Shelled! Developer Chat by Game Tunnel

Q [William Usher] - Shelled has been in the making for nearly two years now?

A [Josh Dallman] - That's right.

Was that the amount of time that was estimated, or was the project a lot larger/smaller than planned?

It was planned as a four month project start to finish! Upon hearing this, Jeff Tunnell (of Dynamix and GarageGames fame) said he'd be surprised if it was done in a year. We laughed and figured 6 months tops. It's now been almost two years and with no breaks. So what's taking so long?

- Iteration. The more we built, the more potential we saw and the more we invested into getting it right.
- Inexperience. As our first game, we've made many newbie mistakes. Chief among them were making the game too big and complex, putting production art in too early, doing focus tests too late, and over confidence in the success of the game's design.
- Funding. As a self funded project, there's no budget for simultaneous task completion.
- Polish. The bar on indie games has risen by exemplary studios such as 21-6 and MaxGaming. We're determined to make par.

The 3D art and textures look great in the game.

Thanks!

Where did you come up with the textures and artwork?

All art is outsourced (the same goes for code). Environments were done by the French studio FroGames; tanks and artillery were done by the Romanian studio Design Studio SRL; graphic design was done by the US studio DayKamp Creative. Studios were found through contract work websites, the indie game community, and word of mouth.

Though not obvious, the art looks good because it's been iterated and it's not done yet! For example, one designer did the logo and main menu, then another re-did them for more polish. The environments were completed a full three times before we got them right the first two looked great, but didn't fit the game well. And the turtle tanks are about to be re-done a second time to look more like tanks and less like spaceships.

Sneak Peak at New Shelled Tanks

Was Shelled originally conceived as a 3D Scorched Earth?

Yes, but that's only half the story. Three games inspired Shelled. One was Scorched Earth. Treasured back in the day, I've not found a single satisfying clone. The second is 21-6's game Orbz. On its own, the cam view of the ball flying through the air is so much fun. As a third, the turtle shells as weapons idea comes from MarioKart's battle mode. Take that air cam mechanic and meld it with an easy to pick up and play Scorch clone and add a fun turtle theme and I thought we'd have a winner. It happened more organically then that, but those are the origins.

You know, now that you mention it Shelled does look a lot like a 3D Super Mario game. Actually, Shelled�€™s art-style and visual appearance looks a lot like a high-resolution N64 title. Was that part of the look you were going for?

The artist who did the tank and artillery models was given a Koopa as a reference for sure. For the environments, I was familiar with the work of the artist (Christopher Canon), and he has such a distinct style that I sought him out specifically. I love his work and his style was exactly what I wanted.

Shelled has a really good physics system. From a little experience, physics seem like the most difficult aspect to design for a 3D game. Movements and reactions seem like they are part of an unforgiving process involving a lot of adjustments and timing mechanisms. Was there a specific configuration you were looking for in the physics system, or was it a trial and error process with the best results being the final results?

Thanks! That is all the more compliment since the physics are faked! Look, in TV cartoons nobody says "that doesn't fall like that," so why would a cartoon tank game have to mimic the real world either? Especially in a non hardcore game? More to the point, what's more important, having physics that are real, or having physics that are fun? Once we threw out the constraint that the physics had to be based on real world physics, we were free to design physics that resulted in fun. There was definitely a trial and error process in getting the timing of things right, but it wasn't a long process at all.

Was the 3D engine concepts for Shelled already designed or were they built specifically for Shelled?

Actually, the game was designed for the engine! The Torque Game Engine by GarageGames was selected for its market demonstrated capacity to create professional level games while still being affordable. After familiarizing myself with the strengths and limitations of the engine, only then was a design doc drafted not the other way around.

For example, artillery that splits into multiple pieces like the triple shot this was very easy to code. Artillery like Scorch's dirt adding weapons would prove much more difficult so it wasn't even attempted. And with networking built in, multiplayer became a shoe in. Given unlimited budget, designing around an engine wouldn't be the case, but as an indie you have to leverage available technology as much as possible, and where talent comes into play is not having that technology limit the fun factor and there's no reason it has to.

