Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
A Focus on Irish Games Developers - Rocket Rainbow Studios
-
27-06-2014 5:13pm#1Hello once again folks, it's another week and time for another studio in the hot seat.
I'd like to introduce you to Andrew who's the Community Manager for Rocket Rainbow Studios. They're hard at work on their first title Hay Ewe and one of their founders (JP) is the first person I ever met that have a BAFTA
Over to Andrew.2
Comments
-
Hey folks, I'm Andrew
I'm in the process of compiling all the long history of RRS and Hay Ewe together so I'll sneakily bide some time by posting a personal note first before I post the next two - Though feel free to ask anything in-between!
For those looking to skip to the meat, post order:- Personal (Me)
- Rocket Rainbow (Company)
- Hay Ewe (Game)
Regarding myself:
I'm a 30 something hardcore gamer, creative time waster, old-school boardsie and first time Community Manager - Causing all kinds of mayhem at RRS! This is my first time actually working within the industry thus far and loving every minute of it
As one of those cases of people struggling to get into the industry, I'll happily answer or give advice on that matter - And will answer any and all RRS or Hay Ewe questions to the best of my ability and can always pester the chaps at the office if there are any programmy or producery questions on the horizon!
In the past, I was handed a C64 at seven years of age (1989) and it completely destroyed all my previous childlike-dreams of being an artist, or growing up and forming a father-son band with my musical Dad (learning guitar and keyboard didn't hold my attention - and I think he greatly regrets getting me those computers now). It wasn't long before I was spending countless hours booting up games, watching the 2-3 minute long colourful loading screens in awe before going off on a Dizzy The Egg adventure.
My music playlists in winamp contain 90% gaming music, with me typing this to the sound of Bowser's Castle theme from Mario Kart Super Circuit as of right now, and I've a C64, Spectrum 128k, Amiga 500 and NES stocked in the attic with thousands of games that I will never be rid of
I've always been a jack of all trades and master of none. I manage a long-term gaming movie channel in my spare time, as well as a game-specific blog which was created for the subs of that movie channel who enjoy one particular game. Having already made my own games, soundtracks, and my own flash animations in the past - Even managed a clan (which is how I initially discovered Boards in the first place as it made a home here in the CS/Quake days) - You could say I've tried my hand at mostly everything... When not 'actually' gaming, which is my true love.
Having said that, you could never hire me as a professional for any field at the time as it was all very hobbyist and my experiences were all scatty and undirected, especially with no previous 'industry' experience at all - So, up until RRS, I had never had anything to my name and had never worked in games outside of my hobbyist endeavours.
Cut to Rocket Rainbow Studios, with JP deciding to put my 10 years of sporadic content creation, development, and community tied mentality to use on-top of my 24 years of living in pixel land - Something I'll forever be very grateful for as it has not only been a major source of fun and learning, but also a wealth of experience thanks to him and the team. They were searching for a Community Manager to prepare for the inevitable creation of RRS first game, Hay Ewe...
Prepare for two long posts soon :pac:0 -
Rocket Rainbow Studios - Roots & Beginning of Hay Ewe:
By the time I (not so gracefully) belly flopped on-board the Rainbow Rocket, it had already been long on the go - With a steady trio-team at its back and a goal in mind.
Rocket Rainbow came about after the closure of the PopCap Dublin studio late 2012, which housed the development teams for Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, Lucky Gem Casino as well as QA, Localisation, PR Europe and Business Development.
Somewhere in past-PopCap land during a 'PopCamp' in late 2010, a team of 4 was assembled to work on a specific title. This team had 5 days to finish the prototype - The platform being Windows Phone 7, using XNA studio. The team consisted of an artist/designer, engineer, producer and a QA chappy.
After that week, the team were thrilled with what they had created, even getting good reviews internally for the game - But were just told to 'go back to work'...
By the time it reached 2012, PopCap announced that the Dublin studio might be closing after a 30 day consultation period, which came out of nowhere and hit pretty much everybody.
Years later, after the doors of the PopCap Dublin studio closed, 2 original members of this prototype team decided to build their own project from the ground up - Focusing on that one particular prototype from the past that they had enjoyed working on, putting their own unique spin on it and making it their own - Which has since become Hay Ewe. They spent over a year working on it in evenings and weekends, during no-pants-Fridays, sick days (often caused by days spent with no pants), holidays, and even battling crunch time at their day jobs, trying to get a version ready to show to the public at Gamescom 2013...
