Hey there! It’s Adam, the founder of Cosmocat Games. A game dev student recently asked me a few questions about my history, and in the spirit of sharing I figured I should make my responses public for all to see. Enjoy!
What roles have you taken on in the past in previous projects, and which one was your favourite? Or has every project been solo?
I’ve been the lead designer, programmer, musician and sound designer for most of the games I’ve released. All of my projects have had at least one other contributor, if not a partner. Generally, I try to find collaborators with complimentary skill sets–art being the most obvious–but in a small indie team, I find it helpful for us to all know at least a little bit about everything, as we’re able to work together more effectively if we’re speaking the same language. As a result, it’s not uncommon for my collaborators to contribute code and audio as well.
Something else I bring to the table is my production and management experience. Although this is not usually a full-time role in a small indie team, it’s still quite important, as we often have deadlines to meet. I’m generally the one responsible for building the backlog, planning milestones, ensuring we’re prioritizing and focusing effectively, etc.
One of my favourite parts of game development–and luckily, something I’ve been able to do in all of my games–is creating the atmosphere. This is what makes the world feel alive, and although it’s hard to quantify what makes a good atmosphere, it’s usually some combination of audio (ambience, reverb) and tech art (lighting, post-processing, particles).
What coding languages and game engines have you worked in, and which is your favourite?
I started experimenting with making games when I was much younger, in the days of DOS and early Windows, mainly using Pascal and C++. Game engines were less common at the time, and so developers would need to do pretty much everything from scratch. This was a great way to learn, and I learned tons about the hardware (and hardware constraints), but I’m thankful for modern game engines as they enable us to focus more on the creative aspect of making games, which is the part I’m especially drawn to.
I’ve tried several engines and frameworks over the years (Torque, Construct 3, XNA, LWGJL, to name a few) but Unity is the one that clicked the most for me and I’ve been loyal ever since (even through everything that’s happened lately with the runtime fees). C# also happens to be my favourite programming language, so it’s win-win.
Unity, like most game engines, has many quirks, but you get to know them over time. Honestly, there hasn’t been anything I haven’t been able to do in Unity, so I’ve had no reason to explore other engines. For the record, I’m not saying you should use Unity, but rather, that you should try to find the engine that inspires you the way Unity has me.
What have been your largest musical inspirations for your game music?
That’s a tough one as my musical inspirations are diverse. If I’m writing melodic game music, you’ll hear some David Wise (Rare composer) influence, though I’m not sure it’s so much his influence on me as it is he and I sharing many of the same influences. If I’m writing ambient/soundscapes, you will hear influences from the Fallout series (Mark Morgan and Inon Zur in particular). And if I’m writing something uptempo, I’m likely drawing on my numerous influences from underground electronic music.
What have been your biggest inspirations for your game design?
My design influences are equally diverse, and I’m sure I draw on many unknowingly, but if I had to name two explicitly:
- Spelunky has been hugely influential on my approach to procedural generation, which I use in the majority of my games
- FromSoftware games are my gold standard for both game feel, and world-building.
I suppose the common theme with both is that they place a high degree of trust in the player: after a basic tutorial, there is very little hand-holding, and you just have to find your way. I appreciate this kind of design as a player, but it’s a fine line: I regularly get comments like “You could do a better job explaining _“. But as I often say to my collaborators, we must stay true to our vision, even if it risks alienating a few players. If we explain everything, we run the risk of explaining away the sense of wonder and discovery.
If you could go back and change one major thing about one of your previous games, what would it be?
That’s a tough one. Like many indies, I could have done a better job marketing my games. But honestly, this is something I will likely always struggle with and one of the reasons I’m considering working with a publisher for my current game.
I suppose something I could have considered doing differently is investing more heavily in one game. For example, I could have kept updating my first successful game, developed DLCs, a sequel, etc. Many studios find success with this approach, but I feel it would likely be too restrictive for me creatively. I need variety to thrive, and I find working on the same kind of game, if not the same game, for years, is challenging.