Interview with Matthew Wegner about Beesly's Buzzwords
Making honey has never been so sweet
By Russell D. Carroll [March 21, 2004]


What do you think makes Independent games distinctive?
Primarily, I think the freedom afforded by low- or no-budget game development is what makes independent games distinctive. Compared to retail game development, independent development has much less financial risk; many independent studios take advantage of this to create innovative titles that wouldn’t stand a chance of being funded in the traditional markets.

I think another contributing factor is that many independent games have a single artist that creates the entirety of a game’s content. It’s much easier to achieve stylistic cohesion in a title with a single artist, which can result in a visually distinctive title.

How did you/your studio get involved in working with independent games?
It’s a bit of a cliché, but our long-term goal is to create the games we like to play. That sort of flexibility is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to come by in the traditional retail markets. Very few individuals in the game industry have the clout necessary to do the projects they have personal interest in—and those that do are in a position of hard-earned seniority. Rather than put in years of hard labor into developing sequels and movie licenses, we decided to strike out on our own and create the freedom we desired.

Our short-term goal is to create casual games and build revenue. Though we aren’t yet at the point where we can experiment risk-free, we’re very confident we’ll be able to successfully move from “safe” titles into riskier experimental titles in the next few years.

What is the most innovative feature of Beesly's Buzzwords and how is it innovative in your mind?
Our major innovation in the word spelling genre is the game’s ability to detect valid words on the board. This allows for things like the hint feature (which, perhaps mistakenly, isn’t very prominent). Most importantly, though, it’s a requirement for having the game-over condition be when no valid words remain on the board.

Round structure was a big focus in our early prototyping; we felt improving upon game pacing was one contribution we could make to the word-spelling genre. Rather than refill the game board every spelled word—practically resetting the board—we wanted to shape the overall pacing and player stress. By implementing word detection, we were able to pace the game in an interesting fashion. Players feel the stress of winter as their last remaining letters begin to dwindle, which is offset by the relief of spring’s board reset.

What do/will gamers appreciate most about Beesly's Buzzwords?
Based on feedback, I’d have to say our efforts in music production have been very well-received by our players. Many casual players enjoy gaming as a way to relax; with this in mind, we created very soothing music to match the seasonal structure of the game. Obviously, focusing on music creates a strain on our filesize budget. We feel that our audio production is one of our strongest assets, though, and worth the extra cost in download time.

What was the most difficult part of Beesly's Buzzwords to program?
I find the most difficult aspect of commercial game development to be creating the glue features that transform a project from prototype to product: options menu (volume sliders, fullscreen toggle, etc), hints popups, scoreboards, game state loading/saving, and so on.

Getting the core gameplay up and running early on in the project development is an exciting time. In contrast, the last 10% of polish and filling out minute details is extremely trying. It’s difficult to maintain momentum when your days are spent doing very tedious tasks. In my opinion, inexperienced developers overlook the gargantuan amount of details like this that are required in a commercial product; resulting in inaccurate scheduling and work estimates.

Other than your own game did any one of the IGF finalists or Student Showcase games stand out to you? Why?
I have a personal fascination with physics-based gameplay. I’ve loved every Chronic Logic game to date, and I expect I’ll really enjoy Gish. Bontãgo is a very interesting use of physics, too; I’m looking forward to meeting the developers at the IGF booth.

What is your definition of an Independent Game?
I think it’s easier to answer this by explaining my definition of what isn’t an independent game: games that are developed using money loaned against the game’s future sales. There are a very small handful of studios developing games for the traditional retail PC and console markets that should be considered independent developers.

Also relevant to this question is a distinction I make between the typical “indie” developers and “casual” game developers. I consider an “indie” game developer to be someone creating a game for the market currently served by the retail markets. They’re simply making the games they want to with the resources they have available. Typically these developers attract the purist and die-hard fans in their respective genres.

In contrast, I use the term “casual game” to refer to the relatively new markets served by distribution channels like RealArcade and Yahoo! Games. This is a demographic distinct from and under-served by the traditional markets; the 35 year-old soccer mom being the idealized example of who these players are. Casual titles are developed with very specific design considerations for the market at hand.

How do you think Independent Games will evolve in the future?
In terms of production, I think the widespread adoption of middleware into the development process will bring independent games closer to the technical quality of many retail titles. General production values are going up, too; I think it will become more and more difficult for one-man-bands to be as successful as many of them are today. I predict that the majority of successful independent titles in the future will be created by small 4-8 person teams.

Regarding the market, I feel the barrier to entry for truly widespread distribution is going up. The huge size of the casual games’ market means huge revenue, which has attracted a lot of big players: Real, Shockwave, MSN, Yahoo, etc. I see these channels as desperate to break out of the swap-to-make-three-style games they initially forged their success around. As more game types and genres are successfully introduced to the casual market, professional development teams with deep pockets will follow. In turn, I think smaller developers who develop for these currently-niche genres will come up against teams with production capabilities that far outstrip their own.

What is the biggest challenge facing Independent games?
One of the biggest challenges for us as independent developers is probably one independent artists face in any medium: balancing your efforts between innovative exploration and commercially-driven restrictions. Do you create a game with a deep, innovative rule set? Or focus solely on simple, accessible rules that have already been proven in the mass market? It’s a huge challenge to excel in both of these areas.

As one of the leaders of Independent Games, what is next for you?
We have three titles in development now: our final two “safe” projects; 2D puzzle-y games played on a square grid, and our first deviation into new casual territory (a 3D physics-based title). From the start, our business plan has been to build a baseline revenue stream from typical casual titles first, and then to explore new forms of gameplay for the casual market with 3D physics-based games.