The Game Developers Conference is finally here, which is probably one of my favorite times of the year (even beats Christmas!). My last GDC experience was quite interesting because for the conference that week I was staying at Derek Yu's place, along with his Bit Blot partner Alec Holowka down from Canada. It just happened to be that was the year they entered their underwater fantasy game Aquaria into the IGF.  

It also just happened to be that they won the IGF Grand Prize in front of some of the biggest names in games.  

Since then, they've gotten a lot of attention for Aquaria, their company's first game, while they've been hard at work to finishing and finally releasing Aquaria last December. Both of them carry indie pride, now more than ever. Derek is also the fearless leader of The Independent Gaming Source, a blog and community that reviews and discusses indie games as players and developers.  

I decided to catch up with them to talk a little bit about Aquaria's development, a little about the indie world, and to see what they're up to for this next GDC.   

Me: Indie games! *raises fists*  (yes this is all part of the interview) 

Alec Holowka: Oh shit. 

Me: So last time I hung out with you guys you were winning awards for your now released game Aquaria. Almost a year later with another GDC a few weeks away, you guys feel like rockstars? 

Derek Yu: Perhaps once my hair reaches Romero length... but no, until then, not particularly! 

Me: Tell me about "evolving a game" as you mentioned being the approach to Aquaria development. Do you think this is ideal? 

Alec: I don't think it was something we did intentionally, it just grew out of us realizing that what we were working on wasn't good enough, so we decided to scrap it and start over. We did that a few times, and it was kind of like taking the elements that worked and dropping the ones that didn't. Survival of the fittest gameplay ideas. 

I'm not sure if its ideal... the ideal would probably be if you somehow knew exactly how the game should be before you start working on it, but I think its really hard to know what works and what doesn't without trying it out. That said, its better to change something to make it better than to just keep it because you feel you've put a lot of work into it. 

Me: Alec, besides programming, you also did the music for Aquaria. What did you use to compose and produce the music? What was the process here?

Alec: I used FL Studio, and a have a little USB MIDI keyboard that I can jam on. The music actually had a similar process to the game itself; I wrote a lot of stuff in a certain style early on, and then threw it out and went with a different style.

Originally the music was much more closer to something like Final Fantasy / Zelda. It took a while for me to find what I felt was the right sound for the game. For instance, I took about 8 different attempts on the title music before I found something that felt right!  

Me: Derek, the hand drawn beauty of Aquaria seems to be mostly your fault. What was your art process? 

Derek: I used almost exclusively Photoshop to do the graphics.  Most of my reference came from looking at underwater photos and real-life environments, but I also spent a good deal of time looking at artwork (especially conceptual artwork) from games, movies, etc., which I admired.  I think at one point I was studying that part in Harry Potter where he's underwater, roffle. 

I would have liked to have done more conceptual art, but with our time constraints and the large number of graphics, I had to jump straight to in-game art for a lot of things.  Only the most important things, like Naija, for example, got the concept art treatment.  Alec and I worked closely to bring out her design. 

Me: Now that the game is finished, you're working on porting it to other platforms (Linux I hear too?). What else has changed since its release? 

Alec: Yeah, there's a Mac version coming up that should be out within a couple months or so. The game looks really sexy on OSX. The game also runs on Linux in a rough form - I'm not sure when I'll be able to finish that version. 

Recently I've been working on proper widescreen support, and we just got it working! It looks great, and we'll be releasing a Windows patch for that and a bunch of other fixes around the time that the Mac version comes out. 

Me: I saw Aquaria was featured at Macworld. Was that because Ambrosia wants your children? 

Derek: I dunno, but there's a Google ad next to [this] e-mail that says "The Choking Game: Parents!  Do you know what it is?"  Seriously, what is it?! 

Me: As the metaphorical parents of Naija, are either of you concerned that she might be playing the choking game? Do you know where she is right now? 

Derek: She's pretty tough, so I'm not too concerned.  Hopefully she's not choking on a sea loaf, though... 

Me: How has the modding community grown since its launch? Anything interesting coming out of there yet? 

Alec: Early on, somebody made a Jukebox Mod, which is pretty cool - it plays all the music from the game. This other guy seems to be obsessed with making skins for the characters - especially nude skins. 

There are a couple big mods in development, but it remains to be seen how they'll turn out.  

Me: What are your plans for GDC this year? Anything you're looking forward to? 

Alec: GDC is going to be so rad this year - so many cool indie folks are going. 

Me: Who are your favorite indie folks? And by the way, who are you favorite mainstream folks? 

Derek: I love all my indie brothers and sisters!  But I have to mention, specifically, Brandon McCartin, Daniel Guertin, Steve and Matt at Flashbang Studios, and Dan Tabar (creator of Cortex Command), because I've gotten to work with them all more closely and they're all great guys. 

Mainstream-wise, my heart belongs to (and will always belong to): Shigeru Miyamoto, Fumito Ueda, Shigesato Itoi, Keita Takahashi, Will Wright, and Tim Schafer. 

Alec: I dig Moonpod, Lexaloffle, Data Realms, Kloonigames... I don't know, there are too many cool indie developers now.

In terms of the mainstream I'm a fan of games by Silicon Knights, but if someone asked me why, I don't know if I'd be able to explain it. 

Me: What do you guys think of some of the new IGF entrants? Aren't you guys judges? 

Alec: All the nominees are fun and really well polished. It feels really great to be part of the celebration. Overall, I think that I love Crayon Physics Deluxe the most. Plainyellowsmile Its a refreshing idea that is a lot of fun to pick up play. 

Me: You guys are speaking this year too, right? Is this going to be part of the Indie Game Summit? What are you going to be talking about? 

Alec: Yeah, we're doing a talk at the IGS called "Evolving Aquaria". Basically its about how the game was made, from the very beginning to the very end, and all the weird twists and turns the game took before it got to what people know it as today. It started out really different, but there are some things that stayed constant throughout - its kinda interesting. 

Me: How would you guys describe indie culture in the context of games? You guys are definitely into the indie community, but how would you describe it to people that might be looking in from the outside? 

Alec: When its at its best, its just a group of people who love making games - and who want the freedom to make whatever games they like. They're usually free from corporate bullshit, and don't have to bow to the pressures of trying to appeal to as many people as possible. They can make games in their own style and take risks, without having to worry about whether they will make back millions of dollars. 

At its worst, it can be pretentious douche-baggery. 

Me: Have you guys started any serious talks about what's next for Bit Blot? 

Alec: Yeah, I think we have a pretty solid idea for the game that we want to do next. Plainyellowsmile 

Me: Uh oh! Well, that's it. Thanks for letting me poke at you guys. Any last words? 


Alec: INDIE GAMES!! *raises arms*