Today we are here with Andrew Smith the Designer for Proper Games. With the treat of FLOCK! to be released shortly we get the privilege to get few things answered.
Can you please tell us a little about FLOCK! and what your part was on the project for those that have not heard of the title?
Well I am the Designer at Proper Games, and my involvement ran from making levels with our in-house tools to planning and developing game mechanics with the team and of course making the sure game stayed true to our interpretation of fun.
FLOCK! itself is a wonderful little game we’ve made for everyone to enjoy. You play the part of a UFO tasked with abducting various types of animals from a stuffed-and-stitched world, but we don’t bother ourselves with the why’s and wherefore’s. Every level is a fun little playground for the player to experiment in, and over time of course we award new powers and give new toys and puzzles to muck around with. It’s an action-based puzzle game at heart, but it’s just so much fun to mess around in the world regardless of any objectives we set the player.
Out of all the animals that could have been used why farm animals? Also, did you have others animals that you wanted to use that did not make the cut?
For me, it was a natural extension of being a UFO – they abduct Cows and whatnot in popular myth, so we extended it to include any farm animals. It just seems right to us! We tried, at the very start, to pick iconic animals that everyone can recognize and build the gameplay around their perceived attributes. Cows and stampedes, Chickens and flapping etc. Of course some fell out of the visual style and treatment of the animals in the game – no animals have legs in our world, so Pigs had to be round, and round things roll! As for the Sheep, they’re just too cute being made of cotton wool, and we thought it’d be funny and even cuter to have them shrink when wet… most of the time the deciding factor was humour when debating over what the animals should and shouldn’t do.
What techniques were used in FLOCK! to build replayability in the title?
The main thing for us was to make sure tons of people could enjoy the game. We made a real effort no to punish the player unnecessarily – that just turns people off. To accomplish this, we felt a ‘soft’ time limit (that once it runs out merely takes a layer of reward away, rather than a ‘hard’ limit which would end play and force a restart) would suit our needs. You can do levels really quickly to get a better medal and score. The medals tie to bonuses you can earn in the game, while the scores let you compete with people on leaderboards – even if you fail to do well, you can always go back and try again. The fundamental thing is that every time you complete a new level, to whatever standard, you will always unlock something to play with in the Editor. The worst you can do is kill too many animals on a level, but we’ve even used humour to make this less of a turn off. Despite the need to restart, hopefully you’ll be chuckling at the reactions of the animals as they fall to their doom…
During the early gameplay tests were there any concerns about the art style on this game?
Honestly, from the day we first hit on the visual style and began to build the game around it, we knew we were on to a winner. It’s so cute without being saccharine sweet, it’s charming without being childish and most of all it is hugely tactile. Just having fun by being in a world is such a great thing for a game to have, and we’re really proud of the way or visual design fed into the game design and vice versa. There was an instance where there were some concerns over a perceived similarity to Little Big Planet by external parties (this is way back when we were still pitching it) but I’m positive our game stands out even from that as a pretty unique and appealing title. I challenge anyone to find a screenshot of another game that could be confused with FLOCK!.
The artwork in FLOCK! is very unique, did the artists enjoy working on something so different in art design?
Speaking for myself I definitely saw appreciation of not having to work on a ‘realistic’ game with a grey-and-brown palette, and at the same time I think the challenge of translating Geoff’s resolutely 2D and personal style into 3D would be enough to keep any artist engaged for a long period.
Why was the UFO chosen as the vehicle of choice? Did you have any other flying vehicles in mind?
Many moons ago we had an initial idea for a game that turned into FLOCK!, but you’d never guess what setting and vehicle it had… safe to say it was a little less far-fetched than a UFO!
Was there any defining moment during the production that stands out or any memorable moments that the team shared?
For me there were two. The first is the aforementioned moment when we hit upon the visual style. It was a passing comment at the time, and we were lucky enough to have the talented guys here implement a few mockups of various style over a day or so… as soon as we all gathered round the monitor to check out the beginnings of the style everyone knows as FLOCK!, I think everyone knew it was what the game needed, without question.
The second was a bit more personal to me, when we were pitching at Leipzig in Germany. It was pure chance that we managed to get Capcom’s attention. We had decided as a team to go out to all the publisher’s desks (all the pretty girls working on them were an added reason) and just see if anybody was around that would listen to our pitch. Not terribly well thought out, as most were booked up to the nines. However, when I nervously sidled up to the Capcom booth, it turns out the man I needed to talk to had got 5 minutes to spare between meetings. So we power-walked to our humble Scottish Enterprise booth around the corner, and after reeling off the pitch and letting him get his hands on the playable prototype he left – I thought – impressed. I checked my watch, and 15 minutes had passed. That was the first time I thought ‘hang on, we might be onto something here’. Over the next days of the show, he came back twice to play it, both times with his boss… and the rest is history.
Since this game will have user created content, how will this work on the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3? So far the only games to perfect this are Halo 3 for the 360 and Little Big Planet for PS3. Is there a content download area and will there be any rules to what can be created (littlebigplanet has had issues with ‘unfriendly’ or trademarked content on occasion).
We’ve basically tried to keep it simple. You can create a map and save it in a matter of minutes, then move to the map browser and upload it in a matter of seconds. You can also browse tabs that list the most popular criteria for categorizing maps, and even use a filter to refine your search even more. When you find a map you want to download, it’s a button press away and the map files are small enough that you’ll be playing it within moments. You can also store favourites and once you’ve played a new map, you can rate it – the ratings are sent to the server and everyone will know which maps are wroth downloading just from how many stars it has.
In terms of trademarked content or offensive material, we doubt much can be done that strays too far into IP infringement, but even if it does we have the power to moderate maps (essentially by removing them), and will look to the community to help us police it.
Your website says “Game Development With Passion,” what was your passion behind creating this game?
Proper Games’ passion is all about old school values in gaming – instant fun, accessibility, charm, personality etc – but brought to the modern world with cutting edge technology, great graphics and modern twists. FLOCK! has been compared to games like Lemmings before, and we’re flattered by that, believe me… but we think we’ve taken the humour and fun and puzzle based action of a game like that and presented it in a very contemporary way. The physics engine makes the world really dynamic and exciting, while the personality in all the animals and the level of polish across all aspects of the game are a real point of pride for our team. It’s this level of quality and care and attention to detail that we want to become a hallmark of all our games in the future.
We want to thank Proper Games for taking time with us to answer a few questions. I look forward to herding some sheep in the future and hope to see everyone take a serious look into FLOCK!