I find that to be very fascinating. Mainstream developers tend to make engines specified to the game and it seems like it takes years on-end to complete. Do you think professional, and amateur developers alike, should try and work around available technology, rather than trying to design around big-budget engines that don�€™t always benefit from great results?

Absolutely! For example, there aren't great physics tools available to indies right now. If you want ragdoll in your game it's an uphill battle. But you can fake ragdoll by pre-rendering a dozen different animations of your guy. Similarly, if you want shaders in your game, you're going to complicate things a ton, including for the end user. Why not redirect that effort towards making the art that is in your game that much more polished in other ways instead? Or better, putting the effort into making the gameplay that much tighter and more compelling? If as an indie you're worried about having shaders, physics, etc., and not finding acceptable work-arounds, you're either making the wrong game or looking at game design with too heavy a programming background.

What were some of the hardships you endured trying to develop Shelled?

The biggest hardship has been budget! Total budget for Shelled with all art and code outsourced is $10k, and we're at about $8k right now. With funds literally coming out of my weekly day job paychecks, it's tough to admit that "ok, these environments that I just paid $600 for and spent a month revising do not fit the theme of the game" and going back to the drawing board. But making those kinds of tough calls whether in regard to art or code features are what can make a good game become great.

Another hardship has been in contractor turnover. Although contractors are paid upfront, at indie rates their work often comes second to their day job or other better paying contracts, meaning it can be rushed and of sub par quality, delivered too slowly, or delivered with no time to continue the project afterwards. You're bottom rung on the ladder, and a lot more time is spent in QA and finding new talent than should be. One exception has been the superb lead programmer, Gary Preston of U.K. based Figment Games, who came on board early and has been extremely loyal to the project.

The final noteworthy hardship has been a mental and emotional one: budget aside, learning to accept when your game design isn't succeeding and being open to exploring new solutions, while still retaining a core vision. Unless you are making your game for pure self amusement, focus testing must be done early and often, and you have to let go of your cherished ideas if your design does not dovetail with your audience's expectations. Yet, at the same time, you cannot be distracted by every stray opinion and must have a strong core vision of what you want to "say" with the game. This has been the most emotionally taxing challenge to make this enormous investment in time, funds, and energy, only to have the game flop when played by the public, as did Shelled at two game conferences.

Wow, Shelled didn�€™t fare so well at the game conferences?

To use a pun, it tanked at game conferences.

Well, what happened?

Shelled was first playable at the Indie Game Con 2005. That it was feature incomplete, buggy, and rough could be overlooked. That it was overly complex by bushels could not. Few played it, fewer liked it, and it didn't place in any awards. Immediately after the con, sweeping changes were made to the game to make it more simple, intuitive, focused, and fun. Most of these changes were feature and art cuts.

Shelled was next presented in earnest at the Northwest Games Fest 2006. This build was totally different from the IGC build and had nearly a whole year's development added. Nonetheless, once again few liked it, and it didn't place in any awards. Given the cues, people expected either a Scorch clone or a FPS, and being neither, players just didn't get it. This is what lead to the decision to make Shelled more Scorch like, and split off the current gameplay into a separate game.

The most important thing was to not go into these fests with the assumption that the game is going to be successful. You really don't know until you stand there and watch people play. If people don't get the game, you can't be in denial about it and blame it on them you have to look at it from the perspective of how the game failed and what you can do to make it successful. But it's hard it's your baby. You just have to learn to love the process and not the product.

For gamers who don't know, Shelled is actually a pre-release for two different, though similar, games. Pods of War and Shelled will be similar to the original, yet cater to two different groups of gamers. How did the decision come about to separate the engine into two distinct titles?

