John Walsh Interview: Dev Believes Releasing Games In Early Access Has Become Essential

John: Hello eXputer readers! I’m John Walsh, Development Director at 9 Lives Interactive. And for 30 years (this year!) I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the video games industry. I’ve worked on titles dating back to Windows 3.1 (‘Lemmings 2: The Tribes’), on early adoption and integration of revolutionary technologies such as Compact Discs and the Sega Mega CD with ‘Second Samurai.’ Through industry and societal evolution with the iconic ‘WipEout’ series and the launch of the first Playstation system.

I’ve worked on World Record owning franchises (‘World of Tanks’),’ and beloved character IP (Samurai Jack, Barbie), all as a part of creating a live replica of planet Earth via the groundbreaking Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 release on Xbox. I have lived in six different countries (UK, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Belarus, and France.) and embedded myself into teams in each, and learned how different backgrounds can influence different techniques and methods when creating a game.

Learning from so many studios and teams has allowed me to specialize in offering alternative paths or solutions to navigate the pitfalls of game development, helping the team find solutions that work best for their vision and intentions. Currently, I’m the Director of Development on Nyan Heroes, a free-to-play hero shooter where cats pilot giant mechs and agility is everything. My role is to oversee the development schedule and release strategy and make sure all the pieces come together on time to quality so the player experience is smooth, distinct, exciting, and, most importantly, fun.

John: It’s been hard to notice a change I’ve been so entrenched in… Before I started in the industry, I was surrounded by the hunger and excitement of computer games. My friends and I would spend time in the Arcade playing Street Fighter, 1942, Tecmo World Cup, etc. And I’d go home to play on whatever game I’d started loading on Spectrum 48k before I went out, hoping I didn’t come back to the dreaded ‘Tape Loading error’ instead…

When a new Arcade game would come out (Mortal Kombat) we would race to play it. If a newer, more powerful home-based device came out, one of us would have it, so we would all play on it. I was blown away by the leap in graphics and how realistic the graphics were on an Amiga 500XL, a 486DX66 PC, how advanced and smooth the controls were on a SNES, etc. Then, at 16, I started full-time in the industry. And those feelings of excitement and wonder never left.

The only difference now is each generation grew up with this experience thanks to increased availability and variety. And that I have stopped thinking, ‘This is the best game ever…’ on a new hardware release… Both of which are for the good of the industry!

John: You can’t calculate fun in Excel. The problem with games moving ‘from the bedroom to the boardroom’ is that the people in charge now only look at numbers, not individuals. Both in terms of game developers and game players. There is a cycle or trend in the industry where a format becomes very popular thanks to the games it offers, which brings teams and companies profits on a massive scale. Then the accountants move in to help companies manage those profits and plan on how they can make more. But those people were never there when the initial profit was made.

They don’t understand the vision or ambition the team had, and they don’t know the connection or emotions the players felt. Instead, they break the game down into its component parts, compare them to other successful titles, assign them a value, and then demand inclusion in games. This then reduces the innovation and variety of titles available to players, so the format starts to eat its user base, and eventually, only a few core franchises are available.

But, while this is happening, a new format or distribution system appears and attracts new developers with new ideas and new titles. This increases the player count, which means studios start making profits, and then accountants soon follow to make sure they can take a slice by comparing what sells with what they have and demanding parity in features or content… And so the cycle repeats…It’s this system and demand for ‘increased profits’ that allows accountants to inflict ‘reduced costs’ on content and teams. And even if a studio or title does make a profitable return, it’s no guarantee of survival if they’re owned by a company that has found its growth strategy unrealistic.

Every franchise that they benchmark as ‘successful’ was first an idea generated by a developer for fun, then grown into a franchise because of player loyalty. Not because the game did the same things as other games. And the level of recognition that element has is greatly diminished by people looking at things on a spreadsheet.

John: Certainly! Nyan Heroes is a free-to-play hero shooter where cats pilot giant mechs. It takes place in the fictional setting of ‘Nekovia’ where cats live underground and train controlling a ‘Guardian’, and fight in a virtual arena called ‘The Battledome’.

