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Interview with MoaCube

Below is an interview with Tom. Tom is the founder of a company called MoaCube. Tom and the rest of his team are using GameMaker to create the games Cinders and ArcMagi.  
Mr. Me:
Why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about your company and what got you interested in creating games.
 
Tom Grochowiak:
Sure. We’re MoaCube, a small collective of indie game developers. Everything really started with my old indie game Magi, which I developed and released as a hobby project a few years ago. Nothing too big, but it earned me some money, got me involved in the indie games community and landed me a job in the videogame industry. Through years of professional game making I’ve met the rest of our current team – some worked with me before, some I’ve met at my job, some were fans of Magi. A few months ago, after parting ways with the company I and our artist worked for few years. We decided to bite the bullet and start our own studio. Thus MoaCube was born.
 
Mr. Me:
Your artist Vinegar is very talented. When I first saw a screenshot of ArcMagi I didn’t think it was an actual screenshot because everything looked like a painting. Cinders is an unusual type of game. The way I understand it, its part storybook and part computer game. Was this yours or Vinegars idea.
 
Tom Grochowiak:
Thanks. Actually, ArcMagi is done by another artist – Lurk. I’ve met him on TIGSource forums a while ago. But yeah, Vin is awesome. Making a visual novel (a storybook game as you called it), was something we’ve came with after playing some other visual novels during a lunch break at our old job. We kinda liked the idea, but were dissapointed with how these games looked and played. Most used amateur anime art, and typical highscool romance story. We thought: “damn, it would be great to make something like this, but in high quality, with kickass animated illustration and more developed story.” We’ve mulled over the idea for a while, and discussed it on our car trips back home. When later we were left without our jobs, and formed MoaCube, making our idea real seemed only natural. It’s also something that a team of artist and game designer can do quickly enough without sacrificing quality, and we knew that we need to release something soon to stay afloat.
 
Mr. Me:
When building Arcmagi was there anything that you wanted to specifically do different than when you created Magi?
Tom Grochowiak:
Oh yes! Everything really. Magi was a fun project, but I’m much more experienced in game design now. I know I’ve made countless mistakes in Magi. Especially with the GUI and accessibility. We also have much stronger team now. With Magi, I had to do everything myself. Now I have some very talended artists available, as well as some coding help. I want to make use of all that – I want ArcMagi to be a similar game to Magi, but done right. We reconsider and revise every single mechanic of the game. We want it to better, prettier, more deep and strategic, while also being more accessible to new players.
 
Mr. Me:
I’m writing a paper about game design right now(I will be publishing the paper in a series of posts on my website). When I first started creating games I thought a creative idea would yield a fun game, but I have since realized that any game can be fun. What matters is that the game mechanics are done right. I’m glad to see you’ve taken time to revisit all your game mechanics instead of trying to stuff the game with lots of features.
What advice would you give to someone who would like to start their own indie gaming company?
 
Tom Grochowiak:
Yeah, amount of features or “cool ideas” is not as important as good execution. Less is often better, if it’s – well – better. As for the advice — just keep at it. If you keep making games, you will eventually get good at it, meet the right people, and get the right experience. If you are persistent, it’s only a matter of time before the opportunity presents itself.
 
Mr. Me:
You’ve definitely meant the right people. I’m excited for ArcMagi and Cinders to be released.
 
Tom Grochowiak:
We’re excited too, after all, these projects are “be or not to be” of our studio :).
 
Mr. Me:
Since your now creating games professionally what made you want to stick with using GameMaker instead of a more professional product.
 
Tom Grochowiak:
GameMaker can be pretty professional :). It may have some flaws and still needs to do a bit of catching-up, compared to more expensive engines such as Unity. But it’s none the less a very flexible and fast tool for creating 2d games. Time is of essence for us, and GameMaker allows me to create anything I need in very short time.
 
Mr. Me:
Agreed. Thank you for letting me interview you.
 
Tom Grochowiak:
No problem. Was a pleasure :).

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