And they did, and haven't stopped working on it since. Now working on it full time along with some old and new friends, the newly formed RRS signed a publishing deal with Team17 Ltd in March, took 18hr flights to show it at SXSW, listened to other developers feedback at Indievelopment.nl and gladly forsake our weekends - And are happier than ever.0 -
Hay Ewe:
So, after all the blood, sweat, tears, pixels, and lack of pants (In-Joke thanks to over-use of the 'mooning' emote on Skype during work) - Hay Ewe has shaped up into a mind-bending puzzle adventure full of colour and madness, being prepped for smartphone and tablets. Unorthodox and colourful, your task is to guide Matilda, the Sheepish Shepherd, through treacherous locations (starting with your typical farm full of crazy farm-yard locals) all the way to icy wastelands and other themed terrain where you don't expect sheep to roam - Yet Matilda does it anyway out of duty
Along the way, you must do whatever you can to save the lost lambies, who are bordering on pest-control population and are prone to being gobbled, frozen, headbutted, kicked, trampled, burnt, hit by milk and landing in all sorts of trouble. You guide Matilda using your finger, allowing her to follow paths you draw - How you go about each puzzle is completely down to you - And while you don't need to save EVERY lamb to progress, it is more rewarding to do so. There are easily obtainable in-game currencies used to buy cosmetics and bonuses along the way, so if sheep in tropical or icy lands wasn't amusing enough, you can have her do so dressed like a leprechaun and face off against horses wearing unicorn hats if you wish
We want to pump this game full of fun items and unlockables - And greatly emphasise the level editor, which allows players to go over our heads and make even better puzzles, or challenge their friends with their own custom content. There are mini-games all over the place to challenge you, all with varied mechanics and goals to keep you on your toes, featuring all the mental characters looking to regain their personal space back from pesky lambs bombarding their homes.
It is to be published by Team17 - And, on a personal note, I can't stress how amazing that is for someone who spent tender years enjoying their Amiga titles, while other members of the team with more industry understanding would appreciate it for not just the game side, but also T17's impact on the industry as well.
Our team consists of two artists, an animator, programmer, producer - And the cheerleader (me). The team has grown over time and we're all really happy with the progress thus far.
For any missed details, or to check up on content we upload each week, feel free to visit any of the sites below.
*phew* Sorry for all the rambling!
I doubt I covered everything - But feel free to ask anything at all 0 -
-
Hi Andrew, thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself and the company/game.
Looks very polished It's nice to see the concept art as well.
Fancy posting the GGD also?
Worth a try eh?
I was wondering if all of the team is now full time or do you have part timers too?
Or at what stage(and maybe why) did it become a realistic option or idea to consider this full time?
Did you need to seek investment? Mentoring?
Or is it a case of making the game and then launching it to go full time officially after?0 -
Advertisement
-
Hi Torakx,
I hope you don't mind answering this. I'm JP, one of the co-founders of Rocket Rainbow and general hat wearer. I was a producer for PvZ and Peggle in Popcap before it closed.
Do you mean GDD? And if so we don't have one :pac:Hi Andrew, thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself and the company/game.
Looks very polished It's nice to see the concept art as well.
Fancy posting the GGD also?
Worth a try eh?
Truth be told, in PopCap I saw many epic novella type GDD's being created that would span many pages and the truth is it was out of date as soon as it was written. When we started with Rocket Rainbow we made a decision to prototype ideas first using a Design Specification Document. The main difference is that this is written in a more technical fashion and is far shorter, 2 - 10 pages. The nice thing about this is it can be adopted to change very easily and allows you to ask questions from the prototype.
I have a few so if you pm your contact details I can have a look and see what one I might be willing to share
I was wondering if all of the team is now full time or do you have part timers too?
Or at what stage(and maybe why) did it become a realistic option or idea to consider this full time?
Did you need to seek investment? Mentoring?
Or is it a case of making the game and then launching it to go full time officially after?
When we started working on the game we were all doing so part time. All 3 founding members were in full time jobs at Games and Animation studios and were working on the project in the evenings and at weekends. Around March of 2013 I decided to work on it full time and quit my job. It was around this time that we decided to aim for Gamescom 2013 with a playable version and demo it to the public. Setting this milestone was crucial as I don't think we would have been as motivated otherwise.
