Interview

Lightwood Games' Chris Newman on the thrill of the studio's five day game hack

One hack inspired another

Lightwood Games' Chris Newman on the thrill of the studio's five day game hack
Having picked up accolades at the first GameHack in the UK back in April, it's of little surprise that Lightwood Games was eager for more.

Rather than entertain another trip out from its base in Stoke for another coding marathon, however, the studio decided to host its own, with founder and CEO Chris Newman telling us it seemed like the logical next step.

With the hack almost reaching its conclusion, we caught up with Chris to find out how Lightwood prepared for its own hack - the Head Hunter Challenge dev challenge - and to find out what comes next.

Pocket Gamer: Can you explain how the Head Hunter Challenge dev challenge came about?

Chris Newman: In April we went to the GameHack event held at Pinewood Studios and our entry involved linking lots of iPhones and iPads together to create a game with a huge playing surface.

Although the game itself was a very simple 'lights-out' affair, it impressed the judges enough that we won prizes for "best use of mobile" and "most innovative idea".

So we wanted to extend that idea into something a bit more accessible and came up with a hidden object game concept that could be spread over several screens.

Keeping with the spirit of GameHack, we decided we should set ourselves another short deadline for the follow-up game.


Concept behind Lightwood's GameHack game Plasma Party

We needed to make this game have a wider appeal than something that needed you to have friends with iPhones nearby in order to play it, so the scope of what we wanted to do in the challenge spiralled somewhat out of control!

Eventually it included a solo game mode and a turn-by-turn mode played with Facebook friends as well as the multi-screen game.

How are you working within the five day period? Is there a set structure, or are you simply coding as you go?

The two of us have quite distinct roles for this one.

Katherine [Gordon, web and app developer] is developing the iOS user interface while I take care of managing the data and server back-ends. With a little bit of planning, it means we're never holding each other up, nor stepping on each others toes.

We only came up with a rough schedule after the first day of putting together core components It's a game mode per day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, leaving Friday for testing and polishing.

What kind of planning did you do in the run up to the hack?

We'd decided that we were only allowed to plan things on paper before the challenge started.

We sketched all the screens in the app and planned the flow between them. We'd already had most of the in-game graphics made though, so we wouldn't have to rely on others to fit around our crazy schedule.

And, days in, how is the hack progressing for you?

Wednesday was a long day but it was worth the extra effort. We've now completed two of the three game modes and they're fully playable - just not looking very nice yet!

In terms of getting all the features we want, it certainly looks like we'll make it. I'm just keeping everything crossed that we don't hit any major hurdles now, so there's plenty of time to give it some polish too.

Your version is targeted at iOS, but you're interested in other developers taking the game and bringing it to other platforms such as Android, Windows Phone and Facebook. What was the thinking behind that?

Because we're using the Facebook platform to let friends challenge each other, we don't want people who get invited to a game to be disappointed when they find out they don't have the right kind of phone to play.


Web and applications developer Katherine Gordon

For our own version, we've already built a private online API for managing games, so we thought we'd open that up to other developers and let them build their own UI into our game for a range of platforms.

This game has a very simple interface: you poke the screen and you're either right or wrong. I think it could be a great little project for a student on summer break, or a really quick way for an indie to boost their games portfolio.

Do you have any download expectations for when the game hits the App Store?

We have already built a player base across several puzzle games that we can promote the game to, in order to help give it a push up the rankings.

This should be our most viral game yet, so I'm also hoping for good things once it's in the hands of users. It's extremely easy to challenge your friends, and having more platforms able to participate should help it spread.

In addition, we're offering advertising credit to the other developers who take part to help get their games off the ground.
Thanks to Chris for his time.



You can follow the rest of the challenge on the studio's website.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.