Living as Independent Developer
February 17, 2009
Today we interview Andres Martinez, owner of baKno, a game development studio located in Key Biscayne, Florida. They are a group of video game enthusiasts committed to developing new ways to deliver fun, interactive and challenging software.
Living as Independent Developer
Manuel Marino: You declare yourself and your team as “video game enthusiasts”. How much being a “videogames fan” is important in creating games?
Andres Martinez: All companies have their own stories, but in our case, developing and self-publishing our games has been difficult, with low sales during several months at our beginnings, and still low if they get compared to a regular studio. The only reason we have been able to survive is our passion for the art of game creation.
Can we say that the old games of the past were “better”? What can we say to the nostalgic gamers?
20 to 30 years ago the video game space was totally different. Accessibility to video games was very low, the product itself was like an experiment and the assumed audience was reduced, fortunately for us, we fell into that target, and we enjoyed every bit of Space Invaders, Galaga, Pac-Man, etc.
Some may say that it was better for game developers at that time because it was easier to create totally new and different IPs (Intellectual Properties). But the reality is that, they created myriads of games and only a few stood up to catch the public’s attention. Additionally, they were tremendously limited by technology and market penetration.
So, to answer your question, I don’t think old games were better or worst. But I think that our judgement is usually biased by the emotional attachment we have to those old great experiences.
How is the Independent developers world?
If we can name our day to day activities at baKno a “world”, then it is great!. Being able to make a living out of our own game creations is a wonderful feeling. None of us worked in this industry before and we don’t know how it is to distribute games through an experienced third party, maybe sales are much higher, but I suspect that for those particular jobs your independence is quite compromised.
What’s the difference between being “indy” and being “in the industry”?
We don’t consider baKno to be an industry player yet, we are independents as explained before, but it does not excludes the possibility of being an influent member of the gaming industry at the same time.
Videogames are more a “work of art” or a “industry product”?
All baKno games are a “work of art” built upon an “industry product” foundation. This foundation provides a minimum quality, design and support standards, and it becomes the canvas where the artist paint his game creation.
What can be done to make modern games better and innovative?
Creating better games is not that difficult, just use your common sense to take advantage of the ever-growing processing capacity, graphics and audio capabilities and internet bandwidth. As an example, you can enhance a simple old-school cards game with better graphics and effects, and maybe adding a multiplayer option with audio chat capability. Creating quality innovative games is an art, and for that there is no recipe or guideline to follow.
Why is it that I find games from independent developers being more innovative?
Innovation is weapon that cuts both ways. The more you innovate in a game, the higher the chance of being a great hit or a great failure. Established studios have serious economic responsibilities like payroll or rent, and they cannot afford to risk the company viability in a single game. On the other hand, and usually not even knowing about it, independent developers working from home are the risky creators of real innovative game experiences.
Internet can be of help?
Sure. In general, for casual games Internet has been the medium to reach massive audiences by offering free-to-try downloads, something that would have been impossible (very expensive) by mailing free CDs. In particular, baKno relies heavily on the Internet not only as a distribution medium but also as an effective way to communicate with our customers, and also to enhance the game experience with additional online features.
What are your next projects?
We are working now the online gaming for Billiards. We want to create a subscription service before mid-year. And by the end of the year we want to create a game with 100% pure baKno IP.
How do you see the future of videogaming?
As an interesting mixture of platforms, game genres and players’ demographics. Internet is going to be the default distribution medium, there won’t be a single dominant gaming platform, more and more people will embrace video games as an entertainment alternative, and most important: the general public will recognize the cognitive development value provided by video games (most of them).
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Very Simple Audio Mastering Guide
September 1, 2008
BUY NOW Page – I’ve just released my ebook (PDF document) about Audio Mastering. I wrote it after receiving hundreds requests from my musicians friends. You can find many guides on the net and at your preferred bookstore. But what beginners really need are few tips, to understand the basics, not huge tomes with neverending technical data.
Very Simple Audio Mastering Guide
BUY NOW Page – So I had this idea to write a “very simple” guide, and, I must say, it is really simple, anyone can begin mastering with some success after reading it. I give also a couple of “tricks” so you can begin really soon to obtain a professional quality master. Of course this will not make you a mastering wizard, I’m in this field since 1998 and I continue to study… (yes, those famous tomes! heh). But I’m sure your music tracks will be much better and I really hope you’ll send me positive emails about the book!
The price of this document is 5 dollars only, this is why the main purpose of writing it was helping my friends and of course helping you, the new musicians with their first audio tools.
