Hello everybody and welcome to Kiwi's interview !
And today I'm back for an interview a bit special
It's about a independent development studio
And I let you pronounce the name in english
Chainsawesome games
That's it. It was created in 2012
They have already developed "Knight Squad" in 2015
And they made a game before this one buuuuut...
As he explained me before recording, it's the first game
I don't remember the name...
Yes, in fact it's "BeatBlasters 3"
It's a game about rhythms and plateforming that came out on Steam before "Knight Squad"
Quite simply. And now we are going to talk about their last game
They are in "pre-alpha". It's "AfterCharge".
It's a shooting game in first person. This game is coming out this summer
Sooo don't hesitate if you like games in first person, it's 3v3
Maybe later it will be more than 3v3 ?
We are going to stay on 3v3, this is the concept of the game
And sooo..
These are little teams in small fighting arenas
With uniques mechanics.
That's it. I let you introduce your game ?
Yes absolutely ! So, Aftercharge is a 3v3 game. It's a part-time FPS
Because there is one team that doesn't shoot and is invisible
And the other team can shoot, they have guns and that is invincible
So it's a very asymmetrical game in its mechanics
There is one side, the invisible robot team that has to destroy some targets called extractors
There are 6 on the map
And the opposing team must stop them, stop the destruction of the extractors
by finding and deactivating the 3 robots to win the victory.
So it's a game with simple mechanics in appearance
but which has a lot of strategic depth
The most important for us is that team members work together
Teamwork before everything else
Yep, I tested the game and it's true that it remains very complicated if we have no strategy
It can easily be difficult
And I forgot to tell something. It's a studio that comes from Quebec
- I think they understand that - Yes, I think that with your accent, it was understood
<Laugh>
Tell me, in your studio, how many members are you?
We are 9 in total
Developers, programmers, designers, I imagine
Yes, we have 4 programmers, with different opinions,
3 artists, me and a specialist publishing tester.
People may not know what publishing is, can you explain?
It's more complicated than we think to have our game on a game console
There is a lot of documentation to complete, certification process.
Processes that are complicated.. So having someone who knows it makes the process faster.
Okay. I specify that the game will be on Steam, Nintendo Switch and Xbox.
Exactly
PS4 is more complicated <Laugh>
This is not in our plans for the launch of the game.
It's not that we're stuck by Sony, it's just that adapting a game to another platform is extremely important to us
to ensure that we have a good player volume for the launch.
A Playstation version is not impossible but it is not planned for the launch of the game
- We will have to be confident enough in the community to be able to live alone - Yep !
I totally understand. And how did you come up with the idea of setting up your studio ?
In fact i'm not one of the co-founders so I didn't start the studio.
The idea came from both co-founders (2 programmers) David and Jean Simon.
they were working together in another studio in Quebec
They were a little... a little.. tired of working for a big structure that did not always have the best ideas in the world
And they decided to embark on this project and try to do projects themselves
Alright. And for you, why the independent world, what attracted you?
In fact, what I liked a lot about working in an independent studio is how much more (In a little team)
responsibility we have, so we have more responsibility, so we're more invested in the project.
So we give more effort than normal
I think it is very important, when working on a game, to have the success of the game at heart, and therefore to give 100% of his abilities
Okay !
There was no risk because I already knew the co-founders,
and I knew they had their heads on their shoulders so I wasn't stressed to get into a studio.
With a smaller structure we can think that it is more risky but it is not always the case.
You can be part of a larger studio and have a riskier job
Okay.
And just before we talked about Steam. Does Steam bring you benefits as independents ?
Certainly, Steam is the most popular games distribution platform.
So it's obvious that launching our game on this platform has a lot of advantages !
There is already... already an incredible amount of users,
and it's a very well-known platform.
So on the contrary, if we had to launch our game for download on a site, without Steam, it would not be the same at all.
Yep !
And... How can you make sure you have enough advertising to start your game ?
- On the Steam platform, or in general? - Yes, both. It's true that advertising is important for an independent studio
Yes it's extremely important. Visibility, I would call it more visibility than advertising.
A lot of things can be done for that.
A huge part of my job is to make our game known before launch, during launch, and after launch
There is a lot of things that can be done, such as events, conventions.
Conventions in which we go and present the game. There is no better way to make people curious and excited about a game.
So we have to make people play our game
So the two main things about our visibility are first the conventions and then the "alpha" events
- In which you will participate. - Yes !
So we open the game for a short time, it allows us to test it
And it allows people to have a glimpse of the game
and get an idea of what is being prepared
And so that they remember our game "Aftercharge" until the game is launched
And we can only hope that at that moment they follow us in this adventure
Alright !
I see. I also noticed that you used "Discord", and "Hypesquad" have been advertising about you on their newsletter.
And it must have brought you a lot of people
Absolutely ! In fact on discord we have a very beautiful relationship with them
it has been a long time since we discussed with them on several subjects
For example, they wanted to check their "reach presence"
A function that allows you to have more information about what players are playing
and that allows to invite each other in the games.
