The crowdfunding platform Kickstarter launches many a successful video game project. Yacht Club Games' Shovel Knight began on Kickstarter and became so successful its titular character now appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Former Castlevania developer Koji Igarashi crowdsourced a spiritual successor to his work called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night that spawned its own franchise. Christopher Gottron has also been able to find funding for his solo studio Konitama's debut game Cloudscape on the platform.

Game Rant spoke to Gottron about Cloudscape's Kickstarter campaign, his history working in television animation, and the two decades of ambition being poured into this upcoming title. Interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

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Q: You have a pretty storied career at places like Nickelodeon and DreamWorks. Tell me a little about your experiences and what you learned.

A: I worked as a Digital Animator on a wide range of shows, such as SpongeBob, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Penguins of Madagascar, Fairly Odd Parents, T.U.F.F. Puppy, and more. I made the car in the T.U.F.F. Puppy opening sequence! At Nickelodeon I refined my skills as an animator both in 3D and 2D, along with 3D modeling, rigging, lighting, compositing, and special effects.

chris gottron interview july 2021

I eventually ended up over at DreamWorks Animation Television where I worked on a lot of the Netflix shows. I worked on Voltron, She-Ra, King Julian, Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, and funnily enough, another version of Kung Fu Panda. I had pretty much the same role at DreamWorks as I did at Nickelodeon, so it was more animation and compositing there.

I learned a ton of different software programs for animation and effects work, and had to wear many hats. Oddly enough, I ended up scripting quite a few plug-ins and tools for software to use internally at the studio, so I managed to get a bit of coding in at my job as well.

My experience at these studios helped me strengthen my overall skills as an artist, take on a lot of interesting challenges, and learn how to hit critical deadlines.

Q: How did these experiences shape your personal artistic skills and preferences?

A: I think it was great being around so many unique artists in such a creative environment. Every day I was learning new things. I found myself liking both 2D and 3D styles of art, and it was interesting to see how we could blend both of those together for unique looks. I think at the end of the day I still have a special place in my heart for pixel art, though.

Q: Why did you decide to start your own company and shift to video games after leaving DreamWorks? In your Kickstarter, you mention working on game apps at Nickelodeon.

A: Around my fourth year with Nickelodeon, our small animation department started trying out different things to see how we could be of further use to the studio. Since I really wanted to make video games, I suggested we try to make some type of game.

I ended up working as a solo developer (with some art and sound assets provided to me), and I prototyped a handful of games. We finally settled on a sort of arcade-style game where you would fling brains at zombies. I spent a few weeks putting that together and coming up with the design and overall gameplay.

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The end result was a pretty fun little arcade game, and people around the office ended up playing it a lot and attempting to beat each other's high scores. The game was designed for the Nick mobile app, but unfortunately I don't think it ever actually made it on the platform. It was a great learning experience nonetheless.

I decided to start my own company because video game development has been my lifelong passion ever since I was a child. I just sort of fell into the world of animation and had a fun time with that, but a little voice inside of me really wanted to make games. I started prototyping some games at home in my spare time, and eventually settled on Cloudscape. I saved up enough funds to get going and took the plunge.

Q: Tell me a little about Cloudscape and why it was the game you decided to make as your first project. Did you come up with your company's name in relation to it?

A: I initially made a prototype for Cloudscape in a few months during the summer and really enjoyed making it. I ended up running into some roadblocks with the software I was using at the time, so I put it on hold for a few months. Then I decided to come back to it and try to prototype it in Unity. I instantly fell in love with Unity and knew I could make this game into what I really wanted it to be.

chris gottron interview july 2021

For the company's name, Konitama, it's actually a mash up of several things. Koni is a name I've gone by online for many years, but tama is part of my daughter's name mixed up. So there's some sentimentality with the name I picked.

Q: Were there any other projects you considered? Are there some you might still be considering after Cloudscape or on the side?

A: I was actually working on a fun little project called "Thief Story" for some time before Cloudscape. It was also a top-down pixel art game, but you played as a thief in a modern neighborhood setting where you'd have to go from house to house and loot as much stuff as possible. I'd really like to go back to that game at some point in the future and finish it!

Q: You mention Link to the Past, Stardew Valley, and New Horizons as your main influences. Why these titles, and what has it been like synthesizing something new with their ideas?

A: I grew up a Nintendo kid. My first ever console was the NES and I instantly fell in love with Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. When Link to the Past came out for the SNES I was absolutely blown away with its design and I spent many nights thinking about how I'd make my own game just like that one. I also really enjoyed Harvest Moon for the SNES and love how different it was to other games on the system. Ever since then I've been hooked on the Zelda and Harvest Moon franchises.

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Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley were sort of natural continuations of my love for Harvest Moon, as they shared a lot of similar ideas. I've been messing around with ideas for a Zelda-style game with more farming and survival elements for something like 20 years at this point, so it felt like the right move to make Cloudscape my first release. I've had ideas building up for many years, which I'm sure many others have also had while playing these games. I wanted to take those ideas and bring my dream game to life.

Q: What other games or media influenced Cloudscape's mechanics or visual design?

A: All of the games I've played throughout my life have sort of culminated into my visual style and design choices. I wouldn't say there's any other particular games I was influenced by directly.

Q: Speaking of that visual design, what has it been like translating your traditional animation experience into pixel graphics? Has that affected your style at all?

