You’ve been showing the early builds of SmuggleCraft to gamers. How has the game gone down and has it highlighted any improvements which need to be worked on?
Playtesting with crowds and getting feedback from players in-person is so important! It’s helped us immensely, between learning how to best shape the tutorial, finding and squishing weird bugs and exploits, and learning what aspects people find are the most fun.
Will the game also be coming out on PS Vita as this looks a pretty good fit for the handheld?
We haven’t announced Vita compatibility yet, but I can definitely say it’s not out of the question. We’d love to be able to bring SmuggleCraft to handheld, but we want to make sure we can devote the time to making it the best PS4 experience first and foremost.
Is it hard when developing a game to keep ideas new and fresh and try to give the player a new experience?
Yes, absolutely. It’s easy to get bogged down on details and forget the bigger picture throughout a long development cycle. For that reason, this is our first project with a dedicated producer: Ben Triola, the game’s designer. His role is to make sure that we’re constantly thinking about the player experience. This encourages us to take a step back and make sure that every new decision is worth the time we’ll put into it, and is the right thing for both the game and the player.
How important is it that gaming sites pick up on the game at release. It must be hard spending years producing a game and then having to think about getting out and selling it?
It’s very important to introduce people to the game; since most indie teams don’t have any money to put toward marketing, one of the best ways for us to let folks see the game is through blogs, gaming sites, Let’s Players, and other content creators. As an indie, you sort of have to learn how to seamlessly flip the switch between developer and PR representative. It’s a process that becomes a bit mentally draining, but it can mean the difference between visibility and obscurity, so we adapt!
Do you have plans to bring this to other consoles or is this a PlayStation exclusive?
It’ll definitely release as a console exclusive on PlayStation, with a concurrent Steam release for PC/Mac/Linux. Depending on demand, we may look at other platforms down the road, but but PlayStation has been and will continue to be our first priority for SmuggleCraft.
"local multiplayer racing, and online multiplayer racing"
Many thanks to Carol Mertz from Happy Badger Studio for taking the time to speak to us and giving us more of an insight into SmuggleCraft. SmuggleCraft comes to PlayStation 4 in 2016.
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