The Indie Scene | Intrinsic Games

By Mike Mason 15.08.2011 3


Long time readers may recall a brief meander into The Indie Scene years ago. Focusing on independent developers on Nintendo platforms, this renewed monthly column will peer carefully at a host of small companies that are hard at work on titles destined for either download or retail. This month The Indie Scene looks at DSiWare developer Intrinsic Games, and speaks to the company’s president Hersh Choksi to find out more. Be sure to click the audio links throughout for further information...


Intrinsic Games have been enthusiastic supporters of DSiWare for the last couple of years, going so far as to target all their current titles towards the service. Last year’s Divergent Shift displayed smart platforming mechanics suited perfectly to Nintendo DS, with players asked to split their attention between a character and her reflection, each displayed on a separate screen. The demise of either simultaneously spelled doom for the other. Their next project is real-time strategy effort Amoebattle (pronounced Amoeba Battle), a microbiological approach to a genre that usually takes a healthy dose of war and bloodshed with its strategy. There’s also a third project in the works that the company are remaining tight-lipped about while they complete Amoebattle.


Amoebattle Soundtrack - Primordial Sea

The reason for Intrinsic’s present presence on the DSiWare service stems from the company’s background. Some of the core members of Intrinsic Games, including president Hersh Choksi and lead designer Keith Riley Co, first worked together for a project on advanced game development during their time at the University of Southern California - that project being the game that would become Divergent Shift, at the time known as Reflection. Several collaborators of Intrinsic, such as composers Igor Nemirovsky and Kenny Wood, found themselves working with the young development group as part of a university cross-class collaboration initiative.

Nintendo DS was selected as the platform for the project due to the team’s enthusiasm to do something unique on the system, plus an experience with the system that would set them apart from many other developers. "Even though the DSiWare platform sales weren't amazing or anything like that, we figured that we really had a chance to stand out as a team, as a company, and have our games stand out working on the DSiWare platform. Just because it was something that was much more limited in terms of who could be on it; you needed to have a lot more experience with it, you needed to be able to work with that platform and know the ins and outs of it. And that's something we had experience with, something we had knowledge of doing so," Hersh reasons. Though they inadvertently created a game similar to - but still distinct from - EnjoyUp’s DS action title Chronos Twin, which had not received a wide release, this did not deter Konami. The Japanese publisher picked up Reflection for publication on DSiWare as the team graduated from university in May 2009. The team worked with Konami to adjust Reflection for DSiWare launch - "it was a learning experience," Hersh remarks - for a few months and renamed it to Divergent Shift, before submitting the game to Nintendo.


'Why DSiWare?'

While waiting for Divergent Shift to hop through Nintendo’s testing hoops, the core members of Intrinsic Games teamed up one of their professors, Professor Michael Zyda, and colleagues from their time at USC to set up Happynin Games. While at Happynin they released fowlplay on iPhone, a 3D arcade poop ‘em up starring a pigeon. "The roles that we had taken over at Happynin were similar to what we'd been doing before and what we're doing currently. I took the role of producer, our colleague Henry Liu took over the role as designer, to design the gameplay, similar functions to what we have at Intrinsic as well. So with Happynin we were able to continue building up our portfolio of games and building up our experience to bring over to Intrinsic Games," explains Hersh.


Since forming Intrinsic Games, which comprises of only five core members, there is little in the way of collaboration with Happynin, but naturally the team strive to maintain good relationships with their past co-workers and university professors. Having worked together in university and gaining further experience at Happynin, the transition of Intrinsic Games from student group into limited company was, Hersh says, "really smooth". "We'd kind of worked with each other on a project that had shipped already, and because of that the transition from a student team to an indie company wasn't as difficult for us."


