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Interview with Nicky Case
November 11, 2013
Nicky Case is an indie game developer. For information about his work, visit ncase.me.
Tibbetts: How long have you been interested in games and game development?
Case: Since I was 12! I actually started out in animation with Flash, but because Flash had some programming capabilities, I tried my hand at making games, and well, I guess it stuck with me!
Tibbetts: What inspires you?
Case: Elegance in games. Best examples I can think of: Braid and Portal. I'm also a sucker for games that merge gameplay and story together, rather than just blandly telling the whole story with cutscenes. My fave examples: The Walking Dead and Papers Please.
And, of course, the whole indie gamedev ethos! There's just something liberating and personal about a small team's game being a labour of love, not part of a corporate plan to meet next quarter's financial projections.
Tibbetts: How would you describe your creative process?
Case: I can actually be accurate in describing my creative process because I keep a detailed "creativity" diary. So, in almost every self-directed project I've done, game or not, it has followed these steps:
1. Think of a vague crappy idea.
2. Write it down in the creative diary. Then forget it for a month.
3. Remember the same idea, but it's more detailed this time.
4. I sketch the idea: possible level designs or world art or whatever. Then forget it for another month.
5. Suddenly remember the same idea, but now fully detailed and refined and brilliant.
6. Wow, that was a sudden epiphany! ...That took two months.
7. Make a minimalist prototype, show a few close friends for feedback and suggestions.
8. Add onto the prototype, get feedback, repeat until I feel guilty for not releasing the damn thing yet.
9. Finally release that game/animation/app!
10. While basking in the praise... I think of a vague crappy idea.
Tibbetts: What do you consider your best work?
Case: I want to get this off my chest: my most popular game, Reimagine The Game, is not my favourite work. Not anymore, anyway. Remember how I said I love elegance? Reimagine is the complete opposite of that: a mish-mash of ideas and mechanics with no coherence. Also, the jokes, being mostly parodies, quickly became stale a year after its release.
In terms of game design, I'm most proud of Gap Monsters. It was a clever, elegant puzzle mechanic, around something cool like negative space, and had my signature creepy-cruel aesthetic. I was not expecting people to be genuinely horrified by the game, given there was no blood or gore whatsoever. Just strong implications of fates worse than death. It also had a level editor, and I loved seeing people create clever or beautiful puzzles with my game.
Tibbetts: What advice would you offer to aspiring game developers and programmers?
Case: For your first game? Keep your scope small.
For your 2nd, 3rd, ...nth games? Keep your scope small.
Keeping your game small isn't just to help conserve resources and time, (which you'll always have a limited amount of as an indie) but it also makes the game tighter, cleaner, and more focused. So...that real-time open-world MMORPG with crafting and levelling up system and engaging character-driven narrative with photorealistic 3d graphics and a free-to-play monetization model you've been dying to make? Yeah. That shouldn't be your first game project. And even if you do pull it off, it will be an incoherent mess.
Also, if you think you need to code your own engine, 99% of the time, you don't need to code your own engine.
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