IGN Italia: In the Kickstarter page you say that Knights and Bikes is "Inspired by games like Earthbound and Secret of Mana and films such as The Goonies", plus you also state that your favorite childhood memories will also be a big influence. First of all: that just sounds unbelievably sweet, and please know that that, along with the very first gif showing the characters running, was enough to convince me to give you the keys to my heart and to instantly support you. Anyway let's get back to the point, what was your childhood like? Tell me a bit more about your background, your experiences, the movies/comics/games you grew up with that had a big impact on you, because i'm kinda curious at this point. Oh and long live the Goonies!!
Rex Crowle: So I grew up on a farm that was very remote and cut-off, so I created a lot of my own adventures, marching through the fields, wading up and down the streams, and hacking through the bushes, often in search of creatures like otters or newts. Sometimes I'd have other friends over and then we could do more ambitious "quests" like building a base-camp in the trees. At this point I didn't have any computers or TV in my life. But then I got ill and for several years couldn't do anything outside, and thats when I got a Commodore Amiga and started playing computer games (and trying to make my own games with some software called AMOS, so I've been an indie developer for a long time!)
So I guess because I was missing out on the outside world that had always been my playground, the games that made the biggest impression on me where games with strong stories, art and characters like the LucasArts adventures, or games that were get emergent and about exploring, especially two games: Exile and Hired Guns, that I particularly enjoyed playing with.
IGN Italia: The art direction of Knights and Bikes is downright adorable. Not that it should be relevant news, considering your stunning work on Tearaway and LittleBigPlanet, but once again you really, really nailed it: this is one of those games with such a unique, distinctive personality, and even if the project is brand new it's immediately recognizable. Has the game always looked like this since the very early stage, or were you considering different styles before? I personally love that sort of rough, sketchy feel to it, and the fact that you can see brushstrokes here and there... super, super cool!
Rex Crowle: This project is one that I wanted to do, mainly so that I could get back into drawing and painting, and just loose myself in making all the details. Because of that, the hand-painted art-style has been the main starting point, but its one that has had some subtle changes as I've been establishing the visual language over the past few months. The balance I've been trying to get is between soft-brushstrokes (for the natural elements) and hard-edged exaggerated architecture. And juggling that with a balance between representational art, to make a believable environment, and more stylised graphic style that makes the screen more interesting to look at, and drive you to explore more. But its all the same usual problems you are trying to solve when designing the look and layout of any game world, and fun ones to solve!
IGN Italia: I see that under the "platforms" section in the KS page you are listing other systems, but at the moment they are all grayed out. When will you unlock those? It's something that strictly depends on the money you will raise, or is it more of a time kinda thing (in order to keep the crowdfunding relevant, to have people talking about the game in the upcoming weeks and so on)? Because of course people would want to play Knights and Bikes on other platforms too...
Rex Crowle: We're currently chatting with the various platform holders at the moment, both myself and Moo ( Moo Yu, The co-creator of Knights & Bikes) are console gamers, and we have had lots of experience in making console games rather than coming from a PC background, so its obviously something that we also want to do! Hopefully we'll be able to update everyone soon!
IGN Italia: Oh and still regarding that "platforms" section: can you officially confirm that Nintendo NX is the very first console that will be shaped like a dog? Will it require special attentions, in case? (i don't know, you might need to take it out for a walk or something...)
Rex Crowle: Yes, it requires regular feeding, and being taken out for a walk once again. It's so next-gen!
IGN Italia: Let's talk a bit about the gameplay: judging from the Kickstarter page, Knights and Bikes seems to have a pretty big emphasis on the co-op (which is always a nice touch in my book), but i still don't have a proper idea about the combat system: will the battles be fought in real time, or will they be turn-based? And if you had to split the different parts of the game, which percentage would you give to combat/exploration and dialogues? One third to each, or maybe say the exploration is more prominent than the combat?