The following months were rather tough. Our Engineer, Christian, was also working in another Studio in Dublin and had long days due to crunch time that was going on there. We had no external financing so any assets we needed either had to be free or cheap. Our artist was also rather busy with a number of projects so there would be long delays in moving forward at times. I can go on about all that misery and determination but I wont. Suffice to say it took a lot of hard work and commitment but we ended up demoing the game at the Casual Games park @ Gamescom. It was a very early version, super low production values and our aim was to see if a large amount of the general public would like the game.
*Early GridTest we did. As you can see some scanned concept art is used in place of characters
Thankfully they did
The other benefit to doing this was being able to schedule meetings with publishers and other interested parties. We had mixed results here but we managed to sign a few NDA's which would become crucial for our next steps.
We applied for the CSF fund back in September of 2013 (about 2 weeks after Gamescom) and went through the process of pitching. CSF as explained in the other threads is a 50k investment from Enterprise Ireland in exchange for 10% of the company. It is in 2 parts each of 25k and requires a prior investment in the company of a minimum of 5k.
The process for applying for the CSF involves 3 rounds.
1st round is the written application using the application form. Here you outline your plan for the business over the 5 years and given backgrounds for the founding members. You also say what you will do with the investment / where it helps with your business plan.
2nd round is a video pitch that you do directly after submitting the written application. These are 3 recorded questions with a time limit. You have a total of 5 minutes but each question has its own limit for the answer. Since this is done electronically it is very strict on those times and will end the recording when the time is up
3rd round is an onsite pitch to a panel at EI. The panel consists of external judges who score your presentations. Again, iirc, this was a 5 min pitch with additional 3-4mins for questions.
We were notified of our successful application towards the end of October, and the first investment closed around December of the same year. So with that in the bank we were able to bring Christian on-board Full time. Andrew had also started around this time so we technically had 3 full timers on the project.
Part of the CSF application is setting out commercial and product milestones. Since we were a games company we already knew what the product milestones would be, but for the commercial milestones we had set tasks of attending events and getting a publisher on board. It was a tricky time as a lot of publishers were looking for F2P games, and I will admit that we toyed with these mechanics to see if the game would work but it didn't. It destroyed the player experience so we knew that we would need to find a publisher still interested in premium titles.
The first of the events we attended was Games Connection Europe, in Paris. This event is one I would highly recommend to any developers who are looking to find a publisher. The best way to describe it is speed dating. You arrange 30 min meetings via their schedule app with any other attendees. This is great as it cuts out a lot of the small talk and means people get straight down to it.
It was at this event that we spoke with Team 17. Before this though we had sent them a rather fanboyish love letter about a week after they announced a return to publishing. Getting facetime with them though was huge and it should always be considered!
Roll on January 2014!
We still had Zhuo working for us in his free time, and we were also lucky to have another former PopCap artist, Matthew Beakes, give us some of his time to help with a backlog. We were keeping everything nimble still as we hadn't signed any publishing deals, though we were talking to a few.
Things remained that way up until about late Feb. We were also in deeper discussions with Team17 and so we felt it was time to scale up the team. We had wanted an animator for quite some time (we have a rather different style for animation than most games, its more like PvZ than other 2d games). Anyways, March proved to be a very busy month for us as we signed our publishing deal with Team17 and also got Alan Carruthers, a full time animator, on board. Then in April we had Matthew return to work with us full time, doing a lot of new art for us.
So we've had a total of 5 people working full time on the game from April, with one person working part time.
CSF is so far the only external investment that we have received. Everything else is sweat. I'm also unpaid just to point out! I'm lucky to have a great Fiancé who supports me during all of this. It's also worth noting that the other team members have made sacrifices because they believed in the project, which is only something that happens with passion for what you do.
So I hope that, long winded, answer was informative
It's great that you like our concept work as we work very hard to try and share everything that we can. Andrew keeps the blog and social sides updated frequently with art work from the game and our artists and animators record their creation process, which we show on our YouTube channel.
Shames plug:
0 -
I'm constantly hounding them about it
Will be posting some more concepts today, as a matter of fact. Once I get my hands on them, I try to weave them into the blog or weekly content posts simply to keep our heart on the sleeve and show the game's 'building blocks' and just exactly how it is improving and growing.
I've been trying to encourage everything from showcasing stills, to speed-art videos, interviews, to actual tutorials which aren't even to do with the company or the game we're developing, with Alan taking the plunge to make a Cocos-builder tutorial about how he rigs his sprites.
