Beberapa bulan lalu rubrik ini sempat terhenti karena kesibukan ku menulis buku. Tapi sekarang aku akan berusaha membangkitkan segmen ini lagi, dan membantu para gamedev dalam mendapatkan pemirsa. Tamu kita kali ini datang dari Belanda, yaitu Lionade Games. Mereka adalah para pelajar yang baru saja mendirikan game studio mereka bulan Mei 2014 lalu, tapi biarpun begitu mereka sudah mendapatkan penghargaan bergengsi dalam bidang gamedev.
Game karya mereka adalah Check-in, Knock-out di mana kalian berperan sebagai tamu hotel yang memperebutkan kamar dengan tamu lain. Trailer dari game ini bisa di lihat di bawah:
jadi tanpa menunda lagi, teks lengkap interview ini ada di bawah. Sama seperti biasanya, aku membiarkan teks dalam bahasa Inggris, supaya tidak ada makna yang hilang.
First, why not start with yourself? Can you tell me about your studio? How many people are in it? How long have it been around? Stuffs like that
Sure! Lionade Games is our Dutch independent game studio. We are the trio of Nick Aarts (me), Menno Stas and Tijmen Tio. Menno and Myself did a Game Art and Game Development course, since then we became good friends. We had always talked about starting our own company together. We dreamt about the whole wide world playing our little games. And about working together in our way too small house until the break of dawn. Tijmen was already making games when he was being spoon-fed. When the three of us met at our current course at HKU University of the Arts it was love at first sight. Tijmen was the missing glue that firmly fixed me and Menno in place. Lionade Games was officially born on May 30, 2014. So we are a pretty new studio.
I've seen the video for your game? It looks great, can you tell me more about it?
Check-in, Knock-out is a game where you and the other hotel guests are double booked. You decide to settle it with an old fashioned brawl in the hotel room! You can knock-out your friends by throwing pieces of the hotel at them. By doing so, the level gradually gets smaller. Each character has a distinctive playing style, derived from its personal special abilities. The game is fast to learn but there is depth for those who seek it in the form of advanced techniques.
It looks like a local multi-player game? Is it an android console exclusive? Or will it be available on other platforms?
Yes, it is local multiplayer only. This is because of the fast twitchy gameplay, which is not possible over the internet. Well, not with our expertise. We are aiming for a Steam launch in May 2015. It will come to the consoles somewhere in July 2015.
It looks like you used pixel art graphics to its full potential, with destructible stages. Where did you get your game idea?
We did a school assignment in which the goal was to make a game in one week and add polish and juiciness for 2 weeks. One of the first ideas was ‘Let’s make a game in which you throw your environment at each other!’ We love multiplayer games so why not? We worked really hard for 3 weeks. When the assignment was over we were all individually playing the ‘finished’ game with our friends until for a few consecutive days. We honestly had a lot of fun playing our own game. We then knew that we had a solid base and that we really wanted to continue the development, so we did.
With 2014 ended a few days ago, did you have a great year? What special impressions or achievements that last year left you?
We had an awesome year! We never thought we would have our studio this fast. Especially since we are still students. What was also pretty bizar is that we were nominated for 2 out of 3 student categories of the Dutch Game Awards. Best Student Art Direction and Best Student Game Design. We won them both! What we also noticed is that the indie games industry is super lovely. Everyone wants to help everyone. We had tons of help from our new industry friends.
We're now just beginning 2015? It's the time where people usually make resolutions, what's your gamedev resolutions for this year?
Good question! We would love to get some more international recognition. We are pretty known in The Netherlands now, but that’s about it. We hope to achieve this with our booths at PAX South, PAX East and PAX Prime which our new publisher, tinyBuild arranged for us!
If this interview is read by people who just starting out in gamedev, what advice can you give to them?
Talk to people! Go to events! I think the most important part of being a successful game developer, is people actually knowing that you exist. Because it’s impossible to play a game you don’t know. Like I said before, the indie games industry is a very welcoming family! Oh, and go to events. Lots of them. Also, be active on social media, it really helps connecting with your fans and fellow devs.
Lastly, is there anything you'd like to share with the audience? doesn't need to be technical.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! We post relative updates on Check-in, Knock-out and our little side projects. We’d love to have you there :)
www.facebook.com/LionadeGames
www.twitter.com/LionadeGames
Dan itulah tamu pertama kita kali ini. Semoga kalian semua bisa terinspirasi dari apa yang sudah dicapai oleh Lionade Games, dan kalian juga pasti bisa membuat game kalian sendiri, walaupun masih sekolah. Sampai ketemu di blog post berikutnya!
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