海外インディ開発者インタビュー～「Glyph」～

1. What is the most difficult part of the development for Glyph, and how do you overcome it?
Jesper Halfter, Lead Game Designer: In general, one of the most challenging parts of the development for Glyph has been to hit a sweet spot where challenge and freedom align. With Glyph, we wanted to create an experience where players can enjoy investing time into becoming great at movement. We want them to understand how their improving skills will open up new possibilities and paths forward. It has been a challenge for us to design the levels and movement abilities of the character in ways where the players achieve these goals. You can compare it to designing a course for people who want to learn to use a skateboard. There’s a challenge in creating the course in a way where the player feels great for having overcome the challenges that we clearly define for them and, in particular, the challenges that they define for themselves as they improve along the way. It will hurt to fail, and you will fail a lot. Still, once you become better and gain confidence, you will start setting new goals for yourself and even surprise yourself with what you can do.

Developing a game that confronts you with that experience has been one of the most difficult parts of the process.

To attack that problem, Glyph is designed as a fairly open game. There are different routes to take, and often you will be defining those routes for yourself. You are not expected to have to collect everything within a level. Still, you will feel encouraged to do so and to explore what the levels have to offer. You will likely start feeling an urge to collect everything within the levels and want to see all that there is to see to prove to yourself that you did it.
We are stepping back and letting the player get comfortable at the demanding end of the table. We create a contract with the player where the game is satisfied when you perform well and where you will be rewarded for exceptional performance. The reward is not just by the game but by yourself in particular.

2. How did you promote Glyph before release?
Rasmus Stouby, Marketing: In reality, we couldn’t do much, as we had no product to show. So, that is why we started to develop a demo that could showcase the game and put it on itch.io and other websites that likes demos and such.

But, I established what genre (marble games/ball rollers) our game belongs to and got smart about these games’ history. That helped us find our best audience.

Make sure to set up a page on Steam (if that is your platform) and a server on Discord (for example) right away. Update those pages with the progress of your game (images, videos). Send out a news message through Steam every time you feel you reach a milestone. I did some of these things, but not all. I have learned, however, that it’s crucial to get started early.

I then started re-organizing our website. When I joined the company, the website did not have a lot of information on it, so we added more content like screenshots, videos, and links to our community servers (Discord, youtube, etc.). We added a reviews page and a BUY option. Significantly, we added a Press page with contact info and a press kit (images, video, logos, gifs, and more) for interested journalists. It’s wise to make things as easy as possible for journalists, reviewers, and customers. When they come to your website, they should easily and quickly get whatever they want, be it contact information, content for articles, or simply a buy option (link to Steam).

Next, I started contacting small-time YouTubers. In contrast to the big fish on YT, these guys are happy and honored that you get in touch with them and value their opinions. Their following is a lot smaller, but people who follow small-time YouTubers engage more with the products presented to them, so you are starting a (small) conversation. Join in – go to the comment sections and introduce yourself. They love to hear from the developers/marketing people behind the game. Don’t be afraid to share. Don’t make any promises regarding the game’s development, though, as your ideas about what you want to do can change.

Simultaneously I started reaching out to journalists. Again, I started with small websites. You must have some successes, in the beginning, to keep yourself motivated. It’s easier with the small sites because they don’t get as much attention as Kotaku or other big brand sites. They’ll write about you, play your game, share you on Twitter. Another conversation about your game has started – join in!

Then you start getting in touch with more prominent sites. It requires a lot of hard work if you cannot afford a press service that sends your messages to 5,000 journalists at once. You have to find each and every email/Twitter handle/etc. yourself, and that is a lot more time-consuming than you’d think. It feels like some of these sites are actively trying to hide their contact information!

The good thing about doing it yourself is that you will be building relationships with the individual journalists as you email back and forth or DM on Twitter (if they answer). Remember to be respectful, serious, and a bit lucky. They’ll be more likely to look at your communication if they “know you” personally. Of course, that is no guarantee they will write everything you’d like them to, but it is a good achievement just to have them consider it.

3. How did you fund the budget for Glyph or overcome any budget difficulties during development?
Bo Bennekov, CEO: We self funded Glyph. We are successful in selling our other games (Kittypocalypse and Dick Wilde), and also in selling programming services to other businesses and organisations. We have been able to fund Glyph with the proceeds from those income streams.

4. What are your main deciding factors when choosing a language for localization of Glyph?
Jesper Halfter, Lead Game Designer: We consider several factors when we decide on languages for localization.
One of the main ones is whether the language is suitable for the market we are targeting with our games. Optimally we would have localization for every language, but this is important to consider when operating with limited resources. We think about what regions and cultures are most likely to enjoy our game and which of these are substantial enough for us to justify the amount of effort it takes for us to do proper localization. We also consider the number of resources it takes to complete the localization correctly. For some languages, localization may take a considerably large amount of effort to do properly. At the same time, it may be more straightforward for other languages.

5. Do you have any advice for other indie game creators?
Rasmus Stouby, Marketing: As mentioned earlier; set up your communities early. Get involved with other devs – share experiences and help each other when you can. Update your pages with your progress. Contact small-time reviewers and YouTubers early.