The Last and Final Word: Shane Stevens
Shane Stevens (better known as Progzmax to some) is well known within the Adventure Game Studio community for his adventure games (Mind’s Eye and Limey Lizard: Waste Wizard! to recommend two) and his supporting roles on a number of commercial projects.
For some unreleased screens of his in development game Boyd Quest, scroll down to the bottom of the interview for a link.
Age?
34.
Location?
Development Hell, Arizona.
Development tool(s) of choice?
Adventure Game Studio, Game Maker, Visual Studio, Renoise, Pro Motion.
What do you do?
That’s a good question! A better question would be, what DON’T I do? I have an Electronics Engineering degree, have studied programming and graphic arts for nearly 18 years, write novels and I can compose music (mostly of the game-variety). So basically I have a working knowledge of all of the elements of game design — which, consequently, helps out an AWFUL lot when you’re going it alone on projects!
How did you get into game development and what is it about adventure games that fascintes you?
I got into game development on a conceptual level very early. I remember quite vividly writing up a design document before I knew what a design document even was for a sequel to the Legend of Zelda, complete with very, very poor concept art for new enemies, weapons, shields and even some bosses that required — to me at the tender age of 12 — pretty sophisticated strategies to defeat!
Adventure games don’t fascinate me, as such, but they ARE a solid platform for establishing a great story upon which to build an audience, which is one of the most important elements of game design in my opinion.
What are your goals as a game developer?
To deliver a fresh world for the player to explore and a fresh story that is as inviting as it is immersive. Those that know me also know my fondness for experimenting with new, interactive gameplay concepts, which is why many of my adventure games break from the standard puzzle-fest to interject some mini-games to shake things up and challenge the player in different ways.
Outwardly you’re known for the games you’ve developed in Adventure Game Studio but it really sounds like you would enjoy branching out to other genres. Would this be accurate?
Sure. I think the two genres I have had or would have the most fun developing would be an action-rpg in the vein of Tales of Phantasia or Sword of Vermillion where you directly control your character in combat, or a metroidvania style game.
Few people know this but for a while I was actually designing a metroidvania game with Game Maker but some of the engine limitations at the time, added to waning interest, turned it into little more than a demo.
You’ve worked on a number of commercial projects for other developers.. do you have aspirations to do this yourself?
Certainly. I’m one of those people who believes in paying your dues, and I really have worked my way up from the outside in like so many others who lacked the benefit of money or connections. Now that my name is on several titles, I’m finding more and more jobs coming to me (instead of the other way around) and that means more exposure and capital to invest in my own games. I strongly believe that you’re only as good as your name, so I try to put 100% into every one of my projects.
What genres are you drawn to, story-wise?
Fantasy very strongly; sci-fi to a moderate amount; historical / western is interesting, though I have yet to go there; contemporary, not so much. I mean, we’re living it so it’s a real challenge trying to make everyday life entertaining to a person who wants to escape it desperately for an hour or two in a game, right? One area I want to explore more is politics because now, more than ever, people need to be aware of what is going on in their government and the rights they may be at risk of losing if they do not stand up and take action.
You touched on wanting to deal with politics in a future project. It seems that for the most part, adventure games are relatively light-hearted and humurous. How much room do you think there is for serious subject matter to be dealt with in the adventure genre?
I think there’s as much room as you make. You’ve got to understand that there’s an audience out there for just about anything, and it’s a matter of providing a good experience for that audience. I know not everyone wants to hear about politics: many people are very mentally disconnected with the world and prefer to talk about the NFL draft than address the issues in their country.
But I also know that if you present an issue in the right medium, like an entertainment medium, you can open the eyes of these same people and get information to them that they’d otherwise be unaware of and will drive them to look for more on their own. That’s my plan with a politically-themed game: to entertain but also get some people to wake up and get educated. A politically-savvy populace is a safe, free populace.
An ambitious adventure game can take years to develop. Which are the most tedious parts to work on?
Honestly? Backgrounds! They are practically my worst enemy on any project where I’m responsible for them because I’m a perfectionist and I have this need for everything to look just right. I also have issues with background layouts, in that I often have trouble imagining a room full of interesting things. It’s much easier for me to focus on individual details in that respect.
How long do you feel comfortable spending on the development of a project, before the concept or story loses its charm?
