Taking First Place in the 2019 Epic MegaJam with Planted.
Team Pixel Collective came through with an awesome and slightly surreal platforming exploration game all about Planting yourself in the perfect soil.
A GameJam is always a great experience. You explore crazy ideas in an incredibly limited amount of time and try to bring as much of that idea into the final product as you can. They are great tools for learning about yourself, often where your skills fall short and what you need to work on but also about how well you work in a team and what dynamics you need to seek out to produce your best work. It is one thing to create comfortably at your own pace and an entirely different monster to develop on an absurd and seemingly unrealistic timeline.
Team Pixel Collective is made up of 5 people from the UK. They were all motivated at a young age to jump into game development through playing games and the natural progression of their own interests in art and design.
The game Planted was one of my own favorites from the Jam, it had an interesting and eerie atmosphere coupled with relatively polished art and a jet-pack Mechanic that I enjoyed immensely (the jet-pack may be a personal bias of mine as it was a sticking point in a previous project I had tried to bring off the ground). The jumping and jet-pack movement mechanic in Planted felt very good, it had a buildup to it that gave an intuitive sort of feedback that made picking it up really easy. The only point of contention I had was the drop due to gravity afterwards sometimes felt a smidge too strong.
Planted is a linear game but it makes an effort to create a world that feels far larger around it. The amount of assets and the clever reuse of them generated a game that was quite a bit longer than I expected but it does not feel like it drags at any point and while the mechanics are simple, I tend to enjoy games that limit their mechanics or their art in ways that highlight the strongest point of either.
This is the first of several articles I am writing to highlight the winners of the various game jams, art challenges and contests that we sponsor so make sure to keep an eye out for the next!
Make sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for the Epic Games live play-through as well as an interview with the team!
You can check out the teams portfolios here:
You can watch the playthrough with the Epic Team and our CEO, Tanner Kalstrom or play it yourself:
The Team was kind enough to answer some relatively in depth interview questions, enjoy!
Mike: Where are you from, what where your motivations for jumping into Game Development?
Sarah Hull-
I am from the west coast of Scotland. I got into game development when I was studying art at college, and my lecturer suggested I could go into games to combine my studies with my love of gaming. I hadn’t realised it was an option until that point.
Michael Hyman-
I’m currently living in Canada, London Ontario, However I grew up in the UK in a small village near Luton. At the start of my interest in video game development I used to make Quake 3 maps as a hobby. Since then I have continued with my interests, getting a related degree, working on various games and projects. I like to make game worlds to explore, share and inspire others and myself.
Liam Grice-
I’m from Wales, UK. I took to game dev as a practical outlet for art.
Shaun Baker-
South in the UK, I got into games because I wanted to create virtual worlds; It’s what I loved playing as a kid.
David Nicholls-
I’m from the west midlands in the UK. it’s quite cliche at this point, but playing games as a child on the family computer was the kickstarter to wanting to be involved in games development. Including sending some terrible ideas off to publishers when I was 7 (getting some swag back definitely affirmed the direction though).
M: Was this your first GameJam?
Sarah Hull-
Yes. I had previously helped out at university game jams as a runner, but never entered myself.
Michael Hyman-
This is my 3rd game jam. I want to do more!
Liam Grice-
Yes.
Shaun Baker-
No, I entered the Mega Jam 3 years ago and made ‘Assimilation’.
David Nicholls-
This was technically my first proper Jam, we did one as a group for fun about 7 years ago at university, but I’m not sure that counts for much. I think naturally I’m a sprinter though when it comes to most things in life, so a Jam seems a natural fit for me to get things done.
M: What role did you take in the team or was the separation not quite so clean?
Sarah Hull-
I took on the character rigging/anim dynamics/cloth/etc. and sound design for the project.
Michael Hyman-
I focused on environment model making and texturing. Working from loose ideas and suggestions from the team, as well as my own ideas on the fly throughout the project.
Liam Grice-
Character art.
Shaun Baker-
It was an odd one for me, I took the most time off of work so naturally invested in many aspects. I was responsible for the programming/design, world building, lighting and a few props here and there and generally helping us steer in a forward direction.
David Nicholls-
I took the technical lookdev/ shader setup as well as performance and general art creation roles. I also setup our perforce server and systems locally to make sure everyone could collaborate as easily as possible.
M: Have you two worked together before, how did you meet?
Sarah Hull-
David and Liam were colleagues of mine at the time. Shaun and Mike I met through online gaming with David, but hadn’t worked with them until Planted.
