Transcript for Nifflas Interview

Nifflas interview

Before interview AIM chats:
First chat (2/10)

(6:39:03 PM) 23: Hi, it's Logan from anyButton
(6:39:36 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hey!
(6:40:11 PM) 23: so, I know it's late there, is there any way we could do a review in the afternoon (your time) over the weekend or next week?
(6:40:53 PM) 23: That's the only time I'll be on at that time, plus I need to finish thinking up some questions for you, and reviewing your games
(6:42:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): That should work
(6:42:27 PM) 23: great! can't wait :)
(6:44:13 PM) 23: you're in CET, right? so it's like 12:44 AM there?
(6:44:47 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah
(6:44:54 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'll actually be awake for an hour more
(6:44:58 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): in case you have any questions now :)
(6:45:31 PM) 23: alright, I've got to go now, but I'll be back in a few minutes, so if you're still here that'd be cool
(6:45:36 PM) 23: thanks, talk to you later
(6:45:44 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I will :)
(6:59:38 PM) 23: hey again
(7:01:55 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hi!
(7:06:10 PM) 23: so, how are you doing?
(7:06:17 PM) 23: (sorry about the pause)
(7:25:36 PM) 23: hi, sorry about all that, are you still there?
(7:25:56 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I am
(7:26:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'm doing great! You?
(7:26:14 PM) 23: I'm doing alright
(7:26:51 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'm applying for ESTA so I can go to the US for a few weeks! I don't want to miss Independent Game Festival
(7:27:17 PM) 23: yea, should be cool
(7:27:31 PM) 23: what games have you been playing lately?
(7:29:46 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hmmm, World of Goo and Crayon Physics of course :D
(7:29:51 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and some Fallout 3
(7:30:24 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (which could have been great if it had less focus on the FPS aspect)
(7:30:45 PM) 23: yea
(7:30:54 PM) 23: I'm assuming world of goo on the PC?
(7:31:00 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah :)
(7:31:22 PM) 23: fun stuff
(7:31:33 PM) 23: have you been working on any games of your own lately?
(7:32:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I have, most definitely!
(7:32:10 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I've spent a lot of time on Night Game
(7:32:21 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and helped out a bit with the Wii port of Cave Story
(7:32:34 PM) 23: oh sweet
(7:32:41 PM) 23: Night game looked interesting
(7:32:45 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :D
(7:33:19 PM) 23: and cave story I consider the best adventure game under, how big is the download, it's ridiculously small, isn't it?
(7:33:33 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I don't actually quite remember
(7:33:43 PM) 23: 9.4 mb
(7:33:50 PM) 23: on acid-play
(7:34:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It should be small though, considering Amaya used synthesizers for SFX and Music, rather than samples
(7:34:05 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): if I'm not mistaken that is
(7:34:30 PM) 23: yea, I remember being blown away by how much content there was inside such a small package
(7:34:34 PM) 23: same thing with your games too
(7:34:36 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(7:34:57 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Ah, Knytt Stories eats ~80-90MB or something with official expansions though
(7:35:04 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): 95% of the size must be the ogg music X)
(7:35:11 PM) 23: lol
(7:35:16 PM) 23: still
(7:35:19 PM) 23: all good games, worth the space
(7:35:25 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Thanks!
(7:37:17 PM) 23: what was your favorite game to make?
(7:37:44 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Either it's Night Game or Knytt
(7:38:08 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's hard to know, the Knytt atmosphere expresses me greatly, but Night Game contains the best gameplay I've been able to create
(7:38:35 PM) 23: cool
(7:38:49 PM) 23: can we expect any more from knytt or WaDF?
(7:39:01 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I hope so!
(7:39:20 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I won't update those games, but I might continue with new Knytt or WaDF games
(7:39:45 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's hard to say yet though, I have a few great ideas I'd like to try
(7:40:09 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): ...different projects, all which I'd love to create.... and I can only chose one at a time X)
(7:40:25 PM) 23: haha, yea
(7:40:28 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so no creative block right now at least :)
(7:40:40 PM) 23: I don't think I've played any adventure games with quite the same atmosphere
(7:42:57 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's a mix of a lot of things, but I think that many of the places in my games reflects some kind of ideal world I'd like like to explore for real if it was possible X) The ambiance sounds are very important, since that's what I'd like to hear in real life.... not just the sound of cars driving around
(7:43:41 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): ...like a momentary escape from reality
(7:43:50 PM) 23: yea, it's nice
(7:44:03 PM) 23: have you seen Wolfire's design review of Knytt Stories?
