AbstrAKT Games has been a fixture on the indie gaming scene since its inception in 2012. The studio has delivered a steady stream of impressive games and won major prizes in the Indie Speed Run with two of them. They may be best known for the squishy strategy game Protein Pirates, which made a splash at the Indie Games Festival, but you have to experience several of their works to get a sense of the breadth of their talent. I believe there are only a few defining characteristics shared by AbstrAKT’s games: they look and play completely unlike one another, they are hard to pigeonhole into genres, and they feature visually stunning artwork.
Alexander Uithoven (pronounced “YOU-Thoven”) is one-third of the three initials “AKT” in “AbstrAKT” and has functioned as the team’s artist, as well as its lead designer. He was gracious enough to take time and talk to me about AbstrAKT, about where it’s been and where it’s going.
Paul Hack: Thanks for doing this interview, Alexander. When did you start making games?
Alexander Uithoven: It’s my pleasure, Paul! I have been “making” games ever since I was kid. And by “making” I mean writing a lot of awesome ideas down and then imagining how cool they would be in a game. (Specifically Duke Nukem 3D mods - I had cool parents.) I first started making games almost two years ago. In fact the two year anniversary of AbstrAKT was in July!
It was only about two years ago that I made my first actual game, which was Demonic (you can play it on Gamejolt, and yes it is terrible). In fact, the two year anniversary of AbstrAKT was in July! Everyone send me gifts! Just kidding… maybe.
Paul Hack: What was your introduction to indie games?
Alexander Uithoven: It was right before Demonic was created that I was first introduced to indie games. A local indie film bar had a showing of Indie Game the Movie and my brother invited me to go check it out with him. We grabbed a couple of beers and sat down to watch the movie that would soon change my life. Seeing people like Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes following their dreams, the same dream I had since I was a kid, filled me with an unquenchable thirst to become an independent game developer. Coincidentally my first introduction to indie games was also my first introduction to becoming an indie developer!
Paul Hack: That movie was pretty inspiring. Could you give me a brief history of AbstrAKT?
Alexander Uithoven: AbstrAKT was formed right after Demonic was released. At this point I knew that without a doubt game development was what I wanted to do for a career . I had the art department down and Kyle, my brother, wanted to keep coding after making Demonic. We just needed someone to have our back financially for the initial startup of AbstrAKT. This is where I am lucky to have an extremely supportive father who believes in my dreams and my abilities to fulfill them. He gave us two years to work out of his house, rent free, to see what we could do with that time. The only stipulation was that we work diligently and include him in some way in the company. That is how AbstrAKT was born. Abstract is how we saw the future of our game design philosophy, and AKT are our initials (Alex, Kyle, Thomas).
The two year mark is coming up and we have done some awesome things over that time, and AbstrAKT will continue to grow. Unfortunately though, things have changed recently and Kyle has had to step away from AbstrAKT to fulfil obligations of his own, so I will have to take up the mantle of coding. Progress will be slow for a bit but there are more projects in the works, I promise! The only problem is AbstrAT isn’t a word! Ha.
Paul Hack: So it’s just you and Thomas now? Will you keep the mantle of AbstrAKT?
Alexander Uithoven: Yeah, it is just us two at the moment, though development is solely in my hands. That’s why projects will take a little longer to push out at first, due to the fact that I must learn to code. Unity is helping a lot with that, though. And yes, I will keep the mantle of AbstrAKT! I will probably release some minor things under “Alex Uithoven” in the interim, but you will see more games come out under AbstrAKT for SURE. I promise!
Paul Hack: Are you still working on expanding Protein Pirates into a full commercial game? How’s that going?
Alexander Uithoven: As far as Protein Pirates is concerned, I think we finished about half of the game before Kyle left AbstrAKT. Unfortunately I can’t touch any of the original code because it is authored by him, BUT that might actually turn out for the better. See, I think Protein Pirates should have always been a mobile game, honestly. That is the feel most people get when they play it. They want to tap, they want to drag and swipe. SO, maybe… Maybe I am currently designing a mobile version? Hmmmm that is the question, isn’t it?
