S.A.A.A.M: An Interview With The Developers





S.A.A.A.M. from Fireline Games was originally created as part of a development competition but has recently been released for free for PC on GameJolt. Join me as I take a look at the game and catch up with the developers.

The opening shot of this game has your character awakening aboard a futuristic yet dilapidated submarine inside a cryo-stasis pod, which either you or your predecessor have previously tried to claw their way out of, whilst a monotone AI called S.A.A.A.M. (who is delightfully insidious) systematically informs you of the ship’s status. You then have the option of obeying S.A.A.A.M. and getting on with your task or going your own way and risking his wrath.

This is a short free game with bags of atmosphere and high quality graphics. The gameplay is simplistic but satisfying. There are also some deep psychological themes here regarding conformation to avoid confrontation. I’d love to see an expansion of this game explore how far the player can be pushed by S.A.A.A.M. before they refuse to conform. Does S.A.A.A.M. really have your wellbeing at heart or is it a ruse to serve his own undisclosed purpose? I needed to know, so I asked Kacper Kowalczuk (Producer & Lead Programmer) and Jackson C Gordon (writer) over at Fireline Games.

DrJK: Is S.A.A.A.M. a prelude to something bigger? I get the feeling the story has only just begun.

Jackson C Gordon: You would be right. S.A.A.A.M. is definitely in the early stages, but we are a group that is excited to make something good. Many people have likened our game to the Stanley Parable, which I don’t think was ever a name we mentioned when creating the game. Our game was originally made for the Ludum Dare 34 Game Jam, in which we had only 72 hours to conceptualize, create and complete S.A.A.A.M. The theme for the competition was “two buttons” which we loosely interpreted to be two choices, hence the click right or left to choose right or wrong. While S.A.A.A.M. has had a simple beginning, we have certainly found a combination of visuals, media, and flying sharks that people are pleased with, and we want to take it a lot further.

DrJK: The game is dripping with atmosphere; what were your inspirations when making the game?

Jackson C Gordon: We’ve wanted to make something very atmospheric and story-centric for a while now, a place where you can walk around and just feel what the place is or what is happening. Since we only had 72 hours to make the game start to finish, a lot of the inspiration was drawn from necessity. The setting of the submarine seemed an optimal place to start such a small and confined story. As a team we decided that we would begin very small, that you are just a crew member who is going to fix a panel, and that there would be an automated voice system guiding you. As that had to be fleshed out I drew from some of my own favorite things. I like antagonists, I like robots. I couldn’t stop thinking of characters such as GLaDOS, HAL 9000, or even the friendlier GERTY. Those are things I like, and it’s so cool to be able to take your own favourite things, and create new characters and settings, new stories and combinations, in my mind homages to those creators that came before us.

DrJK: You made the game using Unreal Engine 4, are there any particular reasons you chose this engine?

Kacper Kowalczuk: We chose Unreal Engine 4 because of its power, flexibility and beauty. UE4 is in our opinion the best engine on the market at the moment. Thanks to it we were able to push the visuals of S.A.A.A.M. to the limit.

DrJK: How was the development process?

Kacper Kowalczuk: S.A.A.A.M. was created in 72 hours for Ludum Dare 34 game jam. Firstly, we needed to come up with an idea for the game. We already knew that we wanted to make a narrative game. After about 2-3 hours an idea of a vessel, flying sharks and a rambling AI was shaping up in our heads. We moved to programming the gameplay and creating base assets for building the map. We’ve used a modular workflow which allowed us to quickly create rooms and corridors. In the same time, our writer was working on the screenplay. It was iterated multiple times over these 72 hours. On the second day the level design was nearly finished, so we moved to scripting the gameplay and making the level beautiful by adding additional meshes, decals etc. as well as lighting it properly. The second day ended with sending the screenplay to the voice actor who began recording voice over. The last day was just fixing bugs, importing the recorded voices into the game and testing, testing and testing…

DrJK: Any tips for other new indie developers?

Kacper Kowalczuk: Get your game out there! It’ll boost your morale and the feedback you get will help you create better games. Why make games if you let them die on your hard drive?

DrJK: What’s next for Fireline Games?

Kacper Kowalczuk: We’ve received a lot of feedback after releasing S.A.A.A.M. so we’ve decided to turn it into a full game with much, much longer story. You can follow us on Facebook to be the first one to know about the future of S.A.A.A.M.

Well, if this is what they can produce in 72 hours imagine what they can do with a 2 year development cycle. This looks like the start of a beautiful AAA indie game!

Fireline Games‘ S.A.A.A.M is available to download for PC for free at GameJolt. You can also check out their Facebook page here, or follow them on Twitter.

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