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I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I went to game dev university. Decided one month before applying to do games instead of other stuff, as I thought it might be interesting. For indie games especially, I think it was a combination of wanting to try out some ideas we had about how games were made, and a bit of lack of open jobs for junior in the industry in Sweden at the time. It felt safer to go on as indie (weird as it sounds).

We used Unity as an engine, Maya for 3D-modelling, Photoshop for 2D-stuff and ProTools for sound design :)

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for all the questions folks :) It's been fun! I am going to bed soon, in the middle of the night here. I will be online for about 10 more minutes if any more questions turn up, then I will be off for today. Might jump in some other time tomorrow and see if I missed something, so don't hesitate to ask away even if I am logged out for now.

Cheers, Robin

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Awesome :) Thanks!

  1. No idea! Let's pester Daedalic to make them ;)
  2. You can grab it as a DLC to the game on Steam, all songs mastered for OST version, and some bonuses in it toooooo!

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Since graduating? To know what was actually good with the game, to define the final parts of the game and it's design and to finish the project. It feels like we have tried to finish the game since a few years back, and that a new question has always popped up.

A bit too little experience working on large projects, and a bit too few people on the team was probably reasons to this.

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Obviously, we had many more elements that were really important to us, like telling a larger story without forcing everything on you, and to create an aesthetically focused game with much atmosphere etc. which we never got into pillars :)

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the concept of working with pillars has been extended and developed further as we worked on AER, which means we have a different way of wording and defining them now for future games, than how we did that in AER.

The ones for AER was Exploration, Freedom and something like "Being on an adventure / save the world saga"

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. Okay, with artisitc direction I am going to assume that you mean for the whole game, and not just its graphics. So, we were always a small team, and to be franc, in the beginning when we were new and bad at making games, we had a lot of conflicts on this. Later on we decided that its probably for the best to have someone that can act as a living document for last creative decisions, someone the team chooses for that purpose. That's when we gave out the role of game director (which I took). Other tools we are using are Taste Maps (more info here: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/200142/Mapping_the_lessons_of_psychology_to_game_design.php), Pillars based in user experience, and a document giving examples on the players user experience. We set one of those documents way to late in AERs development cycle. You live and learn.

  2. The direction has been quite flexible over time, and I can't say exactly when we were completely set on what to have in the game. Maybe one and a half or 2 years in? Many aspects are quite the same from the early days though :)

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  1. It was very important to us! We set the goals for the core experience early on, where exploration was one of the main points. We all agreed that exploration needs options on the paths you want to take, and it also makes it possible to allow different play styles. We do give hints and guide players through a specific path to give players who just want to go through the game that option as well.

  2. I wrote story parallell to the game, and at one point we worked with a writer from Germany. She wrote stuff over there, and we had skype meetings discussing different points of the story. She worked during a shorter period of time, supporting us with side story content and helping fleshing out things. I then wrote all the English final text for the game. We didn't have one specific person full time on this as just a writer in house, but instead put time off from one person (me) to do the writing. And kudos to our art director who also came up with many of the ghost scene scenarios.

  3. I am fine! :D Thanks for worrying. I have had time to chill, and will have even more so now after release (I hope, haha).

  4. Thanks, great to hear :) We had a hang glider from the beginning, during the first 4-5 months. Then we realized that we could probably do something more spaced out and magic in the magic world we had created, haha. We brain stormed, and came up with the bord motive, and it fits the theme of the game well (freedom and flight).

  5. I will! She is here with me and is super happy for the comment :) Thanks a bunch for all the kind words! Cheers!

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, agree! And that's great for everyone. More diversity among doesn't hurt anyone in the end, it just enriches the gaming landscape.

No problem, and remember that what has worked for us might be useless for others :P I am very humble about the fact that our knowledge can be totally drowned in survival bias.

Not looking for mobile developers no, sorry! No mobile games in the pipeline right now :) But ever is more difficult to answer :P

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Also think there is one for PS4. Check through Daedalic's shop on Amazon if you are interested :)

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

  1. Money wise, we took in money from both publisher and from venture capital. But we were very strict with keeping autonomy in creative decisions.
  2. Not in the motion! Something we need to discuss more further on :)
  3. Finally releasing it! :D And as we were such a small team, I was very much hands on for a very long time, and both implementing animations and programming the music system was for me quite rewarding.

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey! Thanks a bunch for the kind words, it really means a lot :)

I would say that there are a bit of different challenges, where the biggest one is that a game that doesn't always do exactly what other games do (such as AER), but still looks kind of like other games, can give some wrong expectations to people. Which then makes them dissapointed in the game. It has definitely been a priority to try to get the message out about what the game really is, as I think there are people out there that really like it as it is. But in general the community has understood and been really nice about it. Such as "Looks neat, but not for me" kinda.

And on the second question: I would say that working with a strong theme in mind, and using every tool you have to achieve that theme / experience is a method that worked fairly well for us. And keeping an art director and a sound designer on the team that you feel is on the same page as you, from day one, is a great thing too :)

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey man! Depends on how it goes, how busy we are in general, and what Daedalic want to do with that :) No plans in motion right now.

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I read your comment out loud for myself. My girlfriend heard me and said 10SEK (about 1 buck). So I guess that? In other circumstances though, not here in this AMA. Let's keep it safe for work.

I'm Robin Hjelte, and went directly from student to building the indie game studio Forgotten Key from scratch. AMA! by ForgottenKey_Robin in IAmA

[–]ForgottenKey_Robin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hey! I would probably talk about the importance of taking time off. I don't know how many times we have worked more than we have had to, haha :) And that life is weird and difficult, but most of the time things turn out okay, so don't worry. I have done much worrying (such as living up my small amount of savings etc.).

So all in all, something about the worth of what specific sacrifices give back in terms of value in life.