If you haven’t played Simple Spy already, then do it right now! This game is insanely addictive and immensely fun. A 2D side-scroller reminiscent of Stealth Inc (Stealth Bastard on PC), this is a fast paced obstacle course that’ll have you twitching your fingers. But, more on the game later, cuz we have with us the devs behind the game. Selvakumar and Vasanthan from Kodari Games have shared with us their journey as Video Game Developers.
Gaming Central: Tell us a bit about yourself 🙂
Kodari Games: We are a two member team.
Selvakumar – Art and Game Design
I love cartoons and video games. As a 90’s kid we were always waiting for the weekend to see our favorite character to hit the TV. Every cartoon series is my favorite with no exceptions. Everything from Ninja Robots, Jungle Book, Duck Tales, Spiderman, He-Man, Shazam, Chip and Dale, The Rescue Rangers, and so on. After pursuing my MCA, I thought to fulfill my childhood dream of becoming of an animator, so I took a diploma in 3D animation and got selected in Activision’s Redoctane Technologies (creators of “Guitar Hero” Franchise) as a video game animator. So that’s how I ended up in game industry and started animating super villans to super heroes of Marvel Universe.
Vasanthan – Code
I was very interested in Math and Science from my childhood. I started my first science project at the age of 15 with my homemade telescope to explore the sky, and discover what it held. After joining my B.E (EEE), I got more interest in coding and embedded systems so started learning coding, in particular, Graphics programming and Microcontrollers. My passion for game programming started with “Brick Break” using C language. After my graduation, luckily I had a chance to work with Activision’s Redoctane Technologies (creators of “Guitar Hero” Franchise) where I explored game consoles from Xbox to Nintendo DS console.
After Redoctane Technologies, we both went Indie and started Kodari Games in Chennai. The main focus of Kodari Games is mobile platform.
GC: When did you get started with playing games (and what was the first game that you remember)?
KG: During schools days, our favorite games where from the Chinese TV console games like Mario, Contra, Dangerous Dave, etc. On PC we enjoyed games like Solitaire, Minesweeper and Heart.
GC: How did you get started with developing games?
KG: We both had a dream of creating our own game. After gaining valuable experience from Activision’s Redoctane Technologies, we thought of doing a benchmark game to get projects. So we did an unnamed in-house musical project and it’s inspiration came from Guitar Hero. An innovative music-rhythm game. The project was done in Open-Source game engine ‘Irrlicht’. This project played a main role in honing our skills and later we started our own game studio, Kodari Games, to pursue the dream of creating our own title. With the launch of our first title ‘SURAN’ for iOS and Android, Kodari Games started its first commercial operation.
GC: If you weren’t a game developer you would be a…?
Definitely a Software Developer or Animator in movie making.
GC: What game are you working on right now? Can you tell us a bit more about the game?
KG: Right now we are working on a 2-D side scrolling minimalist platformer called “Simple Spy” for iOS, Android and Amazon. Though “Simple Spy” is a minimalist platformer, you can also find all the fun and essence needed for a full fledged platformer. Everything in “Simple Spy” is achieved through a combination of three action such as running, jumping and rolling. The main focus of the game is simplicity coupled with hard core gameplay.
GC: On how many games have you worked on so far?
KG: Till now we have released three games but we are also working on 3 more casual titles.
GC: Which game development tools are you using?
KG: During our earlier stage of development, we tried to minimize our cost by using open source tools. Later we switched to commercial tools for art and game development. Right now we are using Photoshop, 3DSMax for art and asset creation and Unity 3D as our primary engine. We are also using Unreal Engine (free license), Construct 2 and Cocos2D-x.
GC: Any other recommendations for software? (project management etc.)
KG: Well, here are a few..
For Art Creation:
Image Editing – GIMP, Pixelmator (mac only), Photoshop Element
Audio – Audacity, Wavosaur
Video – Motion (mac only), Fraps
For Coding:
IDE – Eclipse (Android Unity Plugin Creation)
Free Engines – Construct 2, Unreal, Cocos2D-x, Stencyl, WaveEngine
GC: What is your favorite platform to develop for? How do you choose which platform to make games on?
KG: Obviously it’s mobile, our favorite platform. As an Indie, it’s hard to get license to develop games for major consoles. But making games for PC/Mac and mobile is lot more easier when comparing to console.
GC: What are the specs of your PC/Mac?
KG: iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011)
PC (Windows 10 Pro, Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 2GB Nvidia Quadro 600)
GC: What is the basic structure for developing a game?
