SFEIR: Hello, can you introduce yourselves in a few words?
Julien: Almost like the singer, my name is Julien Klaer, I’m 24 years old, and I’ve been developing video games for about 4 years. I’ve been working in Luxembourg since September 2016 and joined SFEIR five months ago.
Jimmy: I’m Jimmy Vuidart, also 24 years old. I joined SFEIR almost 2 years ago. My main interests have always been raclette and video game development.
Jonathan: Hi, I’m Jonathan Proietto-Stallone, I’m 26 years old. I started developing six years ago and have been training as a graphic designer for a few weeks. Julien, Jimmy, and I have known each other since our first day at the IUT in Nancy-Charlemagne. I’ve been a Sferien for 6 months.
SFEIR: What interests you in video game development?
Jonathan: Being a video game fan and a developer, it’s obvious that I can’t miss out on video game design. The ability to think, create, and model an entire game our way is, in my opinion, one of our main motivations.
SFEIR: For what purpose do you develop games?
Julien: We primarily imagine and design video games because we are passionate about it. Video games have always been an integral part of our daily lives.
SFEIR: How long have you been developing video games?
Jimmy: Like many, we used RPG Maker in our youth, a WYSIWYG editor to create small RPGs similar to games from the 90s. During our university studies, we sought to create games with the technologies we were learning. Since the university offered Java, we naturally oriented ourselves in that direction. The most well-known framework at that time in this field was LibGDX. Discovering C#, which seemed better than Java, we learned and used XNA, a framework provided by Microsoft. That’s when we discovered Unity. The numerous integrated tools and its powerful main editor allow us to avoid continually developing the same basic elements and to focus on the game itself rather than the boilerplate.
SFEIR: What tools do you use for development?
Julien: As mentioned by Jimmy, we use Unity3D to develop and design our games. Regarding project management, we turned to Trello in addition to a video game-oriented task management tool that we developed ourselves, called Seabirds Labs.
SFEIR: What is Unity3D in a few words and why Unity3D?
Jimmy: Unity is a high-level game engine. Its main advantage is being easy to use while being very powerful and capable. Another significant advantage is the ability to easily deploy a project on any platform, whether it’s PC, mobile, or even classic game consoles. It also has a free version whose only limitation is the generated revenue. Many amateur games are produced with this engine, as well as a wide variety of well-known games such as Hearthstone or Super Mario Run.
SFEIR: What is the typical process of creating a game in Unity?
Jimmy: The typical process of creating a game in Unity follows the concept of “fail faster.” The development of a game must be continually tested by users with varied profiles and must therefore follow a very rapid development iteration. A design error is very costly and must be detected as early as possible, hence the idea of “fail-faster.”
SFEIR: How long does it take to create a small game with Unity3D?
Jonathan: This is a bit of a difficult question to answer. It all depends on the definition of a “small game.” In a few hours, you can already make a playable game with graphical and musical resources easily available on the internet.
SFEIR: What are the proportions of time spent developing versus creating resources?
Jimmy: We can’t really answer this kind of question. It all depends on what you want to create. The proportion can truly be reversed between two games. With equivalent time and team, a graphically beautiful game with splendid music will have few features, whereas a game without deep graphics or elaborate music will rely on many more features. If you want a graphically beautiful game with great music and many features, you will either need to significantly increase the development time or increase the team.
SFEIR: What are the major difficulties encountered with Unity3D?
Julien: From experience, due to the freedom Unity3D offers, it quickly becomes complicated to properly define the project’s architecture to avoid paying high refactoring costs later. Unlike traditional programming, there is no really simple way to set up unit tests and integration tests to verify the game’s functionality without retesting it entirely. Additionally, there are not necessarily fixed specifications over time. It will be common to add or remove them based on the fun expected by the players. For example, SimCity started as a helicopter action game.
SFEIR: Is Unity3D sufficient on its own, or do you recommend additional tools?
Jonathan: Unity3D is just a graphics engine. Without artistic resources (images, sounds, animations), it’s nothing. For simple projects, you can easily find free or low-cost resources, which we will link at the end of the interview. For more serious projects, you will need to create the resources yourself with tools like the Adobe Creative Suite or sound software.
SFEIR: What skills are needed before starting with Unity3D?
Jimmy: To get started, resources are available for free. However, to create scripts, you will still need to have knowledge of object-oriented programming.
SFEIR: Have you ever published a game on a store? (Play Store / App Store)
Julien: Yes! Fody’s Journey is available for free download on the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, there is no iOS version available at this time.
SFEIR: What do these projects bring to your professional missions?
Jimmy: It allowed us to learn how to create and manage projects from start to finish. We were also able to apply the use of agile methods for project management. Additionally, we remain in a development context where we advance our skills in our free time and in a friendly SFEIR atmosphere.
SFEIR: Are there differences between video game programming and so-called classical programming?
Julien: Unlike programming an application where interactions occur through the actions of one or more users, a video game is programmed to refresh in real-time. This means, for example, for a refresh rate of 60 frames per second, that the entire life cycle of the game is recalculated every 16 milliseconds for a frame. The system for which we develop is therefore always critical, and a loss of FPS will result in a poor experience for the players.
SFEIR: Are there any video game design events in the Luxembourg sector?
Jonathan: In the Greater Region, the COIN association organizes two major annual events: the Global Game Jam and the BBQ Game Jam. These events take place at Epitech Nancy and the Technoport in Esch-sur-Alzette. They are not competitions but gatherings mainly intended for exchange and sharing. The Global Game Jam is a 48-hour worldwide hackathon organized by Global Game Jam, Inc. and its local partners. The BBQ Game Jam is organized by COIN only in the region and lasts only 24 hours. A brand new cluster that brings together about ten actors has just been formed. It’s called East Games! The goal of this association is to promote small start-ups in the video game sector in the Grand Est region.
Additional Links:
Graphic Resources:
- GameArt2D (paid)
- Kenny’s Assets (excellent - paid/free)
- OpenGameArt (free)
Sound Resources:
- AudioJungle (paid)
- OpenGameArt (free)
Generally, 3D resources are expensive and very costly.