The Last and Final Word: Jan Willem Nijman
Like so many others, Jan Willem Nijman learnt his craft as a game developer via Game Maker. He built his reputation by releasing many small videogames, before deciding to form Vlambeer with Rami Ismail. After the release of Super Crate Box, it quickly became apparent that things were going to go well.
Age?
20.
Location?
Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Development tool(s) of choice?
Game Maker, SFXR, LSDJ, MS Paint, Pen & Paper.
What do you do?
I am supposed to work full time at Vlambeer doing game design. In my free time I like making music, food and more games.
How did you get into game development?
I was forced by my parents really. My great-great-grandfather was making games already and my grandfather was one of the first people to work on video games. I respect their choice but I would’ve rather been a doctor. Have to respect the family name I guess.
Just kidding, I discovered Game Maker when I was 12, got back into it when I was 15. That’s pretty much how I got started. Decided to study game design at the age of 17, after finishing school.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
I really love making games - that’s about it. I’m obsessed with improving, so most of my time is spent thinking about my work and absorbing old literature and movies and other shit to give me inspiration.
Basically I, and also Vlambeer, try to make original, simple games with a heavy focus on good gameplay.
When did you decide you wanted to be a game developer full-time and alternatively when did you realise you were going to be able to make this a reality?
I was studying game design and that was shit. So I started my own company as soon as I found out I could make money with flash games. I teamed up with Rami Ismail, who is crazy good at everything I suck at, and I hope that also works the other way around. We started Vlambeer almost a year ago. Working with Rami is great - I think we manage to squeeze all the potential out of my weird ideas. Nowadays, they get turned into something actually worth playing for a lot of people!
What do you suck at?
A lot of things! The thing that bothers me most right now is my writing. I still find it very hard to put my ideas into words. But that’s why you practice, right?
How did Vlambeer start up?
I met Rami in the train to school. He was really annoying. After a year or so we started to respect each others’ work, and we found out with Radical Fishing that working together went super smooth. Rami also loved the first test for what was then known as Crates from Hell, and we decided to try and enter IGF with it. So we made Super Crate Box, and actually got a nomination for excellence in design. That was fucking great! We decided to make more and better games.
And what is your role in the team?
I basically do all the design, and I control the music playing at the office.
Do you have a concrete plan for the future of Vlambeer or is it just like ‘let’s make whatever cool shit we can think of for people to play’?
Let’s make whatever cool shit we can think of as long as it’s better then the old cool shit we thought of.
Your games thus far (that is both your own catalogue and Vlambeer’s) have always had a strong focus on action and little focus on story. Is this intentional? Do you like letting people use their own imaginations to fill in the blanks or isn’t story important to you as a game element?
Some of my favourite games are heavily story-based (Grim Fandango), but as you can read from this interview, I’m not very good at writing. I can design games, and it ends there.
I love action because it is one of the easiest ways to get people really into something. Intense gameplay moments can be almost as memorable as a really good story, and are so much easier to make.
I guess we do pay a lot of attention to story, but we keep it under the surface. It makes games make sense, if that makes sense.
We don’t tell players the story in Super Crate Box, but the team was super busy discussing why these guys were running around and why they arrive in these locations. We also deliberately kept the enemies undescribed. It is a lot of fun to see people refer to the same enemies in different ways. We have no clue what to call the flying skulls / ghosts / white fuckers. I got those names from players.
LUFTRAUSER is also heavily themed, but there isn’t a single word in there explaining the story, other then the title itself. I guess we like having a good “feel”, whatever that means.
What sorts of things keep the motivation levels up for you (to keep creating)?
A good project is all you need. It is quite hard to get one going though. You also need something to keep you awake and alive.
Lack of self-discipline and lack of focus seem to be a big issue for solo developers and small independent teams. Have these ever been issue for you?
Yeah: I compensate that with over-productivity. For every game I’ve released, there are about 40 cancelled probably. Some were just 1 - 2 hour experiments, but I’ve also cancelled many games that were almost completed. I tried releasing some games as abandonware but nobody plays those.
Even with Vlambeer we canned around 3 games already. I guess knowing when something is dead is a very useful skill.
Do you have an overload of ideas that you draw or write down? How do you choose your next project?
Yep. I have 10 books full of little drawings and text on my bookshelf. Whenever I have an idea I pitch it to Rami, which is a great quality check, seeing as we both like completely different stuff (Halo vs Nikujin). Usually we are busy with a different project and a lot of time will go by before getting back to something. A lot of my ideas are based on old, failed projects. Knowing I’m trying to make a certain thing for the third time proves to me it is worth making.
So how much time per day do you spend on game development, including working at Vlambeer and your own stuff?
Depends: usually around 6 - 8 hours a day at Vlambeer, but when it’s needed / nearing the end of projects 10 - 12 hours. I usually don’t have a lot of free time to work on own stuff, but sometimes I find a free day where I spend a lot of time working on some little game.
How many iterations do the ‘successful’ projects go through before they make it to completion?
Games seem to never be done, but the amount of iterations are near infinite unless I have a strict time limit. At some point you just have to say “this is ready”.
