Starting with our ongoing series (more here) talking to independent game developers, we had a verbal exchange with Mikael Forslind from Elden Pixels.
Without preamble, let’s get to the center of the matter.
GOL: Could you introduce yourself, you and tell us a little bit about your games?
“Hello! My call is Mikael Forslind and I am the chief executive and game designer of a small independent company called Elden Pixels, founded here in Gothenburg, a small town in the captivating country of Sweden. The first game we released was Alwa’s Awakening that I arrived about 3 years ago and I was greeted with a lot of praise. So much so that we give up our daily task and pursue this independent dream full-time. I mean, happy. Two months ago, we released Alwa’s Legacy, which is a separate continuation of our first game. Of course, both games were released on Linux on the first day.”
GOL: How did you get into game development? What do you?
“Alwa’s Awakening came to fruition after a game night in which I spent time with friends and played the NES Battle Kid game, as well as the platform game Trine 2. What I liked about the Games of The Battle Kid was the fast gameplay and its bright design. I got a concept to create a platform game where fighting is not the main objective, but instead, you play like this magician and you have to use your magic in an artistic and intelligent way to progress. The seed that has become Alwa Awakening was born about two years later.
But originally, I was handed over to the game because I was working on a store manager in a video store and I can see how the component of the film was slowly disappearing more and more and was being replaced by sweet. Since I didn’t need to paint in a confectionery, I made the decision to give up my homework and move to business school for two years, then I was assigned my first task with the brilliant developer Image Form where I painted with games like the first SteamWorld Dig and SteamWorld Heist. It was 2014 and it would take me about 4 years before I started my own business and every day is very fun and has not spent a single day since I do not think about my debts, I mean a laugh. “
GOL: Since Alwa’s Legacy was funded at Kickstarer, what is it like to run a crowdfunding campaign?
“In my previous work, we have studied crowdfunding a lot. Although we never did, I was well aware of how many paintings they would be. We’ve done our best to optimize our Kickstarter to make it as undeniable as it can be imagined. for the funders and as undeniable as imaginable for us to manage and so far I will say that we have achieved it.
The only thing we really ruined was that when we created all the rewards, there was this menu where you had to choose “Expedition” and we thought it was strange that our only virtual titles had this problem, but we didn’t think much about it and chose “World”. Then move temporarily six months later and we’re about to submit our Kickstarter surveys to collect the credit names and platform for the game and research continued to request physical addresses (due to the shipping option). We contacted Kickstarter and were essentially told we shouldn’t have ruined everything. Apparently, there was a way to eliminate the shipping problem. So we’re here with about 1000 contributors and we had to collect their names and their platform on other Google sheets and it was a great puzzle looking to manage all the knowledge that now exists in many other places. It was all we didn’t need and all because of the lack of adjustment in November last year when we introduced the Kickstarter. In addition to this little accident, I think running a Kickstarter was a pretty fluid delight and I will definitely return it for our long-term projects. And hey, if you’re a collaborator who reads this, thanks for being great! “
GOL: What do you think distinguishes Alwa’s legacy from other retro-style platform adventures?
“Our game focuses on the exploration component of the metroidvania formula and very little on action, fighting and wealth gathering. All the innovations you get unlock new tactics to advance, not new tactics to kill things. This is all we need to do in the first game and built on more in the game at the moment. There’s even a game mode where you have to play through the total game without killing an unmarried enemy! “
GOL: Given the number of thousands of games released consistent with the year, what are the maximum things a developer wants to do before launch?
“If you need to succeed in the independent gaming scene, I think it’s vital to have a long-term strategy, not just before launch. Our strategy at Elden Pixels is to treat everyone with kindness, enthusiasts and employees, make quality the games that other people love, keep ownership of the games and keep prices as low as you can imagine until we have enough titles to live properly.
Plus, you need your network to continue enjoying the games you create. This wouldn’t make sense to us after creating two metroidvania games with pixel art to suddenly create a brutal and fashionable 3-d game. Our purpose is to create games that we love and that our network also enjoys so that you don’t have to invest time in creating a new network for the game. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t innovate and create new concepts for cool games, I’m just saying that in our case, being so small, it’s vital that we don’t lose what we’ve already built. “
GOL: Alwa’s Legacy has been available for about two months, how was the release? Is there anything you’d do next time?
“I won this consultation earlier on a friend’s day and it’s a difficult consultation to answer. As CEO and lead designer, there are many other points to consider, however, my popular response is something like: The result went well, it all actually turns out like the game, lately we got a very positive score of 98%, which I think is the highest score I’ve achieved in the ten games I’ve worked on. Array, so it’s amazing. Have we made enough money Win a new game? Have we earned enough money to continue creating games? Yes, for a while. But it’s still not enough to relax, so I’m worried about the future. But I chose this path of indie developer and it’s complicated, however, deep down I know we’ll get there; we just want more time.”
Q: For the Linux version, has there been any significant barriers to publishing on Linux? Did you get any attractive information there?
“Surprisingly, Alwa’s legacy worked very well from day one. We use Unity and, of course, it’s helping a lot. Everyone is going to laugh at us now, but the biggest obstacle we had was finding a way to review the game well. We are independent, so we couldn’t get a PC compromised to run Linux and didn’t need to do a double installation to get started, so we ended up installing Ubuntu on a USB stick and started from there. But then we didn’t know how to install anything on it, so we put the game on another USB stick and played from there. And despite this unusual setup, the game has just started and we all applaud. It was beautiful!
Of course, we discovered a lot of Linux testers thanks to its adorable site and this helped us make sure that the game was running as expected and that our beta version had no specific Linux bugs. For our next project, we will probably set up a suitable Linux PC so that we can do more important tests without using a USB stick. “
GOL: Alwa’s Awakening had an 8-bit flavor, with Alwa’s Legacy pushing things more into a 16-bit flavor, do you want to reassemble it for your next game? Will there be a next time?
“There will probably be a maximum next time, yes, we’re not making an Alwa game, but we’re exploring many other features and ideas. In fact, we recently gained EU investment for a new prototype and are excited to achieve this. We just want Alwa’s Legacy to be released on some additional platforms before doing so. Being an independent developer who self-supports is a struggle, but we are there in the long run and I feel confident for the future. “
Thanks to Mikael Forslind for taking the time to chat, it’s really appealing to hear from other developers about how things are going. Now that they have shown themselves as a team with two full versions to their credit, it will be fun to see how this new game is changing.
You can buy Alwa’s Legacy, its latest version, on GOG and Steam now. See also the preview below if you’ve never noticed it before (more a few details here):
See more interviews with our interview tag.
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