Indies triumph at Develop conference awards

INDIE DEVELOPERS were the biggest winners at the Develop conference awards ceremony in Brighton last night.

Hello Games, the four-man development team of Joe Danger won the award for Best New Studio and Micro Studio. While Rovio, Helsinki developer of the iPhone game Angry Birds, won Best New Downloadable IP.

Andrew and Paul Gower, the peoples behind Runescape and general MMO developer Jagex, received the Development Legends award for their contribution to the UK indie community over the past 15 years.

Heavy Rain creators Quantic Dream won the Independent Studio award and Best New IP while Batman: Arkham Asylum devs Rocksteady Studios won Best Use of a Licence.

Channel 4 also scooped the Publishing Hero award for its investments in the UK indie scene.

“Despite the challenges and changes currently making things very tough for the development sector across the globe, those who have taken home awards tonight have demonstrated the resilience and talent that continues to thrive in the UK and Europe,” said Michael French, editor of Develop.

The full list of winners:

Creativity

Best New IP
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)

Best New Download IP
Angry Birds (Rovio)

Best Use of a Licence or IP
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Rocksteady Studios)

Visual Arts
Split/Second (Black Rock Studio)

Audio Accomplishment
DJ Hero (FreeStyleGames)

Publishing Hero
Channel 4

Technology & Services

Technical Innovation
Unity Engine (Unity Technologies)

Tools Provider
Hansoft

Engine
Unreal Engine 3

Services
Testology

Audio Outsourcer
Side

Visual Outsourcer
Axis Animation

Recruitment Company
Amiqus

Studios

Best New Studio
Hello Games

Micro Studio
Hello Games

Handheld Studio
SCE Cambridge

Business Development
Sony XDev

In-House Studio
Rocksteady Studios

Independent Studio
Quantic Dream

Special Awards

Development Legend
Andrew Gower & Paul Gower (Jagex)

Grand Prix
Unity Technologies

Brendan Caldwell

Cunning Stunt…

Format: PlayStation 3 | Genre: Racing | Publisher: Hello Games/PlayStation Network | Developer: Hello Games | Release date: 09/06/2010 | Price: £9.99

Jumping through hoops, over shark tanks, onto spring pads and dodging death… JOE DANGER can do it all and Daniel Lipscombe is along for the ride.

FOUR MEN. Four men sitting in an office in Guildford, creating something special. It takes a certain spark of imagination and creativity to design something that can transport your adult mind into something gooey and pliable. I once wrote on these very virtual pages about how escapism is ignited by memories of childhood and how, as a child, something as simple as a remote control car and a ramp made from books can make you smile.

Sean Murray, Grant Duncan, Ryan Doyle and David Ream of Hello games have managed to make something that not only stands out above much of the industry in terms of quality, but has managed to tap into what we invariably live for – joy. This small team has encapsulated everymoment of childlike glee and wrapped it in a Sega-esque colourful bow.

From the moment that Joe Danger appears on a TV screen, his Evel Knievel get up and confident smile draws you into a world of scuffed school trousers and messy bedrooms. Joe Danger is the game we all created in our minds as youngsters and Hello Games have managed to distil all of it and turn it into a stuntbike videogame.

1st

It would be wrong to call Joe Danger a racing game, in fact I’m sure if you asked Hello Games what genre Joe would sit in they would have to ponder the question for a while. Joe Danger, of course, gets from point A to point B on the back of his motorbike, but much of the movement is reminiscent of Mario and Sonic.

Sure, there are flavours of Trials and excitebike sprinkled throughout, but much of this Danger stew would feel at home in any platformer. If Mario can chase coins, then so can Joe. If Sonic can use spring jumps to reach giddy heights, then so can Joe – although Joe will reach that height while performing a 720 degree spin in a superman pose.

Because of course this is still a game about performing stunts on a motorbike. The beauty of the game is that Joe is guided with such a simple set of controls. There is of course a go button and go backwards button. There’s a go faster button and a jump button. Then there are two stunt buttons. The fact that Hello Games kept things so simple is an inspired move, give anyone the DualShock and watch as they play with little effort.

You already know what Joe can do because you were doing it before puberty. Hold a direction to spin Joe, mangle the buttons for some stunts and get him to the finish line. The excellence comes when you stop button mashing and allow trained fingers to dart across the buttons causing Joe to not only fly, but to soar.

2nd

Controlling Joe is effortless, feathering the accelerate and reverse buttons while in the air will move him almost like he is wearing a jet pack. Pin point accuracy is possible and often needed in later levels. This adds to the plaforming style of the game. Bouncing from springs over towers with bombs on top and guiding Joe onto a target on the other side is a thrill due to his manoeuvrability.

