Al O’Shea, the multi-talented animator and game developer behind www.fatking.co.uk, and creator of the “Cleaner” and “Swap Pop” games already featured on Mousebreaker, has just released the sequel to Cleaner, “Cleaner 2 - The Vacuum Years“. Featuring the same main character and enemies (the Crenshaws, Frankbirds and Fibs) as the original game, the newly developed scrolling platform engine is more sophisticated, offering 6 new challenging levels.
Al gave Mousebreaker a few minutes of his time this morning to discuss the new game and the way he works…
Mousebreaker: You’ve just released “Cleaner 2 - The Vacuum Years” featuring your Cleaner character. What’s his origin, how did you come up with him as a character?
Al O’Shea: The Cleaner character went through a couple of different phases of development. He was originally a baker ( an idea I may return to at some stage ), then he became a caretaker before eventually just being known as ‘Cleaner’. Essentially, he’s an unassuming guy who’s forced to fight some baddies and get back to his day job. I’ve brought him back for a sequel as, with a better grasp of game development, I felt I could bring the game closer to my original idea.
MB: Character development is clearly one of your strengths. Why do you think that is?
A O’S: Drawing characters is one of my more obsessive habits and has been for as long as I can remember. When I first discoverered animation, the realisation that I could bring some of my weirder characters to life was very exciting. I could sketch out a character, re-trace it on the computer and have them walking and talking. The process was time-consuming but rewarding. I learned about how people move and their mannerisms. It’s difficult to bring those kind of subtleties to game development, but animating the basic stuff - walk cycles, running etc. - is important to get right. A walk cycle alone is enough to give the character personality.
MB: How do you divide your time between animation and game development?
A O’S: Lately, game development is taking up more and more of my time. The 3d animations I’ve done take a vast amount of work for a very short running time. It can get a little frustrating to watch a couple of months of work fly by in less than a minute. Game development, on the other hand, is becoming more interesting to me, as the possibilities are pretty much endless and you can replay games over and over again. Knowing people are enjoying and playing your games months after you’ve created it is a good feeling. As I’m incorporating my animation skills into game development, it seems like a natural progression for me and right now I’m happy to keep on churning them out.
MB: Can you tell us a little about the music in your games?
A O’S: Making the music is one of my favourite parts of game development. Playing with some retro sounds and making crazy little melodies is good fun. The music for Cleaner 2 had originally been written for the first Cleaner installment but never made it. I tweaked it to fit into the shortest loop I could without being ( too ) annoying. It’s always amazed me how you can never get fed up of the Super Mario theme despite hearing it thousands of times. I’d love to be able to compose tunes of that calibre, but then that guy was a genius.
MB: Are you a big gameplayer yourself? Any favourites? Any influences?
A O’S: Most of my favourites and, in fact, most of my influences are retro classics. I began with a BBC B before moving on to a Megadrive. Sonic the Hedgehog is an unbelievably good game, and to me it’s the best of it’s genre. I discovered an excellent Beeb emulator for the PC not so long ago which helped me get addicted once again to some of the 8-bit classic games, like Repton, Chuckie Egg, Castle Quest, and Exile. Most modern games leave me cold, although Half-Life 2 was an awe-inspiring piece of work.
MB: Do you have any advice for budding indie game developers?
A O’S: The hardest thing I find as an indie game developer is balancing the different stages of production and keeping to your own time constraints. For example, it’s tempting to spend days tweaking the music, but you have to stick to what’s important and keep things in proportion. However, I’d say it’s crucial to put the extra effort into the final stage - spending some time polishing the game until it shines. Be proud of your work!
MB: So what can we expect next from Fatking.co.uk?
A O’S: There’s a couple of new games in the pipeline, a funky little shoot-em-up and a new puzzler. The first should get released early September if it all goes to plan. It’s going to be quite frantic, colourful explosions and crazy looking ships. The puzzler is going to take a bit longer but I hope it’s worth the wait!
