indie game

Introducing the Game: Cat Quest

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Interview By Ninichi | Contact | Follow

This week, I'm happy to be exploring Cat Quest, which is the latest game created by the award winning games studio responsible for bringing the popular game Slashy Hero to Android & iOS! Let's see what they have to tell us about the game.

Tell me about your team and your game... 

'The team behind Cat Quest is none other than The Gentlebros. We're a team made up of veterans of the games industry. Having worked on console (PS3, PS4) titles in Koei Tecmo, we're all very experienced developers and we're looking to bring that knowledge to our own games.

Cat Quest is a 2d Open World RPG set in the fantastic and wonderful world of cats! Play as a catventurer as you explore a massive continent crafted in the unique style of tapestry! Relive the good old days of exploring an overworld map as you raid dungeons for epic loot, complete quests and meet the many furry denizens of this world!'

How long have you been working on your game for? How have you gone about developing it?

'We've been working on Cat Quest close to a year(including pre-production). We decided to use the Unity engine to make it as it is the most user friendly engine out in the market now, and there's a huge community working on the engine as well.'

What's different about it & why should we check it out?

'A streamlined open world action RPG set in the unique world of cats! Imagine a world where cats are the main inhabitants. How would things change?

Go to places like the Catpital where the Lion King rules, or experience delicacies like the catnip pie! Talk to the locals, some already on their 7th or 8th lives (what? not all cats have nine lives y'know), and go on a catventure through a world you've never seen before!'

What part does music play in your game?

'Music is an important part as it sets the mood and tone of the areas in the game. Its bright and cheerful when exploring the overworld, and dark and creepy when deep inside dungeons.

Music helps to separate these different areas from each other, and heighten the feeling we want players to have. Indeed, without music, the game would feel dead and flat.'

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About the author: Ninichi is a game music composer and film music composer. She has worked on a number of games and is a great supporter of indie developers and indie games. If you're looking for music that will help your game to stand out contact her now to discuss your game music needs.

Follow her @ninichimusic

Introducing the Game: Indie Developer Survival

By Ninichi | Contact | Follow

I'm so excited to be introducing you to this wonderful indie game called Indie Developer Survival. It's a game created by the Fairy Axe team and is about the survival of a lone indie developer. As this indie developer you are trying to make a living by creating games. Will you survive? Or will you be lost to the madness of working in an ordinary store? Doesn't this sound familiar - and isn't this a great game to explore further!? 

I had the pleasure of composing some music for this game and am now very happy to share my interview with Link Hirvelä, one of the creators of Indie Developer Survival...

Who are you & what is ‘Fairy Axe’?

'I am one of two developers of Indie Developer Survival. I currently do programming, art and design in the team. Fairy Axe is a team of two people. Me and Simon, who works with sound and music.' 

How would you describe the game you’re making? 

'The game we're making is a survival, management type of game. It is about a lone developer who lives in an apartment, trying to make a living out of making games. Going through the development hell, the stress and the need to actually have money to eat, pay rent.' 

Out of all the games you could have made, why this one? What makes it special?

'We felt a need for a personal game. So this game has some relatable moments to our own lives as developers. We wanted to tell a story about the development and let people live through it. Everyone that has worked on the game so far has had some personal ideas from that come from ourselves. So we hope that other old and new developers will relate to the game. Also players that are interested in games and development get some insight. It is very target towards indie developers but we all have started from somewhere. That is what so special with it for us, it is not just a game it is almost a biography of development.'

What’s the game development journey been like? Have their been any challenges along the way?

'The challenge has so far been designing it both to be entertaining and interesting. There isn't too many games that you can get inspiration from and as always finishing games can be soo difficult. About the middle of development when you reach what we call here in the office as "The pit of despair". When you just have to bite the bullet and chip away at the work. But overall the journey has been so far great, we have learnt alot about ourselves and we're making a game about the journey. We have the luxury of seeing ourselves in stress aswell as in the game, such meta.'

Why did you decide to work with me on the music for the game? 

'Why we wanted to work with you was to get some variation in the music that we have in the game. We were looking for something that could define what the games music could be, we had a few ideas how the music could feel. But not as much of how it actually would sound.

How important is music in your game?

'Music is greatly important, it is one of the best ways to contribute to the feeling that the player goes through when playing. An example of music being important is in Dark Souls, the enemies in that game has a 4/4 rythm of their attacks with exception to one boss with a 3/4. The music is embodied in the game. As a developer we can direct and navigate the players with music.' 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Here's a sneak peak at that game music track I composed for you...

What do you think of the ‘Le Fairy Noir’ track?

'The "Le Fairy Noir" is the track that we absolutely wanted, we really wanted a noir track for the beginning of the game and it is lovely, it is great to start the menu just to listen to the track. It goes through the feelings that we wanted to feel. We hope our players also will love the track!'

I hope so too! It's been wonderful working with you on this. To find out more about this game and the Fairy Axe team check them out at:

About the author: Ninichi is a game and film music composer. She works on a range of freelance composing projects supporting talented game developers and film makers with their music. 