Guardians are powerful, agile, and diverse cat-themed mechs that give their feline pilots unique abilities in different roles and provide a thrill to players by allowing them to wall climb, teleport, dash, leap, super-punch, and more. Each guardian can wall run, and each guardian has the ability to eject its pilot and continue the fight as a cute cat once they have taken too much damage. The gameplay is electric, the mobility and abilities are exhilarating, and players have huge amounts of variation to customize and play their way. You can heal your allies by shooting them with a rocket launcher if you so choose, or call in a rocket barrage from orbit and damage anybody in the impact zone. It’s a wild ride!

John: Our third public pre-alpha playtest will be on September 4th – 25th through the Epic Games Store. That’s what we have our eye on next. Each time we do a playtest, we collect so much feedback and spend time making the changes our community is asking for. We really want to make our fans proud. We’re going to release the game when it’s ready and when it feels right!

John: I think early access is essential in modern game development for testing player connection as well as gameplay systems. What we learn is just as important as what we attempt. Players will give us feedback on standard experiences such as performance or play style, but we also find things we would never have known without early access, like what their favorite character is, what segments of the map they spent the most time in, and how they use the tools we give them.

John: We are more inspired by some of history’s greatest games, IPs, and moments than specific shooter games today. We want to deliver a fantastic IP that people want to sink their teeth into, which means we spend our time focussing on what we are doing, not what others may do. We want to make this amazing world and want people to learn everything about it. So when we think of Nekovia and our Nyans, we think of delivering that caliber of quality to players.

We want the game to say, “We crafted this amazing world for you. We hope you love being here.” We want to bring that feeling back. So, while there are a lot of shooters and hero-shooters, they deliver on different things. We’re focused on applying all of our experiences and feelings of ‘Why Not?’ into the game rather than get bogged down into ‘Why should we?’’ questions and decisions. We are very lucky to be able to deliver that magical experience that we enjoy and that we control. We stay focused on ourselves and our wishlist of features and ideas. When a team working on a game enjoys playing that game, you know you have something special. That’s what we have, and that is what inspires us.

John: It’s a double-edged sword. Some studios approach it like a science and are influenced by restrictions on what will make the most money. But, that is sometimes the only way the studio can raise the funds to make the game they envisioned. And gamers can tell the difference. Gamers will tell you, “You are making these sequels too quickly, and they have no soul,” or “You just cloned last year’s hit game, and this is not worth my time.” So, it goes back to the intention and the fun. You create something that you’re excited to see exist in the world, and hopefully, other people will be excited to see it, too.

John: I’m now ‘of an age’ as my kids would say… I know how I like to dress, I know how I like my steak to be cooked, and I know what kind of games I enjoy. But, most importantly, I know that as soon as I work on a game, ‘I am not the market’ for the game.

So, for the games, I haven’t worked on and still enjoy playing, I’m a huge fan of the ‘Borderlands’ series, have enjoyed all of the ‘Baldurs Gate titles and was blown away by ‘BG3’. Recently, I have been spending a lot of time playing ‘Balatro’, but I will always come back to my first true love, which is the Sports Interactive Football Manager/Championship Manager franchise, and that is the reason I wanted to work in the industry as a kid.

John: The next one… But the worst I’ve experienced so far was the first run of mobile game titles. You had a minefield of hardware specs and OS requirements, and trying to get a game to work on as many handsets as possible was a nightmare! I can’t say I miss those days. Sorry!

John: I don’t think it’s just the games industry. I think worldwide there is a crisis in terms of profits over people. We’ve seen layoffs across most tech industries to reduce costs and the enforcement of subscription systems in things like cars just to try and chase profits.

The games industry isn’t immune to these ‘same think’ influences or reactionary practices. This is a shame considering the industry has grown to the biggest it has ever been and can now influence other entertainment spheres. Instead of working on awful ‘Game Tie-ins’ as a marketing tool for a move, games now have their own movie franchises. Layoffs and studio closures aren’t new, but the numbers and scale we’re seeing down are direct because of the growth and size of the modern-day games industry.

John: I’d like to thank the people and teams I’ve worked with for letting me be part of this industry, and especially the guys working on Nyan Heroes for helping me recapture the feelings of excitement and exhilaration that making games. And I’d like to thank each and every person who has played or will play Nyan Heroes for being part of this journey.

Join us for the Public Playtest 03 from September 4th to September 25th by downloading Nyan Heroes here. Where else can you play as an adorable cat piloting a powerful mech? We’d also love your feedback. Tell us what you think about X here. With that, thank you for having me, Exputer!