PLEASE START US OFF BY INTRODUCING YOURSELF:

Hi! My name is Rafael Gonçalves. I’m an artist and game developer from Portugal and I’m currently working on my first game Stunt Xpress together with Pineapple Works.

I graduated from the Porto School of Fine Arts with a major in Sculpture and spent the following 12 years abroad working in animation and motion design for communication films and advertisement. I came back to Portugal with my family a few years back and continued to work remotely in the same field but started to experiment with game engines in my free time.

TELL US ABOUT STUNT XPRESS.

I started working on Stunt Xpress a bit over two years ago and it was initially meant as a short hobby project that would take me through all the steps involved in making a video game from start to finish. I read somewhere on the internet that racing games were an “easy” genre and suitable for beginners, so I chose that (Yes, I was very naïve). I also have a longstanding interest in procedural generation and real-time physics, so I knew I wanted to include that in the project. I began sharing my progress on social media as a sort of dev diary and that’s when, in an unexpected turn of events, I began being contacted by (serious) indie publishers that were interested in the game. After a lot of back-and-forths with these publishers I finally signed up with Pineapple Works, whose offer was the closest to what I needed.

Stunt Xpress has been a physics sandbox, delivery van driving game since the beginning, but it has evolved a lot throughout its development, especially since Pineapple Works joined in. Together, we have been refining the gameplay mechanics and progression. Replayability has been one of our top priorities, so it actually has become a sort of roguelike. You have careers that are “runs”. Inside there are tournaments that are like “dungeons”. Which, in turn, have matches, that are “levels”. In these matches you have to accomplish randomised objectives to progress and unlock equippable gear that grants you perks so you can try out many different “builds”. All this, from tournaments all the way down to maps is procedurally generated. So yeah. Development isn’t over yet, and there are many things we still need to improve. But I’m very excited about what it has evolved into.

HOW HAS THE DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY BEEN

It has certainly been quite a ride so far. As you may guess by now, at the start of the project I had experience in Art Direction and 3D asset production, but almost none in the other relevant gamedev disciplines, namely: Programming. However, it just so happens that I love learning new things and I’ve made (hopefully) very visible progress in these last two years. And that feels great. In a way, it was already worth it.

WHICH GAME ENGINE DID YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?

The most beginner-friendly game engine that I’ve tried: Godot! It’s also worth mentioning that I’ve been an avid Blender user for a long long time. So there’s definitely a FOSS link here. GDScript is absolutely amazing for beginners and although some may complain about its performance, I’ve yet to encounter a situation where its speed (or lack of it) is an issue. Also, the speed of iteration in Godot is fantastic. You can edit your scenes and scripts while the game is running. I mean, how awesome is that? It’s also extremely lightweight and bloat-free. I don’t need an account. I don’t have to deal with any absurd retroactive ToS changes, run-time fees or AI nonsense.

Godot is awesome. If you haven’t already, give it a try.

WHAT'S BEEN YOUR BIGGEST DEVELOPMENT HURDLE SO FAR?

Time. As a father of 3, time-starvation has become a chronic condition for me. But don’t take me wrong, I love my kids and spending time with them is very important for me! There are only few hurdles that don’t have a solution though, and if you stumble upon one, you just have to use your creativity to make your way around it. For me, this workaround involves a lot of discipline and night shifts. For the record: I’m not advising anyone to work instead of relaxing and resting at night. This is just the way my life is at the moment. It’ll get better.

ADVICE FOR FELLOW DEVS?

I’m not sure I’m experienced enough in gamedev to give out advice. But I can give advice, if you, like me, think of games as an Art form. And I don't mean Art as in art-assets or anything like that. I mean it as in: A video game is something you create in order to make people experience something, whatever that something is.

It could be fear, like in horror games. Adrenaline, like in FPSs. It could be a message in a narrative or an abstract sensorial stimulus. It can be many or all of those things combined. Add to that the fact that each player’s personal approach makes their own experience unique, and voilà: You have the most powerful medium that exists today. So if you’re making a game, think about that. That feeling or message you want to convey is the most important thing and everything else should work towards it. And to quote the great Mike Skinner: “Don’t conform to formulas”.

ANY FINAL THOUGHTS?

- I suppose there aren’t many non-programmers wanting to start out in gamedev in their late 30s like me. But if there are, and it’s you: Go for it! The experience you gained doing whatever it was you were doing before is valuable and if you channel it right it will make your games unique.

I realise many of the things in this interview go against the common sense warnings for beginners you see everyday on social media. And it’s true that you shouldn’t put yourself at risk, financially speaking. But even if it stays just a hobby, learning new things, meeting new like-minded people and seeing your project growing from a note on a piece of paper into a fully formed video game is a life changing experience that I will never regret.

- Rafael

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2645830/Stunt_Xpress/

❤️