Minutes Interview

Written by Charles Husemann on 2/13/2015 for PS4   Vita  

Minutes is a new indie game that hits the PS4 and Vita this week from Red Phantom Games.  The game is a bit of a twist on the bullet hell ("shmup") that a lot of old school gamers cut their teeth on.  I was lucky enough to get an interview with Richard Ogden, the driving force behind the game to learn a bit more about the game.  Here's what he had to say.

Could you introduce yourself and talk about your role at Red Phantom Games?
I began my career in the games industry in 1996 with Codemasters where I worked on the first Colin McRae Rally and TOCA Touring Car games. In 2001 I started Bigbig Studios with a few friends where we created the Pursuit Force series on PSP and, after being acquired by Sony, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (also on PSP) and Little Deviants on Vita. Red Phantom consists of one person, me, so I do almost everything – design, programming, the business side, etc. but I have outsourced for help where my skills aren’t quite up to the mark – namely the creation of art and audio assets.

 

How would you describe the game to someone who has never seen any gameplay?
Minutes is like a bullet-hell game that’s gone off on some crazy tangent. You don’t get to shoot back. It’s all about moving, collecting, avoiding, reacting and to some extent figuring stuff out. The visual aesthetic is all minimalist with geometric shapes but that reflects the gameplay – it a pure videogame, a retro-modern hybrid that’s all about the fundamental actions and devices that we see in games.

What are the inspirations behind the game?
The idea came together very quickly from the initial spark in my mind. I was thinking about minimalist, abstract, simple mechanics that could form the basis of a console game that would be a very different experience to AAA products. I’d been feeling a bit underwhelmed by some of my recent AAA experiences and felt that I wanted to create something that was in opposition to those. Though, I do love many of those games. Additionally, as a one-man studio, I had to design something achievable.

 

Where does the name of the game come from? What were some of the other names under consideration?
If you minimise “minimalist” then it becomes “min”. In combination with my other trains of thought at the time that then became “Minutes” because it seemed a cool idea to have 60 levels, each a minute long to make up a whole hour of basic play. I didn’t really consider any other names, apart from Moments perhaps but that sounds like a bar of chocolate!

 

There's definitely a bit of a ‘shmup’ vibe to the game but without any bullets, how did that concept come up
Yeah, I agree but I think it was subconscious because I played a lot of arcade shoot-‘em’-ups when I was a kid. It was only later that other people commented that it reminded them of bullet-hell games. I guess I hadn’t made the connection because I was so close to it and just saw it in abstract terms. But, it’s cool because I use the phrase “Take a journey through a twisted form of bullet-hell” as my tagline.

 

As you play you can change the size of your avatar, was that a concept from day one or something that evolved as you developed the game? How does the size impact scoring and gameplay?
Again, it was all part of the same idea that popped into my head in the space of less than five minutes. Iterating to the stage where there was four fixed steps took a bit longer though. The size-changing mechanic is really the critical part of the game. It’s where you have the classic risk-reward scenario in the design. The larger the circle, the more points you get (because the multiplier is higher) when collecting light energy shapes but it’s riskier because you occupy more space on screen and need to be much more nimble to avoid taking damage from the dark energy shapes.

 

Could you talk about how players will control the gameplay? What was the hardest thing to nail down with the controls?
It’s very straightforward to control. You move with the analog stick and change size up and down with the shoulder buttons. There are a couple of tricks in the code for the movement but that’s just to make it feel nice and natural – hopefully a player won’t notice these. The toughest part was deciding how to control the powerups. I toyed with various ideas like using the touchscreen, selecting one before you play, toggling with the shoulder buttons. In the end the key was limiting the number of them to four and mapping them to the face buttons.

 

For the Vita version are you making use of any of the Vita touch controls?
There is a side-goal in each level which involves locating the “minuteman”. This is a little smiley face that will float (unobtrusively) across the background. The player’s job is simply to touch it when they see it. But, the point is that it’s a distraction. Usually the player is so focused on normal play that they don’t even see the minuteman. So, it requires that extra level of attention. But, once you’ve achieved that goal then it’s locked in. There’s no need to locate the Minuteman after that. You don’t want that distraction when going for a “Perfect”. (On PS4 it’s mapped to the touch pad on the DualShock 4.)

 

Is there any interaction between the gameplay and the music?
No. It’s not a rhythm game even though it might look like it is. However, the music serves to underpin the time-oriented theme of the game and is always a steady 60 or 120 beats per minutes. That means it synchronises with the in-game timer and lasts as long as the level (That is roughly speaking because it fades out once you’ve finished. Abruptly stopping at the 60 second mark, part way through a bar of music, would sound quite jarring).

 

What is your favorite part of the game and why?
Simply, I’m really happy with the fact that I still enjoy playing the game and get a nice buzz when doing a Perfect. Even though I know the pattern and strategy for each level there’s still some skill and precision movement involved to beat these.

 

So far what has been the hardest part of the development of the game?
With hindsight I can see that it was the difficulty balancing. I think I pitched it a little too high. Based on various bits of feedback, the U.S. version and the EU patch have an eased difficulty curve and more flexible level unlocking. The tough end of the game is still tough but a player will hopefully be better prepared by the time they get there.

 

The game ships with 60 levels but are you planning on releasing any future levels down the road or giving players any ability to create their own levels?
I created a level editor to help me build the levels though some parts are randomly generated. It’s a bit clunky though and I wouldn’t want to ship it. Creating a useable in-game editor would be a whole load of extra work. I will be considering some DLC at some point. That’ll probably be another 30 levels, new energy shapes and a new game mode. But, as a one-man studio, my time is limited. I need to decide whether to do that or to move on with something else. If the demand is high then I guess it’ll be a no-brainer.

 

How much fun did you have with designing the trophies? What was your approach to coming up with the trophies?
It’s a small-scope game so I had to limit myself in regard to trophies. It was really a case of matching them to the goals in the levels and giving the player a sense of progression as they move through the game. There are a few “do X on all 60 levels” but the only really tough one is the gold trophy where you have to perfect each level. That will take some hours of practise and building up to. The most fun part was designing the icons and then giving them to a friend of mine who made them into real art for the game. It’s always cool when you see sketches come to life like that.

 

Once players get their hands on the game next week what are some things that players should try out?
As I mentioned I’ve tweaked the difficulty so it’s more accessible. So, if you get stuck on a level, just get to the end of it, skip to the next one (within a batch of 5 levels) and give it a go instead. There’s no need to get stuck. Just win stars and move on, and unlock more sizes and powerups. Then try experimenting with the different powerups. It might be tempting just to use Fortify (which removes all damage) all the time but there are some interesting subtleties to the others. For more check out the tips page on the game’s website (www.redphantomgames.com/Minutes-Game/tips.html).

 

Is there anything we missed that you think is important?
For sure. The game is Cross-Buy on PS4 and Vita but also it has a Cross-Save sync feature if you want to play on both. No need to worry about losing data if you forget to cross-save when you change platform. It’ll merge the best progression and scores from both.

Also, there’s the daily challenge mode. This is a randomly generated level, new every day. I don’t even know what it’s going to be other than that it’ll contain a mixture of the elements from the main mode. It’s all about getting the best score and posting on the leaderboards. But, you’ll want to progress in the main mode in order to unlock the sizes and powerups that’ll help you get the bigger scores.

We'd like to thank Richard for taking the time to answer our questions as well as Simon for coordinating the interview.