The 2009 Independent Games Festival celebrates independent and student video games. In this series, GameCareerGuide is looking at some of the games submitted to the student competition.

In this installment, we learn from Steven Turner, a student at St. Mary's College of Maryland (although the game is extracurricular), about Bubble Blow, a 2D arcade game.

Game title: Bubble Blow

School: St. Mary's College of Maryland (note: Bubble Blow's development was considered extracurricular)

Game description: Bubble Blow is a 2D arcade game in which you compete to best your own score. Maneuver bubbles around obstacles using the indirect control of "blowers" to achieve a high score.

GameCareerGuide: Tell us how Bubble Blow came to be.

Steven Turner: Bubble Blow started as a student project last summer when approached by a professor to create a game. We knew that the team would be limited by time, so we scrapped visions of a grandiose three-dimensional adventure for a more pragmatic two-dimensional arcade game. We threw around different ideas but eventually decided to go with a concept suggested by Ryan McGreevy [game programmer].

GCG: What was your goal in developing the game?

ST: The primary goal for our team was to build upon previous experience in game development. As any development is an iterative learning process, we felt that creating Bubble Blow, despite the time restrictions, would be an invaluable investment of effort in designing a complete game. Of course, another project to add to our portfolios was another motivator as students venturing into the work world!

GCG: What do you think is the game's greatest asset? What sets it apart from other games in the IGF?

ST: The control of the game environment is completely indirect. Unlike Tetris or Peggle, the player is never able to directly manipulate the path of an object in the game, adding an element of uncertainty.

The control of the game is accomplished by "blowers" mimicking hair dryers, applying wind to objects in the game as they fall. Thus, it is extremely difficult for a player to replicate paths in the game and requires constant attention to attain a high score. The play is very much like attempting to balance on one foot. Bubble Blow is simple, easy to play, and has an addictive element because of the indirect approach to game mechanics. Oh yes, and bleating goats.

GCG: Bleating goats? Can you explain that?

ST: We were looking for a sound effect to play when balls collide with entities in the game world. Both Ryan and I found the sound of a bleating goat humorous, so we decided to incorporate several goat sounds spliced together to add a little humor to the game.

GCG: What drew you to make a 2D arcade game?

ST: Creating a two-dimensional arcade game allowed us to focus on core elements of the gameplay. All of us believe that gameplay is the single most important aspect of any good game, and effects, graphics, and other glamour are all just icing on the cake. If done correctly, any 2D game can be just as fun and exciting as a 3D game.

Another import factor in our decision to make a 2D game was the size and experience of our team. With only four members working on this project, one of which had never worked on a game before, we made sure to not bite off more than we could chew with an elaborate 3D game. We have learned in the past that one of the most important aspects of game development is understanding the limitations of your ability and time.

GCG: What games (or non-game things) influenced this game? How or why?

ST: When Ryan came up with the original idea, he based a lot of the initial design on PopCap Games' Peggle. Peggle has a very similar type of gameplay that we were trying to achieve, a 2D arcade-style game with simple controls that come together to make a fun and addictive game.

For the visual style of the game, Gina [Nearing, artist] knew that it should not be too distracting, but would have to add to the gameplay. She decided that the artwork would either have to be utterly immaculate or they would have to be kind of goofy and rough. A game that looked like it had been doodled in a notebook seemed like a fun idea and it grew from there. We feel that the art style really complements and helps to extend our overarching theme of simple and fun gameplay.

The last but not least of the influences, Ryan's and my love of goats.

GCG: What was the most difficult part of developing the game?

ST: Like any project worth doing, Bubble Blow took a lot of hard work and coffee. All four of us [on the development team] are full-time students with tough course loads, and Ryan, Mike [Conatser, audio developer], and I are seniors all working on their own senior projects. This left the team with very little free time to develop Bubble Blow, but again, a little hard work and a good coffeemaker can get you through anything.

Thankfully Bubble Blow is a fairly simple game, so the general mechanics were not too difficult to work out. The hardest part of any game, however, is not the core mechanics, but extending these mechanics to make a fun game. An idea can look really good on paper, can be easy to program, but when everything is done, the end product may not be as good as originally planned. Even if it does work out, there might not be enough for a full game. You can easily find yourself saying, "Okay, this is fun ... but what now?"

GCG: Tell us one interesting thing that you learned in developing Bubble Blow.

ST: We spent hours trying to solve a few key performance issues one coding night.

Finally, while putting on another pot of coffee, it occurred to us that perhaps a debugging screen with frames per second, bodies, and geometries would be useful. Although primitive, it allowed us to track down not only our memory usage problems, but also some other unseen errors in the generation of collision polygons for sprites.

A useful debug screen is invaluable when developing a game, especially if you are inexperienced!

GCG: Since making this game, have your opinions or assumptions about game development changed in any way? If so, how and what were they before?

ST: Because three of us had actually worked together on a game before Bubble Blow, we thought that since this was the second time around, it would be much easier. Of course, we were quite wrong and began to realize that every project is its own beast. You have to remain open to learning new skills and refining your knowledge, skills, and creativity.

Bubble Blow Development Team
Ryan McGreevy, programmer
Steven Turner, programmer
Gina Nearing, artist
Mike Conatser, audio developer