(7:44:46 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I did! He mailed me about it! I'm really honoured that he wanted to do that!
(7:45:21 PM) 23: yeah, I think he did a pretty good job capturing the essence of it, I just did an interview with them, they're really friendly and open
(7:45:30 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(7:45:34 PM) 23: do you get a lot of chances to talk to your fans?
(7:45:43 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I do, mainly at my forum
(7:46:16 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I get a lot of mails from people who like my games too. I wish I had more time to respond :(
(7:46:42 PM) 23: yeah, time is always a problem
(7:47:18 PM) 23: do you feel that the fans have a favorite game?
(7:47:50 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): They usually tend to like the same type of games that I do, probably because those games have similarities to my own
(7:48:27 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): or my games before they have similarities to those other games
(7:48:34 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): depending on how you see it X)
(7:48:41 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (misunderstand me wrong)
(7:48:49 PM) 23: haha, alright
(7:49:27 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'm mostly into very atmospheric games. I really wish there were more of those
(7:49:49 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): An "Ico" isn't released on a regular basis
(7:50:19 PM) 23: yea, defiantly, the only one I can think of like it are abstract puzzle games
(7:51:43 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Ah, those can be great
(7:52:55 PM) 23: they can, but it's defiantly a different feel, usually art games, I see yours as more... a mix between the art and fun games (for lack of better terms)
(7:52:58 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): heh, a bit like the Shellblast / Acidbomb games.... Basically a slightly more complex take on Minesweeper, but the atmosphere makes it so exciting
(7:53:16 PM) 23: yeah, definatly
(7:53:30 PM) 23: you mentioned "Ico" before, what is that?
(7:56:00 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's a PS2 game. I guess my fans are tired of hearing that whenever I'm asked to mention a favorite game, I mentions that. It's an adventure game that lacks almost everything a good game is supposed to have. It features minimal dialogue, almost no music, only 3 or 4 enemy types, almost no weapons, no stats or levels...
(7:56:31 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so you pretty much explore a large castle, solve puzzles, and enjoy an awesome atmosphere
(7:56:47 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's still the game that have affected my own games most.
(7:57:06 PM) 23: cool, sounds neat
(7:57:10 PM) 23: I'll have to look it up
(7:57:41 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's neat, because they took almost everything away from what a game is expected to have, and still made something really beautiful
(7:58:21 PM) 23: I love when games can do that, also, what else do you consider your influences?
(7:58:42 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I take a lot of inspiration from places around where I live
(7:58:50 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): mostly the sounds, deep forests 'n stuff
(7:59:24 PM) 23: that defiantly explains the relaxing and isolated yet not lonely atmosphere
(7:59:32 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah :)
(8:00:23 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Personally, I think that if you get away from the city and either into the forest or to the ocean around where I live, either at early spring or fall, the atmosphere should be a bit similar to Knytt somehow :)
(8:01:23 PM) 23: yeah, I get what your saying, I live in a pretty isolated place surrounded by woods, so, yea, I know what you mean
(8:01:32 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Ah :D Where?
(8:01:40 PM) 23: and I must agree it is kinda like that
(8:01:45 PM) 23: in central New York
(8:02:00 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(8:02:04 PM) 23: so... probably a little different then where your based
(8:02:08 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): That's a place I've always wanted to see
(8:02:30 PM) 23: it's nice if you know where to look, but it's also dreadfully cold in the winter
(8:02:38 PM) 23: where do you live?
