“I can also say though, in both experiences, ‘game feel’ was always something that’s held high and kept at the top of what matters. Just getting around is something that we feel should always be great.”
POLISHING AND PUBLISHING One thing that sets Phoenix Labs apart from a lot of indie developers is that it self-publishes its own games, which as Epp tells it, is an advantage when it comes to marketing. “We have a large, seasoned in-house publishing team, which I think is fairly uncommon at independent game studios,” explains Epp. “On Fae Farm they helped drive our strategy with platform holders like Nintendo and Steam, to promote the game at industry events, engage with media and content creators, and build our Fae Farm community from the ground up. Being able to control your own destiny from a publishing and marketing perspective is certainly a boon for developers.”
Of course, it can also be a bit of a headache. “I think keeping everyone happy is always going to be a challenge,” continues Epp. “You want to do everything you can to ensure you’re putting your best foot forward regardless of the platform on which you publish, but navigating those conversations and challenges is always a bit of a puzzle, since no platform or platform holder operates in the same way.”
52 | MCV/DEVELOP December/January 2024
As you might expect, challenges came up during on the staples of the genre and set Fae Farm apart from predecessors in its space. “I come from a UX background, so I’m really proud of the way we faced many of the user experience challenges over the course of development,” recalls Epp. “For instance, we really wanted to cut out what we perceive as inventory and tool micro-management that is commonplace in the genre, so we created a system that auto-selects a tool based on the spatial context of your character. What this means practically is that if you’re standing next to a tree, you will automatically switch to your wood axe, while if you’re standing next to a shrub, you will automatically switch to your scythe, and so on. “Much of what we were doing in Fae Farm was trying to take many of the things we loved so much about previous games in the genre, and then also be honest and look at the things we didn’t think felt great, and tried to reinvision,
TOO MANY GOOD IDEAS As for some of those steps forward, an advantage of modern game creation is that rather than giving in to ‘scope creep’ and letting things get out of hand or be delayed on the road to release, the best additional ideas can instead be given the proper time they need for development as long as the game is supported by the community. “One of the other things we were challenged by was a classic game development issue where you just keep getting great ideas popping up from the team as you are making the game,” says Epp. “ Which is amazing and where some of the best things in games come from, but the hard thing is choosing which ones can make it in, and which other things have to end up staying in the backlog. “Thankfully, we are making patches and DLC that give us opportunities to get more of those cool ideas in the
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