A New Level: How Independent Developers Break Into the Video Game Industry
Publié le 22 April 2013
“Do what you love, and the money will come”: it’s a positive affirmation for creative people everywhere, and Shaw-han Liem is proof that it’s true. Of course, in his case it didn’t hurt that the result of his work was a cool new product to bring to a billion-dollar market.
Liem and his business partner, Jonathan Mak, are the core creative team behind Sound Shapes, a video game developed for the Sony PlayStation and Sony Vita gaming platforms. It’s unique in its musical focus: the object is to clear levels and “worlds” like a traditional game, but every move triggers changes to a constantly evolving rhythmic soundtrack. Players can even design their own levels and share them online. It’s hard to describe—the game trailer at soundshapesgame.com helps.
Sound Shapes has won rave reviews at high-profile gamer events such as E3, an annual global trade show in Los Angeles, and from critics since its release in summer 2012. But the real satisfaction, Liem says, has been seeing an audience build up around the game. “Within the first month of launch, our users had created over 10,000 unique levels and songs, sharing them through our online community. To us, that’s a huge success!”
But this payoff was a long way off when Liem, an electronic musician with several albums as I Am Robot and Proud, and Mak, a game developer who had previously partnered with Sony for his first title, Everyday Shooter, first began working together in Toronto in 2007.
“We were basically working nights and weekends, trying ideas and putting together prototypes,” Liem says. “We applied for a production grant from the Ontario Media Development Corporation and got it, which allowed me to quit my job and for us to work together full-time. At this point, Sound Shapes didn’t exist yet—the idea would happen a year later.”
This bare-bones arrangement—Liem says the grant covered only basic living expenses, and that “a lot of KFC and Chinese food was eaten”—highlights the difference between independent (“indie”) game developers and the mainstream industry, where franchises like Call of Duty and Madden NFL employ thousands and outearn the biggest Hollywood blockbusters. Indie developers generally work alone or in small teams to pursue their vision, and then make deals with larger companies to help get their games into wide release.
Once Liem and Mak successfully pitched Sound Shapes to Sony at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the project moved from the drawing board to development—and the pair were suddenly in business. “Technically I was the first employee of Queasy Games [Mak’s existing company] for this project,” says Liem. “However, Jon and I did all the hiring together, and manage the studio together.”
Securing the deal meant new responsibilities. “I came onto the project because of my musical background,” says Liem. “But over the years Jon and I have also had to learn the ropes of running a game studio, so in that capacity I also handle things like scheduling, project management, meetings with publishers, managing artists and programmers.”
Adding more staff was crucial as Sound Shapes gathered steam. “During the last year or so, we started ramping up. We had five people on the team going into E3 2011. After that, the response was so great that we went into overdrive adding new content and features. At the high point there were 15 people working on the project,” says Liem.
Sony’s support aside, Liem and Queasy rely on the tight-knit Toronto indie gaming community for both technical assistance and encouragement. “We’re a small business that works within a community of like-minded companies… Capy Games is the same office building as us, and are good friends.”
With Capy’s Sword and Sworcery, another musically minded title, being released to acclaim in 2012, Liem admits to some friendly competition. “In another industry, it may be normal to hope all your competitors fail, but in the indie game scene, in Toronto at least, it’s exactly the opposite,” he says. “We’re all friends and hang out outside of work with the other studios we know, and share expertise and advice.”
For now, Liem and Queasy are working to support Sound Shapes while considering their next move: “We’re doing things like fixing problems that come up and working on new content that people will be able to download and play in the future.”
“I would say the best advice is something that seems obvious: make games,” says Liem to those interested in getting into the gaming industry. “Spend all your time making games, learning everything you can, and following all your crazy ideas. It will make you more attractive to potential employers if you want to join a company, or get you closer to making something truly innovative and great, if you want to go into business for yourself. And either way, you’ll have a lot of fun in the process.”
By Simon Osborne
Simon Osborne is the manager editor of Career Options.
For more information, please visit: soundshapesgame.com, theesa.ca, careeroptionsmagazine.com