They tested a little bit of that
We made sure it worked perfectly with "Aftercharge", so everything is integrated
And for sure we have a special place in their esteem, I think.
And the idea of inviting the "HypeSquad" to join "Aftercharge" was quite natural.
And they, in the end, wanted to test something mass with the "HypeSquad"
To see the potential of the HypeSquad when directed in a specific direction. - Okay !
And we needed ... We wanted the April tests to be as massive as possible.
We needed to test our game in a much larger volume,
so we needed a lot of players.
So that's why we talked to them quickly.
It wasn't a very long negotiation, especially since they needed to try something, and we too,
so it was experimental on both sides.
so they put us in their second newsletter I think
- Yes that's it ! - (I did not understand the whole sentence, sorry)
- And we, we gave them 5000 keys on our site to have access alpha to "Aftercharge". - Okay !
There was no more after about 5 or 6 hours.
Oh yes, it's impressive !
<Laugh>
Yes, and that's a lot of activity on our Discord server, and we are very happy about that.
And usually it does not go down a lot.
<Laugh>
And, I imagine there are difficulties in being independent
For example budget, recruitment, etc.
At the recruitment level, we are lucky enough
We talked about it before the recording, we have an ecosystem that is still quite alive in Quebec.
So there is a lot of manpower in the video game that works in several studios in Quebec.
And since we've all worked in bigger studios, we know people in almost every big studio in Quebec
Okay !
So it was not too difficult, the recruitment is not difficult because we already know what kind of person we would like to engage.
And even if we are open enough, we usually have ideas about who we would like to have
-Okay !
We have some candidates in mind for recruitment, so we do not worry too much
Regarding finance, it's obvious that a studio like ours has a budget a little tighter but not that much in the end.
It depends on independent studios, it's not always the same thing.
Some are anxiously waiting for their check because their finances are very, very tight
But in our case, we are really very lucky our second game "KnightSquad" worked very well.
So we're still surfing a bit on his wave
And for "Aftercharge", we have Canadian government program support.
Oh, Really ?
It's the Canada Media Fund. They give us 75% of our production costs.
Obviously we must then pay them back,
but it helped us to make a project more ambitious than we had planned.
Ah ! Quebec looks very open about video games
Yes, we have a beautiful ecosystem, nice measures in place whether it is provincial or federal.
So it's definitely less difficult to start a new studio in Quebec than elsewhere.
Okay ! And, I guess it must be difficult to be known by gamers compared to big studios ?...
Even if you still have Discord who gave a hand, I imagine that for other studios it's a lot more complicated
Yes, actually I think the creators themselves may have a different speech, but I think it's one of the biggest challenges of being in an independent studio.
We must succeed in making ourselves known, in piercing the collective imagination and be known
through the huge market that is the video game, like the triple A games, or the other more well-known independent studios.
It's very difficult but you mustn't imagine that it will be done alone.
We, from the first day we started working on "Aftercharge" in a serious way,
I was already starting to do some marketing behind the scenes
and so to talk with potential partners, publishers, etc. to start visibility work.
And when it was revealed to the public, we made our "coming out" if we can say that like that,
in march 2017...
- Okay ! - So since then, I have been actively trying to make the game known by moving in conventions,
by contacting the media.
It is a work that never stops because even if we have already done a lot of work on this plan,
many people still have no idea that this game is coming out this summer.
People are more likely to know the games once they are out
- Yep ! - Knowing the games in advance is more the case for big studios that have well-known brands.
People in general expect big hits like for example God Of War which is a good example this week.
Yep !
It was a game that was highly anticipated, so the hype was present from the moment the game was announced.
- Surely we can not benefit from something similar - Yep it's true ! <Laugh>
People know almost nothing about our studio and our game, so it's a long-term job,
but one day we will be launched, thanks to partnerships. "Discord" is part of it, with the "HypeSquad" and others that we can not reveal yet.
Ooooh <Laugh>
It will help us... It will help us a lot to have visibility
I think we are pampered compared to other independent studios that have failed
or that may have forgotten to develop relationships with powerful partners who can help them with their marketing.
We, for example, our game will be released on XBOX 1 and we will have marketing support from Microsoft.
We had already had it in the past with "Knight Squad".
It's certain that when Microsoft speaks, people listen.
When Chainsawesomegames speaks, there are fewer people listening
Yes, I see !
It's just natural so the important thing is to use the power of our allies to succeed in finding a place in this world
Well, the interview is coming to an end, it's been 15 minutes, we have not seen the time pass
If you have any other questions, do not hesitate, he will answer you in the comments
If you have more technical or other questions, do not hesitate
Don't hesitate to follow their twitter, as well as their discord, which will be in the description.
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It's something new for me to interview an independent studio so I'm counting on you, my friends
Feel free to follow me on twitter
I'll see you soon for a new interview, goodbye everyone!
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