How would you describe Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell to anyone who hasn’t seen or played it yet? Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell is a 3D puzzle game where your goal is to guide your ball to the finishing point.
You can only manipulate your ball when it has stopped and it only stops when it hits a straight wall.
There are also teleports, velocity adjusting wedges, and moving objects to come in your way. The game has a slightly hellish theme with a metal soundtrack.
What made you want to make Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell?
It all started out as a test I decided to give myself. I had to finish something. In school they give us the tools and know-how to make games, but they never really try to make you understand how important it is to actually finish something and get it out to the market.
I realized this and decided that it was time for me to try to take my future, within the games industry, into my own hands.
Have you taken any courses or classes that helped you with game development/design?
Yes. I am attending the Digital Games program at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden. They concentrate a lot on [using] XNA Game Studio as a training method for teaching, both new and old students, the programming tricks of today. We have also had a lot of courses in DirectX and smaller C++ platforms.
The courses have taught me a lot I couldn't have done without, such as object-oriented programming, structure in code, and (for me the most important part) documenting code.
Are you working towards a game development/design degree? Yes, but my main focus is to get as many good games as possible on the market before my "free" time in school runs out!
What advice would you give other students looking to build a game?
Surround yourself with people you trust to finish the job. Not necessarily people you like, (it helps, though) but people that are as driven as you.
Before you start, try to be as clear as possible about what the game is, this will change of course but you really need a clear base before you begin.
[Take] breaks. I often get really tired of something when I am doing it on my spare time and I have found that the best way to deal with it is to stop for a few days and then start up again.
Know your inspiration. It's really easy to get bogged down in a problem and not be able to dig your way out straight away. When this happens to me, I usually go for a walk. All my best ideas come to me when I walk (they [the walks] don't always work, but they usually point me in the right direction).
Do it! There is no greater feeling than actually getting something published. I walked on clouds for a month. The experience you gain [from finishing the game] is worth all the pain of fixing bugs.
Did you playtest your game through CCO? Did it help?
I did and it helped me a lot. Since it was my first game, I really had no experience with how much you actually miss while you're sitting with the code. I tried to test it on my friends and family beforehand, but there really is no substitute for other developers' eyes.
How was your experience with Peer Review?
[It was] really good. I needed three tries to get it right, but I'd rather get it right than fast.
What games influenced or inspired Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell?
Puzzle games in general. I love Peggle
so some inspiration came from that.
What games are you playing now (other than your game!)?
I am currently working my way thru the Xbox LIVE Arcade and Xbox LIVE Indie Games. My third game will probably be heavily inspired by the indie trend. But I keep trying to finally finish Star Ocean: The Last Hope
when I want something more mainstream.
Is Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell the first game you’ve made? This is my first published game, but I have worked on a few other PC games that never saw the light of day. For example, a fireworks display game called Night Sky Lights. I came close to finishing that but in the end it proved too broken for even a free release. [I] learned a lot from it, though.
How was your experience using XNA Game Studio to make your game?
It's great. Being able to actually see your games running on the Xbox 360 is amazing. That coupled with the prospect of releasing your game really provides an extra boost towards finishing the game. I would like more control over my program than C# permits, but it's a small thing to live without when I can become a published game maker.
Besides, there's almost no problem that the community hasn't solved in some way. The information provided on the XNA Creators Club Online forums
is truly outstanding!
How many people are on your team, and what are their roles?
I always start my games alone. I try to finish the base of the programming so that my design of gameplay is showing. Then, I ask people that I know have the skills I need to help me out.
One of my brothers, Albert Backenhof, is a good enough 3D modeler so I asked him to make some models. Another brother, Anthony Backenhof, is (in my taste) a good musician so I asked him and his band for permission to use a few of their songs.
My school also has a sound technician program (Digital Sound) so I asked a few friends, Patrick Lindgren and Emil Ekberg, to make some sound effects and master the music.
When I realized that I was no good at [using] Photoshop I asked Uno Olsson, a fellow programmer, to help me out. These are all people I knew I could trust to help me out until the end, just as I would help them if they asked me.
What other tools/programs did you use to help you make your game?
For 3D modeling we used 3D Studio Max and for 2D graphics we used Photoshop. For synth [music] we used [a] Korg-DS10, Pro Tools for recording and Goldwave for editing [sound].
How long did it take you to make Velocity: Escape from Puzzle Hell?
I started in March of 2009 and the game was finished by the end of the summer 2009. But since I was doing school work at the same time I estimate that I spent about two to three months on it.
Can you walk us through a usual day for you and your team?
There really wasn't a usual day for us. We all had a lot of things we had to do so we worked on our individual parts as best and fast we could. I got the assets when I got them, and I knew that if I asked for them before they were done they wouldn't be as good as I wanted them.
So, since I had put no time limit for completion, I worked on it when I could. This is, however, not the case for my current project.
This time, I am trying to work under pressure with a release day in mind and it is considerably harder.
Any plans to release more games for XBLIG?
Yes. At the very least I plan on releasing two more games in 2010. The first one, Change of Color, is a 2D physics game. The object [of the game] is to paint the world by flicking balls of paint around. These colors then alter the physical properties of objects. It is closing in on completion and I am hoping to have it out by January 2010.
The second one is going to be a game based on Japanese Role-Playing-Games and will be my last project while in school.
What’s next for you?
I am closing in on my last term in school and I hope to make it the best yet!
I am considering starting my own indie [game development] company together with some of my talented friends, but I will also have to apply for a job at one of the many game studios in Sweden.
What the future holds is irritatingly impossible to see, but I know I want to work with games, and thanks to XNA Game Studio and Xbox LIVE Indie Games, my odds just might have improved.
Want to download Alexander's game and check it out yourself? You can do that through the Xbox LIVE Indie Games channel on Xbox.com or through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace on your Xbox 360.
If you're a student or a teacher who's using XNA Game Studio and has made an Xbox LIVE Indie Game and you'd like to be featured in a future Academic Spotlight - be sure to let us know by emailing us at Creators@microsoft.com.
