The Creator Spotlight is on Operation Outsmart! 🌟

I sat down with the devs and asked all the juicy questions!

1. So what's your game all about?
The game is like a spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts. It has a physics sandbox element where you build contraptions using lego-like pieces. The world is filled koalas that you need to help resolve their problems using your builds. In return, the koalas will compensate your kindness by giving you parts, materials, skins. if they're very happy with you, you can recruit them to fight for you by placing them on a weapon on your contraption.

2. What inspired you to make this game?
We kind of started as a technology company trying to use machine learning to predict material properties. We then came up with the idea of using this technology in a game. That's where it all started. The game currently uses the technology, but it's not the main gameplay element. In the world you find metal elements that you can mix in a foundry in any arbitrary composition, and the machine learning algorithm predicts the resulting physical properties of the alloy such as strength. These materials can then be applied to your lego pieces. So you can make them lighter or stronger.

3. What's the most challenging part of making your game?

Making the game is the easy part. The real beast is the marketing, trying to let people know about the game. This is the hardest thing I've done in my life, harder than getting my PhD in physics.

4. I saw you have a Project We Love badge; is there a story behind it?
The day we decided we wanted to run a Kickstarter campaign, I spent days watching all sorts of videos and reading blogs. In one of Anya Combs (director of games at Kickstarter) videos, she mentioned you have to speak to us often and in advance. I then figured she was attending GI Live event in April 2021. So I booked a meeting with her. She told me to update her on a monthly basis, and I did that. We also applied all the tips she gave (30 seconds of gameplay at the beginning of pitch video, filling the page with nice arts, images and gameplay GIFs, avoiding large blocks of text etc.). So I think that's how we caught her attention.

5. What are your goals as a developer in the game industry?
Ultimate goal: to become one of the best game studios in the UK and the world. Smaller goals: (i) for Operation Outsmart to be commercially successful, (ii) to become financially sustainable (iii) to build our own cutting-edge game technologies.

6. What game inspired you the most to become a game developer?

I wouldn't say I was specifically inspired by a game, but the Age of Empires series have had a profound impact on me. I played them since I was like 9.

7. If you could give any advice to anybody that wants to make their own game, what would it be?
(a) Making a game is half making the game, the other half is marketing it. No matter how good your game is, if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. So start marketing early, from the day you decide you want to make a game.
(b) Most game developers quit after their first game, because they're so heart-broken with the cut-throat competition in the industry. You have to hang in there. Your first game will most likely not be successful, but have perseverance. Success will eventually knock on your door.

8. Where can people find you and your game?
The best place to learn about Operation Outsmart is our Kickstarter page. It has a trailer, plenty of gameplay GIFs, and links to our free demo on Steam and social accounts.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unifiqgames/operation-outsmart

Thanks for reading this week's Creative Spotlight! 🌟

🙌🏻Want to be on the next Creative Spotlight? Reach out to me on here or on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/WolfieeLore