Developer beating the indie game

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This article was published 01/04/2017 (3361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the world of indie games, Winnipeg’s Alec Holowka is living the dream.

He’s already had one bone fide hit — 2007’s Aquaria won the prestigious Seumas McNally Grand Prize as the Indie Game of the Year in the United States.

And late last month — after more than three years in development — his latest work, Night in the Woods, was released to fantastic reviews and very strong early sales.

Holowka, 33, was at the Global Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco recently, where he is seen as a bit of a star among the thousands of developers who annually converge at the conference. (That was where he won his game of the year award.)

He said he was happy to have finally released the project after some furious last-minute work to hit the late February release date.

“It was great to be able to demo the game at the GDC and be able to hang out and have some fun,” he said.

Far from the traditional apocalyptic action, shoot-’em-up effort, Night in the Woods is one of a spate of new indie games that delve into societal and character issues that defy genre classification.

Night in the Woods was made in collaboration with Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry, a husband-and-wife team from Pittsburgh Holowka did not know before they started working together.

For the first couple of weeks after its release, it was at the top of the online indie game list on Steam. On Friday, the SteamSpy website, which estimates sales, had Night in the Woods at more than 62,000 units after about a month on the market.

It is a moody, atmospheric, narrative-driven story about a young adult cat named Mae returning home to her hollowed out hometown of Possum Springs, where nothing is like it used to be and something ominous is hanging over the town.

Night in the Woods has been on all the industry experts’ most-anticipated releases of 2017 list, at least partly in acknowledgement of Holowka’s previous efforts.

In its preview, Wired magazine called it, “A narrative exploration game with a sombre tone and a distinct graphical style.”

“Night in the Woods is one of those games we’re almost scared to try (those animals look as sinister as they do cute). But try we will,” the preview added.

The worldwide game industry generated more than US$90 billion in revenue last year, and all estimates are that it will continue to grow, easily dwarfing other entertainment industries. But some estimates say only about 20 per cent of games released actually break even.

Big-budget releases such as Grand Theft Auto are produced by a staff of more than 100 developers with budgets — including marketing — that easily exceed nine figures.

Night in the Woods was made by three people funded by little more than a $200,000 Kickstarter campaign.

His partners, who wrote and did the graphics and animation, were inspired by some of the Rust Belt realities of small-town Pennsylvania, but Holowka — who was the programmer and music composer — said the reality of growing up in Winnipeg also informs the piece.

“I visited them a couple of times while we were working on it, and they took me on a tour through some of those towns,” Holowka said. “There’s lots of commonality with Winnipeg… kind of cosy but also restrictive, warm in some ways, sad in some other ways. I can relate to that.”

While the indie game model can work, the success Holowka has had is rare.

“We’re all pretty blown away by the response so far,” said Adam Saltsman, whose small indie game production and publishing operation called Finji in Grand Rapids, Mich., is the publisher of Night in the Woods. “It’s a remarkable launch. Very few independently produced video games get this kind of reception. We’re feeling very lucky to be involved.”

Noah Decter-Jackson, the CEO of Winnipeg’s Complex Games, hired Holowka early in his career, before he became a committed and successful independent developer.

“At the time there really weren’t that many people developing games in Winnipeg,” Decter-Jackson said. “Alec’s story is pretty unique. He is an amazing guy.”

Holowka has already been able to live comfortably for 10 years off the proceeds of Aquaria and now seems poised to have another hit on his hands.

While there are thousands of indie game developers, not many of them have been able to make a commercial go of it as Holowka has.

“He has done amazing work before, and now Night in the Woods has great traction,” Decter-Jackson said. “It’s an amazing game. I’m so happy for him.”

His success can’t help but inspire others. Louis Ghiz, the executive director of New Media Manitoba, points out such success does not come without a lot of work.

“It is great to see the success because they really put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the project,” Ghiz said.

Holowka and his brother have been making freeware games since they were little, and his brother has worked over the years with some of the major studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver.

“I’ve never had a real job, quote, unquote,” Holowka said. “I have been making games my whole life — since I was about eight years old.”

That doesn’t mean it’s all fun and games. He admits working on his own can be lonely and there is plenty of uncertainty as to how the final product will turn out.

“He’s under plenty of pressure,” Ghiz said. “I spoke to him a few days before Night in the Woods was released, and he was working around the clock.”

By his own admission, sales of Aquaria kept him in mind and body for the better part of 10 years. Now that Night in the Woods has been released, Holowka said he’ll spend some time dealing with bugs, doing some polishing and maybe producing versions for different game platforms.

“The pace can slow down for a bit, which is nice,” he said. “We had a very frantic work pace at the end of the project.”

After that, what’s next for a successful indie game developer from Winnipeg?

“I’m in a hyper-adrenaline space right now,” he said. “With all this extra energy I might start prototyping something new right away.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca