The Last and Final Word: Noel Berry
Noel Berry is a young independent game developer. He played a part in the the creation of the Winnitron (an independent gaming arcade cabinet) and co-founded Bit Collective (the group that developed it). He is full of enthusiasm and ready to jump into a huge ocean of big fish.
Bonus link to a couple of in development videogame snaps at the end of the interview.
Age?
I am 18 years old, and turning 19 in January.
Location?
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Development tool(s) of choice?
It depends what I’m working on, but for the last two years or so I have been using Flash Develop, FlashPunk (which is more of a library), GraphicsGale, Photoshop, and SFXR.
How did you get into game development?
I can’t really remember the first time I started making games. I had always loved to make board games, draw maps, and play video games for as long as I can remember, and I believe it was when I was about 9 years old that my dad introduced me to programming and game development. He really liked working with computers and knew a thing or two about building simple games and programs. He thought that since I liked video games so much I may also like to create them.
At the time, being only 9, programming was way over my head, so eventually he got me set up with RPG Maker, and I fiddled around with that for a few years. When I was 12 we decided to search around for some new game creation tools, and found Game Maker. From there I’ve been making games non-stop for the last 6 years, experimenting in different programs and languages (from Game Maker, to AS3, to C#, to some C++).
Both you and your brother Liam are game developers and you seem to collaborate quite a lot. Did you both become interested in game development at the same time? Are you both interested in trying to do the ‘full time indie’ thing?
When I started making games in Game Maker I was 12 and my brother was only 10, and at the time he didn’t have much interest in game development at all. I think it was almost 3 years before he started to become really interested and we began teaming up to create games. When we first started I would always do the programming, and he would always do the art and music. Prior to working with my brother, none of my games had any music.
The first game that we made together and finished was a game called ChimpVenture. That was a giant project for the both of us and it took almost 4 months to finish - something that was really hard to accomplish for us at 16 and 14. This was the first game my brother tried to write the music for, and it didn’t turn out all that well. He got a lot of pretty harsh comments for it, but over the last few years I think he’s really improved.
Currently, I fully intend to become a full time independent game developer. I’m not exactly sure when I decided, but over the last few years the more I make games the more I enjoy doing so. Liam, though he really loves to develop games, also has other things he enjoys doing which he may peruse instead of, or alongside, game development. To be honest, I don’t think he has fully decided yet.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
To be honest, I’m not exactly sure what goals I have as a game developer. I make games because I truly enjoy doing so, and on a given day I’ll feel like making something very different than any other day. I suppose I’m a bit unfocused in that sense. I never really figure out the goals of a project, or what I want out of making a particular game. I more or less just go “Oh man, wouldn’t it be awesome if this and that were happening in a game? I’ve got to try prototyping this thing!”. I then spend the next little while doing so, and those either turn into horrible experiments that I hide in the depths of my computer, or fun little games that I expand upon.
Do you feel that wanting to different projects on any given day is a weakness as a developer?
I definitely think this can be a weakness at times, and really depends on the project I’m currently working on. It seems to me, that, the older I get, the more I’m able to concentrate on a single project for a longer amount of time. It wasn’t that long ago that I could only spend about a week or two on a game at most before becoming bored and uninterested in the project.
However, the more I make games and become further experienced in the process, the more I feel like I’m able to spend time on a single project. Most of my games are starting to turn into projects that last several months now, instead of a few days or weeks. I have a few projects that I’ve been working on (on and off) for about 4 months now. That said, I haven’t actually released a full game in about 10 months, which feels like far too long a time to have no new games to show. So, maybe I’m still relatively unfocused (haha).
Do you feel that you have enough focus to finish any long term projects?
I’m not entirely sure. My brother and I have a larger-scale game that we’re hoping to start at the end of the summer, and at the rate at which we tend to work, I think this project could take several more months to make than I’m used to (maybe even close to a year of part-time development). I guess we’ll find out how capable I am of working on a game that long, then. Currently, though, my track record shows that anything that takes more than 3 or 4 months I find incredibly difficult to finish.
You had a role in founding Bit Collective and building the independent gaming arcade cabinet, the Winnitron. How did this group begin, how did the Winnitron come about and what was your role in building it?
