Cognation Part 3

Here, I’ll talk about the final piece of the puzzle, and how it all came together to make the game!

Sometimes the humor got dark.

 

Andy, Diandra and I began working on the game shortly after the side projects program authorized it. We initially licensed an engine, and Andy went about creating an editor and setting up source control, so that Diandra and I could begin the first few halting steps toward creating levels, using placeholder artwork. Obviously, there were lots of strange bugs at this stage – things that shouldn’t happen but did, and other things that should happen but didn’t. And of course, crashes!

Inevitably, there was lost work. All of these things are a part of game development, and the three of us are all used to it. In retrospect, I must say that it all went much more smoothly than it had any right to, most likely due to Andy’s technical excellence and persistence.

Eventually, we had some levels which we could use to playtest. This is one of those moments in game development where the floodgates seem to open – suddenly speed, damage, momentum, control, upgrades, powerups – most of the things that our game would ultimately contain, were available to experience in the game itself. A few elements would come later – guns, radiated terrain and others. But the skeleton of our game was there, and we immediately began tweaking values here and there, adapting our ambitions and opinions – a process that would continue through the span of the game’s development, and indeed, a bit after release.

Around this time, Andy, who had to deal most closely with the inner workings of our licensed engine, began to find its limitations, and we also felt that the developers were not very responsive to requests or bug reports. So Andy, with the straightforward diligence I admire so much, just wrote his own game engine. Now we wouldn’t need to wait for outside groups fix problems, waiting while the duration of our license slowly expired. I have no idea what really goes into creating a game engine, so there is not much I can say about this accomplishment, other than the fact that I’m deeply impressed!

As we started to create more levels and design out our victory/failure conditions, behaviors of powerups and upgrades, how and where narrative could come into the game, it became increasingly clear that we needed art support – much more art support. Andy’s brother Jeremy helped us out by supplying some beautiful UI work for us.

We also approached Dave Berggren, a talented StarCraft artist, who created some level textures for us. Unfortunately, Dave hit a crunch period on StarCraft, and rather than slow us down, chose to withdraw, which is a perfectly valid course of action. I think any side-endeavor like this requires a strong analysis about capacity. If you’re going to be busy enough at work that you think you’ll be the bottleneck in production, it’s worth discussing with your teammates, and it may ultimately be better to step back and work on a side project at a later date, when your work/life balance is a bit more even keeled.

Around this time, a friend of ours, Llana Barron, began to do some audio work on the game. She composed Cognation’s awesome music, and designed the sound effects that play throughout the levels. So we found ourselves with a game that was developing nicely in tech, design, audio and narrative. By nicely, I mean in fits and starts, as each of the three of us became busy at different times and had to be flexible about when we could work on the game. But it was trundling forward… without comprehensive art.

As I mentioned earlier, I was on the Diablo team at this time, and was deeply impressed by the skill, imagination, and all around accomplishment of that art team. I noticed the work of one artist in particular, Anessa Silzer. She was talented, fast, and her work was amazing. She was at home quickly sketching out ideas, or working in complex software packages. She had strong opinions and great taste, while maintaining the humility that makes for a great collaborator. She was also someone with a clear independent streak who did a lot of personal work.

In short, she was the artist Cognation needed! It only seemed natural to approach her about doing some art for the game. When we first talked to her, the idea was that we would pay her to provide some level textures and start to define many of the visuals. We agreed on a set amount of work for Anessa to do and a payscale for that work. The details of that are covered in an interview I did about Cognation, found here.

Anessa joined the project, and just started producing, and producing, and producing. Textures for the levels, UI, menu screens, character portraits… it was an amazing experience, (even for grizzled old veterans such as we,) to see the game come further alive each week.  Anessa simply took over the visuals, defined the look of the world and the game, and it was pretty quickly clear that she had become the game’s art director. So we asked her to join the team as part of owner of Cognation.

Anessa was really the final part of the puzzle. After she joined the team and started developing the visual component of our game, the rest came together.

That’s not to say that there wasn’t lots of hard work and setbacks from that point on – there certainly were – they never end in game development. But from her arrival on the team to release was just a slow, steady march toward finishing the game.

All of us – Diandra, Andy, Llana, myself, and Anessa – worked hard on this game over a number of years. We learned a great deal, had lots of fun, and I’m so glad we did it!

Oh, by the way – Cognation is now available in the iOS and Android stores!

-BK