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Game development is better with friends at Finji
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman founded Finji, a collaborative development studio, in March. Finji offers publishing and other services to developers, and it runs on revenue share for each project – for Saltsman's new apocalyptic survival game, Overland, this means each of the four development team members will split revenue from the game "basically forever" once it's released. Finji works with other developers on their own games, such as Infinite Fall's Night in the Woods, and Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga's Panoramical, which is also backed by Polytron Partners. So far, the collaboration is going better than he'd hoped, Saltsman says. Developers use a combination of text messages, Skype and Google apps to get their work done, and they're figuring out the kinks among everyone's schedules. Most of the team is local to Austin, Texas, but they do have to deal with some time zone confusion and melding different work habits.
Overland: A lonely game filled with monsters
Overland is not a zombie game. It's a turn-based survival story set in an apocalyptic wasteland filled with monsters, and it plays out as if action figures from Half-Life 2 and Stephen King's The Stand were on a road trip across a chess board, creator Adam Saltsman says. It is a horror game, in a sense. "It is intended to be scary or unsettling or lonely, but I don't think it will be compared to Resident Evil or Amnesia," Saltsman tells Joystiq. "The thing I'm most interested in right now is, what if the people in a roguelike-type scenario weren't heroes and could not become heroes ... how do they manage? I like that feeling of vulnerability more than the feeling of 'horror' exactly. As a team we're definitely investigating things that are lonely and vulnerable and beautiful more than 'scary' so far, I think."
Canabalt dev forms indie studio Finji, taking semi-publishing role
Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman and wife Rebekah Saltsman have created a studio focused on making "new kinds of games with ethical business models" that they call "Finji." Finji will offer both development and publishing services as they collaborate with other game creators. Their first commercial project is Capsule, which is available now from the Humble Store. When the Saltsmans aren't developing, they'll be working with creators like Scott Benson and Alec Holowka on their upcoming game, Night In The Woods. Finji will be there, as Adam Saltsman wrote on the studio's Tumblr page, to "help pick up some of the admin and production work." Finji will also help distribute the game on desktop and mobile platforms. Finji is self-funded; no Kickstarter campaigns or big-name investors. Adam Saltsman wrote that this means the studio can operate as its creators see fit, and judging by some of his statements, the business will run with an air of respect. "People that choose to support our work by purchasing our games are not a resource to be mined," Saltsman wrote. "Our goal is to make the best games we can and price them in such a way that our audience can afford to buy them and we can afford to continue making games." [Image: Finji]
Canabalt and Aquaria devs sign their names in 'Grave'
"So far, GRAVE doesn't really fit in any existing genre that I know of," writes Adam 'Atomic' Saltsman. "If you're fond of stretched metaphors, you might say that It's sort of like Farmville meets StarCraft, or maybe Super Crate Box meets Desktop Dungeons. Anyways, we're still exploring the possibilities, so I don't want to say too much. For now let's just call it 'an arcade game' and we'll get into more detail as we go!" Alright then: Grave is a new "arcade game" made notable, for the time being, by the pedigree behind it. Adam Saltsman, the Texas-based creator of Canabalt and the numerically/spherically infuriating Hundreds, is handling art and design ("mostly"), while the co-developer of the award-winning Aquaria, Alec Holowka, is heading up programming and sound (also "mostly"). Today marks the debut of the pair's upbeat Grave Tumblr, which will explore and divulge the game's construction little by little every Friday. Beyond music and art, Saltsman and Holowka will also be posting about the design problems they encounter. Designers and players might learn a thing or two, and (sorry sorry sorry) leave wise from their Grave.
