According to the results of GamesJam Kanobu, the main prize — financing of the development by Nekki and PinkApp — was awarded to the project 12 is Better Than 6 from the independent studio Ink Stains Games. We talked to developers and investors about the project and its future.
A little background
On March 19, the GamesJam Kanobu game jam started. There were three main nominations: best game, best art and best design. Each of them had three prizes with cash prizes. The best project received the so-called “Grand Prix” – $1000.
On April 6, it was also announced that one of the jam participants will also receive full funding from Nekki and PinkApp. As it turned out the other day, this “one of” was the project 12 is Better Than 6.
By the way, he is not among the finalists to be found. As specified in an interview with App2Top.ru Sergey Babaev, Director of Business Development at Nekki, the jury was determined to make a minimum of intersections in the nominations, one award should be equal to one project.
“We decided to cover the maximum number of teams with awards, and not so that one project drags everything away,” Sergey noted.
Game
12 is Better Than 6 is, as Ink Stains Games themselves call it, “a hardcore Top—Down Shooter with elements of stealth, made in the Wild West theme.” It can also quite easily be called Hotline Miami with “paper” graphics: all game objects in the game seem to be drawn with a blue pen on white sheets of paper.
The project has been developed as a hobby by only three developers over the past year and a half. “You can add another five people, which actively helps us, but the main backbone of the studio is 3 people,” Mikhail Barkov, a screenwriter and level designer at Ink Stains Games, told us.
The project was developed using GameMaker, the same tool used by Jonathan “Cactus” Söderström and Dennis Wedin when creating Hotline Miami.
Mikhail explains the use of far from the most common tool by the fact that at the time of starting work on the project, the team’s programmer was best acquainted with this package. Another reason for choosing was the ease of prototyping on GameMaker Studio.
“Personally, it is more convenient for us at GameMaker Studio to prototype and conduct experiments, choosing the right approach and mechanics. In Unity, for example, experiments are much more time-consuming, although, of course, in the end the solution turns out to be more stable,” Mikhail emphasized.
Investors’ Choice
As part of the jam, the project had serious competitors. Some of them can now be seen among the finalists, some, although they did not pass according to one or another criteria of the jury to the final, definitely remained “on the pencil” both players and, possibly, investors.
Anyway, Nekki and PinkApp decided to finance “12 is Better Than 6”.
“The choice was made based on a combination of such moments as non-standard art, thoughtful gameplay, decent music and the presence of a test build,” commented App2Top.ru Alexey Mikhailov, CEO of Pinkapp, made his decision. – “The commercial potential of the project also played an important role, because we plan not just to finance, but to publish this project.”
It is unknown exactly how much investors are going to invest in further development.
“I cannot disclose the details of the contract in view of the confidentiality clause, but, objectively, this should be enough for the full development of the project. The agreed financing will allow the guys to complete their work at the current places and fully devote themselves to working on the project,” Alexey stressed.
The near future
Since two companies undertook to finance the project, as originally intended, they will publish it separately. PinkApp received the rights to publish the game on all PC platforms, including Steam, and Nekki – on mobile platforms.
At the moment, all three parties – Ink Stains Games, PinkApp and Nekki — are preparing to turn 12 is Better Than 6 from a demo into a full-fledged big game, whose campaign will take at least 4-6 hours to complete.
“The game team was working on the project in their spare time, so it is assembled as a demo. In other words, it has “everything so much thicker”: shootouts are immediately replaced by stealth, and a stealth map with a free choice of tasks. The guys showed the whole palette of blanks and ideas. Now we will jointly start making a full-fledged product that gradually introduces the player to the course of events and allows him to choose the style of passing or those missions that he likes more. Do you want to take scalps from enemies? Proceed to the Cherokee NPC. The soul asks to shoot off the hats of a dozen bandits? Orders from lawyers are at your service. And so on,” Babayev explains the situation.
However, the main problem, or rather, a more difficult task to implement at the moment, is the transfer of the game to tablets and smartphones. In 12 is Better Than 6, the player must not only move the character, but also choose the direction of the shot at the same time. Given the high dynamics of the game, it will not be so easy to make comfortable control for touch devices.
However, Sergey is confident in the prosperous future of the mobile version of the project: “we are free to conduct as many experiments as necessary to find the perfect balance between hurricane firefights and tactics.”
When to wait for the game is still unclear. It will be distributed as a premium application with a free version. “Perhaps we will come to an episodic model,” Sergey concludes.