We knew we wanted to launch our latest gaming feature, Indie Game Spotlight, with a game that would really get Tumblr excited. That’s why we’re kicking this off with the creators of Ooblets (@ooblets), one of the most adorable life simulation games around. You can collect creatures, enjoy town life, discover new crops, operate a farm and all your little Ooblets compete in dance battles. Naturally.
We spoke to writer and designer Ben Wasser and programmer and art director Rebecca Cordingley (@nonplayercat) to give you the low-down of their latest game, soon to be available on Xbox One and PC.
Ooblets is often described as a mix between Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon and Pokémon. What else inspired the game?
Ben: On the writing and tone, I took a lot of inspiration from things like Bee and PuppyCat, Adventure Time, and Steven Universe. Also, our battle system was inspired by a few RPG card games, like Monster Slayers, Card Quest, and Slay the Spire.
What was the most difficult thing the team faced while making the game?
Rebecca: This is always a hard one to answer because making games often involves millions of small difficulties that add up to a giant ball of problems. I think a lot of bigger isolated issues relate to trying to please everyone and all the various platforms, aspect ratios, controller layouts etc. They’re not the hardest issues to solve, but will often just involve busy work or good-enough solutions.
Game design issues are harder to solve because they involve a lot of grey areas and are never self-contained, and that’s where you end up with those giant balls of lots of little problems that you chip away at day by day.
What kind of advice can you give for anyone wanting to make an indie game?
Ben: Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start or think that you need other people to help you. You just have to start making stuff yourself with what you’ve got.
Rebecca:
Try to enjoy the process as much as the outcome / don’t become so focused on worrying about the finish line that you forget to enjoy making the game.
However hard you think making a game might be, multiply that by 10
Learn by doing!
If life were a video game, what would some of the cheat codes be?
Ben: I asked Rebecca for an answer to this and she just wrote “GOVERNMENTJOB TALLBOY” which I think are two separate cheat codes, one for getting a free cushy government job, and the other for her to be taller.
Which Ooblet would improve the world most if it existed?
Ben: I’m gonna have to go with Pantsabear.
Rebecca: Tud! She has a sweet little froggy soul.
When will the game be available?
We’re hoping to launch sometime in 2019. We’re still too far out for a good estimate, but it would be awesome if we could do earlier in the year opposed to later!
Need this game? Ooblets will be available on Xbox One and Steam when it’s ready to launch. Follow @oobletsto stay tuned for all the updates.
Dragan Bibin (b.1984, Zrenjanin, RS) explores the intersection of two overtly didactic and moralizing arts, Counter-Reformation baroque and Yugoslav socialist art. At this juncture, there is a tension between explicit suffering on the one side and forced optimism on the other, between the martyr hero and the working-class hero. The role of propaganda in didactic art is most present in times of crisis, confusion and hopelessness. To this end Dragan mixes tenebroso of the Caravaggio school with the visual enthusiasm of Boža Ilić. - from his website