Want some great custom music for your game? Listen to Ninichi's game music and contact her now to discuss your game music needs.

Follow her @ninichimusic

Introducing the Game: The Whaler

By Ninichi | Contact | Follow

Where did the idea for 'The Whaler' come from?

'The idea has been around for about 6 months, and came from the love of naval games. I remembered playing my first naval game in the 90s, I don’t remember the name but you could be a commander on a galleon and you would shoot on other ships lined up next to you. So I was thinking “How cool with it to have a game where you could explore the whole ship and it all felt alive” and it kind of grew from there.'

What's the game about, how do you play it and what makes it special?

'The game is set in the time 17th – 18th century, and it’s a first-person trade sim from the booming of the whaling trade. You will command the ship and do various tasks such as transporting goods from A-B to earn money, hunt different whales for extra profit, craft resources for skinning and upgrade gear, upgrade your captain’s cabin to make it look all neat, open trade routes and discover islands where you can find some extra goods and do crew integration. You will also be challenged with storms and other NPC/Players going after your goods depending on the zone.  

What makes it special is that there is not another game like that out there, if you like simulation games like truck driver, silent hunter and naval games, this will appeal to you.

The vertical slice/prototype will have the core gameplay design like ship navigation, crafting, trading and whale hunting. Since this is so ambitious we have to start small and add as we go.'

Who are you and your team?

'It's myself (Tommy) project lead and I do modelling, animation and texturing.

Mike: Who has over 10 years programming experience and worked on games like LOL and Resident evil.

Fab: A freelancer artist who is making the ship for the prototype, has worked on many Hollywood movies such as Narnia 3 (he made the ship).'

What are you using to develop / build the game?

'The prototype will be in Unity.'

How's this going?

'It`s going really good, we are working hard to get the VS out and ready. It’s going to be very powerful so it has to be done right.'

What are your plans for it?

'There are a lot of plans for this game, obviously, I can’t talk about all of it, that would spoil the fun. But the general plan is to get the VS ready and start looking at other funding methods so we can grow it the way we want to.'

What part does music play in the game?

'It plays a huge role, the music from that era is going to set the feel for the game so it must be top notch, this we can go more into when the VS and funding is ready. But we have a lot of options regarding this. There will be a demo of the OST sometime next week with some music.'

Great stuff! Here's a sneak peak of the track:

Is there anything you want to say about the 'Ocean calm' track?

'Luckily Ninichi has been very good to work with, and she works fast. I can totally recommend going to her if you are an indie, its definitely worth it!'

Where can we find out more about the game?

'You can check us out on http://www.indiedb.com/games/the-whaler-working-title and also on Twitter @trym_studios for more information.' 

About the author: Ninichi is a game music composer & supporter of indie games. If you need help with the music for your game or project, contact me now to explore how we might work together. 

Learn more About me (Ninichi) and check out examples of my game music.

Explore Ninichi's music blog further & follow @ninichimusic

Introducing the Game: The Void Rains Upon Her Heart

Interview by Ninichi | Contact | Follow

This week I have the pleasure of sharing my interview with Angel Polanco (@VeyeralGames), the maker of The Void Rain Upon Her Heart video game...

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into game development?

'I have basically wanted to create video games for my entire life. When I was in third grade, my friend let me play the game Crash Bandicoot: Warped on his PlayStation. This was the first time that a video game had hooked me. I remember that I started imagining and drawing my own levels for that game almost immediately after playing it for the first time. I knew right away that my dream was to create my own video games. 

By the age of 9, I had Flash installed on my computer and I was already programming some basic games. I didn't have the internet on my own computer at the time, so I would only rarely be able to get online and copy down what I could. Then I would slightly tweak the code and see what would change in order to figure out what exactly how it worked. That was how I taught myself to program.

By the age of 12, I had started (but never finished) about 20 different games, but the one I remember the most was a Worms clone. Instead of worms it was a game about a war between slugs and snails. I was somehow able to implement a timer based turn system and some decent enemy AI. I really can't remember how I was able to do it with almost no help. Unfortunately, I lost all of my flash game files and never published them anywhere.

Somewhere around that time I discovered a little program called GameMaker. It was super easy to learn and I was amazed at how much my games were improving by using it. GameMaker was far less powerful back then but I stuck with it and it basically grew up with me. It always seemed to get an upgrade just when I needed it. I still use GameMaker to this day and it has never let me down.'

What is your game called and how do you play it?

'My game is called The Void Rains Upon Her Heart. It is a bullet-hell shoot-em-up game where you only fight bosses. The main game has you play through 10 bosses which are randomly chosen except for the final boss. Each defeated boss will give you random power ups that stack together. It has permadeath so you have to start over if you die, but a successful run should only take about 15 minutes. There is also a Quickplay mode where you can practice against bosses that you have unlocked and try to get high scores on them.'

It sounds really fun! What should we be looking out for in your game? What makes it special in your view?

