After failing to fund their first version on Kickstarter, the three-man team behind Slashear decided to not give up. Now, two years later, they have returned with a redesigned game and are preparing for its release on iOS and Android. Tatiana Chernysheva, the community manager of Slashear, talks about the game.
In 2011, two friends came together with an idea - to create a game. The main idea was that the player must feel like he is the hero of the cartoon. The hero lands in uncharted worlds, comes face-to-face with dangerous enemies and unravels the mystery of why the planets are destroyed. I’m sure many of you, as we do, have a dream to plunge into the world of adventure and feel like a real super hero. United together, we have created a whole universe around an original idea and storyline. Together, we plunged into Slashear and started the project on Kickstarter.
How It Began
The uniqueness of our team is that we live in different countries. Ideas, concepts, and important moments in the storyline are discussed over Skype. It so happened that Oleg Pshenichnyi, our designer, lives in Moscow. At first, he was making the game alone in Flash, then with a programmer from Siberia. When he was unable to continue, Oleg offered to make the game for iOS to Maxim Kupriyanov, the current programmer from Crimea. You don’t need a big team to make a game, all you need is the designer’s imagination and a programmer who can unify the concept and all the ideas.
We did not have sponsors and nobody invested money into the game. We are one of those guys who sold their iPhone to make their dreams come true.
Is There Life After Kickstarter?
The first concept for our game Slashear was about a little boy who fought bloodthirsty bunnies, but that was a year ago. The project failed, but it gathered a lot of positive feedback.
We followed the tips of successful projects, and read many supporting literature for indie developers. We created a press list, sent letters with the press release, and wrote the posts on Facebook and Twitter. We did everything we were told about promoting an indie game, and we made a lot of contacts, but only a few responded. The game did not become what we had hoped, and hardly anyone knew about Slashear. The development process had been suspended, and we did not start developing again for almost a year.
Eventually though, we thought over our mistakes, gained strength, and started stocking ideas and concepts. We decided not to give up, but rather try again from the beginning.
Back to the Drawing Board
In the winter of 2013, we started to develop the game again. It had a lot of changes, even at the beginning. We decided to make the game with Unity 3D, as it was perfectly suited for our new idea. We focused more on level design. We wanted to create something interesting and innovative with our level layouts, where each level is arranged above the other like floors in a building. We think we’ve achieved that. We also departed from the original design into a more cartoonish world. We took great inspiration from cartoons like Adventure Time and Bravest Warriors, and we worked hard to recreate that atmosphere.
Color and environment were very important to our game. To make the world more pleasing, we used a harmonious palette and emphasized the environments. However, it was important that the environment not be distracting. To solve this, we had created a lighting system much like a spotlight that follows the player so they are always the center of attention.
Experimenting in the Game
We had time to experiment, not only with the design, but with the game architecture. In each build, we added new features, improved gameplay, and fixed errors. In the beginning, the character was armed only with a gun. In one of the updates, we added lots of new weapons to give players variety and choice. Due to the flexible architecture, one method in the controller was overloaded and appended six lines of the code, which allowed us to add a bazooka, rocket launcher, and a laser gun. In addition to the selection of the various weapons, we added the ability to increase their power. Heroes collect bonuses which give them various boosts. We really like this new build, and we can implement new ideas quickly. We were able to check out the different mechanics and choose the most interesting one.
Developing Past the Ukrainian Crisis
The team have faced many difficulties that have united and inspired us to complete the game. This spring, we have had to overcome a revolution in Ukraine. This crisis directly touched us when Crimea was annexed by Russia. This meant not only the change in time zone, but also blocked bank accounts, problems with the airplanes, and so much stress. Crimea is one of the most peaceful regions now, but many of these difficulties remain.
Our team also changed during this period; the talented musician Capti Rando from Holland joined us. He writes music for the game and has become an important part of our team. We also have the Scottish Danny Boyle, who edits all of our texts, even this story. We realized that communication is very important for indie developers. We talk to people a lot, and we love to meet and find like-minded people and hear from our fans.
Our Plan for the Future
Summer is going to be very hot, as we plan to release the game within a couple of months. To achieve our goal, we have decided to go to Bali. This is so we can work together, concentrate on the game, and remove all distractions. We’ll be using this period as a time to do daily videos and photo reports about life and work on the island. As we have spent so much time learning from other developers, we want to give some of that back to our fans and other developers. We are completely open to any questions or suggestions and would like to know what would be interesting to read about the game development process. We will also respond to all questions. After all, this is for you guys.
Unfortunately, not all of our team will come together in Bali, but we will continue to work as we always have. We think it shows that if you’re enthusiastic enough about your game, then as long as you get talking, you can create really great and cool stuff. The more you talk, meet people, and inspire, it makes the dream come true, and it helps others do the same.
To learn more about the Slashear group, follow them on Twitter and Facebook, or contact them at media@slashear.com.
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