A: I've been teaching myself and learning pixel art for over two decades, so funnily enough, it was my love for pixel art that transformed into traditional animation. I think if anything, my experience in the animation industry has affected the way I animate pixel art in a positive way. I definitely pay more attention to things like squash and stretch, anticipation, and action curves.

chris gottron interview july 2021

Q: How did the world of Cloudscape and its environments come to be? You mention the goal is to regrow the world; what does that mean?

A: I initially wanted to have a main island for the player to explore and customize, so I knew that island was going to be a more "standard" type of island with four seasons and a simple terrain. I also decided pretty early on that I wanted the player to travel to other islands, and I didn't want them to be copy-and-paste variations of the initial island. So I spent some time thinking about how many islands I wanted to hand-craft and what their themes would be.

I settled on three primary islands (tropical, stone, cloud), and the player will discover them in that particular order. This is because each island sort of steps up in levels of technology, but also have a sort of class hierarchy, with each island being a step up in the class system.

Not only will this slowly introduce the player to more advanced skills and items as they play, but the player will learn about the different class struggles and the story behind why the islands have isolated themselves. Regrowing the world will involve the player uniting these different islands/classes and helping them all grow from it - along with literally regrowing the world through planting/farming and improving each island you visit.

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Q: How did you decide which mechanics to keep or improve from your influences? For example, with things like the sleep cycle or reviving in Limbo.

A: I think mainly it came down to what I found the most fun. When I play other games I might be thinking, "I really wish there was more depth to the combat in this game," or, "Wouldn't it be neat if this game had some type of afterlife?" Or even simpler things like, "I don't like being forced to sleep at 2:00 a.m.," and deciding to do something about it. A lot of my idea decisions have been things I've wanted to do for a long time, quality-of-life improvements for game mechanics that I've wanted in past games.

Q: Why did you go through Kickstarter for funding, and how has the experience been? Have people been receptive?

A: I decided on Kickstarter mostly because I wanted to maintain ownership of my game and keep to the vision of what I wanted to make. With investors I was worried they would want to change things, and there's also the issue of being stressed over having to pay someone back. I've been watching (and backing) games on Kickstarter for many years, and I thought it would be a great way to raise enough funds while also hopefully gaining more of an audience in the process.

chris gottron interview july 2021

The experience for me has been really great. Honestly there's a lot of stress there, too. Some people might look at the amount I've raised and think, "Wow that's so much!" But the reality is that with pretty much any Kickstarter, the asking goal is always lower than what you really are hoping to get, and that is no different in this case. While it's really awesome to see the campaign doing so well, I'm still stressed trying to hit those internal milestones, and hopefully reach all of the stretch goals to really make the game the way I want it to be.

I think so far people have been really positive about the game on Kickstarter and I've received a ton of support and nice comments. There's always a handful of people who are going to say mean or hateful things, but you have to kind of ignore those people as they aren't going to change their minds and support your game anyway. Overall it's been extremely positive and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

The campaign is only halfway over as I write this, so here's fingers crossed that it continues doing well!

Q: Why did you go the route of making a physical Switch release one of your rewards?

A: Well being a Nintendo fanboy I've always dreamed of having a physical copy of my game be on a Nintendo console. It also doesn't hurt that it seemed to be the easiest console for me to get a developer kit for (even though it took me two tries).

I also feel that Cloudscape really fits with Nintendo, purely because most of the influences for the game all stem originally from classic Nintendo games.

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Q: Much like Stardew, it appears your character creation and relationship systems are built around inclusivity. How important was it for you to capture that?

A: Super important! I've actually designed Kumo to be gender fluid, meaning you don't really choose a gender in the game for the character, just a body type and color. My decision to make Kumo a cloud person was also partially influenced by wanting to break away from typical racial associations and let players decide what Kumo represents for them.

With no defined gender it also means you aren't restricted with who you can date or marry. I mean, not only does that give a player way more options, but honestly, anyone should be able to love whoever they want. It isn't really my place to decide that for anyone.

chris gottron interview july 2021

Q: You mention hiring a composer in your Kickstarter. Are there any other things you believe you'll need help with, such as publishing or marketing?

A: Yeah, I hired the amazingly talented Samantha van der Sluis to compose the music for the game. I made this decision because honestly my musical abilities aren't strong, and it's good to step back and be critical of your own work and realize, "Hey, maybe I should let someone else handle this." Not to mention it saves me a lot of time and energy that I can put toward the gameplay and artwork.

I'm open to getting help from others, definitely. I don't feel I need to prove to anyone that I can do it all by myself, or put my ego in the way of making the game. I want the game to be as good as I can make it, so if that means bringing in help from time to time, then I'm all for it.

Q: How does it feel to see your game taking off and getting enough attention to blow away your initial goals?

A: It's hard to explain, but while I'm really happy, it's also been months of planning and figuring out exactly how much I felt the Kickstarter was going to earn. Seeing it hit goals is a mix of, "This was what I was planning," and also, "Wow this is amazing that it's working out so well."

I feel extremely fortunate that my campaign is doing so well and I'm excited to see how far it can go. I'm also extremely excited to start working more on the game once the campaign is over, as it is really difficult to find any time for game development while running a Kickstarter campaign!

Q: Anything else you want to add?

A: I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for finding my game and myself interesting enough to want to interview! There's so much work that goes into making a video game, and then it really doubles when you're also having to make a Kickstarter campaign for that game. I'm thankful for the small community that has built up around the game over the past year and a half, and I'm happy that so many people are already finding joy with Cloudscape, even before it has released.

[END]

Cloudscape is currently in development for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox.

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Source: Kickstarter