Platformers are one of the oldest genres in gaming, with Nintendo revolutionizing the industry through 1985's Super Mario Bros. on the NES. As the years have gone by, modern titles like Super Mario Odyssey carry on that tradition while focusing on new ways to create fluid movement in 3D space. Most 3D platformer mascots are bipedal, from duos like Ratchet and Clank to standalone heroes like Crash Bandicoot, but Finish Line Games hoped to create a new kind of character with Skully, its upcoming physics-based game starring a skull reanimated with magical clay.

Skully follows its titular spherical main character's journey across a secluded island at the behest of Terry, an elemental earth deity who hopes to end a long-standing conflict amongst his family to save the land from their wraths. The game features numerous mechanics split between Skully and three forms it can take to solve challenges in the way of its progression. Game Rant spoke with Finish Line Games' Lead Designer Jason Canam about Skully's design process and the complications of finishing a game during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Interview has been edited for clarity.

RELATED: The Best Indie Games from PAX East 2020

Q: How did you get involved with Finish Line Games?

A: I have a background of developing games for almost 15 years. Been working in the indie development scene for about a decade. Toronto has one of the biggest indie hubs in the entire world, and some of the most popular indie games of all time have come out of Toronto. It's a really good collaborative scene, too.

I've worked with the team at DrinkBox Studios on titles like Guacamelee and Severed, and I founded my own studio in 2016 to release my own games. I knew Finish Line Games quite well, and a few years ago I started working with them when they were developing this new project. Through a few conversations with those guys, who I met at industry events like GDC, we decided it was a good fit to work together. So, I helped bring Skully to life.

Q: How did Finish Line get onto the idea to develop Skully?

A: This is technically the third title released by Finish Line Games. Previously, the team worked on the adventure game Maize and also Cel Damage HD, which the owners of the company released 20 years ago on the GameCube and original Xbox. They have a long-time, 25-year plus pedigree of development with the senior staff.

With Skully, they were experimenting with taking their previous title, a humorous, narrative-driven adventure game about underground labs and crazy scientists run amock making sentient corn, in more of an action-y direction. From my background as an action game developer and game designer, I joined up with that team.

Skully is a narrative-driven adventure game that has another level of action, interactivity, and mechanical depth to it. That's kind of the goal they wanted to go with: Tell a great story and have interesting characters, but apply more of the gameplay depth to it. It's narratively-driven, but it's a platformer at heart.

The design thrust was to have an interesting, unique character. Skully is a reanimated skull, he's a spherical and physics-driven character, so that makes the platforming really interesting. In a typical platformer what you're usually doing is jumping gaps to avoid danger and pits and spikes. If you can clear that jump and land on the other side, that's when you've successfully cleared an obstacle. Skully is very unpredictable in his movements. Not only does he have to jump, but when he lands he's going to have a little bit more momentum. There's a lot of microadjustments you have to make, and you have to pay attention to what the character is doing; he can get out of control quickly.

That's where we wanted to build in that depth. As a big platformer player myself, when they came to me with that idea of making platforming a two-step process, I said that's really interesting. Number one, I have to clear that gap. Number two, I've gotta manage my landing carefully. To me, that's what makes it unique.

finish line games jason canam interview

Q: Did the narrative or gameplay focus come first?

A: The initial process was gameplay-driven, it was experimenting with what we could do. So the initial thrust creatively was how can we have this unique platforming character, and then we experimented to figure out how we could give him a unique story and background, and how does that inform the adventure he's about to go on. It was gameplay first and narrative second, but narrative second only in the chronological process. Not in importance.

Q: I understand that clay is a unifying force across the game. Was that built out of the mechanics?

A: We wanted to have a tactile element to play around with, and this was where narrative started to join hand-in-hand with the gameplay, because clay became a narrative thrust and the world came to shape from that. To make it so Skully can get more abilities to interact in different ways, that's where the idea of Skully himself being brought to life with magical clay that has the power to build a body came from. That's where the extra gameplay characters come out.

That came quite quickly. We considered how a skull can exist and what can it play around with: Mud, dirt, clay, it came naturally. It was a natural evolution, and it was important that it become a unifying force in the narrative and the gameplay. Skully himself is made from clay, so that makes water very dangerous to him, and that's why he dies if he goes into the water; it dissolves the clay that makes up his being. The extra bodies dissolve when they're in the water for too long, as well. That tip-toed forward into opposing elements, expanding on those elements, and that's where other characters came from.

As always is the challenge when you're doing design for a game, you want to make sure you have a consistent thread. You want to avoid arbitrary things, to avoid, "He can do this because." Let's try our best to have a purpose for these things, like he's made of clay and he befriends this deity that commands the earth element, which is where magical clay came from. It just came together that way.

Q: How did that play into the game's art direction and design?

