Floor, and some of them are completely ridiculous but completely amazingly awesome. You mean to tell me that I can change the Flesh Pounds into SpongeBob? Hooray for modding! Also, some games were based completely off of their mod couter-parts (hello CounterStrike, the Stanley Parable, and Killing Floor!). Overall, I think modding is a great way to add to a game and potentially make new ones alike.
If mods were created for Rubber Ducky, I would be ecstatic. Actually, that would definitely make my day if I found that out.
What advice would you give up-and-coming indie PC developers who are trying to break into the business?
Skill means nothing in the world of the persistent. Do what you do best, but keep doing. Find a couple team-memebers that do what they do best. Make games you want to make, not ones that you think people will want to play. Have fun! And, most of all, don’t give up if people don’t like what you make. No matter where you are in the industry, there will be people that will not like what you make. Make your games for the people that like what you make. And if you haven’t found those people yet, then just simply keep making games. They’ll turn up.
___________________________________________________________________________
Developer Quick Look:
Official Game Site
Twitter
Facebook
Steam Greenlight
Headquarters – Erie, Pennsylvania
Release Date – TBA
Available PC Platforms – Windows
Team Members – 2
Publisher – None