Michael Hyman-
I’ve never “officially” worked with my teammates before. For the exceptions of Liam and Sarah we all went to university together. Liam and Sarah I met via David. We are all video game nerds and love playing games.
Shaun Baker-
3 of us went to University together (Graduating in 2014), Sarah and Liam I haven’t worked with before but was a delight that we all got the opportunity to create Planted together.
David Nicholls-
Me Shaun and Mike went to university together, but didn’t directly work with each other much until now. Sarah and Liam are colleagues of mine from my current work place.
M: What were the inspirations for Planted?
Sarah Hull-
My favorite game is Alice: Madness Returns, so when contributing to the initial brainstorming, that was definitely in my minds eye visually. We wanted to put as much of a spin on the theme as possible to help it stand out, without needing to explain the connection. An astronautical plant reaching a giant garden world to self-propagate seemed to be that perfect balance between weird and on-topic.
Michael Hyman-
We wanted to make a 3rd person game, similar to older games like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot. Also to just have fun making a game together as friends.
Shaun Baker-
Alice in Wonderland initially, we wanted the player to feel small with a fantastical feel. The topic down to earth made us think quite literally about astronauts and the ‘earth’ part was also interpreted in the objective of the game; to go and plant yourself.
David Nicholls-
We had an idea breakdown session immediately after the MegaJam stream ended and decided we needed something simple that played to our strengths as a team. We wanted to focus heavily on our artistic side but still provide a simple but effective gameplay loop that could give people some challenge while hopefully being easy enough that they could appreciate the world we were building around them. A big thing early on was that we needed a beginning and end to the game, bookending the experience for people. The hope was that by providing an experience with definite points we could give the player a sense of fulfillment.
M: Where did you go to school, what was your experience like there?
Sarah Hull-
I went to Ayr College and got qualifications in Audio Engineering and then Art&Design. From there I went onto study Computer Arts at Abertay University in Dundee. College was fun, but a very indecisive time for me, switching between music and art until I found the right path. Once I reached university, with my sights set on the games industry, I had an amazing time meeting lots of like minded people, and eventually finding my passion in Technical Art. Abertay was a keystone for me.
Michael Hyman-
I went to the university of Hertfordshire. It was a very positive experience and through it I became a better artist and a better person.
Liam Grice-
Glamorgan University, 3d animation course.
Shaun Baker-
University of Hertfordshire to do 3D games art; It was a tough course that required a ton of discipline to make the most out of 3 years there in order to come out with a good enough portfolio to get employed relatively quickly.
David Nicholls-
After high school I went to Kidderminster College, where I was first introduced to Maya and the basics of Unreal Engine 3. I’d previously experimented with modding Quake 4 and Doom 3 at school but that was my first real foray into game creation. After this I went to Hertfordshire University. This is where 3D and games turned from an obsessive hobby to an actual career path I could take. With the help of the lecturers pushing us in the right direction and all the students collaborating knowledge we managed to get out career kickstarted out the gate.
M: Do you think that classroom learning for Game Development is better than self teaching?
Sarah Hull-
For me, classroom learning was invaluable. It introduced me to fields and workflows I wasn’t aware of, guiding me to a career I didn’t know existed. I met so many friends, who are now industry contacts. It also gave me the opportunity to get a mentorship with Disney Research in my final year, something I would not have had access to otherwise. I couldn’t imagine I would be as prepared for industry by doing it on my own.
Michael Hyman-
Yes classroom teaching is important. Art being a major part of my subject area is incredibly deep, full of many rabbit holes and pitfalls to get stuck in. Having a more experienced teacher guide you through the art foundations and getting you to think for yourself is very important to becoming a good artist in the future. It’s also a invaluable chance to meet new friends among your peers. Classroom learning isn’t for everyone but I definitely think it’s good for the majority.
Liam Grice-
You get out what you put in, the format doesn’t matter.
Shaun Baker-
I think it’s dependent on the individual, if you are super passionate but struggle with self discipline then University might be the kick up the ass you need to get you into gear. If you can schedule yourself really well and can invest enough time into doing the work then University isn’t required. Pros: You are working with other like minded people with deadlines that really get you in the atmosphere of the industry. Cons: Sometimes you will have assignments that don’t align with your goals that can distract you.
David Nicholls-
It’s hard for me to answer that with only having taken the one path myself. I more or less focused my schooling into game development from a young age. However looking back, the biggest things any of these courses really gave me was time. Time to learn what I wanted to and pass modules by simply applying some of that directly into the work. Rather than trying to juggle things that may not have been that relevant while also learning game development.
