Make The Robot Game: M.A.V.

Conducted By – Adam Ames

Chad Mauldin talks to TPG about his new mech-styled indie title, Modular Assault Vehicle (M.A.V.).  You will learn about the origins of M.A.V., how the game is currently progressing, thoughts on the PC gaming industry and much more.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of M.A.V.

I am Chad Mauldin and I am the Creator and Sole developer of M.A.V.. I have been working in the ‘AAA’ industry for some time now and I wanted a way to better express my ideas. Indie development allows you to take bigger risks, make less generic games, and create a true community with the fans in a way traditional ‘AAA’ development never could.

 

How did you get started in developing PC games?

I was always a PC gamer, it’s something I carried over from my childhood. We always had a very nice family computer (at the time) and really never had consoles. I think that past, coupled with the open nature of the PC platform, just made it a natural progression for me.

 

Where did the idea for M.A.V. come from?

M.A.V. is a game I have been thinking about for several years. It’s been that ever elusive game I kept waiting for someone else to make, because I wanted to play it so much. The Xbox 360 game Chrome Hounds actually got pretty close, but it was still just not right, I wanted more. Over the past few years I have been acquiring more and more knowledge and I finally got to the point that I was tired of waiting for someone else to make that game and I felt I had what was needed to make it myself. So I did.

 

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing M.A.V.?

Successes happen every day, in small amounts, and so it gets hard to be able look at them as a whole.  I guess looking back I am pretty happy with the way my procedural part system turned out. I think it’s some of the most elegant code I have ever written.

I think my greatest failure that I learned from was trying to do procedurally generated levels. I had some grand ideas of having a system that could create a large number of levels at a really low cost, but it just didn’t work. There ended up being several huge technical limitations, the generated levels were not fun, and they lacked any kind of visual polish. It ended up being a time sink of about 4 months, between implementing the systems, iterating on it, and then ultimately changing it.  It really hit home with me as it was the first technical limitation I hit and it was combating against something that I considered core to the design of the game. But, it forced me to sit down and make some hard choices. This really opened my eyes to learn how to edit my design and polish it. I learned to sit down and really discover what M.A.V. was about and make sure I delivered on that to the best of my abilities.

In its current form, how close is M.A.V. to your initial vision?

At the core, it’s the exact same game, but there has been a lot of changes with the ‘design fluff’ like I mentioned before. In my initial vision, I had wanted some open world exploration in the game, but that was the first thing to change. ‘Open world exploration’ and big heavy robot, don’t mix very well. The core concepts of customization, and big heavy combat have all stayed untouched.

 

Some devs admitted their games were too hard upon release because they became experts as they developed the game.  Talk about setting the difficulty levels for M.A.V. and if you faced a similar challenge.

This is a large concern of mine and have such added in a contingency feature. See, I am a tweaker, so I love min-maxing and testing and tuning and really fighting a difficult fight, but I know not everyone is like that. So I have a ‘feature’ called the Wife test. Basically, every now and then I sit my wife down in front of M.A.V. and I tell her to play. She has not played video games since Super Mario, so she represents the least technical gamer I can find. So I see if she can figure the game out, and I take notes while she plays. This helps me find a lot of the things I have become blind too, like how she couldn’t build a M.A.V. at ALL for the first few builds. Now there is a Auto generate button, for people that don’t want to tweak a whole lot, they can just press the button until they see something they like and then use it. I also have a nice support team of fans that really help point out any imbalances they find.

 

Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring M.A.V. would run on the various PC system configurations?

It’s very difficult to ensure you are going to run in every environment. I do rely on the engine I am using (unity3d) to help in this regard and I try to do as much coverage testing as I can. Sadly, I can’t test every configuration and thus bugs do pop up from compatibility issues. I have a forum for anyone experiencing issues with the game and I rely on that to help me get testing coverage on all the different configurations people are using.

 

Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for M.A.V.

Well the art style has been quite the challenge! I managed to pull a reverse borderlands and start with a simplistic, cell shaded style, and scrap that for a more realistic art approach. I have recently commissioned some art work from a really talented artist, Eliott Lilly, who will be helping me further refine the art direction.

