If you weren’t aware, Hello Games (developers of the upcoming, downloadable Joe Danger) has been contributing a biweekly column to Edge Online about the tumults and joys of starting an indie game studio. Every single one of them is hilarious and insightful (seriously, check them out), but the one that they put up today is especially fantastic.
This week’s article, titled “I could easy be a games designer” after a quote from their delivery man, covers how Joe Danger was initially conceived in an air-pressure-addled dream, the way one goes about nailing down the elusive ‘feel’ that make arcade games excellent, and why making a great game takes more than having a great concept (and seriously, Delivery Guy’s Robbin’ Hoods is a great concept).
One of really neat parts of this week’s feature, though, is a short YouTube clip illustrating the fruits their first six weeks of work on Joe Danger. At one point in the column, Sean Murray (who we interviewed, actually!) talks about finding what feels right for the game, and shows off how they began development by stripping the whole concept down to just controlling one wheel, then tweaked that until it felt perfect, before moving on with production.
The video is embedded below, but trust us, you’ll want to read their article for the full context (and emotional resonance).
Once again: article here, past articles here. Get on it!
Readers! How do Hello Games’ columns make you feel about indie development? Let us know what you think in the comments!














So this could have been a remake of Uniracers but they decided to not go that way?
On, Sanskrit’s gonna be pissed.
I WAS JUST ABOUT TO TYPE THAT.
Also: you guys, I would play the hell out of just this WHEEL DEMO. I cannot wait for this game.
Fun fact: I was interviewing a Product Manager for Rockstar Games last year about GTA Chinatown Wars and I asked him when they were going to make a WiiWare/PSN/XBLA hi-def downloadable Uniracers 2 or if Nintendo owned the rights to the name. He responded “did Rockstar have anything to do with Uniracers?” I murmured a few profanities and stormed off screaming “This interview is over!”
But yes, this wheel demo is epic and I want to play it forever. Fingers crossed for this thing hitting PSN, because even with all the fantastic indies coming out my decades of Microsoft-hating refuse to allow me to buy an XBox.
Just the wheel alone seems fun, cant imagine the rest of the game >.<