An Interview with Brjánn Sigurgeirsson

Robots, Firefly and Steam Punk music are among the topics that Lou “herobyclicking” Adducci and Image & Form’s CEO, Brjánn Sigurgeirsson talked about recently. Their upcoming game, SteamWorld Heist, will be released this fall for the Nintendo 3DS.

Herobyclicking: We were just buying into SteamBot Cowboys, and then you all throw in spaceships. Where is all of this coming from?

Brjánn: When we just released SteamWorld Dig we had been development for so long. Everybody was so tired. We didn’t know if the game was bad or decent or great. Then we didn’t know what to do next. We began developing two smaller games. Then Dig took off on the Nintendo eShop. We had something there. Dig was a big success and these two smaller games were smaller experiences and we weren’t sure if that is what we wanted.

We spending lunch breaks talking about X-COM how great it was. We thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if we made a robot turn-based game.” Well, how is it going to be different, “well, we would make it 2D, that what we do, that’s our rule man! (laughs).”

I had traveled for sometime for SteamWorld Dig and when I returned the team actually had a game design document, for SteamWorld Heist, though it didn’t have name at the time. Olle, Lead Designer presented. It’s in space. “Space is it?” I said. This is how you walk about…”Well how are the robots going to…” and he interrupts saying he’s not sure its going to be robots.”It’s not robots?” I said. “Okay, I have two conditions. It’s great, I think it’s great, but it’s got to be a SteamWorld game. The other condition is that has to come out in December 2014. So one out of two ain’t bad.

The SteamWorld games are supposed to be this, the are forced into the story. They exist underneath the umbrella of the universe. We can make whatever game we want to make, as it is easy to apply it to robots. There is no real plausibility. SteamWorld Dig starts with the robot trying to find his uncle, how does that work? SteamWorld Heist works, but it is so different.

Herobyclicking: I have to ask, there has to be a Firefly influence here.

Brjánn: Oh boy. It was almost TOO similar from the outset. (Laughs). I am glad that you brought it up. Now it is Captain Piper who is the female protagonist. But before it was this guy in a long leather coat with a very western looking gun. We have to be careful so just don’t copy. We are not going to deny that, we want people to say that. People will see X-COM’s influence and then see Firefly’s influence and that’s great, we want that.

Herobyclicking: Can we talk about the music in SteamWorld Heist?

Brjánn: The official soundtrack is going to be all Steam Powered Giraffe. We love those guys. It’s such a strange match you know. They are three guys from San Diego who started by street performing as robots. They have an amazing live act that I got to see several months ago in New Jersey. They write this wonderful, western robotic music. When I got introduced to them it was eerie almost. Here is a band of Steam Powered robots making the music for a game that features Steam Powered robots. They are going to in the game as well.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Herobyclicking: You say X-COM is an influence, what was it about X-COM that influenced your developers?

Brjánn: It’s well made. Turn-based is very relaxing to play. But for me it was chess. I am a total chess addict. You can’t geek any geekier than a chess fanatic. I play every day, too much. There is something wonderful about chess and turn-based games. You can take your time to play, there is no one there to rush you. There is no chance in chess. It’s your mind against someone else, if you lose their mind is better than yours.

Herobyclicking: You can get SteamWorld Dig on nearly any platform, except mobile, is that going to happen?

Brjánn: It might. We are very concerned about making good games. I have never really played a mobile game with virtual joysticks that I have really enjoyed. I don’t see how we would get that platformer element in a mobile game. But with SteamWorld Heist it’s totally different. We don’t have to try to think about it working on a tablet or mobile. We are going to start on one platform (3DS) and take it to the next, and then the next. That’s our way of creating baskets for the eggs.

If you succeed in making a game that is very enjoyable then our way of spreading out the risk is to putting the game on multiple platforms. A huge risk would be to make shitty games and put them out on all the platforms.

Herobyclicking: What else is there about SteamWorld Heist and that Universe that we should know?

Brjánn: Captain Piper is a female robot. Why are there female robots in SteamWorld Dig? The robots have evolved quite a bit from SteamWorld DIg, not a super stretch.They are kind of simple minded still. They are just looking at humans for cues.

http://i.imgur.com/1Yd1Dku....

Herobyclicking: You have good success, how has changed your studio?

Brjánn: This is how much it has changed. In March 2013 I had a meeting with Nintendo of Europe at the Game Developer's Conference. They really liked but they wouldn’t promote it. Once it released they did a little to promote and then it caught on. We hadn’t been known, but now it is such a relief to not have to beg for stuff.

Herobyclicking: Okay, final question. I am not a huge Amiibo collector, but can we get a Rusty (SteamWorld Dig) Amiibo?

Brjánn: We would love that! We asked Nintendo if they could do that for us. Unfortunately they can’t. But we can license the Amiibo for a <exaggerates, though probably not too much> billion, trillion dollars.

Day 16 | Image and Form