'The theme of this game is very unusual as far as I know. You play as an alien woman who is trapped in a cave surrounded by monsters. You actually control her heart while shooting love bullets at bizarre eldritch monsters. She is actually trying to befriend the monsters while they try to resist with tons of bullets. It has a dissonant mix of cute and creepy visuals that I think helps set the mood. There is obviously a lot of inspiration from Undertale in there, but I also get a lot of ideas from the Kirby series. I always loved how Kirby games start out cute and cheerful, but they always end up with an otherworldly monstrosity as a final boss.

This game also changes up the common bullet-hell formula. Usually they go through very scripted sequences of bullets to dodge, this way players are able to memorize the game and eventually master a perfect run. That is a fine design choice, but I wanted my game to be a bit more random. All of the bosses' attacks are set so they can be memorized to some extent, but they always attack in a random order. On top of this, the power up items you get are also random so you might be able to defeat a boss with ease one time, but then struggle on the same boss next time. A lot of this randomness was inspired by games like The Binding of Isaac. Some veteran bullet-hell players may not like this randomness, but I think this gives the game more replayability for those who are not purely motivated by highscores.'

What can you tell us about the game development process? 

'I have actually been working on a much larger scale game called Eye Attack for several years, but I really needed a break from that game. The Void Rains Upon Her Heart is a side project I started to not only take a break, but to also get actual experience in releasing a game. If all goes well, this game will be my first commercial release! I'll be able to return to my main game with more experience. I have already learned so much from this little game.

Unfortunately, the initial conception of this game was not during a happy time in my life. A while ago, I began exhibiting symptoms of an anxiety disorder. I could not eat, or sleep, or go outside without a constant fear that I might have a panic attack in public. During that time I was playing a bullet-hell game and it suddenly occurred to me that the relentless bullet patterns could be used as an interesting way to visualize anxiety. This is when I had the idea to make a bullet-hell game with the themes of depression and anxiety and how people are able to cope with it. Every boss battle represents an anxiety or fear of some sort. Many of the power up items represent different coping mechanisms. Despite all the negativity, the game constantly reminds you not to give up.

Anxiety disorders are a problem that a lot of people face and I have noticed it in many other game creators that I follow. I hope anyone who plays my game while living with these issues will come out feeling like they are not alone in their struggle. Feeling like I wasn't alone would help me out on the worst days. I am one of the extremely lucky ones who was able to recover after only taking one type of medication for a few months.'

How did you go about creating the game music? 

'First I will talk about how I was creating music for Eye Attack since a lot of the soundtrack for The Void Rains Upon Her Heart will be similar. I took a music 101 course at my college which was perfect for introducing me to reading and writing music. It taught me just enough so I could start creating some beats and melodies that at least sounded fine. It was good enough, but I wanted to be able to write game music that would be praised as one of the main reasons to play my games.

About a year later I played through Undertale and I was completely in love with the music. I wanted to know how that music was so well designed, so I started reading some analyses on the soundtrack. I was completely fascinated by it, so I began studying all of my favorite game soundtracks. I looked at Kirby music, Undertale's music, and other soundtracks that inspired me. I'm also a fan of heavy metal music, so I started analyzing my favorite bands too. I took everything I learned and just started writing more songs for Eye Attack. I noticed the quality in my own music was improving very quickly!

Very early into the development of The Void Rains Upon Her Heart, I decided that the two games would be connected in story. A lot of the bosses will be showing up in both games. This meant that I could use a lot of the music that I had already written for Eye Attack in this game. Each boss type has it's own musical theme that I tried to match with their personalities. I really hope the music is memorable for those who play my games. At the very least, learning how to write the music was very fun for me so it was already worth it.'

What are your plans for your game and where can we download it? 

'The game is still currently in development, but there is an alpha demo currently available at http://www.veyeralgames.com/

There are only 8 bosses in the alpha but I plan on making that total well over 30 before the final release. There will also be a much more diverse set of power up items and plenty of other unlockables.

The game is currently on steam greenlight now so if you like the look of the game - please help to vote for it!  

'I would also like to mention that I am incredibly grateful to have a family that fully supports my dream. They have always been 100% supportive even as the development time on my games has stretched into years. Thanks to them, I have not had to worry about getting a job so I have always been able to work full time on my games. I just hope for enough success to be able to support myself financially while still continuing to create more games.'

Thank you for reading this article and for your interest in indie games! Are you a game developer needing some help with your game music? If so, perhaps I (Ninichi) can help. I'm a game music composer and would be delighted to support you with your game. Contact me now at ninichimusic@gmail.com to explore how we might work together. 

Did you enjoy this article? If so, read about more indie games and game music tips on Ninichi's music blog.

Follow me @ninichimusic

Introducing the Game: Hazelnut Bastille

Where did the idea for your game from?

'The Hazelnut Bastille project resulted from our long term, independent plans being combined into one production concept: Mark's idea was to create a prototype of a topdown adventure in a 2.5D art style- it would feature 3D models, but with an orthographic top-down camera. I had also had plans for one day working on a topdown adventure- the logic being, it was a format where the assets could be quickly created, thus allowing a much larger proportion of the development time to focus on gameplay design.

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