Edmund McMillen is the goddamn man. Even if you don’t know him by name, you probably know him by his work; if you’ve ever played Gish, Meat Boy, Coil, Spewer, or any of over a dozen other incredibly distinctive indie games, you know Edmund.

Recently, Aether, one of many games McMillen has co-created with Tyler Glaiel, was announced as an IndieCade finalist. I talked to McMillen and learned what the game is about to him, what it’s like to make a game in 14 days, and how Aether almost wound up being a WiiWare title.


You’ve called Aether by far the most personal piece you’ve ever done. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that, and what the game means to you personally?

Aether is about me as a child. I made it because after my niece was born and my grandmother passed away I was thinking a lot about possibly having a child with my wife, and interacting with my niece really made me reminisce about my own childhood.

I wanted to make something that could possibly make people feel how I felt as a child. Now it seems doomy and gloomy but my childhood was awesome, but I just never felt comfortable around people. I was happy alone, but in a way I was still a lonely and nervous kid. I’d worry about stuff that didn’t matter, I had ulcers at 7…mostly obsessing over death and losing the people I cared about.

Aether is about a kid who ventures into his mind to conquer his fears. But his obsessions get the better of him and the further he goes into his mind the looser his grasp on reality becomes. You could say it’s a piece about the downsides to creativity, losing yourself in a world you create for yourself.

Really Time Fukc is a response to that issue, a game about realizing your getting lost in a world you created, but having enough perspective on the situation to take another path.

How does Aether to past projects you’ve done, in terms of the time you spent, the role you played, and how “game-y” the finished product was?

Aether was an extremely short project. Tyler [Glaiel] and I made it in 14 days total; it really just flowed out. My role was lead designer/artist; I came up with the basic gameplay ideas, Tyler implemented everything. Tyler came up with the music a few days into development and really got the game to flow in a way that was very complementary to the overall feel and pacing of the game.

I’m not sure what you mean by how game-y the finished product was.

Well, some of your games are more traditional, like Meat Boy, whereas others like Coil are much more abstract and experimental. Where do you think Aether falls in that lineage?

Aether falls much closer to Coil and Time Fcuk then my other games for sure, mostly in that it’s based on personal experience. Those kind of games aren’t something I can just come up with easily…it’s usually a totally out of the blue idea or feeling that I’m moved by and push into game form. I do still of course love making a good solid gameplay experiences; ideally I’d like to make games that feel traditional but cross the line into personal and more experimental…i feel like i crossed into that a bit with Spewer and even more so with Time Fkuc.

Distinctive art is one of the hallmarks of an Edmund McMillen game.

Distinctive art is one of the hallmarks of an Ed McMillen game.

The audience of Flash games tends to skew pretty casual, and some people seem confused by games like Aether when what they’re more often given is a simple Tetris clone or tower defense game. How do you feel when you read user comments on websites like Newgrounds and Kongregate?

Just fine :) I mean, I realize the audience im speaking to and i understand that what I think is good isn’t exactly what others might enjoy. But I also realize websites like Newgrounds and Kongregate are getting my work tons of exposure and that a lot of the said people wouldn’t otherwise even know about my work with them.

A lot of what I do is kind of a hard sell to the majority,i mean i realize that. I’m making games to push my own personal limits and attempt to grow as an artist, entertaining others while doing so is just an added bonus of the process.

What was the hardest part of making a game that quickly?

Ummm, I’d say lack of polish. Looking back, I would have liked to spend a little more time on menus, intro story, graphics and other little things here and there. Polish is something that just basically takes time and the ability to take a step back from the project and try to see it from another perspective…and it’s not something that can be easily achieved in 14 days.

How literally should we take the “To be continued” at the end of the game?

Aether is just the start of something much larger that I’d like to revisit possibly later next year. The game ends with the galaxy expanding…on paper I have a full game all written out. 20 or so planets, different missions in each, a Metroidvania ability system and an in-depth story with a few very notable NPCs… I just don’t have time to work on something like this now.

Aether was actually the game Nintendo wanted for Wiiware before we went with Super Meat Boy. I decided to go with SMB instead because the public response was much greater then Aether. I was also in the mood for some meat at the time as well.

How do you feel about Aether being selected as an IndieCade exhibition finalist?

Honestly it really made my day to see aether finally get noticed. It was the game i was hoping would make it into the IGF last year but Coil made it in instead.

I hope people go to IndieCade! :)