Paul Hack: How intriguing! Now, the build of Protein Pirates on Game Jolt is the original build, the one that won Grand prize in the 2012 Indie Speed Run, right? But you submitted an expanded, reworked build to the Independent Games Festival. What will become of that?
Alexander Uithoven: We might release it to the public as is, though I have to get Kyle’s permission to do that. If that is not the case, then I can use pieces from it for future projects or a mobile build. That is one of the downsides to developing with a two man team, if one person quits or drops out for any reason, any previous content is still owned by both parties. It can cause a nightmare later on!
Paul Hack: So you’re doing coding and art now? And what’s Thomas’ role?
Alexander Uithoven: Yes I am learning C# within Unity currently and doing all the art as I have been. Because of this, things will be a little slow at first but, they should pick up pace when I become proficient in C#. Thomas (my father) is my “investor”. He gave me the opportunity to focus on game development full time and turn it into a career. He is the financial backing to what AbstrAKT has become. Not only that, but he ratifies my ideas when I think I am going insane!
Paul Hack: I want to discuss the output of AbstrAKT over the past couple of years. Let’s start with your first game, which you released onto Game Jolt on the occasion of the team’s 1st anniversary: Demonic. It’s already a fairly polished little game, but it does feel derivative of Edward Mc Millen’s work. After this and Blox, you seemed to start finding your own identity. Was McMillen a big influence?
He didn’t hide the fact that it took hard work and failure to accomplish something great.
Alexander Uithoven: Out of everyone that inspired me to become an independent developer, Edmund had the most influence. I guess you could say he is my muse, except the… female part… I think… Not only did his art style appeal to me but he was very honest with his approach to making games. He didn’t hide the fact that it took hard work and failure to accomplish something great. I had no illusions about becoming an indie dev after hearing Edmund explain what it took for him to get where he was. I think that is the most valuable thing someone can do.
I don’t want to be told how to do something, I can figure that part out. But if you can look at me and honestly tell me, “Hey, you are going to fail, and you are going to fail hard before you succeed”, that is invaluable. Edmund did a great service for any creative person who wanted to become an indie dev by taking part in Indie Game the Movie, and I can never thank him enough for it. Oh, and I wouldn’t call Demonic polished exactly… I mean… I guess it runs?
Paul Hack: I believe Blox!, a really innovative abstract action-puzzle game, was next. Was that the first official AbstrAKT release?
Alexander Uithoven: Yes it was. I actually liked Blox! a lot. We extended the game quite a bit after we released the game jam version by adding an awesome menu, an achievement system, and new game modes. We never got the modes flushed out correctly though, so we didn’t release it. It would be cool to revisit that one though, and maybe tune it up and put it out. We had some pretty awesome mode ideas that were challenging. There was actually one game before Blox! that we were working on called Project: ICARUS that WOULD have been our first release under AbstrAKT. We abandoned that one pretty quickly though as it was terribly designed, haha. Can’t win them all! (P.S. don’t make twin stick shooters that take place in space, there are just way too many already.)
Paul Hack: Yeah, that’s a fairly glutted genre. The next game was LACUNA, right? I adore this little game. It’s sort of a contemplative puzzle game with gorgeous art and the theme of “space”. What were your intentions with LACUNA?
Alexander Uithoven: LACUNA is the most sentimental game I have made so far (though E.Y.E.R.I.S. is close behind). It was made for a game jam where the theme of “Space” was given. We both wanted to make something that had meaning behind it, yet also had a unique feel in gameplay. We must have thrown out around 3 to 5 ideas each but we couldn’t agree on a single one. So I went to take a shower and BOOM it hit me. Combine the ideas that we both had, and make a quick little puzzle game with deep elements. I had also just finished playing FEZ, so I wanted to capture the feeling that game gave me by creating a beautiful and calming environment. I am very satisfied with what the final game ended up being. I know it is extremely short, but it is so beautiful to me that it makes up for length. It was also the first game that won us awards at a game jam! It was from here that we really became confident in our abilities. Thanks, LACUNA!
