[Interview] Road to IGF: Steel Crate Games and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

I think that few people did not hear about this game on SG (especially after a whole series of streams on it). In any case, I bring to your attention a free translation of an interview with developers with the Gamasutra website. I think it may be interesting to someone (I hope so).

I apologize in advance for literacy and possible errors and inaccuracies in the translation.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – This is really exciting and extremely entertaining experience in cooperation. The game leaves one player alone with a bomb in the Role of the "sapper", and his partner is alone with a multi -page manual to neutralize the components of bombs of varying degrees of complexity, in the role of "expert". As a result, the only thing that binds both is the voice connection, with which the “expert” must flip out the manual in search of the correct instructions and transfer them to the “sapper” in order to neutralize the ill -fated device.
The game was nominated for the awards of the Festival of the Independent Game construction IGF (Independent Game Festival) for the main prize and in the categories "Design" and "Innovation". And also the game was nominated for the “Best Debut” award on GDCA (Game Developers Choice Awards).
Gentlemen from Steel Crate Games: Ben Kane, Brian Fetter and ALEN PestalUKY answered some questions about Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.

Did you have the experience of developing games previously?

Ben Kane: My first jump into the world of game development appeared in the form of moding Half-Life, which, as it seemed to me then, clearly lacked Pokemon and Stephen Sigal. Ultimately, I received a diploma of a software engineer, which was thoroughly entered into programmers, but, like any indie developer, will tell you, ultimately you freeze the damn dozen hats creating games. I created games at a professional level about 7 years-the first two of which I spent in Electronic Arts and the rest surviving in the role of an independent developer, for the most part, engaged in the development of games for Xbox Live, such as DLC Quest.

Brayen Fetter: In total, this is my first real game. Before that, I only created a couple of small prototypes so far tried to understand how to use Unity in conjunction with virtual reality. Earlier, I studied at the University at the Faculty of Computer Sciences and at the end of worked as an engineer-programmer in IBM about eight years, later about two independently.

Alan Pestaluki: I started with a pair of university projects: a bunch of simple JavaScript/flash games, 3D races, 3D arcade adventure and 3D RTS. I had the opportunity to work on a whole bunch of games in the course of training at college and institute. Each of my project, I had to come up with something new, something that would distinguish her from all that I have ever played before. Subsequently, I found out for myself that there is no sense in creating a game that has already been created by someone. After completing my studies, I immediately went to work in a small local studio for the development of games for mobile phones, in which I worked for about three years where I developed my abilities as a programmer. In 2014, I took part in Global Game Jam with a couple of my acquaintances from the local “Indie-Tusovka”, but the rest is already a story.

What tools did you use/use in development? https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/review/instant-casino/

Ben: Our team used Unity to create Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. Conventional tools such as Visual Studio, Maya, Photoshop, Sony Vegas and others also in the list of tools that actively went in, which in total does not go beyond the norm. Things such as GitHub, Google Drive, Trello, Skype and Slack were also widely used in order to control the overall course of work. The only thing that was quite unusual was the use of a ligament HTML/CSS/PHP. The manual itself, its interface, cross -browser, all this is an extremely important part of the puzzle itself.

How much time you spent the development of the game?

Ben: The main team (Alan, Brayen and I) worked on the game all the time since they created the original prototype. We recently celebrated our work, already like two years of joint work on the project and we still have a whole bunch of things ahead.

How exactly you came to this concept of the game?

Ben: Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is the result of participation in 2014 Global Game Jam. We had a couple of Devkit Oculus Rift and we clearly decided that we will use them, no matter what concept we came. VR, even now, is a rather rare thing, not to mention then about then, so later we found ourselves at the stand of other developers of American races trying demo. Soon we have already observed a whole crowd of onlookers watching one person in a helmet. A man in a helmet spent a great time! And observers? And the observers are not very. Therefore, we decided to make a game in which the observer will be included in the gameplay and really enjoy participation in the process. The bottom line was that each side of the VR and non-VR had various pieces of information and they needed to work together to solve the riddle. A whole bunch of different options spun in my head, but when we went with the neutralization of the bomb, it sounded the most exciting and most executable within the framework, we have given 48 hours.

At what stage of development of the concept you realized that the idea will shoot in practice?

Ben: At the end of Jem, all participating teams made short presentations and showed the results of the work while one of the members of Clorichi tried their game. When the line reached us, we took out the camera and recorded on the video what actually happened during the first passage of the game. The reaction was fantastic and gave us a hint that we dig in the right direction. We posted a video on YouTube and received about 150,000 views in a couple of days. And it was at this moment that we decided to meet again and discuss the further development of the project more seriously.

What are the moments of the interaction of the players that you have seen, you remember the most?

Ben: I like the most moments when players begin hot discussions when everything gets out of control. They always enthusiastically thank us for the demo before they leave, continuing the discussion. Sometimes they return to try again, and you can confidently say that their goal was from the very day when they left was retaliation. Oh, and observation of how children punish their parents for mistakes, also gives pleasure.

Brayen: Penn Jillette from Penn and Teller watched some games on the PlayStation Experience with his wife Emily. When the line reached our creation, I warned them that they would not play together. However, Emily had no early game experience, so she decided to sit down for the manual. After the Round ended, she got so drawn into the game that when Penn was about to leave, she called him back, and so that he helped reading the manual while she would neutralize the bomb. This extremely surprised him. After the game ended, she came up and said that she had never played video games in her life before, but this is exactly the yoke that she would like to play in the future. I was interested in watching people without any game experience can cooperate so well with more experienced gamers.

Alan: I liked to watch Ben and Brayen play together. There were definitely moments such as “you should have seen it”, which are unlikely to be able to convey in words. I think this is exactly what Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes gives a certain value. These are stories that you build on top of existing relations that are the most deep and significant.

Whether IGF finalists played other games? Were there those that you liked?

Ben: I think that it will be more correct to say something like, “I still have no time to try them!". I think my list of postponed has become a little more after the declaration of the list of finalists. Had a chance to try Fantastic Contraction with a friend, whose interest in her was simply not imagined. You know, it is extremely difficult to find something for yourself that you will cause such a strong interest, but I hope that everyone will have a chance to feel it.

Brayen: Unfortunately, I had a chance to try out only a couple of finalists. I really like the aesthetics of Mini Metro and Her Story finds in terms of structure and spelling itself – this is very exciting.

Alan: I tried to develop a habit of trying all IGF finalists every year, though it comes out with varying success. True, after I managed to get DEV KIT HTC Vive, I had the opportunity to try the Fantastic Contraction, which is currently my most exciting VR experience at the moment. There is something magical in sitting on the floor and creating something that makes you feel like a child again. People say that Minecraft is like Lego for the current generation of children, but I think that the sensations that Fantastic Contraction gives me more children’s feelings that I experienced playing with LEGO.