Bit Barons Interview

What’s up readers, I am joined here today by Alexander Zacherl, Managing Director of the indie game development company Bit Barons. We are going to be discussing their first creation, a grid like puzzle game named Astroslugs, which will be available tomorrow for both PC and Mac. Let’s not waste any more time and get on with it shall we?

First of all Alex, I would just like to say thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to chat with us.

Let’s get right to the questions:

1. How did the Bit Barons come to be, were you all friends in high school, college, or did you just meet at one random place and say “Hey, let’s make a game together”?

Yeah, it was indeed a bit like that. Alex and Sergej had been working on a game prototype in their last year of their game design studies. They’ve been showcasing that prototype (called QUBOX) at the Game Developers Conference Europe in 2009. I’ve also been there – actively looking for someone who was mad enough to go indie with me. It was probably love at first sight.

2. Why did you decide to become a video game programmer?

I always wanted to be a programmer. But besides a bunch of half-done prototypes in Flash, LUA and Unity I’ve never really coded something. I’m probably too lazy. You see – I’m the “Managing Director” at Bit Barons, which means that I’m not allowed to code or paint or do any other interesting work. Instead I’m working with spread sheets, dealing with contracts and get to be our main QA tester.

3. Where did you come up with the idea for Astroslugs?

That was Alex (Widl)’s fault. In the beginning, Astroslugs was supposed to be a game where the balls were positioned like pearls on a string. Later it turned into some kind of Rubik’s Cube where the objects looked a lot like the companion cube from Portal. And eventually we went 2D, brainstormed some protagonists (the Astroslugs) and somehow our game turned out to be what it’s today.

4. How long was the development process from start to finish?

Longer than it should be. =D As said before, the first prototyping started in the early summer of 2009. But we finally went full-time professional indies in may 2010. So it’s been between 9 and 21 months.

5. What was the reason behind releasing your first game on PC, and not on any of the other video game consoles?

It’s hard to get on the big three consoles when noone knows you. We’d like to bring Astroslugs to PSN or WiiWare at some point but for now the platform holders probably won’t even talk to us. That’s why we’re first releasing on PC where it’s easier to distribute your game (on your own web site) to prove that we can indeed release a good game. From there we’re going to Mobile and then we’ll probably talk to the console owners.

6. Are there any plans on making the game available for mobile devices such as the IPhone or IPad?

Yes. Work on the iPad version has already begun. It will be a improved version of the game with some new features and complete gesture controls. After that’s done we’re going to bring Astroslugs to the iPhone and Android devices, both of which will need a bigger rework of the game as their screen sizes are so much smaller.

7. Since this is a puzzle game, will there be a hint system included to help players complete some of the harder levels?

We’ve been pretty set on not having a hint system as we did not want to “force” the players to solve a puzzle the way we did (there are dozens of solutions for any given puzzle in the game). But people have been asking for this a lot over the last weeks and maybe we’ll add one in a future (free) game update. Until then we’ll have solutions for all puzzles on the web site at astroslugs.com/solutions in a few days.

8. Will extra levels be included in the form of downloadable updates?

Not right now. But we’re planning to release the Astroslugs level editor and a level sharing system in a free game update after release. It may take a while but it will eventually arrive and feed starving Astroslugs players with lots of new content and a way to create their own puzzles.

9. Were there any puzzles in particular that the developers had a hard time solving?

Nearly all of them, to be honest. Even when you made a puzzle yourself, it’s hard to solve it again a few days or weeks later. I think I’ve never beaten the last puzzle without cheating … I guess that’s why it’s hidden under a storm cloud. =D

10. Were you influenced by any classic puzzle video game franchise during the making of Astroslugs?

Not really. We were striving to go for a degree of polish that World of Goo or Bejeweled offers. But gameplay- and art-wise we’ve just done what we saw as fitting and did not actively look at other puzzle games for inspiration. But then we’ve played some many of them over the last twenty years that most of them have probably left a mark on our game design.

11. Is there any advice that you can give to our fellow readers who decide to pick up the game?

Don’t give up. The puzzles can be VERY hard. But there’s always another puzzle to solve when you’re stuck at one. So just switch over to another puzzle and when you get back to the first one, you’ll probably be able to solve it.

12. What system requirements need to be met in order to enjoy the full experience?

A somehow modern computer with a graphic card that support shader model 2. Which means most computers that were being sold in the last four years. Some of the weaker netbooks might have a bit of a performance issue but all-in-all nearly everyone should be able to play Astroslugs.

13. How much will it cost, and can people pick it up at retail stores, or will it be available for download only?

It will be 9.99 EUR / 13.99 USD / 8.99 GBP from our own web-site (equal pricing for anyone in the world). There will be a number of game portals also selling the game (find the list on our web site) and there will also be a retail version in Germany/Austria/Switzerland. But that version will not be in the stores before February 10th.

14. Is there a sequel in the works, and if so, what new gameplay features will be implemented?

Not yet. We’re now taking our time to see what players liked most about the game and what suggestions they have for new features. Suggestions are best be posted in our support forum.

15. Finally, is there anything you would like to say to our fellow readers before we wrap up this interview?

Should you like puzzle games, give our free demo a try. We hope you like what we made and we’re always open for feedback. And remember: Buying directly from independent developers enables us to make more games.

Once again, we would like to thank you for your time Alex, and we look forward to seeing what new ideas you come up with for future games. Be sure to check out Astroslugs, and support our fellow independent developers, because if it wasn’t for them, creative ideas for games would simply not exist.