Axiom: Overdrive

Hello, I'm Tony Barnes, [the] Lead Designer, Lead Artist and Musician on the project. I essentially take all of the exciting assets and ideas and collate them into a cohesive, polished game.

I started in the 6th grade (some 20+ years ago), when they put Apples into Bay Area schools. Always wanting to be an animator, like Ray Harryhausen (Clash of the Titans), it was exciting, because I got things moving on the screen in less time, with less people involved. I could draw little sprites on graph paper, program a bit and see things moving and interacting in no time. My friends would come over and play my games constantly. Eventually, I realized that making games was what I was born to do.

Well, being crushed by "the machinery" of retail development, really. Poor management, lack of consumer understanding, misplaced energy and misguided goals lead to very long hours and a lot of frustration. I got to the point where I threw out a lot of really good ideas; because I didn't think they'd "work" in a "real game". When I found myself playing more indie games, because they were more fun, that's what started me down the path.

That's interesting. For some, to be an "independent developer" means you have to be a 1-2 man shop, starving, never working on spec (licenses, etc) and only making games that are low-res and/or off-the-beaten path. I consider those people "hobbyist", not "independent developers". I consider an independent developer someone who is wholly owned by themselves and not a publisher, usually self-funds and controls their own destiny. Independent developers are where I look for original IP and generally more focused gameplay.

I say, "Bring it on!" One of the reasons I've essentially returned to small teams and independent development is because the barriers have been lowered, enabling you to get to "the game" faster than before. When technology and process gets in the way of creative, nothing good really comes from it, except maybe a neat tech demo. Good gameplay comes from being able to get to "the creamy center".

I love how free and dynamic this medium is. Even when doing large-scale over-documented crunch-fests, you can still be a bit spontaneous and reactive to the game, adding, tuning, and implementing new ideas. Also, it's so exciting to be able to affect so many different senses at once. Sound, visuals, interactivity; no other medium combines these aspects into an interesting and dynamic package.

Just seemed right. It's a great example of the indie spirit. A small group of people working really hard on something they have passion for and it would've never happen inside a major publisher, because it just doesn't fit into one of their predetermined bins.

Axiom actually started as a slightly different game. It was based on a 1-day prototype put together by Producer / Lead Programmer Simon Hallam (Producer / Lead Programmer / Designer of Wik). The 1-day prototype was based upon one of his favorite games; Thrust. When we got into making that game, I was going about making it the way retail games are made, where you work on a ton of assets and maybe a month before it's done you look at the game and all of a sudden, it's fun. Up until that magic moment, it's a mess and you just assume that your plan is sound. Reflexive doesn't build games that way (and I suspect most indie developers and hobbyists don't), so we kind of went back to the drawing board and went for the prototyped "fun" first and the rest followed. Form followed function. It opened the game up for a ton of different and fresh experiences that wouldn't have come otherwise.

Well, besides the aforementioned reset, which came half-way through the development, one serious issue was under estimating the difficulty of implementing network multiplayer for XBLA. It's almost a requirement at this point, like an options screen, but it's not that easy to implement. And considering we were building a new engine, new IP and network play all at once, it's not something I would recommend people try.

Not cutting things sooner. We have a lot of content in Axiom and some of it's there because I didn't want to hurt the feelings of the people who made it. But really, when it comes to content vs. time, it's a losing battle and sometimes you have to kill someone's baby (figuratively speaking), for the greater good of the product.

One thing standard developer/publisher development has is "milestones". These little checks are usually set up so the publisher can keep track of what you're doing and the developer can beg for the money to put food on the table. Now, when not abused, they're a great thing. It's good to have mini goals and make those goals something substantial that everyone can see and measure. Don't make a goal of "50% chairs modeled and textured", because that's not as meaningful as say, "Can start game, go into room filled with chairs and break them." The 2nd goal is tangible, even to people who don't know the particulars on assets or technology. They can see it there, working. Of course that goal has to be broken down into "get GUI working, make room, place chairs, do break code, physics, etc" but having a goal that's tangible and interactive helps a lot.

Well, Axiom: Overdrive has been in development for a little over a year. The game we were working on before the "reset" had around 8-9 months on it. As for how much, well... umm... "It's done when it's done?" ;)

The engine for Axiom is a full-featured, all next-gen bells and whistles singing, self-developed engine that includes next gen rendering, scripting, physics, particle systems, etc. Other than our in-house engine, we use the standard tools for development; Photoshop, Maya, XSI, SketchUp, C++, etc.

Besides the advice and warnings above? Hmm... Well, don't always try and get EVERYTHING you want in one game. That's not to say don't go for your vision, but if your vision is too big, break it up into many smaller games, until you're ready to make your "Magnum Opus". I find so many people never actually get things finished, because they're too busy trying to do it all. Game making isn't a one-time endeavor; it's something you can do over and over again, as long as you get the first one done. ;)

The kinesthetic feel. You can feel your craft, you can feel the things you interact with and it's all dynamic. It's just awesome taking a bomb and lobbing it into a wall, watching it explode and crash all over the place. I love watching people pick up the controller, latching onto a large object and "forcing" the stick harder, because they "feel it" too.

More indie games. Probably looking at platforms other than X360 / XBLA, to take advantage of their hardware. I'm also personally interested in making many "little games". These are games that take a very simple play-mechanic and just work every permutation of it. I used to do these games "back in the day" on my Atari 8-bit, but I thought I was just making games.