Our interview with Greg of Dumb & Fat Games discusses his recent 5,000 mile journey across the United States and the impact it’s had on his newest game Wandersong. Are you prepared for a game filled with singing and a positive outlook on the world?
To start things off, you’ve been creating games for about a decade now. What all have you made?
All kinds of stuff!!! I made action adventures and RPGs and puzzles and platformers through high school and college of many shapes and sizes. The RPGs and adventures stick out in my mind as being especially formative and demonstrate my early interest in storytelling. But every game had a reason to be. My last game was a roguelike card game called Coin Crypt.
Wandersong was inspired by a 5,000 mile bike ride across the United States. How did that bike ride influence this game? Did you do a lot of singing during your journey? Are there certain locales you wanted to feature?
I definitely did a lot of singing! The adventure exposed me to lots of kind strangers and obstacles… and it instilled in me a genuine belief in some stuff that sounds cheesy put into words, like believing in yourself and the power of positivity and the goodness that’s inherent in people. Wandersong came from those kinds of big feelings, and wanting to make something that spread those kinds of messages along.
Was there ever a piece of Wandersong that existed prior to the bike journey? If so, how much did the journey change the game?
There were a few different weird ideas I tried exploring before I found Wandersong. I was working on a 2D No Man’s Sky planet generator while I was on the trip, sometimes. I never satisfyingly solved what the gameplay might be, but I thought it could have to do with bonding with different alien animals. Singing to the animals was an idea I had as part of that. I also tried making a 3D bike apocalypse game but it also didn’t have a good gameplay hook. That one didn’t really make it into Wandersong. Before the trip, and even for the first month or so during it, I was still really involved in finishing & launching Coin Crypt, and I didn’t really have time to think about new stuff yet.
How was your experience with Kickstarter? Was it your first time using it? Would you use it again in the future, or would you pursue a different method, such as a traditional publisher?
I used it back in 2012 to finish Phantasmaburbia, a suburban ghost RPG I was making. For me it’s always been very, very positive. But I also don’t attract a massive audience, and I finish all the games I start, so I don’t have the kind of antagonistic relationship with backers that you end up reading about. (“Some guy finishes some game, has pleasant interactions with players” isn’t really an interesting story…) Every game’s needs are unique, so there’s no right answer for how you get funding. Personally, I’ve really enjoyed the passion my backers have shown me.
The game is being created in GameMaker, which you’ve been using for quite some time now. Do you ever intend on creating with a different engine, or do you think this will serve your needs indefinitely? What made you choose GameMaker all those years ago?
GameMaker came up in a Google search when I was 12. Seemed like fun. Still does! I’ve played around with other stuff like Flash and Unity, but GameMaker has always had what I needed to make the games I wanna make. I would move to something else if I had to, but working with software I understand really well makes all aspects of the process much easier.
The game is heavily focused on your ability to sing, and all the videos show a full wheel of notes. Will you gain any new singing abilities while playing, or do you have the same skills throughout the game?
It really is just a game about singing. I’ve seen this sentiment floating around in comments, like, “Wait, you sing for the WHOLE GAME? That’s IT?” and it makes me laugh. There’s a million billion things you can do with singing, if you apply some imagination. All Mario does is jump, but you never really get sick of jumping, do you? I think people will be really, really surprised by the breadth and variation of all the things you can sing to and play with in this game. It really is all over the map. And it could easily be ten times bigger than it is.
About how long do you think this game will last? Will there be reasons for players to jump back into it after they beat it?
It’s still a bit hard to say until we collect more data, but it looks like about 10-15 hours right now. There are a lot of characters to talk to and things to do that are a bit off the main path, so I think people’s individual times will vary a lot. I have some ideas for little things to do after the ending, but I genuinely think people will want to come back to find the things they missed and experience the story again just as it is. Even from its earlier stages, we had testers who wanted to play through what we had multiple times. It’s not the kind of thing that you solve once and then it’s solved forever… it’s all about the journey, playing in it and trying stuff.
For anyone not familiar with the game and its inspirations, what titles would you compare Wandersong to?
Steven Universe, Over the Garden Wall, Adventure Time. I’m not sure about video games. Night in the Woods has some similarities as a story-driven platformer, but the tone is totally different. I just played Samorost 3 and that felt similar, but it has a much bigger emphasis on complicated puzzles than we do.
What makes Wandersong unique from anything else on the market?
It’s a game about playing with music. It’s full of messages about nonviolence and positivity, and also rainbows. I wish there were tons of games like this and we weren’t unique at all, but we actually don’t know a single game that’s even close, to be honest.
What kind of experience are you hoping for people to get out of this? Is there anything you hope they take away from it?
I want players to have a happy time playing it. I hope that it’s something that sticks with people and makes their lives happier, too. When we demoed the game at PAX, a few people cried tears of joy just in the first 15 minutes.
What are your top 3 games of all time, and your top 3 from the last 5 years?
For all-time I have to say Earthbound, and Windwaker, and then a lot of things tied for 3rd.
Of the last 5 years… Breath of the Wild completely blew me away. Undertale made me rethink a lot of design patterns I was stuck in. I’ve probably played Smash 4 the most.
What would your advice be for someone that has never made a game before, but wants to start?
Google search “Game Maker.”
If you could only choose one band/musician to listen to for the rest of your life, who would you choose?
What a terrible thing to consider! There’s no good answer, but, maybe the dø… They cover a wide range of moods and sounds.
Do you have a favorite rodent?
Nope.
Anything else we haven’t touched on you’d like the readers to know?
We’re making sure people can enjoy this game even if they’re hard of hearing or color blind, so please don’t let that deter you if you think that will be an obstacle for you!
We’d like to extend our deepest appreciation for taking the time to answer our questions to the one and only Greg Lobanov – it’s a true pleasure to hear so many positive thoughts from one person. If you feel so inclined to follow along with Greg’s work, you can visit his site and his Facebook page. For more on Wandersong, make sure to check back as we’ll be sure to continue covering it as news emerges.