The Joystiq Indie Pitch: DETOUR
Being a giant, beloved video game site has its downsides. For example, we sometimes neglect to give independent developers our coverage love (or loverage, if you will) as we get caught up in AAA, AAAA or the rare quintuple-A titles. To remedy that, we're giving indies the chance to create their own loverage and sell you, the fans, on their studios and products. This week we talk with Geoff Keene, CEO of Sandswept Studios, about his upcoming XBLIG release, DETOUR.
First things first, who are you and what do you do?
My name is Geoff Keene, I'm 19 years old, and I'm the design director/project lead for DETOUR. I'm mainly in charge of keeping everything moving and moving smoothly within Sandswept Studios. Sandswept is a team of incredibly talented artists, programmers, writers, and I think at least one of our guys rides a motorcycle. We are currently working on the PC and Xbox LIVE Indie Game DETOUR, set to launch early 2011.
How did your company get started?
It's a bit funny to me, looking back at it. It was very sudden, but a decision I was very sure about. About two years ago, I woke up and decided I really just needed to start doing what I love to do. It likely came from having far too many creative ideas bottled up, and not enough happening with any of them. Sandswept Studios was founded during a very snowed-in December, the perfect time to start putting in long hours to get the project launched. Sandswept initially started out with a sidescrolling game, but we found out fairly quickly it was out of our scope. Acknowledging this, we took a little 'detour', to... Well, DETOUR. We're really proud of how far we've come on this, and how close we are to finally getting it finished.
Why did you want to make games?
One of the main driving factors was my personal passion for gaming, along with constantly creating and writing new things. I'd spent the majority of my life up until Sandswept dabbling in mod and writing projects, as well as playing an awful lot of video games. Sandswept was simply a much more serious, and much better planned endeavor. I think it's safe to say the entire Sandswept team has a passion for enjoying and creating games, and there's not much else they'd rather be doing. I guess it's a way to give a little piece of our world to the gamers.
Why be independent rather than try to work for someone else?
Freedom. Being independent is definitely a double-edged sword. We have absolute freedom to create the game we want, along with absolute freedom to completely mess it up. I think to be an indie developer you have to be willing to take a lot of risks, and you definitely have to be a bit crazy. That would certainly explain DETOUR, anyway.
What's your game called, and what's it about?
Our current (and officially first) game is DETOUR. It's a construction-based real-time strategy. Of course, every one reading that tilts their head. The goal of the game is to build roads across the map and safely guide your trucks along these roads. Meanwhile, all the other players are doing the same thing.
Oh, and you can launch bombs. Lots and lots of bombs.
While the arsenal at your disposal is a bit bigger than simply bombs, it's a very humorous and explosive game, both in the general theme, and the singleplayer dialog. Gamers are also going to find it's much faster paced than any traditional RTS. It's certainly going to cater to gamers who love a good bit of strategy and puzzle, but still want their fast-paced arcade-style mayhem.
Could you tell us some features we might find in DETOUR?*
DETOUR features a wide range of gametypes for players to sink their teeth into, ranging from the 'regular' game (with or without team play), to Turret Defense and Survival modes. We're also giving the players a highly customizable map editor for creating and sharing multiplayer maps very easily.
What are you proudest of about your game?
Personally, I'm really proud of our team. They have pulled the game together and really brought our design ideas to life. As for the game itself, I'd say the gameplay. It's something we've been tweaking and working on, and it's gotten to the point where it's this very unique RTS experience. We've also gotten a surprising number of compliments on our visuals in DETOUR, so that's definitely a plus as well.
What's next?
We've learned a lot from DETOUR thus far, and we're going to be applying a lot of those lessons to our next project in order to get it done faster, smoother, bigger, and better. While we're keeping the focus on DETOUR until a bit after it's out the door, we've definitely got "those other games we want to play" in the works.
Want to check out DETOUR for yourself? You can keep up with Sandswept's progress on its official site. If you'd like to have your own shot at converting our readers into fans, email justin aat joystiq dawt com, subject line "The Joystiq Indie Pitch." Still haven't had enough? Check out the Pitch archives.