(8:02:46 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): northern Sweden :D
(8:03:04 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's basically -18 degrees celcius atm, so we got plenty of coldness too
(8:03:45 PM) 23: oh, wow, so you're probably used to the cold
(8:03:53 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): oh, wait, it's only -15
(8:03:57 PM) 23: alright, yeah, that's got us beat ussually
(8:03:58 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah :)
(8:04:52 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but yeah, neither of New York / Umeå is like San Francisco where I'll be soon I guess :D
(8:04:57 PM) ***Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas) can't wait really
(8:05:36 PM) 23: awww, lucky
(8:06:04 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I wish it was for more than just a few weeks
(8:06:45 PM) 23: it seems like all the major gaming events, indie and mainstream are in california
(8:07:00 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah, I wonder how come
(8:08:54 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): ...and for you it's not quite Sweden, where you have to travel like 1500 kilometers to get to the other side
(8:09:25 PM) 23: very true
(8:10:37 PM) 23: you can always visit the Game Developer Choice Awards (http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/)
(8:10:59 PM) 23: I think that's going on around the same place at the same time
(8:11:07 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :D
(8:11:23 PM) 23: oh, so, did you participate in the Global Game Jam?
(8:11:33 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I didn't! I've actually never heard about it!
(8:12:18 PM) 23: oh really? here, http://globalgamejam.org/
(8:12:49 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Seems to take place in lots of locations at once
(8:12:56 PM) 23: basically a whole bunch of indie developers get together for 48 hours around the world and each team makes a game
(8:13:04 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Oooooooh
(8:13:17 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Closest place seems to be Copenhagen in Denmark
(8:13:51 PM) 23: well, it was at the end of January, but it is supposed to be annual
(8:13:52 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I shouldn't miss this next year
(8:14:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): This sounds like way too much fun
(8:14:10 PM) 23: yea, it would be great to see you make one of those
(8:14:47 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): At "No More Sweden" we had a 28 hour game creation competition, and those games turned out great!
(8:15:08 PM) 23: oh, cool
(8:16:45 PM) 23: yeah, I think the global game jam was started with the Nordi Game Jam, http://www.nordicgamejam.org/
(8:17:01 PM) 23: which would be in copenhagen :P
(8:17:10 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah :)
(8:17:27 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's a good location
(8:17:39 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): easy to get to :)
(8:17:58 PM) 23: jeez, seems like all the good indies are either in San Fransisco or Copenhagen
(8:18:38 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): No More Sweden was quite neat though, a lot of people who's games I had played showed up
(8:19:20 PM) 23: do you know if they have an official web site?
(8:19:43 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Sorry, it doesn't atm :(
(8:20:16 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Anyway, it's late, so I better catch some sleep
(8:20:23 PM) 23: alright, good idea
(8:20:28 PM) 23: I'll talk to you later!
(8:20:35 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah! See you!


Day 2:

(10:31:34 AM) 23: hello
(10:31:56 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hey!
(10:33:05 AM) 23: how are you doing?
(10:33:17 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Great! You?
(10:33:51 AM) 23: pretty good
(10:33:59 AM) 23: got some free time now?
(10:34:12 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Sure
(10:34:25 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Actually, in around 5 minutes
(10:34:29 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Can you wait?
(10:34:38 AM) 23: yeah, no problem
(10:34:54 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): ok, brb :)
(10:40:26 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Okey, now :D
(10:40:47 AM) 23: alright, good :)
(10:41:16 AM) 23: so, lets see, last time you said you were a part of the cave story project, right?
(10:44:47 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah
(10:44:52 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I can not actually reveal what I do at this point
(10:45:18 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I wasn't a part of the original Cave Story though, only the Wii port
(10:45:29 AM) 23: haha, alright, can I ask you some questions about it still?
(10:45:49 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I may not be able to answer, but sure
(10:46:07 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It depends on the question I guess :)
(10:46:17 AM) 23: alright, well, what, if anything, do you guys plan to change about it?
(10:46:42 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Well, obviously the music and graphics resolution will increase
(10:46:54 AM) 23: sweet, but still 8bit, right?
(10:47:10 AM) 23: er, kinda 8bit, you know what I mean?
