From Bioshock 2 to Immortal Empire
Feature
We interview with Jesse Attard, lead programmer on Bioshock's multiplayer component, about Bioshock and striking out on his own with his newly launched indy game Immortal Empire.
But during his time at Digital Extremes, Attard has also been moonlighting as an indie developer under the name Tactic Studios. Attard recently released his first game under this banner: Immortal Empire. The game is as far from Bioshock 2 as possible – it’s a browser-based strategy RPG, featuring single-player, co-op, and PvP gameplay.
Immortal Empire is certainly an interesting title, and a good deal of fun in my experience. Perhaps more interesting, however, is why the lead programmer of one of 2010’s biggest games would want to develop a low-budget browser game. As I discovered when talking with Attard, cell phone games and old-school RPGs are to blame.
Controlling Nostalgia
Prior to joining Digital Extremes, Attard was the assistant studio head for Capcom’s North American mobile studio where he developed games like Street Fighter II, Megaman, and Resident Evil for cell phones. The combination of his lead position at Capcom and the small scale of mobile games provided him with a level of creative freedom that he missed when he began working on larger-scale console titles.
“When you’re working at a bigger company on a triple-A title, you have influence, but… it’s a team environment. You’ve got to work with a lot of other people, which I love and I love having that experience of communicating with everybody,” said Attard.
“With cell phone games… it’s a really different experience: being able to come up with some concept and then just program it… Now something you thought of is in this game that people play. That’s a pretty cool feeling.
“I really wanted to have something that was my own idea and make it into my own game… So I started making what I felt was the simplest [game] that I could handle while having a fulltime job.”
While his experience in mobile gaming motivated him to develop his own property, Attard’s experience with mainstream titles as a young gamer really shaped Immortal Empire’s design. He explained, “When I dreamed about being a game developer, which I always did from a very young age… I wanted to make X-COM. I wanted to make Baldur’s Gate or Diablo or any of these awesome games.
“Now that my career is in videogames and I’m doing that for a living, it’s a very different world. Now people are making these massive games, and shooters are everywhere, and everything is in 3D. Which is really cool… but there’s some nostalgia aspect in making these older-school style games. Browser-based games are a good avenue for exploring that medium again.”
Games at Work, Games at Home
Of course developing an idea into a playable game is never easy and is further complicated when you’re already developing another game fulltime. Attard learned this very well when he began working simultaneously at Digital Extremes and on his own game two and a half years ago. “I was literally working every day on [Immortal Empire]. After I came home from work, ate dinner, then I went straight ahead to making this game until I fell asleep. That was my life for a long time: Games at work, come home, more games, and then go to bed,” he said.
“There [were] times when you think, ‘what am I doing here making this game?’ But you just keep plugging away until it’s done.”
Through the early stages of Immortal Empire’s development, Attard worked alone in developing the game’s concept, writing code, designing the storyline, creating the graphics, and even voicing the game’s characters. As he explains it, “I didn’t want to bring too many people on, just because I wasn’t sure how far it would go. I didn’t want to commit anyone to something that may never materialize.”
But as he gained confidence in the game, Attard contracted artists to create graphical and sound assets that he was unable to develop: “I just paid out of my bank accounts and gave them money, and they gave me artwork.” From more experienced concept artists and pixel artists, he obtained hand-drawn assets, pixilated characters, spell effects, and environmental tiles.
For Immortal Empire’s soundtrack, Attard decided to take a different route. He held a competition “like the Castle Crashers guys did,” focused on Renoise, a digital audio workstation, and its community. “There’s so many talented people out there… and I got a lot of music, great entries,” said Attard.