The Last and Final Word: Alastair John Jack
Alastair John Jack is a small independent videogame developer that sets high standards for himself and comes to dislike all his previous releases. However, the fact that he has been covered on TIGSource no less than four times would suggest that he might just be doing something right.
Age?
21.
Location?
Melbourne, Australia.
Development tool(s) of choice?
At the moment Construct, Graphics Gale, and Workflowy. I used to use Multimedia Fusion 2, but Construct has less limitations and is better designed for what I do.
What do you do?
Play games, make games, life etc.
How did you get into game development?
Wanted to make games when I was 5 or so, but didn’t really know how. We had a DOS computer with Pharos Team, Alley Cat, Commander Keen, and Striker which is probably what started my interest in games. I found The Games Factory CD at a shop when I was 12 and been making games since then.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
To continue to get better at making / designing games. I’d like to see if I can eventually make a game that’s as good as the games I love playing.
Do you want to eventually make a living from the games you make or will do you see it remaining a hobby?
Yeah, maybe. Making games is pretty fun so it’s basically a hobby even if it’s the only “work” I do. My goal isn’t to get rich from any games I make (that would just be a nice side effect if that was to ever happen).
You were a member of popular ‘klik’ game development group, Silvernova (now dissolved). How and why did you decide to join?
I can’t really remember how I joined (it seems so long ago now). I probably joined to find people to develop games with but we ended up making our own projects anyway. Was fun talking to the guys though.
I noticed the star ratings you give your own games on your website are incredibly low. Do you really dislike your own creations that much?
Well those games aren’t really that good. They pale in comparison to other games in the genre (Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden, Batman, etc). I enjoy making the games I make, but I do grow to dislike them as I try and make better games. I didn’t want to give people the impression that I thought my games were “amazing” when there’s better games they could be playing.
You recently made Arvoesine freeware, which you were previously selling. What sparked this decision and how many copies did you manage to sell / what sort of money did you manage to make from the game?
I sold over 100 (can’t remember how much money.. probably around $400), which was my aim. I wanted to make a new site, since my other one was too cramped and thought I may as well not sell Arvoesine anymore because it hadn’t sold for a few months anyway. I hate marketing stuff, and couldn’t be bothered selling it basically. I much prefer just making better games than trying to sell something I don’t think is good anymore.
Do you aspire to the reach the quality of any particular independent videogame developers?
Not so much a particular developer, but rather I look up to the great games in each genre and aspire to reach the quality of those games.
Do you find it easy to finish off your projects or do you become tired of them by the final stages and lose motivation?
I think in the past I’ve probably rushed a bit too much near the end of the project and released them too early. When I get to the end of the game’s content, I find it tempting to just be done with it and put it on my site. I’m not sure if I lose motivation near the end, because I want to just finish the project since its so close to being complete. I mainly get tired of the project once it has been put on my site (that’s when I feel free from it).
However, there are occasional times during development that you do get tired of it, but that feeling doesn’t often last longer than a day. I like what Paul Eres said about making sure to work on your game at least once a day, even if it’s just a little bit, to make sure it gets done eventually. For future games, I’d definitely like to spend more time in the end phase polishing and testing them before release.
What are you currently working on?
I’ve started a number of projects since I finished Arvoesine over a year ago, but in the last few months I’ve finally got one going that I’m really enjoying making. It’s going to be an action game with an isometric perspective and dungeon crawling theme.
It’s still pretty early in development, so it may end up not working out later on but I’m pretty confident it should be a decent game. Since it’s an action game, I’ll be going along the lines of the arcade design philosophy, which basically means 1 life and short intense sessions where skill matters, although this game’s length won’t be as short as the other games I’ve made.
How much time do you spend on game development?
The amount of time I spend varies from day to day (maybe around three to eight hours). I don’t keep track as I often do random things during the day.
Which parts of the game development process make it such an enjoyable experience for you?
It’s hard to say. I really enjoy the moment when I first come up with the game and imagining how it will play in my head. Then fleshing out all of the game’s design and deciding on all the rules and mechanics is awesome. There are random things that I enjoy doing more than others in each game I make (in Arvoesine I found making the player and enemy sprites more amusing than other stuff).
How many projects tend to go on the scrapheap vs. the ones that you manage to finish off?
It’s basically impossible to keep count of the games I haven’t finished, although I do remember that I’ve probably started around a dozen Ainevoltas projects but none of them worked out. When I was younger I started and abandoned a lot more often than I do now.
As I get more experienced I guess I find it easier to finish games. On average a project probably lasts about 1-2 months before I decide if I’ll continue working on it. The unfinished games could be considered prototypes though, so it’s not really wasted time.
And what are your influences?
In the last few years my taste has changed quite a bit and I’ve been enjoying games and genres that I’ve never really paid much attention to before such as arcade and rogue-like games. As I discover all sorts of great games, they influence me a lot. I don’t really want to be specific, as it’d take forever to list everything that has influenced me.
You mentioned that one of the reasons you joined Silvernova was to collaborate with others. Is this still something you would like to do or do you prefer to work alone and do everything yourself?
I don’t mind doing everything myself except music, but I would rather work with more people as it would speed up development and probably improve the quality of my games. At the moment I’d rather work with artists because I’m not that good at it and would rather spend more time with design and code. I don’t know if I’ll ever find anyone interested in helping with my current game though. It’s a lot easier to find people who want to make platformers.