'Alphabet' made by Takahashi and Saltsman for LA Game Space backers
Alphabet (written by its creators as A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈) is a new game put together by Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahashi and Canabalt's Adam Saltsman. It was created for the bundle of indie games being given away to Kickstarter backers of the LA Game Space.The mysterious Alphabet will be shown off later this week in Austin as part of "Juegos Rancheros," an event for the game development community. Also on display will be Takahashi's Tenya Wayna Teens, which involves two players – with sixteen buttons each – trying to avoid awkward social mishaps while trying to express teen love.Alphabet, whatever it is, will be rewarded to backers as a playable game for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Minimalist iOS game Hundreds sells 100,000 copies
Hundreds, the minimalist mobile game from Canabalt's Adam Saltsman and Gasketball's Greg Wohlwend, sold its 100,000th copy on Sunday, sending Saltsman into fits of sentimental, blog-based joy."I don't want to downplay, for us, the financial importance of this success; we basically went broke making Hundreds so it's a pretty big deal that it didn't flop," Saltsman writes. "That said, even if it was the kind of money where we could go buy sports cars or whatever (and it's not!), there is this other, at least for me, way more important thing going on, which is less about finances and more about, 'Holy crap, 100,000 people have played Hundreds.'"Hundreds has a simple premise and interface: Players tap various circles, turning them red and increasing their size and numerical value, in an attempt to accrue 100 points on-screen. If a red circle hits another object, it's game over. Hundreds is $5 on the iTunes App Store, optimized for iPhone 5, and for iPad and iPod Touch in iOS 5.0 or later."Folks who haven't played a game since Tetris are trying out Hundreds and liking it," Saltsman writes. "And we're getting this response for a minimalist game that we made utterly without compromise. Every value we had going into this project we carried all the way through to the end, and in spite of that, or, I am tempted to think, because of that, Hundreds is resonating with more people than we ever allowed ourselves to imagine."So that feels really good. Thank you, everybody, for trying out our game and diving into our puzzles and giving us your time. Thank you so much!"
Canabalt, Gasketball creators launch minimalistic mobile game, Hundreds
Adam Saltsman, also known as Adam Atomic, also known as "the dude who made Canabalt," launched Hundreds, an iOS game co-created by Gasketball's Greg Wohlwend, on the App Store today. It's 40 percent off through January 10, currently running $3.The goal of Hundreds is simple: build up at least 100 points between the shifting circles on-screen, though if a red, growing circle hits another object, you lose. If you're intrigued, play Wohlwend's original Flash version for free on Newgrounds. The iOS version of Hundreds is universal and adds new modes and mechanics.
Katamari and Canabalt creators make a game just for LA Game Space
LA Game Space has 10 days to reach its Kickstarter goal and is half way there, with $125,000 more to go. Today it's sweetening the deal for potential backers: Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy, and Adam Saltsman, the (running) man behind Canabalt, are teaming up to create a game just for people who back the project.Anyone who pledges $5 or more to the LA Game Space Kickstarter will get Takahashi and Saltsman's game – whatever it turns out being – for PC, Mac or Linux. This is on top of the reward for pledges of $15 and more, which offers 30 new games from prominent indie developers such as Hotline Miami's Cactus, Steve Swink of Scale, Ben Esposito of Unfinished Swan, and Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward in collaboration with QWOP's Bennett Foddy, among others. Check out the entire list on on the Kickstarter's main page.LA Game Space is looking to create a hub of game creation in Los Angeles, featuring development tools, pseudo classrooms, mentorship and networking opportunities, along with game development workshops streamed, for free, around the world. We interviewed co-founder Adam Robezzoli in a special episode of the Super Joystiq Podcast; give it a listen right here.
Humble Android Bundle 4 adds Canabalt, Cogs, Swords & Soldiers HD and more
In typical Humble Bundle fashion, the initial lineup of great games included in Humble Android Bundle 4 has had even more great games piled on top of it. Five more games are now included to previous purchasers and those who pledge more than $6.25 from here on out – Canabalt, Cogs, Swords & Soldiers HD, Zen Bound 2 and Avadon: The Black Fortress.Avadon: The Black Fortress is a tablet-only, class-based tactical RPG from Spiderweb Software; Cogs is the acclaimed 3D puzzle game from Lazy 8 Studios where players must move pieces around on a 3D cube. Swords & Soldiers HD is Ronimo Games' casual-friendly side-scrolling strategy game where you manage unit spawning and steamroll everything in your path.Zen Bound 2 is an artistic 3D puzzler where players are tasked with wrapping as little twine as possible around wooden objects to complete beautiful, simple sculptures. Finally, Canabalt is Adam Saltsman's excellent free-runner about standing up to the government and hating boxes. Oh man does that game make you hate boxes.And as with the original lineup, each of these new games also include their respective soundtracks.
