Welcome to the first of many Crigence QnA’s – Today i will be interviewing @MetaNinja about his game: Pixel Sports
[GENERAL QUESTIONS]
Crigence:
Firstly: -Any future plans after Pixel Sports? What do you plan on doing after the game is finished?
GalaxianGames:
After the game is finished, I plan on exporting it to Itch.io for about $5. You would still be able to play the Flowlab version for free.
After the game is exported, i will continue to update it with new gamemodes, more levels in the Campaign Map, and (perhaps) a new storyline that takes place after the one currently in the game. If I am satisfied with the success (maybe like 200 players or something like that), it may appear on GameJolt as well. Oh yeah, and with Steam, while it is unlikely that I will put the game there, it is not impossible.
-What style is the game going for? What is the theme here?
I’ve tried to replicate a similar art style to another Flowlab game: Color Quest. It was also what led me into game development in Flowlab. Of course, I have tried to incorporate my own art.
I also tried to make the game feel close to some games that appeared on systems such as the NES (although it evolved into it’s own kind of thing). The theme of the game art was to paint a colorful world.
-So you played some games on the NES and such? How did you play those games, original hardware or emulation and what games did you play?
I have a Nintendo Switch, and there you can play some emulations of games from the NES and SNES (if you have a Nintendo Online Membership). I often played the Mario Bros. games and a bit of Legend of Zelda. I did play other games, one of them being a baseball game (probably just called “baseball”).
-How would you rate your Flowlab “skills”? How good of a developer would you say you are?
I would say my skills are “decent”. Most of the time i figure things out on my own though. As far as I remember, I’ve only asked for help twice. There is some stuff that I am still learning, but that is a normal part of game development: learning. And since my games, especially Pixel Sports, have gotten positive reviews, including constructive criticism, I think that would make me a good game developer.
-How finished would you say Pixel Sports is?
I would say about 76% finished. I still need to add a few features, such as fulfilling a community-voted feature, and revamping some of the bosses. A local multiplayer mode is also on the list of things needed to be added.
-How long do you believe the game will take to finish? Any specific date?
At first, I assumed that Pixel Sports would be finished by the end of this year, but other projects, such as the upcoming Monster Maze, halted development. Now, the earliest that I can say would be December 2020. If not, either January or February 2021 would be deadline.
-What was your process on coming up with the games current story?
At first, the game wasn’t going to have a story. It was originally going to have one level, one sport, and one objective. I didn’t have much confidence in the game considering how poorly my past games did. But when my friends pushed me into continuing development with Pixel Sports, I decided to bring the game to where it is today.
If you follow up on my Pixel Sports Devlogs, you will see that the current story of Pixel Sports is a symbolic portrayal of my journey through development of the game.
-How complex is this game going to be on a technical level?
Big, but not too big. I realized that Pixel Sports has the potential to attract a young audience, with the cute looks of the characters and very little violence, so I want the game to be big, but not so-big that people are going to get lost on the menu.
As for on the technical level, I don’t want things to get too complicated with the behaviors. I want to keep things simple yet make it look like it was made by a developer who took their project seriously.
[PIXEL SPORTS SPECIFIC]
-Do you enjoy sports in real-life? Why do you want to make a sports collection?
I used to play Soccer, Basketball, and a little bit of American Football. Volleyball, which I will add to the game after it’s complete, is the sport that I currently play. Volleyball was the one sport that I got attached to, and to this day is my favorite sport.
I wanted to make a sports collection because I thought that sports games here on Flowlab were a little underrated, so I decided to show their true potential. I also knew that, since there were lots of people out there who liked sports, the game would also receive attention for this topic. My family especially loves sports, which also motivated me to make a sports collection.
-What gave you the idea to try to create a game that keeps players coming back daily… On Flowlab?
Some games that I played, from Drive Ahead! to Bloons Tower Defense 6, had daily loot bonuses, and I thought that they were pretty neat. I figured that adding a similar thing to Pixel Sports would encourage people to come back every now and then. It was also a sort of “thank you” gift for playing the game.
-The tagline of the game is “Where sports and cubes meet”, why are the characters cubes exactly?
There are three reasons why the characters were cubes
–
*Some of @Latif’s games had cubes as protagonists. Latif was a sort of role model for me, and that partly inspired my character design.
*Pixel Sports was inspired by Drive Ahead! (specifically it’s spin-off Drive Ahead! Sports) and Geometry Dash, with the latter having cubes as characters.
*To me, making cubes was easier than making human sprites. Every time I make human sprite, they always turn out weird, with too much hair or being too tall. Cubes aren’t going to be my only characters for my future games, however.
-Why are there bosses in a sports collection?
The Daily Boss was meant to be a tougher type of Daily Loot Bonus. But it kind of turned into a luck based gamemode, The Campaign Boss was a way to grant people extra rewards, but that too is luck based. This time, though, you need to be REALLY lucky in order to beat them. The Final Boss, which you get through the campaign, is the only one where you really need skill… and hours upon hours of grinding. Beating the Final Boss grants you TONS of rewards, including a free level-up and a secret outfit. A fourth boss is planned in the future, with a similar goal for the Final Boss.
-Are you REALLY going to attempt to somehow wove in a complex story into a sports collection and why?
Yes, I am going to attempt that, and I wanted to do that to expand upon the world of Pixel Sports, as well as tell the story that I mentioned before. I wanted to keep people interested in the game, and show them that there is a bigger world in this game.
-Can you explain to me what the “Vault” is?
It’s a secret.It is connected to the story, though, and is the only way to progress through the story. Find the vault, and you are a few steps closer to reaching the Final Boss, and the rest of the story.
I’ll give you a hint: try right-clicking things everywhere. There may be a hidden entrance.
-What the ■■■■ is the deal with Pixel Sports Dungeons?
It was meant to be a multiplayer spin-off of Pixel Sports, with a different level each day. Unlike Pixel Sports, though, this one is not going to be exported with the whole thing about multiplayer being limited to the website. It is still set in the Pixel Sports Universe, but it has a separate story that has not yet been established or brainstormed yet. Pixel Sports itself cannot include anything like this, i’ve tried making it this way, but it just ended up breaking the game. Players couldn’t move, the sports ■■■■■ would not be summoned, and the Red Cubes would just be running in the opposite direction of the ball. At the time of these game-breaking incidents, I had to remove all multiplayer features in exchange for a separate game. Pixel Sports will have local multiplayer, so friends can still play with each other face-to-face instead of from different devices.
[WRAPPING UP]
-Has anyone on Flowlab been an inspiration?
As previously mentioned, Latif was a big inspiration for me, especially with the character design. @Pokemario, the user who made Color Quest, also inspired my overall art style for the game.
-And on that note, why use Flowlab and not some other game engine?
Flowlab was the simplest game engine for me to use, and was the first one I came across. It was also easy for me to access, straight from my browser. I plan on using Unreal Engine in the future, when I learn Java, but Flowlab is currently going to be the game engine that I use for many years to come, possibly even after I start using Unreal.
That was all the questions i had for our boy GalaxianGames. I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for taking the time to participate in this interview and to thank YOU for reading this!