'Becoming A Company'

Other current members of Intrinsic Games - Keith Riley Co and Noel Overkamp - would find themselves working at EA Los Angeles on major real-time strategy titles such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Command & Conquer 4. They joined or re-joined the independent developer in their mission to take over DSiWare, bringing with them expertise that proved valuable when looking into their next project following Divergent Shift’s approval and release. An RTS seemed like a natural next step, and the to-be-self-published Amoebattle evolved from their experience and passion for the genre. "There was definitely enough expertise, and there was enough excitement. We saw almost, like, a rejuvenation in the RTS genre, thanks to Starcraft 2, through Dawn of War. Company of Heroes came out a few years ago and did really well. So the excitement that was present in the RTS genre - that wasn't there the last few years ago, but that was now present [again]. We felt this was the time now to start working on an RTS ourselves." Players control teams of micro-organisms through a series of varied environments, accompanied by tutor robot AMI and some very smooth touch controls, trying to discover each species of amoeba that inhabit the world - and fighting them, of course.


Divergent Shift and Amoebattle really couldn't be much more different, we opine; a puzzle-platformer and a strategy game filled with cute, jelly-like blobs. Hersh laughs, before agreeing with the suggestion that they are still finding themselves as a company. "I think no matter where you are as a company, I think it's always a good idea to try out new ideas, and try innovating, whether it's the platform or the game ideas, or whatever it is." Intrinsic Games' work has not gone unnoticed in the industry either, with Nintendo directly promoting Divergent Shift through a European media summit in 2009 and Amoebattle making the finalists shortlist for Develop Conference's Indie Games Showcase in July 2011 - one of just two titles for consoles in the final ten. "Once we decided to form Intrinsic and applied directly to Nintendo to become a licensed developer, Nintendo was really supportive, even back when Reflection [Divergent Shift] was coming out. They encouraged us to take advantage of the platform."


'Nintendo's Support'

Reports of disappointing DSiWare sales have been widespread and, after hesitation, Hersh agrees that this is something that has been seen with Divergent Shift as well. He's eager to look on the bright side of the platform, though, with at least two more games from Intrinsic due to enter that service's market. "There aren't as many developers, there aren't as many games as there are, say, on the App Store or Android devices, and so what that gives us is the opportunity to really stand out from everybody else. Like with any other platform there are pros and cons. With DSiWare, there are less users than the iPhone market, or the PC market, and so the sales expectations have to be lowered according to that." Without direct access to their Divergent Shift sales data, however - it's held by Konami - Hersh is unable to confirm whether Nintendo 3DS' eShop launch has created an upswing in Nintendo download interest for Intrinsic's released title.


Nintendo 3DS is an avenue that Intrinsic Games are curious to explore; Hersh confesses that the platform is even one of the prime reasons that they have thrown themselves into DSiWare development so readily. "Our thinking was 'let's make a really great game for the DSiWare service, and hopefully that'll be able to jump us onto the 3DS platform'." Until then, they are focused on creating DSiWare games to stand out from the rest of the market, pursuing opportunities that perhaps have not been taken by others thus far. Hersh points to Amoebattle as an example of this. "We're really excited for Amoebattle as a game, we're hoping that players get excited for it as well. This is the full RTS experience on the DS, it's what people have been wanting for since the DS came out."


'Bringing RTS To DS'

The immediate future of Intrinsic Games has already been laid out, but in a broader sense Hersh spells out a message of innovation, of attaining new goals, of pushing themselves forward and not resting on what they know alone. "We're hoping that we can continue growing as a company, to continue creating projects that are interesting to the player, that are interesting for us to create. We want to keep challenging ourselves as a company and a developer." Based on their existing and shortly forthcoming output, they're intrinsically living up to these ideals already.


Thanks to Hersh and Intrinsic Games for putting aside the time to speak with us. Keep visiting the Intrinsic Games website each Wednesday to see new updates on Amoebattle as it inches closer and closer to its release on Nintendo DSiWare some time in 2011.

Also be on the look out for future issues of The Indie Scene coming monthly on Cubed3. If there are any independent developers on Nintendo platforms that you'd like us to take a closer look at, please feel free to get in touch...

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Comments

Excellent stuff! Really enjoyed Divergent Shift and looking forward to Amoebattle and the team's third project Smilie

Great work and a welcomed return for The Indie Scene Smilie

Adam Riley [ Director :: Cubed3 ]

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Amoebattle wasn't my cuppa tea unfortunately, but I have to say, Divergent Shift has a really attractive concept to it. Will prolly give it a download.

Cubed3 Limited Staff :: Review and Feature Writer
Sega (guest) 16.08.2011#3

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