The James Pierce Studios Exclusive Developer Interview for Monster Clean-Up
Monsters are always causing ruckus. If they’re not hiding under your bed, they’re in the closet. If they’re not in your closet, they’re hiding under the sofa cushions. The number of hiding places that they exist in is mind boggling. Noting these many Monster hiding places, The James Pierce Studios set off to develop the fun and addicting, Monster Clean-Up. We sat down with the mastermind behind this quirky and interesting indie game that is sure to be hours of fun! Check out our exclusive interview below!
Hi There! Please give us a quick introduction of The James Pierce Studios. What’s your mission?
Our mission is to create casual mobile games that stand out from the masses of copy-cats online.
What’s a fun fact that others may not know about you?
The very first game I’ve created is actually a board game called “Legends of Myria”! It’s a tactical RPG inspired by the old Dungeons & Dragons games but with a much bigger focus on combat than role-playing. To keep production & distribution costs as low as possible, the game is “print & play” meaning you purchase the digital game books (in PDF) from my website www.LegendsofMyria.com and then print it out at home to play.
How did you get involved in developing indie games?
Since my first line of code at college I have tried to make games on the web. For example when we learned how to create form submissions, I went home and re-purposed it into a game of luck where you have to bet virtual money on one of two colors to double the amount. Obviously, it was very bad because you had to refresh your page and it was super ugly. But that’s how I got started and I’ve just never stopped doing it over the years.
What do you do when you’re not developing indie games?
My main day job is working as a freelancer and combined with my indie game development it means I spend a very large number of hours in front of the computer. For this reason, I try to spend all my remaining time away from the computer doing sports or reading. I’m also learning Chinese in my spare time, for no particular reason besides the fact that I enjoy learning languages and Chinese is a great challenge. That’s also the reason why I created the game “Vocabulary RPG” by the way. Another thing I’ve only recently started is practicing art every day for about 30 minutes. Coming into this from a pure programming background, game art is definitely my biggest weakness and improving this will only improve my games in the future.
Let’s talk about Monster Clean-Up now. This 2D pixelated game is super fun in all its challenging, yet addictive qualities. How did you come up with concept behind this game?
Monster Clean-Up is the first game where I drew everything in the game by myself and my drawings were a really big driver for it. In that same time period, I’ve also discovered the game “Mr. Gun” on the Google PlayStore and I was amazed this game had such a big success: Gameplay was literally the same from level 1 all the way to the highest level; you could unlock a ton of weapons with more damage, but even though the damage numbers were higher the actual damage dealt was the same for every single weapon in the game. The way it works is that you had to tap the screen at the right moment to shoot an enemy and you will always kill the enemy with 1 shot, no matter what your weapon is. The rest in the game was just cosmetics. I am obviously simplifying “Mr. Gun” because there is a lot more to this game than just mechanics, for example the overall game feel is great and the presentation is highly polished. It made me realize how important game feel & presentation are and that it can turn even the simplest game mechanic into an addictive mini-game. So Monster Clean-Up was my attempt at implementing what I’ve learned from analyzing Mr. Gun’s success!
What was the biggest challenge you encountered in building Monster Clean-Up?
Programming Monster Clean-Up was fairly simple compared to the games I usually code but since I’m not a good artist, drawing the game art was by far the biggest challenge for the game. Another, more personal, challenge was not adding too much “fluff” to the game. As I’ve already explained in my previous answer, I wanted to stick to a very simple game mechanic and focus on making the game feel & presentation the best I could. As a game dev, it is easy to get lost in adding game features and multiple mechanics. It took me quite some discipline to stay focused on the core gameplay mechanic and invest all my efforts on game feel & presentation.
How do you keep your morale up during long stretches of tough game development?
The feeling I have every time I finish a game is the best feeling in the world. And creating something that you are proud of is even better. Here lies my biggest motivation during long stretches where things in the game are simply not going as I had imagined them.
What lessons have you learned through the stages of development for Monster Clean-Up?
When starting out, I believed creating good gameplay is all it takes to make a great game. But from a psychological standpoint, I am now convinced that good gameplay is just the logical excuse we make for a game that simply feels great. Game feel is one of these things that a game either has, or it doesn’t. It’s that instant attraction that pulls you in. I would define game feel as a combination of presentation & polish, a skill that is hard to grasp, takes a long time to develop and hone, and it explains why so many games fail commercially.
What feature did you develop for Monster Clean-Up that caused you to step outside your comfort zone?
Again, I would have to list drawing game art as my answer. I’m very shy of my own drawings and when I draw, I always feel like I’m wasting time. It doesn’t feel like I’m doing something useful. Being responsible for all the game art, really putting my focus on drawing everything, and then also releasing the game with all my art was definitely an experience outside of my comfort zone.
Anything you want to tell the Plexstorm community before we sign off?
I was very surprised that from my portfolio of games, you have selected Monster Clean-Up. Though from the outside it looks so simple, it is actually a game that I am personally very attached to (for all the reasons explained previously). So the fact that you have chosen Monster Clean-Up for this interview made me very happy. To the whole community, thank you for taking interest in my games and the last thing I would want to say is that if you have any feedback whatsoever, please reach out to me. It’s hard to come by honest criticism!
The full version of Monster Clean-Up is currently Free to Play!
As always, thanks for reading and keep on streaming! ❤
