Interview with Wik & the Fable of Souls developer Simon Hallam

You Ain't Got a Thing if You Ain't Got that Swing
By Russell D. Carroll [March 8, 2005]

(GT) For everyone reading out there, who are you and what was your involvement with Wik & the Fable of Souls?
(Simon) My name is Simon Hallam, I was the Producer and Lead Programmer on Wik & The Fable Of Souls. I have been developing games professionally since 1987 when I started working on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

(GT) What do you think makes Independent games distinctive?
(Simon) Without a publisher or a huge budget backing a team up, they are unlikely to be able to afford to license a high profile IP, a large crew of artists, animators, and programmers. Great indie teams do not see these things as a setback though, but as an opportunity to set their game apart from the crowd and innovate in other ways. That’s why distinctive indie games tend to be the ones that experiment more with alternative artistic styles, new game play mechanics, new purchasing models etc.

(GT) How did your studio get your start in working with independent games?
(Simon) After the success of Ricochet Xtreme, we started working towards setting up a new division called Reflexive Self Funded Games. We built the Reflexive Arcade system at the same time as working on the publisher funded game ‘Lionheart’. By the time Lionheart was completed, the combined sales from our arcade system, and Ricochet Xtreme via other portals, was generating enough revenue that we were able to make Reflexive Self Funded Games a reality, all be it with a small crew. Meanwhile, the rest of the company began work on another large title funded by a well-known publisher. That publisher decided to cut the project at the end of 2003, we lost 20 great people in a single day, so the company re-absorbed the separate self funded division, becoming a skeleton crew of 9 individuals dedicated to remaining as independent of the normal publisher funded model as possible. At times this has not been easy, but we have not looked back.

(GT) What is the most innovative feature of Wik & the Fable of Souls and how is it innovative in your mind?
(Simon) I would have to say that the swinging-by-his-tongue play mechanic is the most innovative feature. It’s what changes an otherwise jump-timing-platform game into something that I can get really excited about playing.

(GT) What do gamers appreciate most about Wik & the Fable of Souls?
(Simon) Most of the comments we have received from gamers talk about the quality of the art, but also the atmosphere generated by the combination of art style and music score, and the jump-swing-spit play mechanic that’s not only different to anything they have seen before, but is just plain fun once you get a handle on moving Wik around.

(GT) What was the single most difficult part of Wik & the Fable of Souls to program?
(Simon) There isn’t any single thing I could say was the most difficult to program, amongst the most challenging problems we had to solve from a technical design perspective were the collision system, and Wik anticipating landing in a way that looks as natural as any self respecting frog-gecko-dude that flies through air by swinging from his own tongue can.

(GT) Other than your own game did any one of the IGF finalists or Student Showcase games stand out to you? Why?
(Simon) Global Defense Network, I purchased that one after playing it for about 10 minutes, it's visually and audibly very artistic, and I love The Last Starfighter type theme they have pulling the whole concept together. “N” is another interesting game, the bold styling is really daring and the physics are just awesome. It’s hard to mention great game physics without immediately thinking of Gish, which again has a really bold style and super innovative play mechanics. Star Chamber is interesting too, I have a great deal of respect for the dedication and effort it must have taken to build that entire system, and it’s great to see that indie teams are not only innovating in game design but also experimenting with different purchasing models. In general though I have the greatest respect for any independent team that is able to finish what they set out to accomplish, even if a game isn’t the greatest the community has ever seen, it takes a great deal of commitment and energy to finish what you start, so I appreciate every entrant from that standpoint.

(GT) How do you think Independent Games will evolve in the future?
(Simon) I imagine many teams being tempted away from their independence, the gaming industry as a whole is slowly realizing that there’s money to be made in the traditionally independent downloadable game space, and publishers contracting those previously independent teams to develop products seems like a natural evolutionary step. I also think that as the market becomes saturated with games, overall production quality will increase dramatically as teams try to develop something that can rise to the top of the pile. This will make it more difficult for those games developed with fewer resources to be taken seriously and ‘get noticed’ by the larger game portals.

(GT) What is the biggest challenge facing Independent games?
(Simon) Their developers remaining independent.

(GT) As one of the leaders of Independent Games, what is next for you?
(Simon) While Wik & The Fable Of Souls has received wide critical acclaim, it has not yet recouped our investment in its development. We need to work on releasing a few products that we can feel confident are going to keep the office doors open and the server farm running during the time when we’re building our next “mini epic”, which is where our real passion lives. Pre-production on that mini-epic has already started, and I am very excited about the project, but I would get in trouble if I spilled the beans ;)