It’s not all about stunts on Joe’s road to superstardom. There are a few races thrown in for good measure and even a mode that revolves around collecting coins. Each level of the career mode lays out several objectives and as you complete them you are rewarded with stars. These stars then open up more levels and challenges, simple.

This is where Joe Danger looks even less like a racer. Many of the additional objectives such as landing on a certain amount of targets, or collecting coins in a time limit hark back to the days of 16-Bit heroes. The movement highlights the teams love for games as small references to older titles drips through.

It’s clear the the inspiration from these games was a catalyst in creating Joe and his world. If he burst onto the scene 15 years earlier he would have surely been held up as a mascot for an older console. Joe and his world are unique, the British humour stands proudly in the glorious backdrops of each level and although after time they can seem a little repetitive, it never detracts from the visual impact.

3nd

If all of that wasn’t enough, Hello Games have gone a step further and thrown in the ability to design your own levels. Think LittleBigPlanet but with slightly less stuff and you’ve hit the nail on the head. In fact, the two are so similar they sit brilliantly next to each other on the PlayStation 3. Creating your own level is intuitive and flows smoothly. Picking items and laying them down is done in a matter of clicks, and creating full levels of excitements needn’t take more than five minutes.

The only thing missing from the package is the ability to play with your friends online. The inclusion of splitscreen play is welcome as it is often forgotten in recent titles, however there is a need for many to play with the chums over PSN. This missed opportunity also carries over to level sharing and rather than uploading them to a hub of some kind they must be sent as messages to your friends. Adequate is a word that springs to mind, ideal is not.

A winner is you

Aside from this minor misstep, Joe Danger is simply one of the most excellent titles on PSN, if not in this generation. The remarkable thing is that it was created by a small indie team of friends. A group of developers that know that fun is the most important aspect of videogames. All they wanted was to create a game that would make people smile. Four men made that happen.

9/10

What does this score mean?

Many developers have fun while they work, but at Hello Games it seems the fun is the work. Talking to Sean Murray, Managing Director at Hello Games, it’s clear to see that every piece of creativity that manifests within their tiny office in Guildford shares that simple aim: to have fun. But it’s a goal that the team of four have worked so hard to achieve. Joe Danger, Hello Games’ first title as a group, will soon be upon us. We first got our hands on the game back in October 2009, and I recently sat down with Sean to discuss the game, the recent IGF awards nominations and the future for the company.

Resolution Magazine: How did the four of you become a team and start Hello Games?

Sean Murray: Hello Games is me, Grant Duncan, David Ream and Ryan Doyle. We are four friends who have all come from many larger games developers, and worked on games like Burnout, Geometry Wars Galaxies, Sega Superstars Tennis and Black. We started-up working on my dining room table to begin with, then cramming ourselves into a tiny little office.

It has been super exciting, something we have all been longing to do since we started working in games development. When I joined the industry, it was absolutely my dream job. I’d been making games since I was a kid and this was an amazing opportunity. I loved it, but I’ve never thought of doing anything except starting up on my own. I think that’s the same for all of us. Dave and Grant used to make Doom levels together as kids, I was always tinkering with some game or other, Ryan is the same. We had an instant connection. We didn’t even discuss it that much to begin with, it was just assumed that we’ll work together and make our own game.

RM: How did the initial idea for Joe Danger come about?

SM: I love how it all happened actually, it was really fun. We know each other so well that we all have the same culture points. Someone can just say reference an obscure character in Defenders of the Earth or the controls in Space Harrier and everyone is instantly on the same page. It meant the type of game we were going to make was just implicit. We all wanted to use this opportunity to bring back some of the bright, fun, arcade magic that we grew up on. Grant brought in a box of toys from his parents’ attic, and something kind of beautiful happened. There was an instant power to demonstrating your latest game idea with Optimus Prime or Lion-o in your hands. We kept coming back to that one toy though, an Evel Knievil stunt cycle. We just sat and actually played with it, building bigger and bigger ramps, launching it out of windows, down corridors. It didn’t matter that he crashed all the time. In fact, that was almost the point. So we started to build this little character around who this hapless guy was: the world’s most determined stuntman. It kind of tapped into the character you imagined as you played with those toys as a kid. Designing the game from there just flowed naturally.

RM: What led to your decision to work on a smaller-scale, digital distribution product rather than going for a full retail release, especially since you all come with experience on some great retail products?