(10:47:21 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Actually, Cave Story had more colours than an 8-bit palette
(10:47:28 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): There are some new screenshots of what it will look like here: http://nicalis.com/blog/
(10:47:50 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I think 16-bit comes closer :)
(10:48:20 AM) 23: ah, alright, it definitely does look better
(10:49:02 AM) 23: how are you guys gonna do the controls for wii? (any motion sensing stuff, or just plain D-pad and ab button)
(10:49:29 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'm the wrong person to ask about that, sorry :)
(10:49:48 AM) 23: alright, I see
(10:49:56 AM) 23: ok, so on to your other project, Night game, right?
(10:50:04 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah
(10:50:09 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (Still a temporary title)
(10:50:11 AM) 23: how's that coming along?
(10:50:28 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I've been making lots of progress :)
(10:50:43 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Right now it looks like things are going as planned
(10:50:51 AM) 23: that's good
(10:51:20 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The game is more complicated than my previous creations, so logically it takes longer to finish
(10:52:18 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's the first time I've worked with physics simulation, but I still think I did a good job
(10:52:28 AM) 23: it definitely looks like it should be a full length game
(10:53:23 AM) 23: do you have any videos of it up yet?
(10:53:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Not yet, sorry
(10:53:45 AM) 23: it's alright :)
(10:53:56 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Some new images of it was just uploaded to nicalis.com though (the random background thing)
(10:54:39 AM) 23: yeah, the design definitely looks nice
(10:55:42 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Thanks
(10:55:49 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (well, if you meant NG, I didn't do the website design)
(10:56:03 AM) 23: so, did I ask you yet how you got in to making games?
(10:56:37 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I don't know.... I've always been interested, as a child I used to make drawings that I pretended was video games
(10:57:06 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): At early school I learnt qbasic and attempted to create some ASCII games (all failures)
(10:57:17 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Later with Visual Basic (also failures)
(10:57:28 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Then my parents gave me Klik & Play
(10:57:53 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and well, I failed for a series of years to create games with that too (I upgraded to The Games Factory and Multimedia Fusion 1 during this period)
(10:58:06 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I basically tried to create too large games, that I never had a chance to finish
(10:59:09 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so I gave up completely, and started to create music instead until many years later when I decided to try creating small platformers instead of huge RPG's and adventure games X)
(10:59:38 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): ...and well, since then I've released games at a quite regular basis (although NG is taking a little longer than my previous games)
(11:00:29 AM) 23: yeah, I see some early works listed on your wikipedia page that I haven't heard of before, is there any way to play those?
(11:01:01 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): You can actually find them all here: http://niffpage.greywool.com/
(11:01:31 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Some of the old ones aren't bad, Operator Status can be really fun if you're into really hard games.
(11:02:03 AM) 23: alright, cool
(11:02:19 AM) 23: do you plan on putting a better GUI on this site? :P
(11:02:37 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): That's not actually my site, a friend is running it
(11:02:41 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but he might do that :)
(11:02:46 AM) 23: alright, cool
(11:03:42 AM) 23: since I think I have seen this before, but I wasn't sure exactly which files were which type of games
(11:04:33 AM) 23: so, have you made music for anything other than your own games?
(11:04:53 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Not much, I've composed a lot of music earlier that wasn't for any games that is available on the same website
(11:05:10 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I composed a song for Hempuli's game "Once in Space" though.
(11:05:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's the background music in this game: http://hempuli.com/OiS/
(11:06:14 AM) 23: ah, yes, I just happened to stumple upon his stuff a few days ago
(11:06:20 AM) 23: *stumble
(11:06:47 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I love his games. They're a tad too hard for my taste, but always really creative
(11:11:38 AM) 23: hm, yea, it definitely is unique
(11:11:52 AM) 23: it's pretty tricky for such a simple design
(11:13:00 AM) 23: makes you think, I like that
(11:14:05 AM) 23: so, what game systems do you own?
(11:14:19 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The PS2, the XBox360 and the DS
(11:14:22 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and a PC
(11:14:51 AM) 23: yet you're developing cave story for the wii? lol
(11:15:20 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah X)
(11:16:47 AM) 23: do you plan on porting any of your games over to consoles?
(11:17:56 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hmmmm, tricky question. I'd love to see all my games on consoles, but some would be tricky to sell, since I got help from so many creating them.
(11:18:27 AM) 23: oh, so, what other game developers have you worked with?