The level design has been a learning process as well, since each new game play change can drastically affect the way the levels play. I had a mistake in a lot of my early levels and they were just way too big. Their size really made any design choices I made insignificant and every level played the same. I went back to the drawing board and really spent a large amount of time testing level sizes, layout differences, and design choices. I did all this with white boxes until I felt I had something that captured all the feeling and play styles I wanted to support. This new process, I feel, has made the new level significantly more fun and enjoyable then the old levels.  I am still in the process of developing the music, so I will have to get back to you on that!

 

Outside of creating the game itself, what is the toughest aspect of being an indie developer?

Motivation, by and far. I would say staying motivated and not getting burnt out is actually HARDER than making the game.

 

How did you go about funding M.A.V. and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?

M.A.V. was started with my personal savings and now it is self funding though Alpha membership sales. The money earned through the alpha program goes directly back into the game, like buying 3d models for the levels, buying music or sounds, or like recently, hiring an artist to help with concepts. I have had some AMAZING support from my wife and kids from them putting up with my weird sleep hours and them letting me get work done on the weekends. It’s always fun when one of my daughters comes and helps me ‘Make the robot game’.

How important is it to get instant feedback about M.A.V. from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?

I think it’s vital. Not only does it help drive design choices, resolve bugs, and build a community, but it really helps with the motivation area of development. I mean ultimately, we make games so people can play them. Seeing people playing and enjoying your game is a huge morale boost and really helps fuel the development process.

 

How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review M.A.V. professionally?

I value everyone’s opinion. I would hope a professional review would provide more concrete criticism, if there is any.  Reviews are for the consumers, but I think many developers look at them as a great way to learn what to do better next time as well.

 

How do you feel about the various indie bundle promotions and the “Pay What You Want” pricing methodology? Would you be interested in contributing to a project like that in the future?

I think they are great and I think they work well. I would place them in the same bucket as having a sale or special promotion. I wouldn’t quite count on it as a sole method of selling a game, unless you already have a very large name and following. I would happily contribute to one in the future!

 

What are your thoughts on how the PC gaming industry as a whole are dealing with the problem of intrusive DRM and piracy?

Haha, that’s a very big question. First, piracy is not going to go away, ever. I think if you start with that frame of reference, it really shapes how you feel on the subject.

I like to equate DRM and piracy to a front door of a house. DRM should never be more intrusive then a door lock on a front door. I think that is about the max frustration a person is willing to deal with. I mean, if I had to unlock a door, scan my eyeball, and speak a passphrase just to get in my house every day, you can be sure I would be removing that door pretty quick. With DRM, it’s the same thing. I think people, for the most part, are ok with a single log in, or entering a key once, but that is it. They don’t want to show the deed to the house every time they come home, or jump through a bunch of hoops. And it has to work, every time. Nobody enjoys being locked out of their own house.  I think a service like steam does a great job of DRM. Most people wouldn’t even equate steam with DRM, they see it as a very useful service that just happens to have a tiny bit of DRM in it.

How do you feel about individuals posting videos of M.A.V.?

I think it’s awesome! I remember the first time I came across a video of M.A.V. on youtube and it blew my mind! Now, users posting videos is becoming a bit of a regular thing. There is even a nice video series that some of the fans put together to play a big mutliplayer game and talk about the development. They put out the video every week now!

 

How do you feel about DLC and its current implementation in the PC gaming industry?

DLC is an interesting topic because it covers such a wide range of content. For me, ‘proper’ DLC is just a new way of getting the expansion packs of yesteryear. I think it is very possible to do DLC wrong, but it really depends on the content of the original game. When you are making choices in development like “that area over there is where DLC 1 will go” and cutting stuff or partitioning out the main game to accommodate it, that is when I think you are doing it wrong. I wish publishers and developers would see how easy it is for a consumer to see these choices and how much it negatively affects their brands.

 

How do you feel about the online modding community in general and specifically if mods were created for M.A.V.?

I think the modding community is what makes the PC gaming space so awesome! The modding community has really created some amazing things and some games owe their whole success to their mods. I would be perfectly happy to see people come together and mod M.A.V. and I would do everything I could to make sure the game supported their efforts.

 

What advice would you give up-and-coming indie PC developers who are trying to break into the business?

Do it! Making a game is a HUGE task and it will be very challenging, but the reward you get from completing it is amazing. Just don’t under estimate the sheer amount of work required even for a ‘simple’ game. Do some research and set realistic goals.

We would like to thank Chad for his insightfully detailed  answers.   You can pick up M.A.V. via the official site.