For freeware games I have this self-imposed limit of 1-2 months before I suffer a total loss of inertia. The first month I’m typically intensely productive, and 85% of my games have been completed in under a month ( Limey Lizard, Hard Space, Dance ‘Til You Drop!, Mind’s Eye ).
On the other side of the coin, I have several projects I’m extremely proud of that were simply too ambitious for two months and have fallen into a development hell of sorts where I work on them occasionally. Hillbilly Burger Bastards and Boyd Quest sadly fall into this category, but again, they’re also the two games I’m most proud of so far.
Being as proud as you are of Hillbilly Burger Bastards and Boyd Quest, do you think there is anything that would jump start your interest levels in these again and bring them back from development hell?
More time, more fan interest, I guess. An extra hand would be great since the games are both very ambitious in scope. For example, Boyd Quest was imagined as a sort of fully-interactive follow-up to Little Computer People, originally a Commodore 64 game that intrigued me as a child because of how you could ‘direct’ the character towards things without actually controlling him.
In Boyd Quest, however, you control Boyd directly but it’s more like a slice of life of a really creative boy, a simulation where you can eat, drink, even get a little side job to pay for things but then there’s this overarching plot looming in the background and side adventures, friends, enemies, contests and a unique fighting mechanic and… well, you can see why I need more time to develop it.
What do you feel are the best ways to keep the interest levels up, during the development of a long, ambitious project?
I can only speak to commercial projects as I have yet to complete a freeware one that went beyond two months, so with that in mind I’d say it’s crucial to have regular playable builds so the people involved can see PROGRESS. Actual, tangible progress is a great motivator since you’re seeing the efforts of other members. Being paid helps, too!
What sort of planning goes into the development of your games?
It depends on my mood. I’m one of those people who can imagine up a complete story in their head and then write a 400 page novel in a few months (true story). I’m not saying that the novel was good, but coming up with story lines and characters is something I’m very good at. When a story like that hits me, like it did with Mind’s Eye, I just strike while the iron is hot.
When the iron starts to cool, that’s usually when I start focusing more on the ‘puzzle’ elements of the game and working out how to engage the player beyond just having a good story. Whether or not my approach is a good one is up to the players of my games to judge.
Do you think that there is still new territory to be explored within the adventure genre?
Always. I think the age of the ‘classic adventure’ is over. Games like King’s Quest that were just a sequence of puzzles. I think the time for those has passed. To make a compelling adventure today, you really need to bring in elements that attract younger people as well, be it action elements or Phoenix Wright-style dynamic scenes.
Adventure games cannot die as long as they are willing to evolve beyond the classics while maintaining all that was great about them: the story and the challenge, the sense of being in an interactive storybook.
Much the same as Ben Chandler, you mentioned the importance of story within a game. Do you think that it’s important for a story to have an emotional impact on the player?
If it is a comedy, it’s a failure if you don’t amuse the player; if it’s a drama, it’s a failure if you don’t make the player feel engaged with the characters and situations. At the end of the day, if you’re getting no emotional response from a story you need to re-think that story.
Which games and developers in particular have had an impact on your work?
Maniac Mansion was the first game I played where I went ‘wow, look at all the stuff you can do in a game’. For a long time games were very, very simplistic (shoot asteroids, navigate a maze, bounce a ball off a paddle) but adventure games really pushed up the complexity a few notches beyond anything else out there because they could take you on an interactive journey through a story.
Other games that inspired me: The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Quest for Glory, Castlevania, The Secret of Monkey Island and Final Fantasy. I think that if you take the sum of these games it gives you a good cross-section of what inspires me about games and what it is that most interests me.
Do you think too many developers from the Adventure Game Studio community are concentrated on making adventure games exactly as they were in the Sierra / LucasArts mold?
Most are, some aren’t. The AGS Community as a whole is traditionalist, and by that I mean they tend on the aggregate in favor of the more traditional puzzle-fest adventure games and are, let’s say, less open than a site like TIGSource to radical departures from the mold.
Still, you have creative people like Ben Chandler who are trying on a personal level to bring ‘it’, or that certain something new to the genre that won’t drive old fans away, and there are plenty of other people like the folks at Wadjet Eye who take the more traditional approach to adventure games but still retain a strong story focus.
At the end of the day, for me it’s about having fun doing what I’ve always wanted to do (and getting paid for it!). If you’re not having fun WORKING on games, don’t expect the players to have fun PLAYING them.
Bonus: Unreleased screens from in development game, Boyd Quest.
