Interview: Jan Willem Nijman (JW)

It's been a while since I've had an interview with an Indie developer, so when I had the chance to interview JW, I jumped at it! Here are my questions to the developer of Pro Killer Man, 10800 Zombies, 4hRPG, and many more freeware games.

Why did you want to make games?

I read about game maker in some random kid’s computer magazine when I was about 11. Downloaded it, and didn't understand shit. 2 years later I found gm again and started editing example games (speed racer with guns, etc.). I just sort of rolled into it. I was never a hardcore gamer but I just really liked being able to make whatever you wanted.

About how many games have you created?

I started 50 million, turned into something proper about 200, finished +- 20, around 5 of which aren't minigames.

What would you say is your most famous game?

Pro killer man and 10800 zombies got the most attention. Pro killer man is sort of smoother, but 10800 zombies is bigger. They both had tons of reviews and were featured in some magazines. The game I like most myself is super ninja hunter. It was semi-epic, had good boss fights, a nice setting, but rather bugged and was never properly released outside yoyogames.

Some of your older games have sported a colorful, shaded type of style. Why did you make the change to your now signature style?

That's basically because I'm lazy and it's easy to make, but I do try different styles now and then. I'm just no great artist so don't expect awesome pixel art from me. I'm probably able to make pretty shaded stuff, but I'm just too impatient for that. It's probably that the stuff I make without outlines looks ugly, and when I use outlines it quickly looks like most things I make.

What games are you working on at the moment?

I have 3 "real" projects that I work on now and then, some times more actively then others: Test Monkey, Quest for glorious money (4hRPG) and Explorer.



Could you explain a bit about Test Monkey and Explorer?

Test Monkey is basically a puzzle platformer. You are a sad monkey being manipulated by the people who test you. You could say it's slightly inspired by portal, on how player's don't really care about the story and what is being said, but still think they do. I'm just making levels for this, story and all (don't kill the president!) is completed, so it should pop out some day.

Explorer is just plain old platform exploration. It has crazy npc's and items, and is pretty big. I’m not sure how it'll look eventually, but I want to change quite a bit.

What are some of your favorite indie developers, and why?

Well, there is ikiki. He made Nikujin which is one of the best games I've ever played. I have no idea what kind of guy he is, but his games are always crazy and good. Then there is darthlupi. People sort of forgot him but he is still kicking ass, while being married at the same time. I really like what wolfire games is doing, except for the furry shit. I loved black shades. Everybody should play it. Also, there is the poppenkast. People shouldn't see us as elitist bastards who bully all the small indies and get away with crappy shit all the time, but we are just elitist bastards who bully all the small indies.

You can find More of JW's games on his site, Slordig.com

Interview: Edmund Mcmillen

You recently created a game with Tyler Glaiel titled AVGM. What was the inspiration for making that game?

AVGM is our take on games like World of Warcraft, that use abusive video game manipulation to get people to play them: Click a button for reward. The rewards take more time and effort as you progress, but you keep playing because you want to see whats next. Its a horrible way to manipulate people to play your games, but it's what sells.

It seems like it’s going to be a big year for Mcmillen games. There’s Super Meat Boy, No Quarter, and Spewer to name a few. How do you manage all of these projects?

Well, my schedule is usually get up at 10, work for about 2 hours at home, go to work with Alex (No Quarter and Gish 2). From 12 to 7 I get home and I spend some time with the wife, then from 10 to 1 I work more on my own stuff again. I try to only spend about 3-4 hours working on the weekends, but its not as hard to juggle them as you'd think. I'm trying to clear my plate though. Once Spewer and No Quarter are done I'll basically be open for only console development for the rest of the year.



Why did you start making games?

I was an animal control officer for about a year. I got fired and needed work. I was really set in conforming, just getting a real job, working, and not doing art for a living. I was always scared I'd grow to hate it and never be able to use it as a form of expression. I needed to make art to stay sane, so, it scared the shit out of me to think I could grow to hate it. I didn't have a real portfolio, so i started whoring myself out to people to get pieces for my portfolio. I got 2 jobs, one was as the cover artist for a local magazine, and the other was a freelance artist for a company called Chronic Logic. They made indie games. it was around that time I started working on a game called Cereus Peashy with Tom Fulp, and later Clubby The Seal with Rift. I was basically just doing box art and texture stuff (Chronic Logic). About a month in I pitched a game that would later be called Gish, a game about a physics based blob of black tar. And that's how I got started.