(11:19:11 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Not many I'm afraid, but I've tried my best to help out whenever someone in the Multimedia Fusion community needs help
(11:20:31 AM) 23: alright,
(11:21:31 AM) 23: so, where'd the name Nifflas come from?
(11:22:07 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Well, I once sat in a car with my uncle and his girlfriend, and a debate started between me and my uncle about how to spell my name
(11:22:43 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): As everyone knows, I spell it Nicklas, but on the paper it's actually Niklas
(11:23:01 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so my Uncle doesn't fully agree about that extra c, thinking it makes it sound like "Nisklas" or something
(11:23:17 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): So my uncle's girlfriend got tired of our debate and told us to spell it with f
(11:23:31 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and well, it was nailed pretty instantly
(11:23:38 AM) 23: haha, that's pretty funny
(11:24:33 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(11:25:36 AM) 23: alright, so, I'm starting to run out of questions, so sorry if I start to jump around to unrelated topics (err, even more unrelated than before)
(11:25:43 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): np :D
(11:26:22 AM) 23: so, how would you describe your games? (or at least knytt)
(11:26:41 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The main focal point of my games so far have been atmosphere
(11:26:57 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Hmmm
(11:27:10 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Basically, I want the games to feel more like a place than a challenge
(11:27:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): if that makes sense :)
(11:27:37 AM) 23: hmm, yeah, alright, it definitely feels that way
(11:28:51 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): So far my games have been non-violent and have a rather cute and helpless (but brave) character exploring a large world.
(11:28:58 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I don't know why, but that express me best
(11:30:07 AM) 23: it's definitely unlike most other games, but it fits with the artistic style very well
(11:30:46 AM) 23: I couldn't really see something with the same style as knytt with weapons
(11:30:46 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(11:31:22 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The atmosphere of Knytt couldn't be the same if weapons did exist
(11:31:56 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It would be weird to crash on another planet, being completely lost and exploring the world to find a way back home.... and starting to shoot violently at everything
(11:32:35 AM) 23: haha, well, that's what a lot of video games' premises are like, unfortunately
(11:32:44 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah!
(11:33:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I wish Fallout 3 had not ended up that way. The atmosphere was so awesome, and although I liked the FPS/Shooter elements of it, there was just way too much of it
(11:33:49 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's quite common :(
(11:33:57 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Games are assumed to need action everywhere
(11:34:20 AM) 23: yes, I find a lot of mainstream games are required to stick to that rule
(11:34:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah.... I mean, not all movies are action movies
(11:34:37 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so why does most games need to be?
(11:34:45 AM) 23: very true
(11:36:12 AM) 23: so, do you use your IRC and forum a lot?
(11:36:37 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Not as much as I'd like to, I need to spend the most time developing games
(11:37:12 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but I still try to be in touch with the forum regulars :)
(11:37:36 AM) 23: alright, cool, I noticed your forum's down today, so I'll have to check it out later
(11:37:54 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah, something happened. I have no idea what
(11:38:24 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but LPChip who administrates the forum decided to make a new installation of the forum software and upgrade everything (including the forum layout)
(11:38:34 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The result will be a lot better than the previous forum was
(11:38:38 AM) 23: cool
(11:41:07 AM) 23: haha, I'm on the IRC right now, they want to know where you got the inspiration for night game and how much it'll cost
(11:42:05 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I don't know how much it will cost, but it's very inspired by Marble Madness
(11:42:12 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and games like Ballance or Hamster Ball
(11:42:27 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I've always wanted to create a similar game
(11:42:39 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but well, I wanted to try it in a 2D universe
(11:43:00 AM) 23: ooo, I loved marble madness for the NES
(11:43:33 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Yeah :D
(11:44:56 AM) 23: do you plan on it being difficult?
(11:45:39 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): A lot of the WaDF players requested me to create a game with the same kind of difficulty again.... Still, WaDF is probably too hard for most causal gamers
(11:45:43 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so it will have two difficulty modes
(11:46:04 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The difficulty of the Hard mode is quite similar to in WaDF
(11:46:35 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (Within a Deep Forest) that is
(11:46:50 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): That way, I hope everyone gets happy
(11:47:18 AM) 23: yea, that seems pretty win-win
(11:49:03 AM) 23: so, where do you get the names for these games?
