Scattle first received attention from the GameMaker community for his game, Xycle. Since then, he has released a variety of games including Mouse No. Probably A Rat (a parody of a game by Rob Fearon) and Constellation Chaos, which received a flash port in a collaboration with Andy Wolff.

Bonus link at the bottom of the interview.

Name?

David Scatliffe.

Age?

17.

Location?

The US of A.

Development tool(s) of choice?

What do you do?

I make games, music, music videos, and other stuff.. probably just anything that can somewhat entertain people.

How did you get into game development?

I really just got into it by being bored out of my mind. I tried making little flash animations and writing.. but that didn’t turn out so well. So one day, when my trial of flash expired, I googled “game maker” and the rest is pretty much history.

What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?

All I really want to do is release a game on steam, maybe get a game on Xbox Live Arcade, and make a game for Adult Swim. I want to be able to live well off of my little game exploits, and rub it in the faces of the ones who didn’t believe in me, haha.

Who didn’t believe in you?

Just some of the kids at school (and some of the counsellors). I didn’t get very good grades in school, so I guess I can’t blame them. I guess they thought I was going to try and get some big job at EA or something. Who knows?

What ultimately inspires you to keep creating?

There’s this feeling that I get sometimes when I feel like I’m making something truly awesome, that’s 100% me. That, mixed with the feeling of learning something really cool and useful, is what inspires me to keep making stuff. And of course, I wouldn’t be anywhere without the many brilliant indie developers out there, busting their asses.

After taking a ‘break’ from game making, are you back working on stuff?

I haven’t been really busy making games, although I’m still constantly prototyping stuff. Nowadays, I’ve just been collaborating with other indies (making music and sound effects for their stuff), which is equally enjoyable.

What happened to Xycle+ and what other game development related projects have you been working on in recent times?

Xycle+ (now Xycle2) is pretty close to getting finished. It’s taken a bit long (I think it’s been a year in development) but soon we’ll finally have something really groovy for people to play (and possibly curse at). I also got some really great guys to help out with some remixes for the OST, which should be out around the same time that the game’s released.



As for my other projects, I can’t say too much.. most of the time they start as cool little ideas that I work on for a day or so, but I just lose interest… I’m not really sure why.

You switched your own role from game developer over to game designer / collaborator. Why did you decide to go in this direction?

I just really love to work with others. There’s something awesome about having multiple minds connect on a solid idea, and it’s easy to feed off of that energy and sustain that drive to actually finish something.

Do you still use GameMaker to prototype any of your concepts, before you pitch them to people?

Of course! Yeah, I love GM and still use it to prototype / mockup stuff / whatever.

When you prototype, is there any planning involved or do you just jump straight in and develop the core idea, while it’s fresh in your head?

There’s really no planning involved at all. I get an idea in my head, and immediately start drawing all the characters. If the characters are interesting, then I start drawing the environments, enemies, etc.



I really like to see what the game is going to be, before I start coding anything, but maybe it’s not the best way to go about things.

How do you choose who you collaborate with?

I don’t really think about it. I figure as long as they make cool stuff, and they like my stuff, why not team up on a game.

When you found GameMaker, did you find it immediately intuitive to use? How long did it take you to build up skills that you were satisfied with?

At first I was really confused and a bit frustrated, just trying to make my own versions of the little tutorial games. A lot of my really early games had layers upon layers of bugs, and it would get so bad that I’d just leave them in there. One of my first games was a platformer with this stick figure guy who could wall-jump, but I couldn’t get the collisions right, so he’d just stick into the walls from time to time. I told my friends that the walls were made out of quicksand when they played it.

Who do you take influence from in terms of other independent videogame developers?

Nowadays, guys like Locomalito and Amon26 inspire me. They both know how to create great experiences, with Locomalito’s stuff being really fun retro / arcade-y greatness, and Amon26 pulling players into surreal worlds with creepy imagery / audio. I also really admire their work ethic. It always seems like they’re just working on their games around the clock, and the effort really shows.

Do you have the desire to enter any competitions or attend any game jams?

Yes and yes. I’d love to do both, but I’m never close enough to any game jams being held, and some competitions on forums have lame themes. I guess I’ll just go for the IGF and Indiecade when I feel like I have something really, really great.

Bonus page: Prototype // Mock-up // WIP snaps.