Paul Hack: LACUNA was the game that put you on the map for me, where AbstrAKT began to find its voice, if you will. The art may be somewhat FEZ-influenced, but the gameplay is its own thing. I could definitely play a much longer version of it. But it’s kind of self-contained. From LACUNA on, all of your games have featured non-traditional gameplay and imaginative themes. It’s hard to compare them to other games or pigeonhole them into a subgenre. Is that quite intentional?
Alexander Uithoven: Most of the gameplay elements and themes are pulled strictly from my imagination. Though there always has been a slight intention to be as unique as I could, I didn’t let it directly affect my ideas for games. What I mean is I never created something with the direct intent of “This will make me unique!” I feel when designing a game you want to leave as much freedom as possible to change things around. This way, if something ends up not being fun or doesn’t work as intended, you can switch it out or alter it in someway. Having very imaginative themes also allows me to do this easily because I can literally do whatever I want. I am not beholden to a strict set of rules that have to make sense. I can make a chainsaw with artificial intelligence that takes part in plays for humans, and it works!
Paul Hack: You are referring, of course, to The Chains of Poverty, which won the People’s Choice award in the 2013 Indie Speed Run. I adore the visual style, the curtained stage, the paper cutout look, and how every object is suspended on ropes from above or perched on a stick extending up from below. And the cyberpunk story is actually quite moving. Did you write it? How were the story and visual style developed so quickly?
Alexander Uithoven: Good ol’ Vroom in The Chains of Poverty! This one was really fun to develop for me personally. Once we received our theme and element (chainsaw and poverty), I wanted to make something that had a moral message behind it. What better way to do it then write a narrative about a class system in which outdated-intelligent-technology is made obsolete by technological advancement? I also wanted to hit on the absurd nature of achievements in most games today. Where you spend X amount of time and Y amount of money (sometimes real currency) for a meaningless achievement.
The visual style of the theatrical theme was a perfect fit for the type of story I wanted to tell, and it also helped drive home the message of working hard at others’ expense just to waste your money on things you don’t really need. (Insert Fight Club quotes here.) I did the voice acting for the intro and the in-game announcements as well, which was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the development process for Chains. 10/10 would dev again!
Paul Hack: It’s a lot of fun to play, too! Any plans to expand this one? I know you already have done some post-jam work on it.
Alexander Uithoven: Yeah, we expanded the game to include 4 more scenes, new enemies which include traps and boss fights, and a store room for more upgrades. It is really really, really close to being finished, but this is another situation where I can’t touch the code unless Kyle releases it to me. I would love to finish it and put the full version on Game Jolt. I think people would love what we added! Plus I could use it to sharpen meh C# skills!
Paul Hack: I’d love to play it. I’ve got to say, the consistent level of polish on these jam games is humbling. How did your team produce such high quality games under such tight time constraints? What advice can you offer to jam participants?
Alexander Uithoven: The most important thing to remember during a game jam is that you are doing it for FUN. Don’t take things too seriously, especially if the outcome isn’t what you wanted it to be. If you go into the jam with a relaxed outlook, you are far more likely to be creative and imaginative. This was actually my biggest problem with the first couple of jams that I took part in. I went into it super competitive and it stifled my creativity. Once we realized this, we developed a really clean workflow.
One of the reasons why we have so much polish on the jam games is because we devote almost an entire day to it. Art, sound, mechanics, all of these get polished the last day of the jam. We also have a really good sense of how much we can get done in the allotted time, so the games always feel “complete” when we are finished. It just takes practice. The more jams you do, the better you will get at time management, etc. Then all the sudden you are Notch and you have made Minecraft! Also, it is extremely beneficial if you have insomnia.