I know impressive musicians, talented pianists and guitarists that consider Digital Audio Workstations like monsters. They had mainly classical academical education and it is difficult to explain them how a compressor works. Now with my ebook they’ll finally understand the basics about compressors and dynamics, and maybe won’t see anymore the DAWs like monsters! :)
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Mobile Games and Technologies
August 7, 2008
Federico Elinger, owner of Pocketsol Games, wrote this exclusive article for us. Pocketsol Games creates high quality mobile games for the mobile phone based java platform (J2ME). The development studio is in Argentina where fun and addictive games are created for most of the actual mobile phones.
Mobile Games and Technologies
Currently, we can forget the keys of our house when we leave, but not the mobile phone. People are everywhere with their phones talking, chatting, the phone has a very important place in our life. Mobile phones are not only a communication device, are computer themselves, with a cpu, ram memory, persistence storage.
Games in this context are very important because you can get full advantages of the capabilities of a modern mobile phone that becomes this way a game console. Today, people of all ages play with their phones. They get fun and share multiplayer games over Bluetooth or Internet.
The technologies that involve games development are: Java (J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Linux, Brew). Each one has different capabilities depending on which device are installed.
An important issue is about the technological limits of the devices. Each one has different limits of memory, cpu, color depth, resolution. That push us to do a porting solution of every game to reach the greatest number of mobile devices. This limit obliges us to be more creative, makes us seek how to entertain people with simple games with a few levels. We must create images simply using the old technique of pixel art.
Mobile games are experimenting a constant evolution. In few years, most of the mobile phones will have 3D graphics accelerators such as Nokia N95 phone. The future is very promising, we will find devices that can compete with Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
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Music, Movies and Independent Films
July 30, 2008
In this exclusive interview, Todd Cericola, owner of Clocktower Pictures, talks about his movie studio, about music in movies and about the independent productions world.
Manuel Marino: When did you start your movie studio and how did you have the idea?
Todd Cericola: Clocktower Pictures was started in February of 2008. We are a new company in the Philadelphia area that specializes in independent film. We started it after working on a t.v. sitcom pilot called “Two One Five.” Myself, and my two partners Keelen Monahan and Matt Tomko had all been working individually on producing, directing, and writing and decided to put our efforts into one basket by opening up what would eventually become Clocktower.
How much is difficult to manage a movie studio?
I don’t know that it’s as difficult as it is fun. We are all doing something that we throughly enjoy doing. There is a strong workload, especially since we are a new company, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are a very hands on company working directly with our actors on a one on one basis. We try to cater to all of their needs as well as our own.
I’m a music composer, so the question is natural, how much music is important in the production?
As a musician myself, I think that music is one of the most important thing in a film. If you’re trying to paint a picture to set up a scene, background music is key to setting a mood. A good song will always have the scene set perfectly and you may not even notice it in the background, but when you have a bad song you, as the filmgoer, will always notice the mistake of choice.
What is your latest production? Can you tell us something about it?
Right now we are working on a few things. We are working on a feature film called “Describing the Moon,” about a guy in his mid-twenties struggling with trying to please his friends and complete his life’s goal of becoming a script writer. It’s a fantastic script that’s really dialogue driven, and very funny. We will be finishing up auditions for that next weekend, and should begin filming in October. Two One Five is a big priority as well, we are shopping around to try and sell and make an entire season. As well as entering short film and television festivals to get the name out. The entire episode is up on our website for free viewing at Clocktower Pictures. We are also looking into opening up a second branch of the company under the banner Clocktower Music helping to produce local artists and independent musicians. So we have a lot going on.
How we can define an independent movie and why it’s important that indies are supported in their work?
I think independent film is a very important thing because it brings out more creativity in people. When you’re writing without cause and shooting without big budget you’re working harder at making something the way you see it, so you’re getting the original vision of what you’re going for. It’s like an artists painting, you want to express your own ideas in your own way, not someone else. Too many hands in the cookie jar is never a good thing.
Do you think internet can help indies?
I think the internet is a great advantage for people in any area of creative arts. You can reach out to millions of people at the single click of a button for your company, your movie, your art, your music anything you want. I think with the advent of facebook, myspace, mandy, craigslist, and countless others we’re living in an age where getting yourself out to the masses of people is just that much easier, and that much better.
How do you see the future of movie production?
As far as movie production in general goes, I see it bulking up even more. Budget’s for production are getting larger by what seems daily, actors are making more and more money, and the intake is getting outrageous. On a smaller scale, Philadelphia is getting its own studio soon which has already scene production in the city jump up ten fold.
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