Playtopia MGA 2019 indie developers talk game design, physics-based animation, Cape Town’s “spectacular scenery”, and more

JOHAN GJESTLAND

Johan Gjestland is a Norwegian artist and programmer with a background in graphic design, film and television. For the last five years Johan has been working on Fugl, a bird flying simulator made only with coloured cubes. When he’s not banging his head against the monitor, Johan likes to be outside. He really enjoys deserts, snow, beaches, hot springs, mountains, fluffy animals and kind humans. Johan’s talk at Playtopia is titled How Not to Make a Game: The Fugl Story.

NAG: Welcome to South Africa. Is this going to be your first time in Cape Town? How do you feel about joining Playtopia on this global platform?

JG: Thank you very much for having me, I’m very excited for this. I stayed in and around Cape Town during Christmas 2008/2009 and was blown away by South Africa. As a Norwegian, I’m well used to spectacular scenery, but this was something else. The light reminded me of the light you often see in outdoor driving games, and the sun going the “wrong” way completely blew my mind! But the people made the lasting impression. I found something in SA that made me question my life choices. It’s hard to say exactly what it was, maybe just the realisation that there are so many ways to live your life, but you only have one. When I returned to Oslo, I quit my cozy job as a television producer in the state broadcaster and started the journey that later ended in games.

Tell us a little bit about who you are and where you come from.

I’m a 45-year-old man from Oslo, Norway. I’ve worked in graphic design, television, and documentary films. The last ten years have mostly been about trying to make games – learning a lot of graphics programming and procedural generation. I’m very happy that I found something that could be satisfying over such a long span of time, and I still find it interesting. Usually I grow tired of things after a few years, when I feel I’ve started to master it. But with games, you never really master it. It’s more like a raging bull that you need to handle somehow.

You have a background in filmmaking. How did you get into game design?

In 2009, when the iPhone SDK came out, I wanted to pick up programming again. There was something about that small touch device that was so alluring. I had programmed as a hobby in my youth but gave it up when things got serious at university level. So I started doing a lot of tutorials online, learning OpenGL (graphics programming) and trying to render stuff onscreen. My experiments in 3D graphics and audio slowly started to turn into this very simple procedural flying game called “Melodive”. It was maybe a 4 to 5 year process. In the end I released it on the App Store and it wasn’t a huge hit, but a lot of people really liked it. That encouraged me to carry on.

How has your background in film assisted you in game design?

Games and film share a lot, as they are both trying to evoke emotions. Games are a much younger medium, though, and I feel that they have a lot to learn from film. Right now, games for the most part are where film was in the ‘20s. Lots of action and very strict rules on how they are made. But if you look at what happened in film later on, a lot of experimentation took place and a lot of the rules that seemed like bedrock, like continuity between scenes, were eroded way. So, with my background in film, I see a lot of potential in games and what they could be, but it takes effort to push the medium. You really need to believe in your vision.

What are the challenges in reaching a global audience with games, compared to film?

I guess they are mostly the same when it comes to actually selling, but the distribution is so much smoother and cheaper with games. You cannot self-publish with film; it’s just not done. But in games you have many examples of small indies that connected with a global audience and made it big. So the biggest challenge is always to get the eyeballs. It’s a cutthroat creative business where the grandest idea can go the furthest, but you won’t arrive on the idea’s merit alone. You need some help no matter how you turn it.

What advice would you give to aspiring game designers?

Games are now the hottest profession amongst young people, so you must ask yourself: Are you doing this because it is cool, or because you have a passion for it? If you have the passion, just follow that and don’t listen too much to other people and their opinions. The more talks you see on YouTube about game design, the more bias you will have. If you don’t have passion for game design, then you should find your passion. That being said, in the future, I think game design will be a lot more than it is today. Maybe “experience designer” would be a better term?

Where do you see the future of game design on mobile?

Mobile is a tricky thing, but I think experiences have great potential in that space. When you look at your phone, it kind of means you’re escaping reality and diving into the internet. Now it’s mostly pictures and gifs, a few simple games, and a lot of texting. But it could be so much more. Just think of everything you can fill a screen with to engage a viewer. The interaction needs to be simple, but the act of interaction is very important. It ties us to what we’re consuming. But what we’re consuming could be anything, and today it’s very basic. This will surely evolve, as will the promise of AR and mobile VR, which is a whole other thing, but might merge more with mobile games as technology progresses. It’s an exciting time for mobile.

Tell us what inspired Fugl. How has targeting a specific platform like iOS, with its limitations, influenced the look and feel of the game?

When I started working on Fugl, it was on iOS because I didn’t know any other platforms. So that influenced the look and feel a lot. I wanted 60 fps so I had to keep things simple. I discovered that untextured polygons were rendering twice as fast as textured ones. I kept the game in a highly polished state until I got funding and worked with Gorm Lai to port it to PC and VR. Then it took a life of its own, with very little regard to iOS. Now Fugl is back on iOS, running great on later devices, though not so great on older ones. I’m very excited for the iOS release as I think it’s a great game to immerse yourself in when you need a break from reality, and it works well in short sessions, like if you’re on the bus or waiting for somebody to arrive.

Finally, is there any exciting information that you would like to tell our readers about Fugl or any other upcoming projects?

We’re finally releasing the game in early 2020. It’s been a long journey and I’m happy that it’s coming to an end. I promised myself that I wouldn’t start thinking about new projects until Fugl is out, but I’ve always wanted to make a game about hurling yourself from the top of a giant mountain…

WILHELM NYLAND

Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, Wilhelm Nyland is the CEO, game designer, and programmer at Landfall Games. Landfall are best known for their physics-based games, which include Clustertruck and Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, which was released in Steam Early Access earlier this year.

Wilhelm’s talk at Playtopia is titled In-Flight Entertainment Systems and Game Feel. A Master Class in Frustration.

NAG: Welcome to South Africa. Is this going to be your first time in Cape Town? How do you feel about joining Playtopia on this global platform? 

WN: This will be my second time in South Africa and at Playtopia. I had a great time during last year’s Playtopia and I am very excited to be back.

Please tell us more about Landfall Studios and how it all began?

Landfall started just over 4 years ago with the release of our first game, Air Brawl. Since then we have found our place in the games industry by working closely with our community to figure out what games our fans would be interested in. We are usually very open with our development in order to get feedback and test ideas with our fanbase.

Please give our readers an overview of physics-based animation. 

Physics-based animation uses code and physics instead of key frames to add motion to an object or character.

Pros of using physics-based animation:

• Characters interact and respond to all physical objects in your game without needing a specific animation for it.
• Once you have a system set up for it, adding variations and new movements is very quick.
• It usually looks silly/humorous. This is only a pro if this is what you’re going for.

Cons of using physics-based animation:

• Setting up the system to start making your animations can be a lot of work.
• Getting very specific movements is very hard. It can be a struggle getting what you want because the animation usually happens differently every time.
• Physics animations are a lot heavier, performance-wise, compared to traditional keyframe animations.

What drew you to using physics instead of the standard, keyframing, for your animation?

Initially I was drawn to physics-based animations by the silly look of the games I had seen using it, as well as the fact that I didn’t know how to animate characters traditionally.

Any advice that you can give aspiring game designers?

Try to gain the skills required to realise your ideas on your own. Being able to make a quick prototype with basic scripting and some placeholder models will make your learning process much faster. It will also help greatly when working together with coders and artists in the future.