Paul Hack: So let’s see… Ok, timeline-wise, that brings us to E.Y.E.R.I.S., another 48 hour jam game. This is one of those games that offers little to no explanation upfront and forces you to uncover the game mechanics as you play. It’s like LACUNA in this regard, though of course more action-oriented. Tell me a little about your intentions in making this game and how you think it turned out
Alexander Uithoven: E.Y.E.R.I.S. was designed for the player to connect with the choices they were making, without knowing exactly what those choices were. The player chooses based off an immediate emotional or logical response to the choices given. Maybe it was the color that helped them decide, or the way they felt when they looked at the image. They can then come up with their own explanation of what the choice means. The heart might have represented courage to them, or love, so now that choice is subjective to them, and has meaning.
Each time someone plays E.Y.E.R.I.S., the choices they make can take on a different meaning and make their experience their own. For me personally, the game turned out exceptionally well. The level of polish was the highest we had accomplished yet, and I was able to convey some personal feelings through the narrative in the game. Unfortunately, I think some people just see it as a twin stick shooter with a lack of explanation and that it is “pretentious.” But hey! That is just another choice you can make! Haha.
(Shameless plug: Also everyone should go and buy it on XBLIG for a dollar to help support keeping AbstrAKT alive! (Yes even though it is free on gamejolt, shhhh.)
Paul Hack: That’s your first release for a platform besides computers, right? Have you thought of porting anything else to XBLIG, or to another platform, like OUYA?
Alexander Uithoven: Yeah, Chains of Poverty was being developed for XBLIG, and will be released there if/when it is finished. Do people actually play games on the OUYA? I was under the impression that the market was extremely small and not many people invested in one. Another approach I might take is to revamp all the games I have made so far, add some content here and there, and release a game pack, like Edmund did with The Basement Collection. As long as there is enough added content, I think it would be worth it.
Paul Hack: I’d certainly be interested in something like that! What kind of software and tools do you use for your art?
Alexander Uithoven: For anything that is pixel art, I use Photoshop (LACUNA, Blox!, and Project: ICARUS). For everything else, I use Flash. Flash is usually my go to because it matches the natural way I draw, but I am trying to become more proficient at pixel art. Always trying to improve!
Paul Hack: Could you tell me a little about Project: ICARUS?
Alexander Uithoven: It was the product of the first game jam we ever took part in. I think you can see some gameplay and examples of the expanded version we were working on in our 1 year anniversary video [below]. The reason I don’t bring the game up a lot is that it was a complete failure. Instead of being humble and realizing we had no experience doing game jams, we thought it would be an instant hit and that we were the best! So not only were we sour and walked away from the game jam feeling cheated, we tried to expand it to a full game!
Here is a bit of advice kids. Not every game you make is going to be amazing. You’re going to end up making some really crappy games. The trick is to learn from them, and find out what NOT to do the next time. Don’t try to expand them to a full product. Don’t make the Project: ICARUS mistake, haha. Seriously… don’t.
Paul Hack: That sounds like some excellent advice. Do you have any concrete plans for your next project?
Alexander Uithoven: Yeah, I have a couple ideas, but the one I am aiming for is a rougelike dungeon crawler, similar to The Binding of Isaac, but with some permanent elements. I loved Isaac, but I wanted a way to measure progress by gaining something over time. Something I could physically keep with my character and improve. I have some awesome ideas for how that is going to happen, and I have plans for a good story to go along with it. I am excited to push it along, it’s just that whole programming thing I have to learn…
Paul Hack: Oh man, that sounds cool. You’ll have to show me something when you’ve got it! Any chance you’ll take a solo stab at one of the many interesting game jams coming up?
Alexander Uithoven: Yeah, of course! I just need a good code base to start from. As long as I have base movement code (which I do) and I have a good camera system for the player (which I don’t), I should be able to do something interesting for a game jam. I love me some game jams.
Paul Hack: Awesome, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next. Thanks so much for doing this, Alex!
Alexander Uithoven: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me! It was good to go through all the things I have worked on so far, and I am glad I got to share them with you! New things are coming as well! Keep on the look out for the next project! And one last thank you to anyone who has ever played/rated/shared or made a let’s play of any of my games. It is magical watching someone who lives across the world playing a game I have made, speaking a language I don’t understand, and knowing that they at least enjoyed it enough to make a video! Thank you all! (Even the people who hate my games! You help me improve!)
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