Last May I went to my first game jam in Winnipeg, and I met a few local game developers who I had never run into before. During the game jam the Winnitron wasn’t really brought up at all, but afterwards we decided to have another “Mini Pegjam” for a bunch of the local developers who had attended the last one. It was at this very small jam that Marlon Wiebe brought up the idea of an arcade cabinet that could play indie games on it.
The original idea for the Winnitron was inspired by an arcade cabinet in Toronto, Canada, called the Torontron. We really loved the idea, but felt that it would be cool if our cabinet could support multiple games, with the ability to download and sync more games at any time.
From there we pretty much got straight to work and within a few months the Winnitron was mostly completed. We still had no name for our group of 5 guys who had made the cabinet, but around mid fall of 2010 the name BitCollective really stuck.
I personally participated throughout all of the development of the Winnitron, but focused particularly on the stats for the machine, so we could track how long games were played for. We actually have an entire web interface that we can log into to view fancy graphs and pie-charts to see how long what games were played on which Winnitron machine.
Are there any specific types of games that suit a Winnitron? How do you decide what is and isn’t allowed on?
We don’t really specify what types of games can or will go on the Winnitron. Pretty much anything that works with the control scheme and can have a 2 player mode is a welcome game to have. From our experience though, games that are short and fast, with easily understandable gameplay, tend to be played the most. So, generally speaking, arcade-like games are usually the best fit for the machine.
When deciding if a game will go on a Winnitron, we usually test it out on the machine itself to see how well fun it feels and how well it runs. We don’t have any sort of criteria besides making sure it works and if we personally think that it’s a good fit and will be played.
We try to keep a bit of a quality standard for the games, but generally speaking if it’s fun, plays well, and fits the control scheme, we’re happy to put it on.
Do you all actively look to keep improving the Winnitron?
Yes! We actually have some planned updates within the next few months, for both the launcher and the stat management stuff. The Winnitron is definitely an in-development project, and we continue to work on it. The BitCollective group meets on an almost weekly basis to figure out Winnitron stuff.
How many Winnitrons exist now and where are they located?
Currently, there are Winnitrons located in Winnipeg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, New York City, and Pittsburgh, USA. Along with these currently complete Winnitrons, there are a number being built in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, Australia, Italy, and a number of other locations. You can see a full list on the BitCollective forums.
How many people turn up to the game jams you guys host? Do you think Bit Collective are succeeding in their goal to “strengthen and promote the local indie games scene”?
The first game jam that was held in Winnipeg, called the PEGJam, wasn’t organized by the Bit Collective, but rather Alec Holowka, a well known local indie game developer. This first jam was really successful, and had large turnout of developers (over 40). Since then we’ve held 2 other game jams, and are planning another one in just over a month. The first game jam we held was for the Winnitron (to get people making some games for the machine), and we had a few dozen people show up and create games. Our second jam, which was called “The Room Jam”, was an idea created by a local developer, Devin Reimer, which also had a few dozen people attend.
Finally, the game jam (PEGJam2.0) we’re hosting next July is shaping up to be about the same size as the first PEGJam, so we’re really excited for it!
I feel that the Winnitron and Bitcollective have definitely helped promote and strengthen the indie gaming scene, not just in Winnipeg, but anywhere that people are developing Winnitrons. There have been several game jams for Winnitrons in other countries and cities, and to build a Winnitron you really need to get involved in your local indie game scene and get people collaborating on it as a community.
Do you think FlashPunk is something you will be sticking with? Do you think Flash a viable path for making a living for you?
Currently, FlashPunk is working out as a great tool for me to develop my games in, and I haven’t felt the need to move onto something else immediately. FlashPunk has also worked out fairly well for me over the last year in terms of sponsorships, and though it’s definitely not enough to make a living from, it’s been a good start, as I try to make something from the games I create.
To be completely honest, I don’t have a good idea as to whether or not FlashPunk will be the best way for me to make a living from games. It really depends on how often I can get sponsorships and the quality of games I’m able to make (which is more up to me, not the engine I use).
Do you plan on trying out other game development tools?
As much as I really love Flash Punk, I do also like experimenting in other languages, engines, and frameworks. I’m currently keeping a very close eye on the Monocle Engine, as it looks like it may be a fun game development engine in the near future as well.
Bonus: In development screenshots.