Canabalt iOS update might add local multiplayer, hardcore modes
Outside of workshopping "challenge maps" for Canabalt, creator Adam Saltsman has been pretty mum on any kind of updates or changes for the free-runner ... until now. Rather than do a sequel, Saltsman is considering a free update that would add local multiplayer for up to two people, eight new hardcore game modes with corresponding leaderboards, and achievements for Game Center.Saltsman also kinda joked about Canabalt without rooftops, as seen in the image above – sounds great to us because maybe then we'd stop jumping into walls. This was more of a hypothetical than anything, though Saltsman hasn't officially ruled it out. Maybe it'll be the most hardcore mode of them all: You spawn and then immediately fall to your death.
PSA: Hunger Games: Girl on Fire out today
The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire, the iOS adaptation of Suzanne Collins' breakout young-adult sensation, is now available for free on the App Store. As you'll recall, Girl on Fire was developed by a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young-esque indie-games supergroup captained by Adam Saltsman of Canabalt fame, featuring artwork by Super Crate Box's Paul Veer and music by Super Meat Boy composer Daniel Baranowsky.The above trailer was actually created before the game was in a playable state, using a combination of the game's art assets, Adobe After Effects and a powerful amount of ingenuity. Hopefully Lionsgate's film version of The Hunger Games, which hits theaters tomorrow, will have as much effort put into it.
Adam Atomic workshopping Canabalt 'challenges'
You can now play Canabalt in multiplayer (in the Windows/Mac/Linux version, available right now for literally any price in the Humble Android Bundle). But developer Adam Saltsman is still thinking about how to enhance the running/jumping/dying experience, polling Twitter followers about the "vague, mysterious ideas" shown on his Professional Game Designer Whiteboard.The whiteboard depicts some kind of "challenge" mode, which features a map. This opens up the game to all kinds of uncomfortable change, like the potential for movement in another direction. After all, that map isn't a straight line that goes on forever. Or maybe it's a set of specific, creator-designed Canabalt situations arranged within a map display. Something like that.
Canabalt makes the jump to PlayStation Minis
Canabalt, the deceptively addictive single-button platformer from Adam Saltsman, is available for PS3, Vita and PSP as a PlayStation Mini in Europe right now, and is set to hit next week in the US. Canabalt costs £1.74/€1.99/AU $3.45.Canabalt has already made its run as a free Flash game and an iOS title, and Saltsman (or Mr. Atomic, as we assume he sometimes prefers) is hard at work on the official iOS movie tie-in game, The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire.
Five legendary indie developers walk into a room...
Over the past few years, the definition of "indie" has expanded exponentially. It now includes the five men invited to speak to an audience of developers in a cavernous room at GDC's North hall: Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia), Tim Sweeney (Epic Games), John Romero (Doom), Adam Saltsman (Canabalt) and Markus "Notch" Persson (Minecraft)."Indie" now includes "rockstar."These five spoke at "Back to the Garage: The Return of Indie Development (From Those Who Were There and Some Who've Just Arrived)," and without specifically addressing the concrete idea behind what makes indie "indie," they helped define the term in its modern trappings. "Indie" involves listening to feedback from outside sources. "Indies" create AAA titles. "Indie" means talking to press, managing staff and marketing a game while respecting other people's time. "Indie" is about making money.Being indie doesn't sound so different than standard publisher-style game creation, mostly because it's not -- indie is now a sub-genre of game development, rather than a separate enterprise. It's in the tone with which these developers speak about the business, their independent passion and the amount of risk they're willing to take that offers a clear distinction from the sterile PR BS often found in the campaigns from large publishers.
Adam Saltsman on making a game out of The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire is what film company Lionsgate calls a "teaser game" for the upcoming movie, based on the popular books. iOS indie superstar Adam Saltsman (Canabalt, Capsule) is leading a team of other indie superstars for the App Store release, including Mark Johns and Kevin Coulton (aka DOOMLASER), Paul Veer, and composer Danny Baranowsky.It's a different world now, one in which the official tie-in video game for a major motion picture is a game for phones, designed by a tiny team of people best known for games they made without publishers. It's a game with a deliberate retro aesthetic, as you can see in the new "pixel poster" for the upcoming game (visible in full after the break). Author Suzanne Collins even chimed in with suggestions. How on earth did this all happen?The rise of iOS gaming is a separate, and larger topic, but pinpointing the design of this particular one was much simpler. "From the get-go my inspiration and motivation for this, aesthetically, has been to just pretend I am making a movie tie-in game for the Super Nintendo, only actually fun to play," Saltsman told Joystiq, explaining the look.
