Gotta Be Pretty To Code: Pixel Boy Interview

Posted on Oct 10, 2013

David Nickerson and Dominic Obojkovits from Giant Box Games speaks to TPG about their soon to be released top down action RPG, Pixel Boy.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the development of Pixel Boy.

Dominic: We are co-creators, I do the programming and he does the art. Which explains why I am completely logical and he is so strange.

David: If you call using half our development time to fix your hair logical, then sure, he’s logical. We met over the internet and started tossing around ideas for games and something just clicked with Pixel Boy.

Dominic: We’ve been happy ever since.

How did you get started in developing PC games?

Dominic: I worked on IOS for apps and decided I really wanted to move to a more open platform that would allow me to make more ‘core’ audience games.

David: Growing up I got to watch my older brothers playing all the two-player games, so I wanted to get into the games industry specifically to design a game that I would get to play before them.

Where did the idea for Pixel Boy come from?

Dominic: I was screwing around with random environments and tossed the build over to Dave to take a look.

David: Basically it was a cube shooting colored cubes, I thought Dom had completely lost it, but then the vision came and blammo! Pixel Boy was born, albeit in a very primitive form.

What are some of the successes and failures you learned from in developing Pixel Boy?

David: I knew South Africa was in a different time zone, but I didn’t realize that meant the 1990’s in terms of internet speed.

Dominic: I think we both learned how difficult it can be to work across an ocean with different time zones, and yes, with terribly slow internet at times.

David: We really have learned so much, the entire development process has been a learning experience. From new graphic techniques, business relations, media relations, to code that Dom had never even toyed with. When new features arose in our design, we would often have to learn the processes to integrate them.

In its current form, how close is Pixel Boy to your initial vision?

Dominic: 90%

David: 20%

Dominic: 80%

David: Well, most of my endis done, it’s just Dom that’s lagging behind, I told you, he spends so much time looking in the mirror.

Dominic: Gotta be pretty to code.

David Nickerson and Dominic Obojkovits

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 Pixel Boy and if you faced a similar challenge.

Dominic: We set out to create a challenging game, we didn’t want it to be needlessly hard, just a challenge that can be overcome. It’s funny how Dave and I are not as good at playing it as some of the people we’ve allowed to play through…

David: Speak for yourself. I am great at it. Definitely though, we’ve seen some of our playtesters getting really good at it, but then they get cocky and destroyed by the surprise awaiting them in the next dungeon level. So far it’s rather balanced in terms of difficulty from our point of view.

Were there any challenges you faced in ensuring Pixel Boy would run on the various PC system configurations?

David: We haven’t so far encountered these challenges, mostly because we have been using Unity, and it has great multiplatform exporting. The game is built on a PC; mine, and a Mac; Dom’s. So it damn well better run on both of those.

Dominic: Just recently we have been approached by Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony about console ports, I imagine if we were to continue down the roads they are outlining, we would have to rethink some things in terms of various platforms, but so far, PC makes things much easier and more black and white than the rainbow of multi platform.

Please talk about developing the art style, level design and music for Pixel Boy.

David: The art style has dramatically changed throughout the development. Originally as we stated it was just a box shooting boxes. That changed to a pixelated 2d look, then to 2.5d, then made the full jump to 3d from sprites. It’s funny how that works, but honestly it just made more sense in its current form.

Dominic: I think Dave will agree that the dynamic level design is modeled after some of our favorite dungeon games like Diablo, Binding of Isaac and Zelda. We wanted traps, treasure, and danger to be scattered throughout our ever changing dungeons.

David: The music by Pyramid was a no brainer, I heard it and instantly was so excited to show Dom this guys work. Immediately after Dom had heard it…

Dominic: …I contacted him without even telling Dave I had, just on a whim and a hope that he’d respond. Sure enough he did. He loved the concept and immediately began working on an OST for us. It turned out great and people seem to love his tunes and how they work in Pixel Boy.

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

David: The toughest aspect? I’d say trying to memorize the millions of differences and daily changes in the value menus at restaurants nearby my house.

Dominic: I agree, it can be tough at times to work a full time job that you’re not currently get paid for. We both are certain our work will pay off though.

David: This game has come so far from its inception, we are so proud of it, and the work has paid off given the response we have been receiving.

How did you go about funding Pixel Boy and did you receive financial or emotional support from friends and family?

David: We have been greatly supported by family and friends all along the way. Be it them giving us a pat on the back or a hot meal at night.

Dominic: And all the emotional support from our ever growing fanbase is invaluable.

Tell us about the process of submitting Pixel Boy to the various digital distribution platforms and if you encountered resistance in doing so.

David: So far a lot of this has gone on behind closed doors, but we have had some great success lining up distribution platforms. We have got very positive responses about the game and how far along it is and how organized our pitches are.

Dominic: You can expect us to be taking Pixel Boy to all the main distribution sites, and we’d love to share that we will 100% for sure be available on Gamersgate and Desura for all those people asking so far.

David: Steam is a tougher egg to crack but we have made a good stride on our Greenlight page, SO VOTE VOTE VOTE PEOPLE! It’s like running a mayoral campaign, you have to kiss babies and get caught in hooker scandals.

Have you decided on a launch price?

Dominic: No

David: Yes

Dominic: When did you have time to do that?

David: Well we don’t have a launch price set yet, but our pre-order price will be $4.99. We can confirm that can’t we?

Dominic: I guess that’s ok.

How important is it to get instant feedback about Pixel Boy from users through online message boards and other social networking sites?

David: This is what I find to be one of the most important parts of modern game development. We can have our fans, and possible fans, watching us make the game.

Dominic: The interaction with the community at a whole is wonderful. Be it another game dev or a rabid Pixel Boy fan, we have heard constructive feedback on most parts of the game for the entire development. Its important to know that we can deliver a better game to more people, just by listening.

How much value do you place on the opinions of those who review Pixel Boy professionally?

Dominic: We value professional reviews highly, but we also value an amateur first look just as highly. Everyone has their place. While a professionals opinion matters because they play games for a living and should know a good game when they seen one, they can also show the game to a massive audience. Meanwhile an amateur review of the game, or a casual review from one friend to another matters just as much because we want everyone to have a great time playing our game, regardless of the extended audience they can stir up.

David: What he said.

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?

David: We love them, we love bundles, we love deals, and we would love to one day be included.

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

David: This is a really big topic, a topic bigger than us. We can’t offer the solution that would be required but wish we could.

Dominic: We just want people to play and like our game. Obviously making some money off of it would be great too, but what can we really say about piracy? It’s wrong on many levels, but the DRM the industry puts forth can be wrong at times too.

David: I think we should go back to shareware 3.5” floppies.

How do you feel about individuals posting videos and receiving monetization of Pixel Boy?

Dominic: We love it, we want as many people to make as much money as they can from videos of Pixel Boy, who wouldn’t?

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

Dominic: DLC can be so so so rewarding as a whole, but there are companies who have abused it as well. DLC should be something that’s created after release, not features ripped from a game to force a user to pay for the content they were originally getting.

David: I really don’t have much of an opinion on this, as long as I can buy my horse armor I really don’t care.