I wonder would that be of use to people, here? I think we consider ourselves to be one of very few who use good ole Cocos.0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Wow... you wrote lots of words but the two that I noticed most were: Team 17.
Seriously?!? Ok, I'm trying hard not to fan-gurl right now. And failing.
Good luck with your game guys and gals, looks fun!
Been a major fan of theirs since the Amiga days - Spent countless hours flailing around getting eaten in Alien Breed, for example. When they had a massive humble-bundle offer on the go recently, I willingly forked out for a large chunk of it simply to support them rather than get my hands on cheap games - because they're a lovely bunch of people and been a fan of their games for OH so long. I think we were all giddy little gamers once this all happened and I still feel like its not really happening, despite communicating with them on media quite frequently
You guys should drop tweets over to them - You'd be surprised just how willing they are to chat with everyone and are extremely friendly.If I was to apply for a job with you tomorrow, as a game developer, what three things would say are the most important aspects to have on my CV?
Not to try and answer that (seeing as JP has already) - But to give my perspective - Portfolio is the word that crops up constantly.
I can understand the simple details like grammar and spelling as mentioned by JP - But having projects to show for yourself is the big one, even if it is purely hobbyist. Come to think of it, hobbyist is probably more a testament to willingness to do it out of passion rather than pay-check (as JP says), compared to work-related projects, though industry experience by itself also says a heck of a lot as well.
I had nothing to my name at all, other than all the things I tinkered on over the last decade - No industry experience at all - But you can't question my passion for games and the creative side to it, given I've been at it since before I hit double digits in age - And a LOT of people undervalue non-industry experiences that are actually helpful, such as Customer Support, QA or Community Work.
When I applied, I had been working with on-site communities for years, from team management to forum moderation. My animation and movie making work was clear to see - And I could even show that I had made my own game (and its respective soundtrack) - All of these things were done purely out of passion and want of learning, while working my other non-game related jobs over the last years.
A friend of mine, who turned down an opportunity at Riot (I think she's crazy - But she has her reasons) after countless experience within EA, Bioware and other companies, gave me a pep talk before I even applied to Rocket - And it all starts with your CV. Tailor it to the place you are applying for - As in, have it written specifically for X or Y - And apply to it a portfolio of work that shows your passion, whether it's as simple as pixel art or general art, to full blown games you've worked on or completed. Completed projects naturally score more points than incomplete, but everything adds up to the package. I applied to Rocket with a very general CV that didn't say a whole lot, other than how I pretty much sweat, burp, fart and wheeze out games any time the wind picks up - And had projects to show for it, alongside past customer support and QA experience in other jobs before.
QA & Customer Support roles are very commonly needed in game companies and while that may not be the same as 'everyone's' dream of being a developer / artist or some role other than a supporter - It does represent one step in the ladder - And that experience stands to your name as you reach higher up.
Thanks to Rocket and the last 8 months of working alongside them, I've gleamed a lot of experience with the programs used, the mechanics behind the madness, QA, development - And those things aren't tied to what I do as a Community Manager - At least not completely.
It's a hard shell to crack - But when you do, no matter how big or small the crack is, you just have to be prepared to continue climbing up - And a GREAT way to start this snowball is Internships or even offering to work for free, simply to get those experiences onto your CV. I was shocked at just how little college and education factored into the process at all, though it does show you are able to dedicate.0 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
Great info here guys, thanks for sharing.
How have you found getting the press interested in your game? Hard/easy? Has *not* been F2P on mobile helped or hurt in getting noticed? I imagine having Team 17 as publisher helps massively, any comment on that?
Speaking of, what kind of help are you getting from T17? Moneys, marketing, connections, credibility? I'm guessing you give up some sort of revenue share in return - able to talk about that?
Hi LoBo
Regarding media//press in general, it is/was very hard as a startup, especially before T17 joined in. The RRS team were getting involved in a lot of gaming events, talks, and exhibits/expo's, with RRS having been to Gamescom 2013, SXSW in Austin, Texas, and Indiedevelopment in the Netherlands, just to name a few. These often allowed for a lot of networking along other companies and names, never-mind showcasing the game to public audiences in different areas or countries to spread the word. JP has also lent a lot of time holding public talks about the industry, often pooling on experience pre and post RRS, which no doubt would have attracted some attention even if the intent was NOT to promote but more to educate.
The summation of these type of events and talks led to a lot of blogs and articles from attendees, whether regular visitors, other companies etc - And of course, if networking goes well, others may also contribute by posting mention of us.
