Developer Spotlight: Dave Gilbert

Even as someone who loves adventure games, it’s impossible to deny that the genre has lost some mainstream steam in recent years. That’s why it’s really exciting when a independent developer and publisher like Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games comes along and finds some early success publishing original point-and-clickers.

Gilbert is no stranger to indie game development. He developed his first freeware adventure game back in 2001 for the Reality-on-the-Norm amateur project, and developed another handful of freeware adventures (including Two of a Kind and Bestowers of Eternity) before forming Wadjet Eye in 2006.

Wadjet Eye’s first commercially-published (and thematically unique) title, The Shivah, received critical acclaim and mainstream media attention for its “rabbinical tale of mourning and mystery.” Gilbert’s Blackwell series of adventures has developed a loyal following, and he also served as the Creative Director for the PlayFirst-published Emerald City Confidential.

Puzzle Bots, Erin Robinson’s charming adventure about tiny robots saving the day, is the newest title published by Wadjet Eye, and is the latest great example of why Wadjet Eye’s adventure games are finding well-deserved success in the indie gaming space.

We were lucky enough to get a hold of Dave to pick his brain about what led to the formation of Wadjet Eye and his thoughts on the growing indie scene’s impact on adventure gaming in general, and to find out his special blend of secret herbs and spices, among other things.

IGC: Would you talk a bit about transitioning from freeware indie developer to head of your own indie publishing company? In that regard, is there any advice you wish you could go back and give to the 2006 version of yourself?

DG: I’d been thinking about publishing other indies for awhile. I liked that people came to my site in order to play my games, but I only had the ability to get games out maybe once or twice a year. My long term goal has always been to get more games out the site on a regular basis, but there was no way I could do that on my own. Publishing other indies was the way to go. It’s been slow, but I’m getting there!

As for giving my 2006 self any advice… that’s a toughie! I guess I would make a point to take it easy! At the time, I thought the only way to get games made was to totally push myself and stay up for days at a time working. During the final weeks of Blackwell Legacy production I got a full night’s sleep maybe 1 out of every 3 days. I was a total zombie, and in retrospect I probably was more inefficient because of it. Over time I’ve learned howto balance my work load. When I get tired or fuzzy – I stop! Exhausted brains make stupid and minor mistakes that take lots more time to fix.

IGC: What’s the secret to making successful adventure games in this day and age? Any advice for budding developers?

DG: Is there a secret? If you find it, please tell me!

Seriously though, it’s no secret that point-and-click adventure games are a very tough sell. Even major AAA studios have trouble selling them, and they have bigger marketing budgets than I do. What has worked for me is to keep my games fairly tight and lean. It’s a niche market, and a very loyal one, but it’s still quite niche. Keeping my budgets low and my scope narrow has enabled me to eek out a decent living selling adventure games even though there isn’t a huge market for them. You won’t get an epic Longest Journey-like experience when you play one of my games, but you will enjoy it while it lasts. Telltale has perfected this method to a fine art.

The best advice I can give any budding developers is the most pithy – JUST DO IT. Yes, there is a good chance you will screw up, and yes you will make mistakes, and yes there’s a good chance your first game will totally bomb. But so what? Just getting a game out there is enough to give you the clout to do it again, and do it better. Everyone has to start somewhere. Learning from your mistakes is important because it leaves you room to make more!

IGC: What impact is the exploding indie scene having on classic-style adventure games?

DG: It’s been a pretty wild ride. What’s interesting is that a lot of these retro-styled indie games has brought a resurgence of class-style games of ALL types. In the last few years we’ve seen countless old-school platformers, RPGs, shooters, shmumps, RTSs, and even flight simulators coming out of the indie game scene. It’s 1992 all over again!

IGC: You’ve been a big proponent of Adventure Game Studio development toolset in the past. Are there any other specific resources that you’d recommend to fledgling adventure game developers?

