Interviews// Concursion

SPOnG: You said earlier that each dimension has its own art style, did you have separate artists for each one?

DG: No, we're actually quite lucky. We're working with a very talented group of people who we brought this problem to and they stepped up to the plate and pulled it off. I knew what the styles would need to be, we just needed an artist help to realise it. This music was developed in the same way, with one composer creating the same piece in five different styles. These range from ambient electronic through to guitar rock and chip-tunes. These styles cross-fade between each dimension, aiding the player as it prepares them for each different zone.


SPOnG: The character the player controls, he's not some special trans-dimensional super-hero is he?

DG: No, not at all. He's a regular person from the original world that gets thrown into these other dimensions. Like him, the creatures of his world are shape shifting into these other dimensions. This allows for some very interesting game play opportunities.

For instance, we have an enemy from the platformer world that is heat seeking and relentlessly chases the player and there is no means to kill it. When it shifts into the space-shooter world it becomes a meteor, which has no sense of direction.

From this we have developed a level where the centre third of it is the space-shooter dimension while the top and bottom is the platformer. This has the player being chased in the upper and lower parts of the screen while in the middle the creature becomes a mindless rock that just drifts off. This results in them doing a figure of 8 motion as the creature's behaviour changes.


SPOnG: Do you think it requires a lot of prior knowledge on the part of the player to get to grips with Concursion? Do they need to be familiar with the five different types of games in it?

DG: We kept the controls simple by limiting it to just two buttons and the d-pad. We certainly took advantage of that prior learning by assuming that most gamers' prior knowledge would allow us to skip a lot of the learning curve. We do spend a while teaching the basics, but I think we can take for granted the fundamentals of each of the worlds.


SPOnG: From what I've seen of Concursion the game becomes increasingly complex with respect to the interaction with dimensions.

DG: By the third act of the game the world is breaking down to the point where creatures are no longer shape shifting as they enter other dimensions and the bubbles of each reality start chasing down the player as they become sentient.


SPOnG: Is there a score attack/leader board element to Concursion?

DG: It is possible to beat the 'par time' of each level. This evolved from me timing myself to see how fast I could get through a level and then improving upon it. It's just a bit of fun really and we thought it would be good to include it as part of the game proper.


SPOnG: How far along are you to completing the game's development?

DG: We've just hit content completion and it's just shy of 70 levels along with a handful of bosses. We've just finished our first draft of the final level and we have one song outstanding on the soundtrack, which will play during the end credits, so we're now entering the polish stage. This consists of finishing touches on art, balancing of level design to make sure things aren't too hard or easy. We're saying that it's roughly eight weeks away from completion.

SPOnG: Thank you very much for your time!