A: When narrative was going deep to figure out what the story we wanted to tell was, the art direction followed suit and became very naturalistic. We're dealing with elemental gods and naturalistic forces, that informed the art direction to keep things natural-looking. There's no architecture in the game, we're not in a city and we got away from even having temples. These are gods that live in nature, they build themselves inner sanctums and domains, but they just carve it out of the existing island. Nothing is built, and that was important. We wanted to create a realistic and immersive world. You're in a forest or on a beach or in a volcano. You're in these natural environments, which was exactly what we were going for.

Q: And at that there aren't a lot of environments. The game is pretty focused in its scope, right?

A: There are seven types [of environments]. I would say, from my background of games I enjoy, I was inspired by the old Donkey Kong Country games on Super Nintendo. They're some of my favorite games of all time. When you really break it down and look at it, one thing I found interesting specifically in Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3 is there are exactly three instances of every biome type. For instance, DKC 2 has hornet's nest stages, it has swamp stages, it has pirate ships, but there's exactly three of each one sprinkled throughout the game.

RELATED: 10 Games To Play If You Loved Donkey Kong Country

We treated things the same way by developing biomes from different natural visual sets, and then putting three of each throughout the game. You return to environments, but they play their own roles and offer a glimpse into the challenge level. For instance, the volcano areas are overflowing with dangerous lava that instantly kills you, they have lava slides and eruptions. Those very clearly signal an increase in intensity, whereas the beach — which is the introduction to the game — is more laid back, filled with lots of flat and hilly terrain. There's not so much danger, but you still have to avoid the water.

When we bring something back, it's like when you go to the volcano the first time you're going to be challenged, then you'll travel into some other areas and come back around to a volcano and know there's going to be a spike. We want to telegraph that to the player, that if the last volcano was a challenge, this new one you're going into is equally so.

finish line games jason canam interview

Q: What other games were inspirations for Skully?

A: Like I said, platformers came to mind. 3D platforming is something that has been in games now for 24 years, it's become a very standard and accepted genre. We're very familiar with what the expectations are for a 3D platformer.

For the puzzle elements, once again I've been playing a game for 35-plus years. I typically go way back, so for me I thought of The Lost Vikings, which had three characters with unique powers working in synergy to solve puzzles. That's exactly how Skully's three clay forms came out, they play off one another and with each other. The puzzle design is having these 3D environments you can platform through, and the goal is you're trying to solve your way forward. It's a platformer, it's about traversal, so it's about how do to get where you can't reach.

The three bodies all have unique abilities. The strong form is a hulking golem that can punch and destroy things, or fight off certain enemy types. The vault form can double jump and magically manipulate things to lift them in the air. The swift form can do a dash and a long jump, so you can send him far and move laterally. There's times in the game where you'll have to destroy things up high, so you need to lift up the strong guy and get him to punch something. You're always using all three of them together.

Q: Do you have access to all three forms from the beginning? Or is it a gradual introduction?

A: It is a gradual introduction, because we wanted to maintain a smooth difficulty curve that ramps up. We didn't want to throw in too many concepts at once.

We experimented with things a bit when we put out demos and prototypes. We built a very condensed demo to share with people and get feedback on. It basically took the first three hours of the game and condensed it into 15 minutes. We found the feedback we got was people were overwhelmed, they had too many options. We just introduced a character and now there are two more. With a more gradual scope, you introduce a form that can do something and try it. Then you try a slightly harder version, a more complicated version, and after that you get another form.

When players get to a later stage of the game and get a new character, we strived to create an experience where the original character becomes so second nature they won't have to think about what to look out for. For example, what you have to punch is second nature, but now you have to concentrate on how this new guy can manipulate things. We tried to make it so there's only one thing players have to put their energy and thought processes into at a time.

Q: How long has the team been working on this game?

A: The game had a fairly lengthy prototyping phase, playing around with ideas and making sure we were happy with the art style. The game started proper development in January of 2019. That's when we started again, threw out all the old hacky stuff, and made things properly.

Right up until March 2020 was when we went into our final development processes, and from March onward we were bug fixing, final gold-level polish. So because of the front-ended development period, the fact that we got the game done in about 15, 16 months speaks to how fluidly things went.

It got challenging toward the end just because of the state of the world these past few months. We got to our hardest bugs and our most critical polish right when the team was spread out, but we managed to stay productive and the whole team deserves credit because they did an awesome job.

finish line games jason canam interview

Q: What kind of procedures were put in place so you all could keep working?

A: The management of the company was way ahead of the curve. They were already setting up work from home measures before recommendations and mandates started coming down. We were already ready, set everyone up, and we hit the ground running. The very first Monday that pretty much everyone I know started working from home, we were already working at 95 percent productivity.

RELATED: The Office Producers Making 'Work from Home' Comedy

We set up systems to communicate frequently. We have our own Discord we communicate all day on with live mics, which I really appreciated because the flow of conversation is constant. From talking to other people about working from home, I know the one thing we haven't lost is the social element, which is nice. A lot of people have felt isolated or lonely working from home, but we're in a Discord where our mics are always on, so I can just throw in a random Simpsons joke just like at the office. We've not missed the social element, we talked about what's on our minds, and like I said Simpsons references fly around 20 times a day. That's mostly how we communicate.

