Fruit Spread Interview: Brad Muir, Double Fine Productions
Turns out Twitter is a great way to unexpectedly arrange interviews!
It was a pleasant surprise to interview Brazen developer Brad Muir, of Double Fine productions. I wanted to get more insight into one my recent favourite game jams, and find out what the future holds for the talented developer and his studio.
You can follow Brad Muir on Twitter here.
When you first started working on Brazen, did you have a clear idea in mind for the project, or did the direction or the game develop during the creative process?
I had a really solid idea of the core of the gameplay and aesthetics: Monster Hunter gameplay for a western audience combined with the flavor or a Ray Harryhausen film! But plenty of things changes along the way – I think my favorite addition (outside of the BEERZERKER) was probably the 80’s flavor that we put in there near the end. We thought it would be awesome to create something that would have been made by Harryhausen if he had continued his career into the 80’s. You can see the influence the most in the title screen!
When working on a project like Brazen, what is the development process in terms of each team member’s contribution? Eg. Does one person lead with an idea or does everyone pitch in?
We have a role at Double Fine called Project Lead. It comes from Tim’s time at Luca Arts. This person is the vision holder for the game as well as the project manager. It’s tough, but it’s also good that there’s one point of contact for everything. There’s a lot of support across those disciplines though. For example, when I was Project Lead on IRON BRIGADE I had a Producer (the amazing Matt Hansen!) who helped out with a lot of the scheduling work.
There’s definitely a Project Lead calling the shots but I try to give people a lot of autonomy to do their own thing. Ideas come from everyone on the team and I think the best part of the gig is taking peoples’ excellent ideas and incorporating them into the game!
Was Brazen a more 'communal' process due to time constraints or did you follow a more traditional process of development?
The dev process was so short for the prototype that we didn’t have a lot of time for process. Even though it’s unappealing for most people, I feel like it’s best to micromanage those short prototype development sessions. So there’s lots of time making sure that each team member is concentrating on the most important thing at any given time. That can be detrimental when it comes to a long development, but when you only have a few weeks I feel like it really helps!
What were the lessons the team learned from previous Amnesia Fortnight projects, such as Iron Brigade and Costume Quests, prototypes which spawned into complete XBLA titles?
Oh man so many things! I think my biggest take-away from IRON BRIGADE was that aesthetics are as important as gameplay, even at the prototype stage. Coming from a programming / designer background I was always concentrating on gameplay above all else. So when I was in charge of that initial prototype for IRON BRIGADE, it was heavily gameplay focused and I hadn’t spent enough time thinking about what the game should look/feel like. That was the hardest part when we took the game from prototype to a real product – we hadn’t nailed the art style and needed a lot more exploration to make it right.
For BRAZEN I tried to have a very clear aesthetic choice up front. I’m still not super good at it, but being able to point to Harryhausen films created a great starting point for us to discuss the visuals of the game!
To compare creating a full game to a two week prototype, is there a discernible difference in level of stress/enjoyment? And do you find it more creatively rewarding, or is it slightly frustrating not seeing an idea develop into a full product?
There’s definitely advantages to both! Prototyping is super fun… I think that getting something to work for the very first time is my favorite part of game development. There’s so much mystery… will it be any good? Will it be fun? Will it come together? Will the art style work with the gameplay? All of these open questions are just hanging out there and you get to start seeing things take shape as they get answered. It rules!
Finaling a game is not fun. There are always a billion bugs, and fixing some only makes more show up! It’s pretty awful. :D And then at a certain point you just have to put your pencil down. It’s really hard to stop tweaking and changing things and let the product be ‘done.’ But then you get the massive upside of releasing something to the public and having them check it out. And hopefully some of them like it! That part is super rewarding. I loved hearing from groups of IRON BRIGADE players that played the game with each other over great distances of the world. It’s a great motivator!
To answer your question I think that the prototype process compresses a lot of what you would experience in a full development schedule. They’re similar, but one is a slow burn and one is like a crazy explosion. :D
Aside from Brazen, are there any projects from this year's Amnesia Fortnight that you're particularly excited about? Also, outside of Double Fine, what Game Jams have you experienced that particularly resonate with you?
I loved worked on Lee Petty’s Autonomous! I think that his vision for the game, especially on the aesthetic front, is just incredible. I also like the concept of Hack n Slash. Brandon Dillon has a unique idea of what’s possible with trying to teach players how hacking actually works. I think it could be really amazing.
I have never actually participated in a game jam outside of DF, but I’m actively looking to get into it! I really want to go to the next Molyjam – I think they’re going to announce the dates soon! I also love the limited stuff that I’ve seen from the Capy Games jams. I’m pretty sure that Super Time Force came out of there and that game makes me super happy. :D
Brazen drew heavy inspiration from Monster Hunter and from the legendary animator Ray Harryhausen. If Brazen was to continue development from its initial ‘prototype’ phase, are there any other areas of inspiration do you think you’d look to?
Honestly I think that’s enough! :D There’s enough there to use as the baseline of inspiration that I think we could go off in our own direction and be fine. I feel like it’s good to have only a few notable inspirations so that you can always come back to them… too many and I think it’s start getting a little hard for both developer and player to parse!
Are you already formulating ideas for the kind of areas you'd like to look at in the next Amnesia Fortnight?
I’ve already got my idea set and I’ve started percolating it in the back of my brain. I’m getting pretty excited just thinking about it… but for now it’s all SECRETS. :D! Hopefully we’ll do it in the public again this year and my idea will get picked! I’m definitely crossing my fingers for this one!
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