![]() ![]() Keeping with the spirit of GameHack, we decided we should set ourselves another short deadline for the follow-up game. So we wanted to extend that idea into something a bit more accessible and came up with a hidden object game concept that could be spread over several screens. Although the game itself was a very simple 'lights-out' affair, it impressed the judges enough that we won prizes for "best use of mobile" and "most innovative idea". Pocket Gamer: Can you explain how the Head Hunter Challenge dev challenge came about? Chris Newman: In April we went to the GameHack event held at Pinewood Studios and our entry involved linking lots of iPhones and iPads together to create a game with a huge playing surface. With the hack almost reaching its conclusion, we caught up with Chris to find out how Lightwood prepared for its own hack - the Head Hunter Challenge dev challenge - and to find out what comes next. Rather than entertain another trip out from its base in Stoke for another coding marathon, however, the studio decided to host its own, with founder and CEO Chris Newman telling us it seemed like the logical next step. Having half a million brains looking at a problem can usually produce the perfect solution.Having picked up accolades at the first GameHack in the UK back in April, it's of little surprise that Lightwood Games was eager for more. Then we'll read the forums and someone will have posted something that is just so perfect. Sometimes we'll have a problem and we'll have 5 solutions, but we know in our guts that none of them are perfect, they compromise what we're doing and they're going to cause more and more comprises down the line. And they make awesome suggestions that we'd never even thought of. They understand why the game has to be harsh, why we can't add reputation points. They get that we want to do things different. Don't they think they know what we're doing? Why would we want to make our game worse? They don't really understand what the game is about and don't really trust us to take it in the right direction.īut then there's a huge group that instantly get what we're trying to do. They say we're going to ruin the game and stuff. and they get angry at us for doing things differently. Some people get a lot of stuff wrong, in their suggestions and ideas. PC Gamer: How much impact does the community have on the ongoing development of the game? It must be an in-born reaction or something. I guess it's because the world is so harsh you kind of feel closer to people that are kind. A medic tops you up, but you don't feel a closeness to them. I mean, people help each other out in TF2 all the time. You go to bed, and lie there and think to yourself "that was a nice guy, I hope I run into him again." It's a very weird feeling to be having in a game. When any player can kill you easily - and they don't, it's like the biggest compliment ever. ![]() ![]() PC Gamer: What kind of player behaviour have you noticed emerging? Any kinds of play styles that have surprised you? When he went on next they'd played through the entire night, had got all sorts of weapons and built a huge fortress. Helk tells a story about one time he was talking to a new bunch of players and showing them the ropes, said good luck then he went to bed, expecting them to die within the next 10 minutes and then hate the game and never come back. There was a French server we joined and they'd built a huge shrine around it in a big circle, like a crop circle. Garry: During early development we accidentally left a small white static cube out miles away from anywhere. PC Gamer: There's lots of stories of players imprisoning other players and having fun with them. We need to look at ways to balancing that. that actually causes a lot of problems for us, because they get too powerful and consume all the resources on the map. There's a lot of building that's impressed us. Garry: Hah - every time another player comes up to me in game and doesn't bash me to death with a rock I'm impressed. PC Gamer: Have players done anything in the game that has impressed you? The fact that we can influence those that inspired us is proof enough that we're doing something right. To the point where I think it's convinced some of the bigger boys to add it to their games too. We're handling the building, cooking, crafting stuff pretty well I think. We're being ruthless with the development, being careful to test each theory instead of just dismissing it as a bad idea. With Rust we're making the game we want to play. Garry: To be totally honest we haven't played any of the others. What do you think sets Rust apart from the competition? PC Gamer: There are a lot of permadeath/survival games around at the moment. ![]()
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