In designing Shelled as a Scorch inspired clone, we designed a novel game mechanic. For those who "get it" it has a nice hook; certainly the dev team love playing it, and even artists have complained of getting work done too slowly because they get sucked in.

The problem with novelty is going against people's expectations too much, so that while game reviewers and developers may enjoy the game, the game will never reach a broad audience. Originality and general appeal are typically mutually exclusive in any art medium. Choreograph a new ballet based on The Nutcracker and people will come. Choreograph a new ballet based on the way electricity moves through the circuitboard of an AM radio and you severely diminish your audience, though those that do show up are more likely to become "raving fans."

Shelled was intended to be casual, broad audience, and Scorch referencing from the get go. As it is now, people expect either a Scorch like game or a FPS like game and Shelled is neither! But by making a few simple changes no more first person aiming, no more direct tank control we make the game closer to the Scorch expectation that people have, while still having enough novelty through the mini golf style shot power meter, turtle theme, and easy "pick up and play" factor to be original and stand out from other Scorch clones.

That being the case, we found ourselves mourning the novel and fun game mechanic we developed and polished. So with leftover art cut from Shelled, and now leftover code (so to speak), it made sense to go ahead and branch this game off of the Shelled codebase prior to the more Scorch like changes and make it into a dedicated separate game.

Thus, where Shelled was previously stuck in a no man's land between casual (Scorch elements) and hardcore (FPS elements), we now have Shelled firmly in the direction of casual, and its twin brother Pods of War firmly in the direction of hardcore. Each game should meet its respective audiences' expectations, and each game is firm in its direction.

Personally, I think it's sad that originality isn't as well-received as it ought to be, in the gaming community. We've yet to see a remarkable follow-up to X-Com 3, or any alternatives to Big Red Racing, or Jagged Alliance 2. While those were mainstream titles, they're very hard to find in bargain-bins these days. Do you think if Shelled received proper coverage, as a hybrid game, people would take interest in it?

No. Based on the IP, screenshots, and one-line description of the game, people already take a high interest in it. But interest only gets you the download, not the sale. Shelled references a casual game, its artwork invokes a casual play feel, it wants to be and was always intended to be a casual game. Yet, the first person action is frantic and exciting, flying is tricky, and firing takes a good bit of up-front skill and game mechanic understanding. So there is a disconnect there between what people expect and what it actually is.

Ah, I see, that actually makes a lot of sense. So you think the game will only do well as two separate games, for two distinct genres?

Yes. Left as is, it would certainly find its fanbase, but those players would be hardcore or ex-hardcore players looking for a "quick fix" coffee break game. Which is what Pods of War will be (or already is). And that game will have none of the casual game cues that Shelled has. But those downloading Shelled expecting it to be slow paced, easy to play, and similar to Scorched Earth will be turned off, as were players at the festival. And that's a much bigger audience: easily 10 to 1.

What are the final game modes planned for both Pods of War and Shelled?

Unfortunately the only mode planned for v1 of each is standard deathmatch. Depending on the commercial success of each, there may be an expansion pack adding more modes and levels in, but the focus is to get the games done and develop a base of online players to start from, as well as get some momentum going for the studio.

Thanks Josh for taking time out to answer these questions. Do you have any advice for other indie game makers?

You're not the first one to make a game, so seek out those who've gone before you successfully. Their advice is golden and can save a lot of heartache. Don't make your game in a bubble network as much as you can, you never know what benefits it will have down the road. Make a game that's doable and that you believe in. Have a budget. Nobody makes indie films for nothing, so why do we try to make games for nothing? There's no free lunch. The smallest of budgets, when used creatively, can yield exceptional results. Limitations are opportunities for creativity, not barriers to success. Stay with it, patience and persistence is everything! Sooner or later you're bound to get it right. And lastly, don't release junk there's enough of that out there already, I believe they're called AAA studio games. ;)

By: William Usher
Posted: Wednesday August 09, 2006