Interview with Red Candy Games co-founder and CEO Julian Volyn.

What’s the story behind TIC’s development?

That’s a good one actually; the idea for TIC was born out of an animation I created while I was still in school titled “Tideaux.” It was a zany 2-minute short that showcased a production process I was experimenting with at the time. The quirky art-style and theme was well-received by faculty and students so I felt the need to exploit the character and environments in a new medium. I saw XBLIG as a great platform to launch the concept.

Full product development began in September of last year while finishing up my undergraduate work - Initially it began with me as artist/designer, and Zach Lynn as lead programmer. I recruited on-campus and through some of my former contacts to fill-in all of the intermediary roles. By the end of the project we had 8 collaborators and a production time that totaled nearly 8 months. Not bad for a zero-budget game. That was really the idea though, create a game for the service with high production-value from limited resources. .

One of the things that left an impression on us with TIC: Part 1 is the level of visual depth throughout. Could you tell us about the use of the Jawbreaker engine in the game and its potential for future titles?

Achieving the look of TIC was in very many ways an iterative, experimental process (something not all big-budget games have time/money for). Also, it required us to be super creative in defining our need as far as the back-end goes. Because we were developing using XNA, we were essentially building from the ground up. That means no cookie-cutter engine to ease us into the process. I would say this was a benefit rather than a set-back.

Lead programmer Zach Lynn and programmer Jeff Danis did wonders in building JB’s custom tools to collage-in massive amounts of artwork on virtually limitless layers to accomplish the 2.5D effect. JB is also equipped with an in-game asset editor that we implemented after becoming frustrated with the 1000+ assets I was manipulating in a text file… The in-game editor allows us to do everything from moving around and copy/pasting assets/enemies to defining camera/sound volumes, editing enemies and manipulating the collision grid. Basically, it was a designer’s wet dream.

As for the future of JawBreaker… You can expect some big announcements soon.

There seems to be an environmentally conscious quality about TIC which makes it a natural fit for the grassroots nature of Indie titles. What’s the message you’re looking to spread with this underlying theme?

Damn, I thought we were being subtle… You’re absolutely right; I had actually come up with the basis for the story after the BP oil spill incident. There are definitely some under-explored themes that I think are worth shedding some light on. Namely, TIC is in conflict with himself as an in-organic, polluting, oil-mining robot. So if you think about it, he’s kind of an enemy to the Molepeople (the last organic creatures in the world)… The machine versus nature theme can be seen through the contrast of the highly-fertile environments against some of the more industrial/mechanical elements.

I know what you’re thinking, what the fuck is up with the acorns? They represent alternate energy in the world. If EvilCorp doesn’t stop mining oil, robots and moles alike will perish from high gas prices and global meltdown. Thankfully, the wise Molepeople have maintained the secrecy of the acorns’ power through the ages, and stoner-bot Thorne will teach you thing or two about using them to get real high… What? You didn’t catch the innuendo in-game? Mario has mushrooms, Tic has acorns. Get over it.

To sum that question up, yes, we’re trying to spread peace and love through being green.

How did the design for TIC’s art style come about?

I’m a big fan of highly-polished crazy production-value animation from Pixar as well some of the cruder and darker indie stuff. Also maybe if the worlds of Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton fornicated and had a baby it would look something like TIC’s. Maybe. In all seriousness though, the style was developed over time, originating from “Tideaux” and then evolving with our toolset and technical capabilities.

From an artistic standpoint, the look was achieved with a very much composited process. I’d render some 3D primitives and then apply some texture and illustration overlays to give it a bit more of an organic feel, opposed to the sterilized cold look of a perfect 3D render. I really think it’s a lot of that imperfection mixed with perfection that gives expression to the world.

I don’t deserve all of the art cred though. Justin Burdick, our character artist did a phenomenal job modeling/rigging/animating all of our characters in TIC, and the talented Ivy Kwan drew up the beautiful pseudo-construction paper cut-out looking intro slides.

What are your hopes for the future of TIC?

We’ve got plenty more crazy gameplay ideas and characters that we’re itching to introduce in our next installments. A lot of the planned game mechanics got canned simply because we couldn’t polish as quickly as we could generate code, and a big push for us was to bring studio-quality production XBLIG. I’ve got sketches of boss fights on napkins and a bunch of unexplored story ideas that will have to wait until subsequent episodes. Trust us though; TIC’s journey is going to lead him into some very beautifully twisted places outside of the PineHill Meadow in Part 2 and beyond.

We’re also very fortunate to have been recognized in the 2011 Dream Build Play competition as a semi-finalist, so we’re hoping this will give us the much-needed exposure and credibility among the XBLIG community to warrant future TIC installments on XBLIG or XBLA.

From a development perspective, what are some of the strengths and weaknesses of XBLIG?

Well, from a dev perspective, it’s an excellent platform to launch new and innovative (or recycled and near copyright-infringing) ideas and let the world try them out. Thankfully, there are tons of freeloaders on XBLIG in 10+ countries who will at the very least download the trial of your game. Seeing that someone in Japan downloaded and then purchased your Indie game is a special kind of feeling.

The press response to TIC: Part 1 has been a huge success. In less than 3 months we’ve been featured on G4, Kotaku, Gamepro magazine, Joystiq, as well as a handful of other indie gaming sites. This type of exposure simply would not have been possible without the service.

The weaknesses of XBLIG rest in the lack of visibility with less core and more casual gamers. A small percentage of XBL’s subscribers actually frequent the channel and once you’ve exited the newest releases slot, downloads/sales tend to flat-line. In regard to pricing, the channel is less than flexible (in the 90 days you have to wait to adjust your price you’ve already dropped off of the newest releases). Also, issuing an update is quite simply a pain in the ass.

What are some of Red Candy Games’ favorite games on the service and what makes them stand out?

The first title that attracted me to the service was Lumi - I absolutely loved the painterly art-style and simplistically addictive play mechanics. I feel that the most elegant designs are also the most simple and that when things start getting complicated, balancing becomes a nightmare. We definitely tried hard to make that design philosophy evident in TIC.

There are certainly other talented developer’s doing good things, the guys at Swing Swing Submarine know how to put out a well-designed, polished product, and James Silva at Ska is pretty much a rock star. I would totally be down to get in touch with some of my favorite indie devs and organize some kind of super group. We all know that’s where this industry is going.

Thanks to Julian for taking the time to answer our questions and congrats to Red Candy Games for taking second in this year’s Dream.Build.Play competition.