We met many great companies across the last 5-8 months, both long-standing as well as up and coming indies - And I didn't shy away from posting full articles just to promote them, or shed some light on games other than Hay Ewe (and there was/is possibility of them doing the same for us in kind, though that is entirely up to them and not 'expected').
Naturally, when you're a starting company without a game released, it's very difficult to sneak into the limelight unless very lucky, or willing to work hard for it - Whereas possibilities like KickStarter allow community and attention to be built before the game has even been made, in comparison - So until T17 arrived, it was hard going while getting off the ground.
Now that we DO have someone like T17 backing the project, that opens up social media sharing, making posts more noticeable - And naturally they open up their own contacts and networking to promote the game, talk about it to the press, or other things such as T17 giving an 'early build' to App Spy (linked by JP above) to playtest and promote on their movie channel through 'first looks' and/or reviews. I suspect a lot more of that to happen closer to the games release, whereas it's awkward when Hay Ewe is still in mid production. They also brought the game to their own events, such as taking a build to EGX Rezzed in the UK and talking publicly about it to press, causing a few articles to crop up pretty much the same day as T17 announced they were going to publish Hay Ewe.
They've helped share our blog posts regularly and I get to work alongside them to tailor some content for their needs or vice versa, which is fun!
I'll round up some articles for you 0 -
Internal Media // Reading - Shows events attended pre and post T17's announcement - All of which would relate to media in some shape or form.
- Gamescom 2013 (This was posted before I was even on the team! )
- Enterprise Ireland & IADT GameJam & Netsoc (Ireland)
- The "Big Announcement" (T17 POV)
- The "Big Announcement" (Our POV)
- RRS @ SXSW (Austin, Texas)
- T17 Take HayEwe to EGX Rezzed (Includes other indies and projects - UK)
- RRS Heading to Indievelopment (Netherlands)
One of me personally tipping the hat to the 'other' companies under T17's publishing wing. It is worth noting that with such a large group of indies being published by T17 (all in the same boat) we all work together to help eachother, even if it's as simple as re-tweeting their core posts.
We've taken to calling ourselves the T17 Published Family.
And some external links - Found simply by googling, mostly about T17 getting into the publishing scene more than HayEwe, but still
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-03-05-team-17-gets-into-mobile-publishing
http://www.vg247.com/2014/03/05/team-17-to-publish-rocket-rainbows-puzzler-hay-ewe-on-mobile-tablets/
http://www.godisageek.com/2014/03/team-17-publishing-hay-ewe-mobiles-tablets/
A simple search of "Hay Ewe Team 17" comes up with quite a few of these. I admit I've not read them all as once they entered the fray, we knuckled down pretty hard and got a bit too busy to check every article bar some of the popular ones out of sheer giddy excitement
Hope this gives some insight!0 - Gamescom 2013 (This was posted before I was even on the team!
-
Advertisement
-
-
No, thank you for letting us talk about it here on Boards
Can't stress how exciting, nay, nerve wracking it was to get that news initially as an old-school C64/Amiga'er turned first time CM (speaking for myself, though the lads were equally as giddy and excited despite having so much more experience with the industry). I was asked to email and organize with one of the T17 team and I was afraid I'd break down into nostalgic tear-jerking rambles about 'the good old days' as opposed to the task at hand
It's even scarier that they're such a nice bunch of people - And they've extended their hand to more than just us as a company, so expect to see quite a few indie-rooted games crop up on radar with the T17 logo on it!0 -
Given this is a Game Dev / Editing / Recording Forum, we wanted to plop this tutorial here in the event it will be of any use to upcoming Cocosbuilder users.
I pestered our animator, Alan, to piece something together and he obliged. As a CM, I love the concept of getting to see what everyone is up to in terms of building the game, and encourage members to expend their specific advice or tid-bits - (Especially if it is a free source of 'content' - Yes, I am a sneaky bugger! :pac:)
And so, a video is born! Maybe it will be of some use to someone out there!
We're still around if anyone has any other feedback or questions regarding the game, company, industry, or aspects of development. We'd be happy to answer anything that we can 0 -
Howdy folks,
Sorry to drag up an old thread but just wanted to share the news about Hay Ewe being released on the AppStore!
In the running theme of humour from the game, and for your viewing pleasure, check out this great preview trailer with a very special narrator!
0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdzNEaEYVuA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiwjTSHmtVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nlsP1C8fy0Advertisement