Interview With Rene Shible of Revolver Games
1) You decided to make your own studio. That's no small feat - so how did you actually manage to make it happen?
Right out of school, we established Revolver Games. I found a group of independent artists like myself and we all decided that we wanted to make the kinds of games that we wanted to play ourselves. Thanks to the help of a couple of independent backers and a generous business partner, we were able to set up a small studio space and outfit it with some modest development equipment. Soon after we decided to start a game company, we were hard at work developing our own projects!
2) What are your biggest mistakes in starting your own studio?
We probably committed all of our biggest mistakes during our first six months. Starting out, we had all these ideas of how straightforward the process of developing a game and getting it into the hands of players would be. Issues we couldn't have anticipated would pop up a lot more often than we'd expected though. We had a few of our contacts drop out of development, for example. We lost contact with our lead programmer, who had lost interest in working with us, which was probably our biggest setback. Money could be an issue sometimes too. We'd pay people for work that we didn't end up using or that we might change during development.What we learned quickly is that hard work isn't the only ingredient to completing a successful game. We're all much more comfortable now with planning these kinds of projects. Things might always change and features might get dropped during development, but we're prepared now to deal with those things much more efficiently.
3) What's it like owning your own studio?
We're relatively new to the industry, so our experiences might differ from some of the more successful indie developers. All in all though, owning your own studio is certainly a mixed bag of headaches and victories. As is probably expected, we're always hustling to make connections and to follow through with projects that we're working on with other studios. Meeting new contacts and following leads is really a huge part of it. We're never quite sure, after all, where the paycheck is coming from, or even when for that matter. Identifying which projects will move your studio forward in the right direction, and how much time you could afford to spend in development, is another large factor that we have to take into account. Although we can't quite quit our day jobs yet, indie development continues to allow us to realize the games and game ideas that were just sparks in our imaginations at one point - and that's really what it's all about at the end of the day.
4) What are the major skills you need to run your own studio?
Better to cover the more obvious basics I suppose, but organization and punctuality are probably some of the most important skills in running your own studio. When you're working with a team, you need to make sure that everyone knows precisely what's going on and has the resources to make it happen. The more organized your projects and your studio are, the more clearly everybody can communicate in working towards the same goal. Equally important is a clear sense of objectivity. When you're running your own studio, there's nobody around to keep tabs on you! You're responsible for everything you do and for your own time.
5) What are the vital skills in game making beyond the obvious technical skills?
Flexibility is extremely important. You have to be able to be objectively critical of your own work, and if things aren't working out the way you'd planned, you've got to be able to roll with the punches. Of course, while it's important to constantly review and update your own work, it's just as important to remain true to your original inspiration! If you're constantly changing your ideas, you may not end up making the game that you originally wanted to make. In fact, if you keep revising old ideas, you may never end up finishing your game at all! It's important not to burn yourself out when you're working with a small crew.
6) Tell us about your current games and how you've made them or are making them a reality.Wow, where to start? There are some projects we can go into great detail with and others where we might have to be a little vague.
We recently completed our first title, Galaxy Parade. This one was actually all me for the most part. We had hit a snag with some of our earlier developments and decided we needed a more straightforward game to bridge the gap between what we were doing before and how we were going to move forward. The result is an 8-bit style throwback to Japanese bullet-hell games - of which I'm a huge fan. The game is available right now at www.galaxyparade.com and at www.kongregate.com and represents part of a future project involving multiple 8-bit style arcade games.
During development on Galaxy Parade, we began discussing the development of a horror story in the style of a visual novel for the iPhone. The game is called Chamber Rose and we're currently developing it to be played on web browsers and on iPhone using Toronto-based software developer Animated Media Inc.'s VGK Platform. We've been working closely with AMI for this one to help them develop the VGK Platform and to begin porting our own games to mobile phones.Aside from these two developments, we're currently working with fantasy author Wil Radcliffe in developing a video game based off of his novel Noggle Stones (although we can't go into much more detail than that). We're also currently planning our future developments, which involves an iPhone exclusive version of our work-in-progress Strategy RPG, Bijoux Red (a prototype of which is available at www.bijouxred.com).
7) What are current trends you see in gaming - and what do you think their repercussions will be?
Thanks to popular digital distribution services, and the marketing potentials offerred by the internet, indie games are now more accessible than ever. I think that, as the voice of indie developers becomes larger and louder, we're going to see a lot more collaborations and services offered by indie developers, for indie developers and for the purpose of introducing gamers all over the world to indie games as a whole.
8) What would you advise people who want to be in gaming to do? Feel free to call out specific careers and what you'd advise.
The first thing to remember is that everything in games was made by somebody! Nothing is magic and everything is legwork. That means that there's a lot of work to be found if you're not too picky about what you want to do and you just want to get into games. The second thing on your list should be to identify that one thing that you want to do and get great at doing it. Put in the work to study, research and learn everything about that job. The third thing would be to start networking. Attend panels on game development and meet with other enthusiasts or developers when and as often as you can.
If I could offer one more piece of advice to would-be indie developers it would be to identify your dream game and make it happen! Not tomorrow and not later, but right now! Start putting in the work to gain the skills necessary to make your dream a reality as soon as possible and using what's available to you! The more you think about how you need that triple-A budget or all of the other things that you want somebody else to provide for you, the more roadblocks you're putting in your own way!Thanks for the interview Rene! Go check out Revolver Games!
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