PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:
Hello hello! My name is Viktor Zimin, I am the co-founder and main person behind Blue Pin Studio. The company was founded by me and my high school friend William in early 2020. We both occupy unrelated day jobs and make video games on the side.
We made the initial game jams together and had plans for a big RPG game. At some point in 2021, after our first steam launch (Eggnog Incorporated), we pivoted away from that big RPG project, and William returned to focusing on his day job.
That leaves me, Viktor, working on all the games in conjunction with many collaborators from around the world. However, there are plans to add William back into the fold with an upcoming unannounced project.
TELL US ABOUT EXPLORY STORY.
The game that I’m focusing on at the moment is called Explory Story. This game is being made by myself, Bizmaster Studios, Holly Rhiannon, Nick Wolfe, and Matias Forera. The initial idea for the game came out of a Ludum Dare game jam. The theme for the 46th Ludum Dare (back in April 2021) was “Deeper and Deeper.”
After some brainstorming, the original game jam team came up with the idea to run around on the surface of a book while getting deeper and deeper into the story. We made the game over that weekend and ended up winning 1st place out of thousands of games in the Innovation category. The game scored well overall, but innovation was our best category.
Anyway, fast forward to now, the team has changed around slightly, and the game is scheduled to be released in 2025. We each only commit a small amount of time each month because we have day jobs and other projects on the go. That is largely why it has taken almost 4 years to complete the game.
HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN
Generally, game development has had its peaks and valleys. There are good times and no-so-good times.
WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
The engine I chose when initially starting my game development journey was Construct 2, which has now evolved into Construct 3.
The rationale behind picking this engine was simple: I don’t know any programming language. Construct made it easy for someone with no technical knowledge to start making games. This is owed to the structure of the programming in the engine. You don’t need to know any programming language, you can simply set up logic such as “Create a sprite every 5 seconds” in plain English using drop-downs and menus.
The ease of use has allowed me to make lots of games (15 game jams, 3 Steam games, 1 mobile game) so I think it worked out excellently. The engine doesn’t allow for giant 3D open worlds such as Witcher 3 or World of Warcraft, but I think there's plenty of space in the 2D game area for me to explore for years to come!
WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?
In regards to the game I mentioned before, Explory Story, it has actually been nailing down the gameplay. Making a character run around on the screen stepping on words is easy. Making the game very fun, however? That’s difficult.
We have spent a great deal of time prototyping and experimenting on designs for gameplay and art to maximize the core pillars of the game. This involved discarded work, scrapped features, fluctuating motivation, and so on…
I’m sure most game developers would say that finishing the game is the hardest thing about game development. Having been on both sides of the process, releasing games quickly and getting stuck in a game development quagmire, I’ve concluded that it's all hard. The ideation, the development, the release, and the marketing.
ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?
I have two, sort of opposing, pieces of advice for people to consider.
Firstly, make lots of small games and game jams. This will help you learn the process of development and releasing but equally importantly, you will become acquainted with pleasing players and parsing feedback. Learning how players interpret games, watching them play your games, and reading the types of things they notice and don’t notice is crucial for making games that appeal to people.
Secondly, if you’ve done the first step well, you’ll have lots of people telling you “oh my god, you should make a full version of this game” or “I can totally see a full version of this on Steam.” These people’s intentions are good, and they’re excited about your game. I urge you to strongly consider the marketability, market fit, and game design before committing to making a full game. It’s easy to get swept up in the hype, but not every 5-minute experience can be adequately translated into a 2-hour experience for example. Likewise for games that fit a jam theme really well, but don’t necessarily make sense in a vacuum. Those two examples are only a small sampler of how things can go wrong when bringing a game jam entry to Steam.
ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?
After nearly 5 years of making games part-time, I feel like I’ve only learned a small fraction of what the medium has to offer. I heard something a while back, can’t remember from where that resonated with me in regards to learning. I’ll paraphrase it for you: “You can know the name of something, but it doesn’t mean you know anything about it.”
To contextualize that into a game development conversation, people mention game feel, juice, routes to market, reviews, etc. But do they know how to excel in those? Truly excel? Very few do if you ask me.
Keep learning and keep questioning your assumptions, and wherever possible, lean on others’ expertise to avoid costly mistakes.
-Viktor
❤️
