Brian Soulliard is an independent videogame developer. He recently released The Ultimate Celebration, which he entered into the 2012 IGF and has also been integral in the development of the long-in-progress Indie Brawl.

Small bonus page link at the end of the interview.

Age?

22.

Location?

Rochester, New York.

Development tool(s) of choice?

GameMaker. It lets me work much faster than any other tool I’ve tried.

What other tool(s) have you tried?

I’ve used Flash, Flixel, and Unity, among others. They are all good programs, but I haven’t yet started a project that couldn’t be completed in GameMaker.

What do you do?

I’m a few months away from graduating with a degree in Software Engineering. I make games whenever I can find the time. My most recent game is The Ultimate Celebration, and I’m also known for my work on Indie Brawl.

Explain how you became interested and got into game development?

It’s something I’ve wanted to do since pre-school. Whenever I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I’d answer “Either a scuba diver or a video game designer”. Once I discovered that I didn’t actually like swimming that much, my path was clear. In middle school, I discovered GameMaker, and I’ve been creating games ever since.

As an entrant of Independent Games Festival, here is a 3 part question: Do you think the IGF entry fee is fair?

I think so. $100 isn’t a lot of money for most people, but it’s enough to discourage people from entering games that have no chance of winning. It’s a way to keep the number of entrants down, so that judges can devote a fair amount of time to each game. It’s not a perfect solution, since there is probably some impoverished developer who can’t afford the entry fee, but I honestly can’t think of a better system to replace it with.

What do you expect in return for paying the entry fee?

The IGF is a contest, so it’s not realistic to expect anything. It would have been nice for The Ultimate Celebration to get a nomination or honorable mention, but the selected games are just as deserving. Either way, the money goes towards promoting indie games in general, so I can’t complain.

How do you think that the IGF could be improved in its current form?

Honestly, despite all the drama that surrounds the IGF, I think the contest works pretty well, especially considering how fast it has grown. I’d say that the IGF’s biggest weakness is that there is no award for storytelling. A lot of fantastic adventure games and RPGs get overlooked simply because they don’t fit any of the award categories.

Paul Hubans thinks traditional-styled games get overlooked in the IGF. As someone who makes games that seem to be an extension of traditional genre-types, do you have any thoughts on this?

There is probably some bias against traditional games. If a judge plays each game for only a few minutes, then the non-traditional games are going to immediately stand out. Traditional games need to be truly exceptional to get noticed in a contest like the IGF. A storytelling award would certainly help here, since a lot of traditional indie games tell amazing stories.

You recently released The Ultimate Celebration, stating that it was the first project you had managed to release on a good while. What things hold you back from videogame development? Is it something that you would like to spend more time doing?

I’m mostly held back by school and work. I’d spend all my time on game development if I could. Fortunately, I will finally have some free time this summer, so I’ll be tackling some of the more ambitious projects that I’ve had in mind.

What parts of the development process do you enjoy or find most rewarding?

I love refining a game’s design. Once the game is in a playable state, I’m constantly thinking about how the game can be improved. I will happily spend hours sitting in front of spreadsheets, analyzing every aspect of the game. My perfectionism leads me to release fewer games, but I enjoy the iterative process, and the games that I do release are much better because of it.

And most tedious?

The design is usually more or less finalized long before the game is done. Finishing the last steps of the implementation lacks some of the magic of the initial design process.

Bonus content: WIP / Unreleased.