We put a plan in place really early. The leadership deserves credit for that because they saw it coming and decided to get ready for it, and it worked out great.

Q: Skully was announced in May and is coming out in August. Was this short window always intended? Or did world events have an effect on the plan?

A: I can't speak exactly to the plans, because that is a Modus Games question. At best, I can offer my opinion as a developer. I think it's welcome and appropriate, and we're happy with the results. Too often I've seen the opposite, where a game is announced, I'm really excited for it, and two years later I've forgotten about the game. That's a bigger mistake I'm more worried about making as a developer.

But as far as the exact plans, I can't speak to that. I'll just say word has gotten out and I'm very happy with that.

Q: With this game coming out on the tail end of the console generation, are there plans to see extensions onto next-gen consoles?

A: There's always opportunities to explore. We don't have any announcements at this time, but it's a fair point. People always bring it up whenever it's the end of a console cycle, but it's more that games always have to be coming out. This is how the timeline works out, the game is ready when it was ready. That always factors into some plans, and when we have announcements we'll make it.

For sure the one thing that doesn't change, because I've seen it with two console cycles now, is that as excited as consumers get for new consoles, developers are equally as excited. We're just as excited as the players are, for sure.

Q: Is there an audience you hope responds to the game positively? What kind of reach are you hoping to have?

A: Skully was created from the ambition of having a high-quality game. We are looking for players who just want a nice, interesting single-player experience, because that's what the game is. It's going after that experience that tells a really great story, and a lot of care went into the story. The game was designed in such a way that anyone can beat it, but there's challenging moments and the game can get tough. That's by design, we want to create a challenging experience but not a massacre platformer. It's not intended to be devious and kill you constantly, but we do ramp up the challenge.

It's also got extra facets built in. There's incentive for completionists, with extras to collect and secrets to find. I, myself, am addicted to trophies and love my platinum trophies and 1,000 GamerScore. It probably was my favorite innovation from last gen, and I love getting them.

I also do speedrunning myself, so that was taken into account in the design. There are shortcuts that I know about as a level designer, but I also know there's going to be unintended shortcuts and that's nothing but exciting. If people find them it means they have put in the time. I've seen people say, "When someone can beat my game in 15 minutes it makes me sad," and I always have to remind people that nobody bought your game and beat it in 15 minutes. They got it, they enjoyed it, and they enjoyed it so much they decided to go back. Then, when they put in an extra 50 hours, they found out how to chip away at it. It's one of the biggest honors, I think.

So like I said, I know there are secret techniques and shortcuts intentionally put in, but that's just a starting point. First week, first month, I'll hopefully see some players post about different shortcuts. I know soon they'll crack it wide open, and that's also exciting. We definitely want people to experience the story and play it, but we're hoping for the dedication of players that find everything, tear it apart, and push it to its limits.

finish line games jason canam interview

Q: What's your history with speedrunning?

A: I mostly speedrun NES and SNES games. I have a time on speedrun.com for an NES game called Power Blade, which was a 2D platformer where you're a spy who throws boomerangs. Very Mega Man-esque. I love that game and I've been playing it since I was a kid. Recently, in the past couple years, I put in time and became number three in the world. Then I took a bit of a break and was down to eighth or ninth. I wanna go back to it and get to top three, and I think I can.

RELATED: Zelda: Breath of the Wild Speedrun Visits Every Dog in the Game

Then I do speedruns like the Donkey Kong Country games, and I speedrun Banjo Kazooie. In those games I'm barely top 100, but I'm not competitive and I do those for fun. Mega Man and Mega Man X games as well, I'm nowhere near the top but I like doing them for fun. I run mostly old-school and retro stuff.

Q: I've spent a good amount of time watching GDQ and similar events. It's always cool to see the dedication, and communities around the games.

A: Absolutely, and they've done great stuff through the awareness and charity money they've raised. I also advocate that speedrunners can be the best testers as well, they're a great audience for providing game feedback because they have a very intimate, mechanical knowledge and can communicate well. When something's wrong they can tell you exactly why, it's because the jump has a two-frame launch window or something.

Q: Did you pull any speedrunners in to test Skully?

A: We didn't this time around because of the way development went. You can say that's one of the things that was impacted by world events, actually. Maybe we could have. I have for projects I've managed myself, but for Skully that's one thing I'd say was impacted.

Q: Is there anything else you might want to add?

A: We're looking forward to people getting their hands on it and interested in people seeing the story as well. The story is interesting, and I was very impressed with the voice acting. That's one thing I do want to say, the voice actors did excellent, excellent jobs. The heavy narrative lifting is done with the VO and they characterized the characters very well. There's quirky and fun characters in the game.

[END]

Skully will be available August 4, 2020 for $29.99 0n PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.

MORE: Outriders Interview: Dev Talks Pyromancer, Crew, and the Mysteries of Enoch