Hi everyone,
Thibault, producer at Obelisk Studio here!
The release of Ghostland Yard is fast approaching, the game is slowly gaining visibility (besides, a big thank you to all the people who wishlist and who talk about the game around them, you help us a lot!) and people are increasingly interested in the project.
It is important for us to tell you how this project started, and why we are working on this game. This post -which is normally the first of a series- will explain all this in detail.
1) You are not prepared
Everything started in January 2020.
I (Thibault), left a Producer job with the desire to create my video game studio. With the help of Emeric, a fellow student and friend, we teamed up to start working on a prototype, a top-down 3D action game in line with the old Zeldas, especially Links Awakening.
With Emeric in programming and me in design, we worked on this project for almost 8 months, from January to September 2020 - in the middle of Covid. Pierre, a former colleague and other friend, helped us with the artistic direction of this project.
Looking back, I think we took a list of all the things not to do for a first game, and we did everything on that list:
- No deep research on the concept, we just started prototyping a game to please us
- No precise definition of the scope at the beginning of the project, so no limits to our creative madness, so no end date of the project
- No skills check-up, and it turned out we didn’t have all the skills to make such a big game with only 2 or 3 people
- No market analysis (a little game with similarities named Tunic was also in development at that time…)
A programmer and a producer / designer to make a top down adventure action game zelda-like type in 3D without money, what could go wrong?
Long story short, we killled this project or at least put it in a closet and who knows, maybe one day we’ll pull it out.
I found a management job in the fall of 2020 and my available time to continue working on this development studio project became very limited…
…but we didn't want to give up the idea of creating our own studio.
2) The second project much more conceivable
So we went out with Emeric looking for our next project, and he happened to have something on his computer. A few years ago, Emeric prototyped on mobile a 2D platformer without virtual stick, the pitch of this prototype being very simple: it’s super meat boy on mobile, without virtual stick. And it worked pretty well!
A platformer with simple gameplay, in 2D, on mobile: it seemed much more feasible than the first project!
Pierre agreed to partner with us and produce the game’s visuals, Emeric for the programming and I for the design and management, it seemed playable. The three founding partners of Obelisk Studio were ready!
Ghostland Yard was born around December 2020. The first six months, Emeric was alone full-time on the project, I joined him full-time (after leaving my management position) in June 2021, and Pierre joined us full-time (after he also left his position) in January 2022.
The first year of production of Ghostland Yard, we focused exclusively on the game feel: how to control the character, the operation of the camera, the game mechanics, but we will get into the details in other devlogs!
Very early in the production and thanks to the help of a close friend (who is called Thibaud, it is definitely a very common first name in France), we abandoned the idea of making this game on mobile to focus on a PC and Consoles version.
3) Why this game?
There are three main reasons:
- Emeric really liked Super Meat Boy and wanted to make a game to honour it
- We did a skills check, and we knew we were capable of such a game
- Our resources were very limited, and we needed to develop a business strategy
I will expand on this last point:
First of all, our resources were limited: we had little money set aside and nothing to pay for.
The France is an excellent country to start a business, because if you have contributed enough (so worked some time), you are entitled to about 60% of your old salary for up to 24 months (18 now, thanks Macron). So we had at the beginning of Ghostland Yard less than 24 months of compensation, so maximum two years to release the game without being in a delicate financial situation.
Add to that a financial helping hand from our loved ones (against a % of the company’s shares, we are not beasts), and we had enough to pay some bills.
We have therefore corrected one of the problems encountered during our first prototype: we have a defined framework linked to our available resources, maximum two years to release the game.
The market is not very lenient with precision platformer: there are many on Steam, the main reason being that the concept is easy to understand and that it is a very good gateway for independent developers -hearing that it is “easy” to do. (it’s never easy to make a video game)
It was unthinkable for us to base our entire strategy on the immediate profitability of Ghostland Yard -even if we don’t doubt that the game will eventually pay off over time-so we went in a different direction.
Our strategy is simple: release a first game certainly classic, but well done, in order to prove to the financial actors that yes, we are able to realize a good game in conditions not optimal, so imagine what we could do in better conditions!
Ghostland Yard’s goal is therefore above all to be a critical success: we want the players who play our game to be completely satisfied, which is why we do our best to bring a special attention to detail and offer the most polish game possible, within the limits of our skills and resources available.
Because this first game for our studio will be our business card for the rest of our adventures.
It is true that the concept is not original and one can think that there is no risk taking.
The truth is that developing this video game, starting a business, spending our savings, asking our loved ones for help, applying for grants, applying for loans from banks, these are the main risks!
For this first title, we want to lay a solid foundation for our future adventures. It’s not a one-shot game: we take it out, we take the money, and we disappear to return to our respective lives. We are here to stay, and the experience with Ghostland Yard is invaluable to us:
We created a company, we managed:
- The legal aspect with lawyers
- The accounting aspect with ... accountants
- The social aspect of hiring an employee
We have (almost) completed a game from start to finish, which implies:
- Programming
- The realization of 2D assets
- Integration of 2D assets
- 2D animations (rig, skin, anim)
- VFX (visual effects)
- The game design
- The level design
- The integration of sounds and music (managed by the incredible studio Le Refuge)
- Project Management
- Budget management
- The QA
- Implementation of the Steam API (with analytics, leaderboard, success)
- Putting the steam page online
- And others I forget
We have learned so much and made so many mistakes that we are convinced that our next game will be able to be more innovative, with a bigger scope and madness that were unthinkable for us two years back.
Ghostland Yard is , we hope, the first game in a long series for Obelisk Studio. We put all our heart into its development, we hope it will please you.
And if you like the game, wait to see what we offer you in the next few years!
From left to right: Emeric, Thibault & Pierre
Take care of yourself,
Thibault