Indie dream team building The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire for iOS
Adam Saltsman, the mastermind behind Canabalt, Gravity Hook and Capsule, has rallied an indie dream team to make an original iOS title based on The Hunger Games movie. The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire is Saltsman's brainchild, backed by production company Lionsgate, and in collaboration with designers/programmers Mark Johns (Tap Tap Dance) and Kevin Coulton (Hot Throttle), lead artist and animator Paul Veer (Super Crate Box), and composer Daniel Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, Canabalt).Saltsman says he was skeptical about taking on the adaptation, as most companies who approach him want to re-skin Canabalt and call it a day. Not Lionsgate though. "I pitched them on an original touch-based action game instead," Saltsman said. "It does feature a running character, but the focus of the game is more on marksmanship and strategy... but we'll have more to say and show about that later! It's a small idea, but a tight one too."The Hunger Games: Girl on Fire will launch for iOS devices "timed to the theatrical release," which is March 23.
EA staffer says goodbye with Swords & Sworcery-esque creation
EA Tiburon just lost software engineer Ben Burbank. And while the Madden franchise will charge on without him, Burbank made a special creation to remember the people he worked with while at EA. Titled "So Long, Old Friends," the interactive goodbye letter remembers the individuals and teams that shaped his time at the publisher -- from the team behind NFL Head Coach to the folks who work on the annual Madden installment. Visually inspired by Capybara's Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP, the game was built entirely in Flixel, Adam "Atomic" Saltsman's open-source coding engine. And like S:S&SEP, Burbank's creation is more of an "experience" than a "game" (in the strictest sense). It's also rather touching, which is why we can't suggest enough that you spend the five minutes required to check it out.
Canabalt creator Adam Atomic talks indie gaming, documentary on the way (video)
Adam Atomic's real name is Adam Saltsman, but regardless what you call him he's the man behind Canabalt, a killer parkour-inspired title in which you control a dude running across a rooftops with just a single button -- jump. Though it has simple mechanics and simple aesthetics the thinking behind it was anything but, a topic that Adam explores in the video clip embedded for you below. The footage is the product of James Swirsky and the team behind the upcoming documentary Indie Game: The Movie, due out next year and promising to explore the art and craft of the independent game movement. It's too early to tell whether the film might be able to knock The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters from the top of our documentary chart, but this segment (not actually a part of the movie) certainly makes things look promising.
iPhone game devs give us their thoughts on the iPad
With yesterday's announcement from Apple of its much hyped "latest creation" -- the iPad -- and the news that already existing iPhone applications (that means games too, folks) will be playable on the device, we started wondering how the developers of the world felt about this shiny new piece of gadgetry. So we asked a handful of our favorites -- Canabalt's Adam "Atomic" Saltsman, Pocket God's Dave Castelnuovo, and PopCap's Andrew Stein, just to namedrop a few -- to give us their reactions. "It's hard to say anything concrete without actually playing with the thing personally, but I'm optimistic about it continuing to open up video games to even more 'normal' people," Saltsman told us. "I'm hopeful that having a big multitouch space will help mediate the whole 'fat fingers on a tiny screen' problem." PopCap's Andrew Stein agreed, telling us "We'll certainly look at the unique capabilities of the iPad and work hard to utilize those in instances where they can make our games even more fun." Republic of Fun prez Mike Rasmussen sees things a bit differently, noting the opportunity in the upped horsepower of the device. "From a pure gaming perspective, I'm excited about the additional resolution and horsepower, and really interested to start understanding the 3D performance of the A4 [chip]." But even the most successful app developer on the market -- Pocket God creator Dave Castelnuovo -- seems a bit reticent of the iPad, telling us he sees "a lot of potential with the device," but his company is going to "wait to see what kind of acceptance the tablet will have" before moving forward with development. But that's not all! See the full reactions from a variety of iPhone game developers after the break. %Gallery-84102%