Rex Crowle: Yes, its real-time. One of my influences for the game is Earthbound, which is obviously turn-based. But Moo is very influenced by Secret of Mana and the real-time co-op combat in that game, and thats the direction we are going in for the combat - as it works much nicer for 2 players. And we're having fun thinking up ways that the two players can help each other with their contrasting abilities. It's important to us both that there are interesting ways that make the 2 players work together. So for example Nessa can throw water-balloons to create puddles, and then Demelza can jump in those puddles splashing many enemies at once. We're trying to represent a form of combat that feels more like kids using their imagination and endless energy to deal with threat, rather than a game about hitting something 1000 times with a sword until it explodes.
I think one third of each of those elements is a good starting point, to vary the pacing of the game, but we'll be sure to make the most of our favourite elements, so we may adjust the balance as we continue development.
IGN Italia: Will the video game that you can see in the trailer (the vector based one that Nessa and Demelza are playing on that sort of SNES) be actually playable in game? I don't know, as a mini-game, as a special level, or maybe as a sort of easter egg, kinda like Geometry Wars was to Project Gotham Racing 2...
Rex Crowle: Aha, well that would be very nice, its something we'd like to do, it just comes down to how successful the Kickstarter is!
IGN Italia: You are certainly pretty well known within the industry, you have a stellar track record and you surely have tons of connections at different levels... yet you decided to go the Kickstarter way for Knights and Bikes. Why is that so? Have you tried to pitch the game to a big publisher before (maybe through Media Molecule...), but wasn't successful in doing so? Or on the contrary you just wanted to do things completely your way, without compromises of sorts, so you went all indie?
Rex Crowle: We've not pitched it to anyone else, because we wanted to make something on our terms, and be very hands-on, not just with the development but how its presented to the world. We've both worked in the console world, and Moo has spent some time in the mobile world, but we both wanted to learn about doing a Kickstarter as a new experience to keep things fresh. I've always wanted to make a franchise that has toys and tv-shows and games. Doing a Kickstarter is like a mini version of that, because apart from making the game, we've been designing plush dolls of the main characters, an art-of book, t-shirts and all kinds of merchandise to give to our backers. So its like creating the whole franchise and merchandise right at the very beginning.
IGN Italia: You are asking 100.000 Pounds to turn Knights and Bikes into reality. You are a crazy small team (is it really basically just you and Moo?? For real?!?), but that's not a huge sum of money to make a game. Of course i have no idea about the scope of the project, but did you raise funds from other investors, or Kickstarter is the one and only place from which you're getting the money to pay for the actual development costs?
Rex Crowle: Ha! Yes, just us two. We've both worked in companies where we've needed to do a lot of roles at once, so we're very used to that. Also we have chosen an art-style, and a good pipeline that makes world-building much quicker. So instead of concepting, modelling and texturing to build an asset in the environment, I can just pant the concept, and add it directly into the world.
Also we both work on other paid projects in order to help with finance ourselves, but we want to work with other freelancers that we know and trust, and Kickstarter will hopefully allows us to do that. But yes, we are working pretty damn hard!
IGN Italia: I know you already stated via Twitter that you are not leaving Media Molecule while working at Foam Sword, but how hard is it for you to match the two things? Are you getting a bit of a break from MM to focus on Knights and Bikes, or you're working at MM during the day and for Foam Sword during the night? Oh and by the way, are you directly involved in Dreams?
Rex Crowle: Its a split of 2 days a week at Media Molecule, working on Dreams, and then the rest of the week working on Knights And Bikes. It's a good split because I enjoy being around my Media Molecule friends, they are very inspiring and its nice being a tiny part of what they are making. And that helps spur me on to keep raising the quality-bar of Knights And Bikes.
IGN Italia: One last questions about you, more as a gamer than as a developer: which game(s) are you anticipating the most for 2016? Is there something in particular you really, really want to get your hands on? And what do you think about VR? Are you eagerly waiting for Oculus, Vive and PlayStation VR as well?
Rex Crowle: I do really love VR, for one reason: it makes looking at things in games an element that excites players again. I think we have maybe forgotten that exploring worlds and looking at them is a magical thing in games. We don't always have to have gameplay mechanics or epic stories to drag us through a game. So I'm looking forward to more creative and beautiful worlds to explore and really lose myself in. Although if I try out the REZ VR game, wearing the special suit, I'll probably never come out again!