Before David Hellman jumped on the project, you designed the main protagonist in Braid. How was working with Jonathan Blow, and did you learn anything new from the experience?

Working with Jon was interesting. It seemed like he knew what he wanted but couldn't totally explain what it was because it was more like he knew how the character should "feel", but couldn't put the feeling into words, so there was a ton of trial and error in the designs. I ended up drawing all the characters about 50+ times each with slightly different sized noses and eyes till it was perfect. I learned more from playing the game then working with him. One of my biggest regrets in working on Braid was not really putting myself into my work. i didn't want to fuck his game up, so I stood back and just did what I was told. I wish I could say I had more to do with how things looked, but really I was just doing what Jon wanted. I just didn't want to fuck his game up so, I didn't want to push my own designs. But it was cool having worked on it, and Jon's a really cool guy.

In your blog, you posted about the issues of the IGF. Do you still feel the same way about that, and were there any nominated titles that you enjoyed?

Yeah, I still feel the same, and I'm still working with others who also feel the same way on a basic outline to pitch to the IGF later this year. I hope it might shed some light on things and fix a few of the issues a few of us have with the judging system.

The only games I've played so far this year are Dyson, Cortex Command, Between, Graveyard, Snap Shot, and You Have To Burn The Rope. The games this year seem okay... Nothing stands out to me as an AWESOME game like the past few years. I'm looking forward to playing Feist, and I also want to see how Night Game plays. From screenshots it looks a bit Gishy and I'm a sucker for games involving black balls with physics. I'm a huge fan of black balls.

Interview: Banov

Today, I had the honor of interviewing Banov (Of Assassin Blue fame)
Here's how it went:

David: Just for people that don't know about you, can you explain a little bit about yourself?

Banov: I'm Banov. I'm a cool attractive guy who makes kickass games.

David: Why and when did you start making games?

Banov: I started making games in 2005... As I remember, I had a web comic, and I wanted to make a game using the characters in it. I searched around for a program to do it with, and found Game Maker. I dropped the web comic game and started working on other things, and bam... Now I'm here today, ignoring my web comics and doing nothing but game design.

David: What are some of your favorite indie game developers?

Banov: Hmmm. You know, I hate to sound like everyone else, but I really like cactus.

He has some bad games. But when he's good, he's good. Usually when I find a good game by someone, I'll check out their other stuff and find that it's less impressive. So it's rare I follow a game developer. I have my game making buddies, though. Watch out for brod, LeonsBuddyDave, bear1991... you might see them at the top of the featured list someday.

David: How did you get the idea for Assassin Blue?

Banov: I had the character Blue in my head for a few years. I'd planned to put him in a bunch of games--including Wolf--but he always ended up getting cut. So I decided to make a game just for him. Around the same time I was getting into platformers again, and so I thought I'd just make it happen.

David: Were you inspired by other games at the time of development?

Banov: When it came to game's basic concept, I drew from No More Heroes, Mario games, and Fancy Pants Adventure.
I wanted a game where the main character was just really, really badass. And when you played as him, you felt really, really badass. So, everything was made with "This is going to be awesome!" in mind.

David: How long it take to make Assassin Blue?

Banov: I made the basic engine in about 2 weeks, and I spent a lot of time trying to get a background artist, and I actually had one(See Snapshot), but then he decided to disappear for a few months, and then I quit the game… A few months later, I picked it up again, gave up on spriting backgrounds and resorted to the next best thing. 6 months later... it was done. And my soul was depleted 15%.

David: Was Red an original character, or was he simply made to contrast to Blue?

Banov: When I started the game, I took the story really seriously... and I wanted to do some serious moral questioning about a killer who thinks it's just to kill. Red was there, basically, to show Blue the wrong way of going about things. So yeah, he was there essentially as a contrast to Blue.

David: Did you ever think it would become so popular?

Banov: I thought Wolf was going to be my breakout hit, but it wasn't. But when Assassin Blue became this popular, it was really a pleasant surprise. It's good to be a popular game developer... Until next week when the next big game comes out, and I'm forgotten forever…