Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Swordy’

Review Fix chats with “Swordy” Hamish MacDonald, who discusses the development process and inspiration for the game, as well as its goals for the future. A man following his dream, MacDonald gives us a great look at the development process from the eyes of a person who loves games and learned to develop on the fly.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this game?

Hamish MacDonald: When hanging out with friends, a lot of the time we spent together was playing or talking about games. Games where we could all play together were always the most fun. Even single player games we would sometimes play communally playing life to life, or even just watching each other play.

As I got older games were still a major part of my life but I realized often times it was more about the people. Games became mediums in which to get to know others and hang out. To explore worlds and learn together. Stories to share together.

With Frogshark we play a lot of local-multiplayer games like Gang Beasts, Ragdoll Masters, Nidhogg, Rocket League, Starwhal, Towerfall, Spelunky, Ultimate Chicken Horse.

There’s an obvious theme; local-multiplayer, physics, fighting – it’s not really a surprise what our first game together Swordy ended up being.

Games with deep or thick atmosphere, worlds of their own are another massive inspiration. Journey, Fez, Dark Souls, Hammerfight, Kentucky Route Zero.

Review Fix: What has development been like?

MacDonald: Development has been hard. No-one ever told me how difficult following your dream was haha. The actual game design is the fun and easy bit, but there is so so much more to game development and running a new, tiny indie game company.

Three of us live and work in the same house in Auckland, New Zealand. Working from home saves a lot of money, but also has its own difficulties blurring between the work-space and the home-space.

Game development, business, marketing are all demanding and difficult at the best of times, even more so when it’s in your home 24/7.

Don’t get me wrong, though, development on Swordy has been incredibly rewarding. Seeing our little after-work-and-weekends side project evolving into what it is today. We have been really fortunate in the timing and opportunities we have run into, I only hope things continue this way.

Review Fix: What games did you play as a kid? How did they influence this one?

MacDonald: Tough question haha. I’d like to think that games like Megaman and Diablo set me up to appreciate more recent games like Dark Souls and Fez. As I mentioned previously their “living” atmospheric worlds are a pleasure to explore, learn and an inspiration.

I’d like to think games like DOOM, Commander Keen, Alex the kid, Super Mario Bros II, Tomb Raider I, II, III and Jak and Daxter helped point me toward my taste for mystery and exploration and games like Frog Fractions.

My fair share of the standard “press button to attack” (Diablo, Dune, Red Alert), or even more disconnected mechanics (Final Fantasy 7, 8, X) lead me to expect or hope for more depth to the simple interactions. Physics, skill, timing and approach to help close that character-player-dissonance gap and really make me feel and think through interactions.

Perhaps Abe’s Odyssey, maybe Battle Chess, OddBallz showed me the potential of diegetic in-game-world sensical user-interface and interactions, the kind we have tried our best to include in Swordy as much as possible.

Playing games with physical Lego, creative games like 3D Movie Maker (1995) by Microsoft Kids, painting Warhammer models or hosting Inquisitor campaigns (Warhammer 40k version of D&D). I think these all endorsed my path toward building my own worlds and leading me to game development.

Enjoying playing games with friends as mentioned previously, definitely inspired Swordy’s local-multiplayer focus. Boardgames, Warhammer, Inquisitor, Magic: The Gathering, GoldenEye, Fighting Force, Hogs of War, Arcade machines, Halo, Gears of War, Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft, Team Fortress Classic, Castle Crashers, Newgrounds flash games, etc.

So many things though (not just games) inspire, challenge and expand our palette. Music, movies, life itself, art, bush walks, school, clouds, food, smells… It’s difficult to point at things specifically (like my answers above). Perhaps some of it is looking for connections and meaning where there isn’t.

Review Fix: What do you think is the coolest feature in the game?

MacDonald: The heavy use of physics in Swordy is not only unique and novel in its own right, but it has influenced the design of the game and inspired the physicality of Swordy’s world.

Swordy’s weapons collide, bounce, slide, pierce, slash, bash and cleave and all of those types of interactions depend on colliding object’s shape, linear velocity, rotational velocity, material type (metal, wood, stone, flesh etc), if one or both objects have hit sharp edges or points (bladed weapons) etc.

All this combined with analog input controlling physics forces to move your character and wield your items has allowed for a lot of depth of approaches, nuance in attacks, timing and emergent interactions.

The cool thing about this though is Swordy can be easy to pickup and play with just the basics – shoulder buttons to pick up a weapon and gamepad sticks to move and aim. We have seen parents laughing with their children playing Swordy together and “non-gamer” partners joining in on the fun.

Review Fix: Bottom line, why should someone play this?

MacDonald: Swordy is a digital fireplace to gather around with friends and family. To laugh and enjoy a shared experience. It is a battleground – as competitive or as lighthearted as you make it. Swordy’s core physics mechanics and weapon gameplay are a unique experience and lead to hilarious emergent clashes and colorful pixelated splatters.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the game?

MacDonald: We hope that Swordy will find and impress a local-multiplayer and single-player community. We want to involve the fans in shaping and refining Swordy into the best game it possibly can be!

Through Early Access we will be improving and expanding on what Swordy currently has (AI improvements, more game modes, more weapons, arenas, elemental interactions, items and enemies) and building components pushing toward a single player/co-op experience exploring Swordy’s world.

Review Fix: What’s next?

MacDonald: Swordy is our focus for the foreseeable future.

At the same time we are keeping a close eye on how VR develops as a medium and the experiences it enables.