For this week's edition of "Game On," The Fly spoke with two of the key creators behind indie action-platformer "Olija," which launched on PC, Nintendo Switch (NTDOY), Xbox One (MSFT), and PlayStation 4 (SNE) last month. The game was published by Devolver Digital and developed by Skeleton Crew studio, though according to Skeleton Crew's website, "Olija" was mainly the work of one man, namely Thomas Olsson. Olsson and Skeleton Crew CEO Masahiko Murakami spoke with The Fly about the game itself as well as their thoughts on other matters in the video game sector.
WORK ON THE GAME: Though Skeleton Crew is credited as the main developer of "Olija," Thomas Olsson served as the main mind behind the project, doing most of the development himself. When asked what role Skeleton Crew played in the creation of the game, Olsson said, "The biggest help Skeleton Crew has done regarding game development is [simply] financing it, just making sure I have food on the table every day, which is pretty good if you’re making indie games! Also, the tech team of Skeleton Crew has worked on the porting of the game [to consoles], as well as engine stability and making sure the game can run everywhere, on Switch, PS4, and Xbox. They also helped out with the PC version. They made the game a reality, and helped make it a product that worked everywhere. They also helped fix bugs and anything that could alter the experience.”
Murakami also noted that the developer helped send Thomas to various game shows and exhibitions to help market the game, paying for his expenses on the way. The CEO added that the studio's biggest role was to handle a lot of the business surrounding "Olija," so that Olsson could just "focus on the development of the game."
RECEPTION: "Olija" released on January 28, 2021, to generally favorable reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. When asked how they felt about the multiplatform title's critical reception, Olsson said he was "very satisfied" so far. "Very unexpected! I didn’t think it would be so positive in general," he told The Fly. "I was just happy that the game touched some people, and that some people were able to enjoy it and accept the flow of it as well. I was honestly a bit worried that it would get lower critical reviews. I’ve been worked on it three years non-stop, so you start to lose objectivity on what you do [after that time], especially when you’re [working on it] alone. Though people told me it was a good game, and even publisher Devolver said it was great, I still had a hard time thinking it was a good game. And I still do! So the critical reviews were very encouraging.”
In terms of his view on the financial performance of the game, Olsson said it was a "bit too early to tell." "We just have very early numbers, we also don’t have much of a comparison point because our first game ['Backslash'] was totally unnoticed," We barely sold any copies of that game. So compared to ‘Backslash,’ our first game, ‘Olija’ is a big step forward. But it’s hard know.”
Commenting on the new game's overall reception, Masahiko Murakami said the company is "really satisfied with people's reactions." "Financially, it’s hard to say, because we don’t really expect that much, but we’ll see!” he added.
NEW CONSOLES: Olsson and Murakami also discussed whether the advent of new consoles from Sony and Microsoft bring exciting new technical possibilities, even for a smaller studio. While Olsson said he's not particularly intrigued by the new technology, since his games tend to be more "niche" and "old-school," Murakami said it's "fun to play around" with new features on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, especially the vibration on the PS5's Dualsense controller. "If it's really easy to implement, it’ll be fun to use," Murakami said.
“For our indie development team, we don’t necessarily use futuristic technology," Murakami noted. "However, our other team is working on a lot of virtual reality projects, also augmented reality tech, so we are definitely looking forward to having a lot of new technology. I like to try new things, and this is my personal thing, but I really want to use the PlayStation 5 [Dualsense] controller’s vibration systems.”
SUBSCRIPTIONS: When asked if Olsson and the rest of Skeleton Crew are interested in making their games, including "Olija," available on subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass, Olsson said he hasn't "given it much thought." "I know that there are some really interesting deals to be made with these systems," he said. "It’s not my favorite thing in the world. I don’t like it, personally. But sometimes it can help certain studios. I’m not particularly closed or open to it, but times are changing, and we should all accept changes and move along with it.”
“It’s interesting, because ‘Olija’ is a very short game," Olsson continued. "It has a rather unusual format. It’s only about four or five hours. Lots of people, as consumers, would expect us to provide a longer playthrough experience. There are very game-y expectations, so it’s not always easy to justify why your game is a certain price, even for a short game, but I guess you don’t really have to worry about that with subscription services. Maybe there’s something interesting about [such services], freeing the format. Even AAA games, I feel like everything is too big and too long. I don’t want to put 50 hours into some big, expansive, boring game, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to play it at all. So maybe subscription services are interesting for that. It may be rather freeing for the format.”
The Skeleton Crew CEO appears somewhat unsure about subscription services, though he mentioned that if the company does seek to put games on a subscription service, it would have to think about "different ways" to make such games. "I just don’t really like releasing the game and then just putting it on a subscription service and saying it’s the same game," he said. "But the services themselves are good, especially for people who want to try new things. At the same time, people get bored easily. So it’s hard to say. But our games are not for subscription services yet.”
“I’d be happy to add our previous game ‘Backslash’ to a subscription service, since it’s a fighting game," Murakami continued. "I’m thinking if we come up with a series of short games, I think subscriptions would be a good format for those, because people who use subscriptions are probably not deeply into one game at a time. It’s interesting to think about, maybe interesting to try, trying to figure out what games work best for [subscriptions].”
STREAMING: On the topic of cloud gaming, Thomas Olsson said he didn't really have strong opinions about the technology either. "I’ve never tried it myself, but I guess the only thing I’m looking forward to is what potential new features it can bring, or how it can make the medium richer," Olsson told The Fly. "What are the opportunities with such technologies for game mechanics and stuff like that. I like to keep an eye on these sorts of things, but I don’t have any strong feelings about streaming personally."
Murakami, on the other hand, noted that the business at Skeleton Crew that does not work on games like "Olija" focuses more on virtual reality and network communications, noting that this side of the business could look into the concept of streaming a little more. "First, we actually help with some porting from PS4 to Stadia, and we thought that was an interesting new system for the gaming industry," Murakami said. "However, [some] people still don’t really get [streaming], since there’s not many games using it properly. I’m keeping an eye on which games will break new possibilities into the games industry.”
"Game On" is The Fly's weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
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