SM: I guess, in one way, that was exactly what we wanted to make a break from. We wanted to get back to a small team, and making a game we’re really personally involved with. Joe Danger is a labour of love for us. We were lucky enough to work for some amazingly accepting and open companies previously.

We work incredibly hard though, mostly because we’re trying to make a pretty big, polished game, and also because we’re really passionate about what we’re doing. It’s a really personal project for us.

RM: It’s obvious that Joe Danger will compared to the likes of Trials HD. How do you feel about that?

SM: We’re totally cool with that comparison. Once people actually play Joe Danger, they tend to be reminded of other games though, games like Excitebike, Paperboy, Crazy Taxi, Sonic. Those are certainly the kind of titles we’re inspired by, old school classics. I love Trials, but I play it with an intense grimace on my face, I guess you could say we have an abusive relationship. When I watch people play Joe Danger they are normally grinning, and that’s what we’re all about. The games I grew up with always had that effect.

We grew up with the SNES and Sega Genesis, so for us bright and vibrant means fun, but you know, not necessarily casual. Probably the opposite, like Sega used to make some of the world’s most hardcore games, but still with that distinctive, happy-blue-sky style. Super Monkey Ball is a really good example, it’s hardcore, but it’s so charming you just can’t stay mad at it. We want Joe Danger to be like that. The people, who are good at it, are amazing to watch, it’s absolutely a game of skill, but it’s also really fun to play.

[Continues...]

By Daniel Lipscombe

I’ve never seen so many grins – real grins; big, Cheshire Cat grins – as those tucked away in a corner of this week’s Eurogamer Expo.

On two machines in the event’s Indie Games Arcade sat Joe Danger, a simple and wonderful game, one that delivers buckets full of charm and left those who played it mesmerised.

It might be easiest to say Joe Danger takes the mechanics of Trials HD and gives it a cartoon finish, but it’s so much more than that. Admittedly, Joe rides a stunt bike, jumps off and onto things, and stunts his way around a variety of courses. But the similarities end there, as Joe Danger really has more in common with the platformers of the 16-bit era. Jumping from ramps, flipping through the air collecting stars and letters, Joe would feel right at home next to the early Mario games.

Much like any platformer, Joe Danger is a simple affair on the surface, with pick-up-and-play controls, a bright and friendly interface and an addictive charm. Pick up the controller and it’s easy to start playing and score a few points. Give it to one of the developers, though, and feel that grin turn into an astounded expression as he doesn’t just smash your score, but completely obliterates it. Underneath that simple premise is a system that will allow those who enjoy high score chasing to chain complex stunt patterns and beat their friends on the leaderboards.

It would be nice to say this game will be with you soon, but unfortunately nothing is yet set in stone. Creative Director David Ream informed us that Joe Danger is loosely scheduled for a spring 2010 release. Interestingly, though, it’s yet to be signed to a platform. We may have been playing with a 360 controller, but it was hooked up to a PC. But the game will definitely be available in digital download format, said Ream, with the team aiming at PSN, XBLA and PC.

//Create your own
Joe Danger would happily sit on any of those platforms, thanks to its community-based spirit. Ream showed us what could well be the cherry on the cake: the game’s level editor. Not content with a career mode, trick mode and multiplayer, Hello Games have added the opportunity for players to craft their own stages to share with the community. And the beauty of this editor is that it’s inspired by that of LittleBigPlanet.

Opening the design screen, Ream showed us the many items that can be added to the blank canvas level, in this case a Wild West style backdrop. With just a few simple button presses, there was a ramp; in front of that, 50 cars. With another press of a button, it was time to test the course and fly off of the end of the ramp.

Just as Joe was about to land, Ream paused the game and entered the edit screen. By switching modes so easily, you can see how your level will play while you’re still building. After dropping in a shark tank at the precise point Joe was to land, Ream restarted the level, leaving Joe to plunge into the tank to be eaten by the hungry sea creature. The creative opportunities are almost endless, and any level you make can be shared among your friends, via whichever service snaps up this already wonderful game.

It’s no wonder that Joe Danger is shaping up to be so good, considering the talent producing it. The small team of four friends boasts a working history of games including Burnout, Geometry Wars Galaxies, Moto GP and even Black. According to Ream, the game has been in development for around a year already, and with a few more months left until launch… well, it’s difficult to imagine where the extra effort will go. It’s already so polished.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Joe Danger and his escapades on his stunt bike, when the central character and his world are full of such love themselves. I’ll leave the last words to David Ream, words that sum up Joe Danger and its team of creators perfectly: “Why not have giant, mad robots dancing around in the background of the scrapyard level, while Joe flies past using his turbo?”

Why not, indeed?