Indie developer going strong

How are Australia’s indie developers coping in today’s market? Paul Baker from Three Phase Interactive explains why he’s developing mobile over console games and why he’s never going back to mainstream.

By HAYDEN WAUGH

A host of talented Australian programmers, graphic designers and animators were left in limbo when video game developer Blue Tongue Entertainment collapsed in 2011.

Programmer Paul Baker, like his colleagues, had the choice of chasing after work at another large mainstream developer, or having a go as an independent.

Independence won. Together with Drew Morrow and later Chris Burns, Baker established Three Phase Interactive, a Melbourne studio that specialises in developing mobile and tablet games.

Despite all his experience working with console games, Baker says moving to mobile games development was an easy choice.

“It seemed like, at the time, phones and tablets were really taking off and it was a place were you could do well as a small independent developer,” he says.

“So it seemed like an obvious choice to do a small, fun game focusing on gameplay and not so much on high-end graphics.”

Paul added, that with the team they had, it was going to take about five years to develop a game that demands as much scope as consoles.

“I was only interested in spending maybe a-year-and-a-half on a game – that narrowed it down a lot. We thought: ‘Okay, we’re probably going to do PC or phones and tablets’,” he said.

Three Phase Interactive’s first title, Stunt Star, received good feedback from the public and reviewers on the iOS and Android app stores. With more than two million downloads, Baker says it did well but was still below expectations.

“Well, we made enough to keep going,” he says with a laugh.

“We definitely would’ve liked more. There was a stage we were worried we weren’t going to make enough money to keep going, but we did pretty well.”

After coming from a company with hundreds of employees, there were significant challenges and increased responsibilities in the small, tight workforce.

Areas such as marketing and accountancy were important and had to be dealt with, and there was the added workload of being lead programmer.

“You can be really good at your job but have no idea how anything else works. We had people at Blue Tongue who worked on character models and that’s all they did,” Baker says.

“There’s only three of us here [at Three Phase Interactive] and I was the only programmer. So if I couldn’t work out how to do that side of it, nothing would get done; it was a bit daunting.”

It sounds intimidating, but there are rewards.

“You’ve got so much influence over the game. You don’t have to go through a whole hierarchy of people to get something changed. You just do it,” he says.

With successful applications for funding from Film Victoria and Screen Australia, Three Phase Interactive is working through its next game.

Titled Defect, a space-themed action game for PC, it is expected to be released in mid-2015. With its second game release coming soon, Three Phase Interactive is solidifying its place in Australia’s indie games industry.

“We’ve gone from a country that’s been doing work-for-hire for a long time, but it’s died off a bit now,” Baker says.

“A lot of developers have to go overseas to Canada, the US and UK for work. Or they’ve tried the indie thing and some have succeeded and some have failed.There’s no doubt this is a cutthroat business. There’s very little room for error and first impressions are paramount. When asked for some tips, Baker says to keep it simple and the gamers will come.

“Gameplay is king when you’re making games – so you shouldn’t forget that.

“You can easily forget that you have customers and people should be playing this [game] because it’s fun and engaging – that’s the main thing.”