Ska Studios Shows Us Their Vampire Smile

Posted April 4th, 2011 by Keadin
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James Silva is the creative genius behind Ska Studios and this week’s Xbox Live Arcade release, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile. The game is a crazy-fast side-scrolling action-platformer with enough violence and gloomy scenery to satisfy your bloodiest fantasies. Now that the game is out and available, James was able to chat about life as an independent game developer and what it was like working on The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile.

Getting started in the video game industry is tough, but as an indie developer you've kind of made your own path. What are the greatest freedoms and the hardest trials of standing on your own legs?

 I think the whole “going indie” thing has gotten a bit pigeonholed; most of the indie developers that talk about “going indie” are industry vets who either get laid off from or fed up with their high-stress, reasonably well paying, health-insurance-providing careers and go rogue.

By contrast, I started making games as a hobby and eventually got either good enough or lucky enough that I was able to land an XBLA contract, and I’ve been able to make a living doing my favorite thing in the world since then. It’s as fun as it seems like it should be, except during the last month six months of development where the pressure to fix bugs and hit deadlines starts making me a bit neurotic. But then the game launching is amazing. Fan feedback is amazing. I guess it would be fair to say that compared to a steady job, in indie development the lows are lower and the highs are higher, and I couldn’t imagine a more satisfying way to spend my life.

A lot of great indie games are either made by a programmer/artist pair or just a programmer with minimal art assets; your games are unique in that they have both great mechanics and quality visuals. How do you balance those two roles and how has the growth of Ska Studios affected your process?

 I think it’s more about having multiple creative outlets than it is about having to get stuff done. I love drawing, I love coding, and I love making music. It’s fun being able to hop around; I definitely never get bored. A lot of times with Vampire Smile I’d just get inspired to make some music, or a new monster, or implement a new effect, and I’d just drop whatever I was working on and go with it.

We are growing, however! Michelle and I are going to be splitting art up for upcoming XBLA title Charlie Murder. It’s been a bit tricky getting her settled in because I’ve been using all of my own homemade, excessively user-unfriendly editors for all of my games. But, she’s an amazing artist and is making awesome strides in picking up the workflow here. Also, she’s making Dishwasher plushies! The Xbox Live Arcade has not been the only home for your work, you’ve had some great success on the Xbox Live Indie Games channel as well.

How do you compare developing for the two platforms and what are the benefits of releasing games on either one?

XBLA and XBLIG are very different outlets with very different strengths and opportunities (and weaknesses and threats too, I suppose, OOPS MARKETING JOKE). XBLA is an awesome distribution platform that typically reaches way more gamers than we could reach with XBLIG, but the barriers for entry are daunting—you basically need industry cred or some kind of big break—and meeting all of the XBLA certification requirements is a tremendous, expensive challenge.

XBLIG, however, is a much smaller market, with all-time top seller I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES 1N IT!!1 moving about one tenth of what XBLA top seller Castle Crashers sold at one fifteenth the price. However, the game was developed in two weeks. That’s the great thing about XBLIG: it’s the perfect outlet for stupid fun console development. Oh yeah, it’s also the only outlet for stupid fun console development.

Your new game, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile has been a long while in the making. What’s gone in to this that’s going to make fans of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai excited?

Lots of love! I built a brand new engine for The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile so besides all of the basic stuff (tons of new weapons, enemies, and a new playable character), the gameplay feels like something entirely insane and new with fiercer combat, doomier environments, and gore that is somehow beautiful.

The first time you showed me the game over a year ago you told me that The Count of Monte Cristo was a big influence for Vampire Smile. Can you tell me a little bit about how it inspired you and what of that story has made it in to your game?

The Count of Monte Cristo is, of course, probably one of the best revenge stories ever (if a bit wordy at times). By a sort of ubiquitous drive I’ve had to somehow pay homage to Dumas’ epic; the archetypes of the prisoner, the banker, the general and the judge remained. Of course, in Vampire Smile there’s much more killing and far less Parisian social commentary.

At best I could call your weapon design creative; at worst it's downright twisted. Where do you get ideas for things like The Painkiller (a giant syringe) or The Guillotine (a giant scissors)? Also, feel free to explain The Violence Hammer because I'm at a loss for words.

The more nontraditional weapons are basically more or less everyday objects that can be very dangerous (while running, for instance) treated as if they were ancient tools of combat, wielded by masters. A giant pair of scissors is obviously good for snipping off heads, but what else is it good for? Hence, the Guillotine can be separated into two razorblades that can be wielded like heavy machetes. The Painkiller basically acts like a giant spear, but is of course useful for pulling lots of fluids out of unfortunate (but nonetheless deserving) victims.

The business end of the Violence Hammer is basically a section of steel girder wrapped in barbed wire, nails, knives, hooks, etc. It’s meant to be ugly and terrifying, and in the right hands it’s capable of reducing the most elite cyborg assassins to unrecognizable mush.

Your games have been traditionally difficult, have you got any protips for those looking to survive The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile when they download it today?

Use and abuse that right thumbstick; like the first one, The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is about hyperkinetic combat. The key to holding the upper hand in that combat is crazy fast warping, which is done by flicking the right thumbstick. Warping and evasion is not just good for avoiding blades and bullets, it’s also paramount to stringing together epic combos. It’s all about being everywhere at once!