10 Second Ninja X’s Dan Pearce: ‘It takes a lot more effort to stand out in the indie game market’

The indie game developer talks oversaturation, speedy gameplay, and Super Mario
Time limit: game developer Dan Pearce talks the future of indie games and how to stand out
Dan Pearce
Talal Musa28 June 2016

Despite flourishing in recent years, the indie games market could be facing a potentially major problem: oversaturation. That's according to Dan Pearce, director of Four Circle Interactive, and brainchild of 2014’s indie puzzle side-scroller 10 Second Ninja.

"A few years ago we had kind of an Indie Renaissance and I think a lot of smaller developers mistook that for the status quo," he explains. "I think the indie game market is maybe a bit oversaturated now, it takes a lot more effort to stand out now than it used to.

"I don't think it helps that consumer trust is particularly low at the moment, and that's been a problem caused by shoddy releases from all over the games industry, not just indie games.

"You have to make a lot of extra effort to reassure people, understandably so, that you aren't trying to swindle them out of their money. It's harder, as you have to be constantly ready to address the concerns of players and say, ‘hey, we are here, we are listening to you and we promise we're going to try and resolve problems if they come up’. It definitely goes a long way, and it's certainly not something that I can blame players for."

Being an indie developer these days, then, is arguably a greater challenge than when the genre first properly broke into the mainstream – and offering something fresh enough to resonate with an ever-more critical audience is becoming challenging.

"I think visibility is the key thing that most independent developers are struggling to get a foothold on," says Pearce. "It's certainly a lot harder than it was even two years ago, and a large motivating factor for us partnering with our publisher Curve was their pedigree for getting the right indie games out there into the hands of people who'll enjoy them."

10 Second Ninja X

Surprisingly, the team behind 10 Second Ninja veered away from complicated level design or complex graphics, opting for a title inspired by Dan's experiences playing games on his phone at the back of the classroom.

"I was in sixth form when I started making [10 Second Ninja] so I was playing a lot of games on my phone in the back of class. There was a great game called Stardash, and a series called League of Evil. I kept noticing that these games and a lot like them had optional objectives where you had to complete levels within short time constraints. I was surprised by how quickly some of their levels could be completed and felt like the games should have been focusing on that instead.

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“The time pressure was forcing me to think about the nuance of the gameplay in a way that I didn't when playing the levels normally and that was really interesting to me. I thought it'd be cool to make a game with mechanics that would get the most out of that nuance. The design process for 10 Second Ninja started there."

Games like Super Mario cut straight to the point and give you creative levels to toy around with

&#13; <p>Dan Pearce</p>&#13;

But why ten seconds?

"Ten seconds felt like the right introductory speed for players," explains Pearce. "It's long enough that you can get a feel for the gameplay in the earlier levels and find your feet, but a short enough length of time that you can feel the tension as the clock counts down. As players get more familiar with the game, we tease them with different ratings for levels and it quickly becomes less about finishing levels in ten seconds and more about finishing them in three to five seconds."

Finding the right balance between addictive gameplay and repetition is a challenge facing more 'simplistic' arcade style titles, and one that Pearce feels they've managed to get right – even more so in their latest game, 10 Second Ninja X.

"Aside from the first area, which acts as kind of an introduction to the core gameplay of 10 Second Ninja X, all of the mechanics are new and flip how the player thinks about levels on its head. We didn't want to put the player in a position where they look at a puzzle and go, ‘oh, I did this in the first game’. Every level has its own thing going on, and that keeps the experience fresh.

“We've also massively expanded what's going on in between levels. The game's villain, Captain Greatbeard, has kidnapped you aboard his ship. The ship is fully exploitable and there are all kinds of secrets, characters and unlockables there. There's a lot more variety in the experience as a whole."

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As Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt proved, video games are more than capable of delivering Hollywood-standard storytelling – experiences clearly valued by a majority of today's console gaming audience. In fact, some have questioned whether arcade-style titles can still prosper on console or are best suited to mobile – especially given the improved processing power of phones and tablets. Pearce thinks otherwise, citing a certain Nintendo IP to prove his point.

"I think that there's a lot to be said for games like Super Mario that cut straight to the point and give you creative levels to toy around with. In that spirit, we've tried to balance the story and the gameplay in a way that satisfies people who play games for the story, without obstructing the people who are playing 10 Second Ninja X for the frantic arcade gameplay."

It's unknown whether 10 Second Ninja X will impact as successfully as its predecessor did. Back then, just like many other indie games, it represented a fresh concept. Now, in an oversaturated market there's even less time to impress. Better make those 10 seconds count.

10 Second Ninja X arrives on PS4, Xbox One and PC on July 19

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