(11:50:20 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): That's always problematic. I'm really horrible with names, but it have still always worked out somehow.
(11:50:46 AM) 23: haha, alright, I think they fit pretty well
(11:50:59 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): My ex-girlfriend designed the Knytt characters, and named them Knytt from Tove Jansson's children's books.
(11:51:14 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): so I didn't name Knytt
(11:51:30 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and it took me months to figure out that I could call the second one "Knytt Stories"
(11:51:45 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): if I don't remember wrong that is
(11:51:57 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Perhaps it was someone who suggested it
(11:52:46 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It usually turns out nice in the end, but most names are probably taken from somewhere, or from someone else's suggestion
(11:52:57 AM) 23: alright, I see
(11:53:15 AM) 23: so, what do you do outside of being an indie developer, if you don't mind me asking
(11:53:44 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): "Outside" as in other kind of game development or regular life?
(11:53:59 AM) 23: regular life
(11:54:41 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I mostly either work, or hang around with friends
(11:54:55 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): which is great of course
(11:55:04 AM) 23: yeah
(11:55:32 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I got a whole lot of lovely friends in Umeå, and except air, food, and sleep, I guess that's what a human needs to survive
(11:56:00 AM) 23: for sure :P
(11:56:03 AM) 23: err :)
(11:56:36 AM) 23: so, why did you decide to keep your games free?
(11:56:49 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): It's so complicated to sell stuff and enter profits
(11:57:00 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): and it was more a hobby anyway
(11:57:28 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I intended to sell a Knytt Stories expansion, but all the bureaucracy makes it so hard
(11:57:54 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but now that I got the chance to work with Nicalis, I had to take that :)
(11:58:16 AM) 23: alright, cool
(11:59:21 AM) 23: so, you mentioned that your ex designed some of the knytt characters, did she design all of them?
(11:59:47 AM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): She designed around half of the characters in Within a Deep Forest
(12:00:06 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): And those from WaDF that I used in Knytt were hers
(12:00:28 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): She didn't draw any characters specifically for Knytt, but she did the patterns for the Knytt startup screen and credits screen
(12:00:38 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): both with are lovely :)
(12:00:48 PM) 23: yea, who designed the rest?
(12:01:20 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I designed most of the game, but I also asked at the forum for help with character designing. In the game credits list, a few people are mentioned who created extra characters.
(12:01:52 PM) 23: cool, it's a nice and unique design
(12:01:59 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Evil-Ville, TheoX and Mr.Monkey
(12:02:15 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): regulars of either my forums or music communities I've been into
(12:03:39 PM) 23: oh, yes, Mr. Monkey is on the IRC now
(12:04:47 PM) 23: alright, so, can I be expecting a beta for night game eventually?
(12:05:44 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I don't yet know
(12:06:02 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): The game might not have open beta testing
(12:06:21 PM) 23: alright, and do you have any plans on what you want to do after your current projects?
(12:06:36 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I have, at this moment it's all pretty secret
(12:06:50 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): but I sure have :D
(12:06:57 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): (and it's game related)
(12:07:01 PM) 23: alright, that's good
(12:07:17 PM) 23: I think we would all like to see more games from you in the future
(12:07:36 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): :)
(12:08:25 PM) 23: alright, well, I think that pretty much covers it
(12:08:44 PM) 23: do you have anything else to say?
(12:09:03 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Not that I can think about, but it was great doing the interview! Thanks :D
(12:09:14 PM) 23: yea, thank you
(12:09:22 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): no problem :)
(12:09:28 PM) 23: I'll post a short version up soon as well as access to the whole thing
(12:09:35 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): Okey
(12:09:41 PM) 23: great

Extra stuff:

(12:30:14 PM) 23: would you call knytt, KS, and WaDF adventure games?
(12:31:48 PM) Nicklas Nygren (Nifflas): I'm not sure, but perhaps exploration platformers
(12:32:03 PM) 23: ah, great


If any other questions arise I will post it and the answer here