Konstanty Kalicki is the producer and co-founder for Thing Trunk studio. The studio’s Return 2 Games: Book of Demons (part of the R2G Series) won the Best Game Art award at Indie Prize in Tel Aviv and Best Game at FreeGalaktus. The FreeGalaktus contest is run by the Galaktus PR Agency, giving indie developers a chance to win PR coverage and earn slots in indie gamedev events around the world, with sponsors provide additional prizes such as Unity Pro plan for a year or access to the Brand24 social media monitoring tool. As winner of Best Game from FreeGalaktus, Thing Trunk has won a spot at Indie Prize during Casual Connect Europe.
“For Tel Aviv edition we got accepted with the help of the Fundacja Indie Games Polska foundation. Those awesome people work really hard towards promoting and helping Polish indie devs. We really had no expectations, the competition was fierce,” said Konstanty. “We just wanted to show our game. That’s why we were surprised and delighted when we won Best Game Art. We certainly feel more confident about the game now. We can take part in Indie Prize Awards Berlin thanks to Galaktus, a PR agency that organized contest for best indie games. Book of Demons won and as a result we got nominated for this edition of Indie Prize. Really excited to see how we will fare this time.”
Konstanty suggests that they got this far by having a concise and precise goal for their project. “It’s a design truism but you have to have a concise, precise goal for your project. In our case it’s recreating the experience of playing awesome game of the ’90 for the first time,” Konstanty detailed. “Whenever we are in doubt we can ask ourselves how each option plays into our ultimate goal. That and be persistent. It’s very easy to give in to black despair if your game isn’t noticed immediately.”
No Paper Tiger
Book of Demons is an isometric hack and slash game with a unique paper art style, making it look like a tabletop board game come to life. Konstanty indicates that they decided upon this art style very early on in production.
“It was a natural consequence of the idea we had. The idea was to build a series of midcore games inspired by the classic PC hits from the 90’s,” said Konstanty. “The games would be of different genres and themes, so we really needed for them to have a common aesthetic ground. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be perceived as a series. We wanted R2G to have an iconic look, and be adaptable to various themes.”
“We experimented with various styles (even making every object out of macaroni) but in the end it was paper that made the whole series come together visually,” Konstanty continued. “It also plays well into the card based mechanics. Players appreciate the unique art style, we often get complimented and many people point to visual aesthetics when asked what interested them in the game.”
Book of Demons takes its influence from various dungeon crawlers from over the years. Konstanty says that ultimately, the zeitgeist pushed Thing Trunk towards making Book of Demons.
“We used to be hardcore gamers but recently we don’t have time to play anymore. We dread every new premiere because we would love to sink countless hours in the latest AAA title yet we can’t do that anymore,” said Konstanty. “”We are post-hardcore gamers. There are almost no games for us. And nostalgia is a trap too - if we try to play games of our youth the interfaces and mechanics are clunky and dated. Harsh reality doesn’t meet our idealized memories. We know there are others like us. That’s why we decided to create a series of games that would pay tribute to games of our youth by recapturing the experience but doing so with reinvented mechanics and without clutter.“
Thing Trunk went through a hard period where they nearly ran out of resources. “We considered contacting publishers. but in the end decided to try Steam Early Access,” said Konstanty. “So far, it’s worked well.”
Returning to Games
Konstanty says that Thing Trunk was created to help make games for everyone. They want to bridge the divide between hardcore and casual to make something completely accessible.
“Well made games should adapt to how much time the player has and offer tailored experience for everyone. Daunting task, but so far it’s working out well,” said Konstanty. “We wanted total creative freedom. We had some prior experience making casual games and knew that’s the only way we could be as close to players as possible. Those are the pros. On the other hand, we have to handle our marketing and we have no relevant experience with that. Turns out that reaching to press is borderline impossible when you are a newcomer. Sometimes we wish we had someone who knew his ropes when it comes to marketing. But that’s the price of freedom we have to pay.”
Thing Truck wants to make games that are both accessible and nostalgic, as Book of Demons was the first in their own planned “Return 2 Games” series. “Each game in the series will be a tribute to a different genre of our youth and a most notable representative of that genre in particular,” detailed Konstanty. “They will all be set in the same paperverse, each game with unique visual style features but all sharing the same paper pop-up book style framework. In other words each game will be a book, a tome in our story.
“Our design process is to boil gameplay down to the most basic components. We get rid of everything that is unnecessary and recreate the experience of playing the golden hits of a genre rather than recreating gameplay. That way you can get nostalgia without a disappointment and clutter.”
They’re looking to have funny moments in Book of Demons, but it will be implemented as they move towards final release. “We prioritize gameplay and once that’s done we will add extras. So right now the humor is in little things that add to the general feel of the game. For example sometimes instead of coins a literal crap will drop from killed monster with one gold coin stuck in it. Player can still pick it up, hero goes, ‘Yuuuck’ and there is an achievement. It’s still one gold coin, pecunia non olet (“Money does not stink” - Ed.) as Romans used to say.”
Never Disrespect Your Community
Konstanty says they tested their game constantly with friends, family and offspring. They’ll also sometimes invite someone unfamiliar with the game in to give a fresh take.
“Before release we always do open and closed beta tests. Of course not with Book of Demons, since that game is in early access so the whole process is a bit different. It’s like huge closed beta,” detailed Konstanty. “The best reaction we’ve has was when we were doing closed beta for our casual adventure game one player’s sheep was lambing (giving birth to lambs, that’s an actual term) and she named the newborn sheep after our game’s main protagonist! It was super sweet so we made a custom bell for the sheep with engraved name on it and shipped it to that lady.”
Thing Trunk initially had was developed in from its developers houses, with meetings twice a week. Eventually, the studio grew and rented a physical office. “The price was the main factor so we ended in a defunct ballet classroom,” said Konstanty. “It’s an open space with mirrors on every wall. It has it’s quirks because in the next room musical classes are still being held and it’s not easy to work when someone is murdering violin or trumpet next door!”
“Our roles are fluid, since we are only a six person studio,” Konstanty added. “We have a guy focusing on production management (so spreadsheets, timelines and task assignments) but he also designs and tests. We all have to be jacks of all trades, such is an indie’s way. Of course where possible we try to outsource. We outsourced parts of music creation and accountancy for example.”
Inspiration for the studio is as varied as its members and their experience during their youth. “Inspiration in my case was books,” said Konstanty. “If we had to find a common denominator for most of us it would be popular culture and Star Trek TV series in particular.”
When it comes to suggestions to other indie developers, Konstanty said you should never disrespect your community. “You should also never develop your game in total secret until the release date. You have to be close to your players,” concluded Konstanty.
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