Luckily I got the chance to sit down with Nik Mihaylov, co creator of Rinikulous Games to talk about their success on Lonely Sun, as well as talk a little bit about their future projects (including Hyper Beam.) I also asked some questions about how they handle the creative process in making these excellent games.
GameSkinny: Lonely Sun has been received fairly well by critics, what does it feel like to see your work loved so much?
We can all learn about teamwork from these guys. Just the two, they bring forth amazing products worth time and money. I cannot wait to see what else they have in store for the future!
However, given what the game stands for and its gameplay, receiving praise from over 30 review and feature sites (without us being a big name in the industry) is truly unbelievable. We never thought that our little experiment would be so well received considering Lonely Sun is our very first game. That being said, it’s a great feeling to know that whatever you’re doing is worth it and has a reason to exist.
Some of the challenges we faced were learning to play nice with Unity; 3D low poly modeling with just the right amount of vertices; establishing the overall art direction and interface for the game; designing each world/planet and figuring out each level’s difficulty and “look and feel;” coming up with and playtesting multiple enemy/obstacle behaviors; creating sound atmospheres to match each level’s concept. There were a lot of sleepless nights – nothing new.
However, the biggest challenge was putting everything together in a way that made sense – plot and visual/sound design. We had to sacrifice quite a few interaction flows/models/designs along the way but overall I’m quite happy with the outcome as we learned quite a lot in the process. The Internet is a wonderful place — tutorials, forums…
Is the final product perfect? No.
Is it what I envisioned it? Yes.
Was Lonely Sun a great learning exercise? Absolutely.
GS: Awesome! I can’t wait to play it. Do you guys have anything planned for after Hyper Beam?
GS: Are there any tips you can give for creativity? What goes into the creative process for you guys?
I would like to thank Nik for his kindness and taking time out of his day to talk with me and answer a few of my questions. You can follow Rinikulous Games on twitter .