DG: AGS has really worked well for me. If you want to make an old-school 2D pixel-style adventure game, AGS is the first tool I’d recommend. It takes a lot of the grunt work out of the process. There are lots of other great tools as well, depending on the kind of game you want to make. If you’re looking to add 3D to your game, Wintermute is a fantastic engine. There’s also an adventure game engine called Lassie which makes adventure games in Flash.

IGC: Erin Robinson did some work for your game Blackwell Unbound before helming the development of Puzzle Bots. When and how did you decide to give Puzzle Bots the thumbs-up as a Wadjet Eye production?

DG: The decision to make Puzzle Bots came kind of spontaneously. While working with Erin on Blackwell Unbound, she showed me an alpha version of her in-progress freeware game “Nanobots” and I instantly fell in love with it. It was so cute and clever that I knew it should be a commercial game. So out of left-field I asked her if she’d be interested in having me publishing a larger version of it. I think the offer surprised both of us! She went off and wrote me an initial design concept, and when I read it I said “Yes! This is awesome.” It kind of snowballed from there.

IGC: Successful marketing of a new game is something a lot of indie developers seem to struggle with. As someone who’s gone from self-publishing freeware to forming your own digital publishing arm, what key advice would you offer to other developers when it comes to simultaneously wearing the hats of both developer and publisher?

DG: I still struggle with it! There are thousands of ways to market games, but in the end every game is different. When you first make a game, you will probably make a lot of mistakes marketing it. But once you make a second game (and you SHOULD make a second!) and release it, then you have some data to work with. Take a look at who bought your first game, as well as who also came back and bought your second. From there you can better determine who your core customers are and have some better ideas about how to reach them. You might be surprised at who they are!

IGC: Who are some other independent game developers whose work you enjoy? Any specific titles you’d recommend?

DG: Too many to mention, but if anyone stands out it’s Jeff Vogel (Spiderweb Software). I fell in love with his Geneforge series and began reading his blog religiously. He’s been independently making his own RPG games since the mid-90s shareware days and he is still going strong! If there was ever a master of indie-fu, it would be him.

IGC: I recently spoke with Jolly Rover developer (and Wadjet Eye alum) Andrew Goulding about the state of adventure games, and why so many critics consistently proclaim the impending death of the genre. What are your thoughts about the future of traditional adventure games? Are they finding a natural new home in the “casual” space? Could there be another adventure-gaming renaissance of sorts?

DG: As an aside, I’m so proud of that guy. He parlayed his experience working on my little game into making a fantastic game of his own, and he’s been an amazing success. As for the future of adventure games, they have definitely found a home of sorts in the “casual” space, but in order to compete in the casual space they need to be more geared to casual players. It’s worked for the casual publishers, but it leaves the more hard-core adventure gamers pretty unsatisfied. True old-school adventure games, the way we remember and love them, are finding a more natural home with the indie developers who also remember them and have fondness for the way they used to be. The best recent example of this (aside from my own work, of course!) is Zombie Cow’s “Time Gentlemen, Please!” The game is unabashedly old-school, makes no compromises with its design, and it’s achieved more mainstream success than most AAA adventure games out there. There is something to be said for that.

IGC: What’s next for Wadjet Eye? Any teases for the fans?

DG: There are a few projects in the works. I’ve just signed up with another developer to publish his game (which will be announced in a month or so) and I’m working on another Blackwell game. It’s called “Blackwell Deception” and the plot revolves around Rosa and Joey helping the victims of a phony psychic. As for a teaser, people who have been waiting patiently to learn more of Joey’s past will finally get some answers.

We’re also making preparations on making a much larger game in a different genre. My wife and I are huge fans of the old-school cRPGs like Fallout and Planescape: Torment. I’ve always wanted to make one, but the prospect of programming it preventing me from even making the attempt. Since my wife is a programmer by trade with tons more experience than I have, she has offered to make a toolset and programming environment that we can use to make a game in. She’s been working on it for a few months now and it’s shaping up very nicely. The game itself will be a long while in coming, but it’s definitely coming.

IGC: Thanks very much, Dave. I hope you’ll keep us posted about future endeavors.

DG: My pleasure!

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