KG: Every game starts with an idea. Brainstorming a concept‘s pro and cons can help to freeze the right concept. After freezing the concept, a playable prototype is made with dummy element to ensure that we get the right gameplay what we have imagined. Prototype helps us to know whether a concept is playable one or just concept on sheet. Once we are satisfied with the Prototype, we start adding art assets, UI functionalities and gameplay elements. Once the production is finished we test our game with few of our friends get feedback to fine tune the game accordingly.
GC: As a game development studio in India, what are the challenges you face?
KG: Being an Indie is a challenge. Indian developer finds it hard to showcase their games due to lack of review sites and forum exclusively meant for Indian games. Moreover selling the game in Indian market is very challenging because most of the Indian Gamers do not have a credit card to buy the game of their choice. Since android has the largest market share in India, game developers heavily depends on carrier billing for their distribution in Google Play India.
At the moment Google does not open carrier billing in India that makes it challenging to sell. Apart from distribution, Indie developers do not have an exclusive India-specific forum to market their games. so that makes marketing an expensive area for all independent developers. However the situation is changing slowly. Meanwhile we are extremely happy that “Gaming Central” made an initiative and started focusing on India-specific contents.
GC: How did you come up with the game’s concept?
KG: By playing more game irrespective of genre and watching sci-fi action movies will help us to choose the right concept.
GC: What were your inspirations?
KG: Obviously it’s games and more games! Also we get inspiration from Disney, Pixar movies, Japanese Cartoons & Manga series.
GC: What inspires you outside of gaming?
KG: We are good at cooking 🙂 Love to try new recipes. Moreover we love watching action, sci-fi movies and traveling on weekends.
GC: What would your dream game be like?
KG: A mobile game with all the fun and gameplay essence like Super Mario Brothers! That would be our dream game.
GC: How was your game development journey so far?
KG: It was slow and steady with lots of ups and downs. As the journey progresses, we are constantly updating ourselves to meet modern gamers need.
GC: Gameplay, Narrative, or Graphics? Which is the most important according to you?
KG: The most important part is good gameplay with simple narrative. But graphics will help us to attract more user base.
GC: Sci-fi, Mystery,Action, or Fantasy? What would you choose and why?
KG: As an indie developer, we try to choose Action genre because it helps us to explore more casual gaming area. Whereas Sci-fi, Mystery or Fantasy requires lots of advanced gameplay and innovative graphics to reach wider audience.
GC: How long have you been working on your latest game?
KG: It took eight month to finish “Simple Spy” our latest title.
GC: How many folks are involved in the making of your game
KG: For art and game design, Selvakumar handles everything. Coding and other technical issues are handled by Vasanthan. We also get some external help for sound FX and music.
GC: What is the average budget required in developing a game in India?
KG: We can not fix an average budget for a game because budget may vary from studio size to size of the content we develop.
GC: What all can go wrong during development? What are the problems you might face while developing game?
KG: The greatest fear during development is change of concept in the middle of development. We can’t predict, so everything can go wrong during development from UI functionality to game design. This can be overcome by constant brainstorming and team interaction.
Though software upgrades are iterative, soon we might face a critical problem if we do not go through software release notes while upgrading. So we need to be 100% sure while upgrading our tools and engines. The first and foremost thing an Indie dev has to do is taking every day backup in cloud and in local server. so that we can have version control which in turn will help our productivity.
GC: What lessons have you learned from developing your game?
KG: With every game release we can learn more about distribution, marketing and user expectation.
GC: Where do you think the games industry will be in the next 5-10 years?
KG: Before it was PC vs Console now it is Mobile Vs PC/Console so in the next 5-10 years, it may be Mobile vs Television. There is also a possibility that mobile is going to be the future in gaming because mobile ecosystem is evolving and it’s graphics capability is increasing steadily. This could even lead to Mobile as a PC and ultimately replacing PC/Console.
GC: What games did you enjoy playing this year?
KG: Obviously our game “Awesome Turn” and “Simple Spy”.
GC: What is your favorite game at the moment and what makes it special?
KG: Yes, it’s “Simple Spy” because of it’s simplicity and minimalist game play.
GC: Any advice for budding gamers and developers?
KG: For budding developers, whatever it takes, stick to your concept, try to finish and publish your games. Publishing a game will boost your morale and ultimately give courage to stay in the business. For gamers, do share the game that makes you happy and reward the developer that will makes them happy.
GC: Anything else you would like to add?
We are extremely happy to share our experiences with you guys. Feel free to reach us at https://twitter.com/kodarigames, https://www.facebook.com/kodarigames, www.kodarigames.com and get updates regarding our games.
Well, that was Kodari Games! Be sure to check out Simple Spy, it’s now available on the Play Store. It’s really awesome! For more news, reviews and interviews, keep checking back at Gaming Central.
