Mike Bithell
The creator of Thomas was Alone and his new game, Volume.
Discussion
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
Hi, I’m Mike Bithell. Game Designer of Volume and person who spends too much time on twitter. Once upon a time I made a game called Thomas Was Alone, which went on to sell over a million copies. Yesterday I launched Volume (http://www.volumegame.net/), which has not yet gone on to sell a million copies. Maybe you could help that along if you’d be so kind.
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Russ Frushtick
@russfrushtick
@mikebithell Hey Mike, congrats on the launch!
Few questions for ya:
1) As the indie games space gets more and more crowded, what do you think people can do to rise above the noise (beyond just making an awesome game). In short, is 50% of a game's budget to marketing such a crazy stat these days?
2) Metal Gear Solid's VR missions seemed like an obvious inspiration for Volume. Any other stealth games you dig that may have pointed you in the genre's direction?
3) What is one genre that you think is currently under-exposed that you'd love to see more games play with?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@russfrushtick hehe
1) My feeling on marketing spend, is that, much like game dev, smart planning and taking advantage of the right opportunities, very directly saves money. We've certainly spent some cash on Volume's marketing side, but no where near half. That said, the game's aesthetic polish and easily packageable content is certainly made with an eye to how that can be utilised in a marketing context
2) Hehe, yes, a few people have pointed out a definite aesthetic similarity, but I'd say that the game pulls a lot more strongly on Thief, Hitman and Pac Man, than it does on MGS specifically.
3) I'm always looking for genres that are becoming more attainable on a budget. Weirdly, with the improvements and price reductions in high quality video production and mocap, I'm expecting a swell in performance central games. Her Story, for me, feels like a sign of a potentially refashionable genre
Russ Frushtick
@russfrushtick
@mikebithell re: MGS...yeah, I think I just see vision cones and the top down camera, but you're right, there are a lot more directions that Volume seems to go in. Totally appreciate the Pac Man nod. The original stealth game!
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@russfrushtick first and best :) .. and tbf I put a fair few MGS references in, I'm a big fan :)
Jacqueline von Tesmar
@jacqvon · Community, Product Hunt ✌️😻
Hey Mike! Great to have you on LIVE.
Can you discuss the overall budget of Volume? Did you essentially pour all of the Thomas money into this project?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@jacqvon hehe, no, not quiet, but I tried!
Jeff Meier
@jeffmeier87
@mikebithell Hi Mike, congratulations on the launch of Volume, I started playing last night and already love it.
Two quick questions:
1) I've seen your Twitter follower count balloon in size over the last few years, and it seems like your name pops up in the mainstream more often these days. I would say you've (sort of) made it now! What has it been like as you have to deal with the pressure and responsibility of becoming an indie superstar, both personally and with regards to the development of your games?
2) I notice you and Duncan Jones exchange comments and pleasantries now and then. He's one of my favourite directors, Moon and Source Code were simply excellent. Do you guys know each other outside of the internet? Any plans to collaborate?
Thanks again and best of luck with everything that's happening!
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@jeffmeier87 1) yeah, it's werid, twitter went from being a place for moaning about movies I hated, and sandwiches eaten, to a place where I was broadcasting, I guess. Yeah. Very strange. I use facebook for moaning now ;)
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@jeffmeier87 2) He's a nice chap, and I'm a fanboy of those movies too. I'd love to work with him at some point, but for now, we're just internet buddies.
Matt Hargett
@syke · FU
I know Just Add Water is handling the Vita port, but can you go into some of the technical issues that makes the VIta uniquely challenging for performance optimization? Is it mostly alpha, memory bandwidth, small caches, tile-based rendering, old toolchain that doesn't use SIMD/prefetch as much as it could, ...?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@syke hey Matt. The Vita is a lovely device, and like any device, it certainly has its own set of challenges. The things one optimises for PC / home console performance (draw calls, AI loops) are slightly different than where you need to work to get the best out of Vita (image post process, and physics).. but it really is specific to each project.
Matt Hargett
@syke · FU
@mikebithell I meant what were the specific issues you had to optimize in Volume specifically for Vita. people talk about simplifying collision geometry and pre-calculating/eliminating alpha as the most optimizations versus console, but I'm curious what specific things you ran into with Volume. were there any profiling tools/techniques that were particularly helpful/insightful?
B-Man99
@bruanstuckwool
@mikebithell I couldn't help but notice the "staff picks" tab. Obviously the community involvement is exciting, I'm really glad Volume has a level editor. Anyways... what are you looking for in terms of good community levels? Having made the core levels, how would you describe what makes a good level?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@bruanstuckwool opportunity. Creating levels which allow the player to do something cool that they'll tell a mate about the next day. Or something beautiful and weird that they'll remember next week. It's all about that player centric experience :)
Jourdan Cameron
@jourdan_cameron · Editor-in-Chief, Blackman 'N Robin
@mikebithell Hello there, and thanks for holding this chat! I'd like to ask, if you had to go back to the start of developing Volume, what advice would you give yourself?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@jourdan_cameron I think the game, weirdly, could definitely have worked with less content. It's got a lot of mechanics, and we spent a lot of time on them, that's an area I think we could have saved some time on :)
42stepstohell
@42stepstosheol · Freddie Rive, Random person
@mikebithell is project three planned to be more like TWA or Volume?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@42stepstosheol I suspect it'll be like neither. ;)
Jeff P
@eldernewb
@mikebithell Hi Mike!! Congratulations on Volume!! I loved, loved, loved Thomas Was Alone and I'm looking forward to playing Volume. So.....when is it coming to Xbox One?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@eldernewb thanks for asking, it's available now on PC/Mac and PlayStation!!
CyriiLabs
@sporthubbb · Engineering student at Imperial College
@mikebithell What was your main focus when you first built "Thomas was Alone"?
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Mike Bithell
@mikebithell · Game Designer
@sporthubbb getting a game finished. Seriously. That was the main goal, to start, develop, and ship a game. I'm glad it turned out ok :)