Interview: With ‘Minutes’Creator Richard Ogden

It’s time to sit down with Minutes creator Richard Ogden. Richard who has over 18 years experience in the videogame industry and formerly worked at Sony Computer Entertainment, Bigbig Studios (as a company founder and director) and at Codemasters.  This game was made by Richard alone, so we wanted to find out a bit more about his work on the title and what his plans are now after Minutes.

What inspired you to create Minutes?

I guess a lot of things have contributed to the initial spark that led to Minutes. In the main, I was feeling a bit let down by the balance of content in some AAA games – a bit too much travelling from A to B, too many cutscenes, repetitive and unchallenging or unfocused gameplay. I’d recently become more drawn to concentrated experiences that are more about constant interaction and thought. Given that, I wanted to create a game that would stand in opposition to the big titles and offer a purer journey. I was thinking about minimalist games anyway – there was a Ludum Dare around that time with that theme.

How did you come up with the concept of Minutes? Was it always designed to be a bullet-hell-esque title?

It was a very quick process. The idea just popped into my head and five minutes later I had the core idea worked out. Refining it and developing the design elements in more detail took longer but the essence of the released game is unchanged from that initial idea. The bullet-hell connection became apparent later but the influence was probably in there subconsciously from the start.

 

How long was the title in development for?

Around 18 months from concept to release. In detail that’s concept, design, prototyping, coding and iterating the mechanics and refining the gameplay, working out menu flows and game structure, commissioning audio and putting in those assets, same for artwork, getting it working on Vita and PS4 and dealing with specific aspects of those platforms, setting up all the levels, play-testing as much as possible, taking feedback, making changes, balancing difficulty, localization, QA and submission to Sony. On top of that I’m looking after the business side and trying to promote the game. Not that much work for one person!!!

What game engine was used to create Minutes?

I created my own engine and tools from scratch. That may seem a bit crazy these days given the availability of Unity, Unreal, etc. but I’ve got the experience to do it myself and it stands me in good stead going forward. I don’t need to combat the foibles of other engines and can customize my own as much as I want or need. I’m all set to use it for the next game so hopefully that will be a quicker project, or perhaps a bigger one.

Did you find there were any complications to creating such an intricate game?

Not really. It just takes time. To be honest it’s not that intricate. A minimalist game should be as simple as possible while still incorporating enough elements to hold together. I wanted it to be viable on console so that meant being not quite as minimalist as you might go on mobile – which is a fine line. Setting up the levels for the main mode was perhaps the most intricate part and quite time consuming. I used an in-game editor for this. Some had a randomly generated basis but some were created completely from scratch. But, each individual shape has been placed, moved and tweaked multiple times to form the patterns seen in each of the 60 levels.

How was the soundtrack created? 

A company called Black Bag Music created the audio for me. I knew roughly what I wanted and created a brief that described the structure and themes. (Each theme is made up of multiple chunks that are mixed and matched in different ways for each level). I then hunted across Youtube for examples of what I meant. Giving a musician some music is a pretty effective way of getting your ideas over. They delivered the tracks really quickly and I’m so happy with the results. The music really fits and totally helps you get into the zen-like zone that you need for mastering the game.

Is there anything you wish you could have still changed after the latest patch?

The main thing I would’ve liked to have included is another game mode. There are lots of other things – changing the way the tutorials are presented or having more accessibility options for example – but a survival mode and maybe a random mode would be good (though the random mode would be quite similar to the Daily Challenge.) If I get round to patching again or releasing some DLC then I’ll try to find the time for these.

Are you considering porting Minutes to any other platforms? 

Definitely PC. Though not a certainty, PS3 is in the pipeline (the plan being to include that in the Cross-Buy). Other platforms are possibilities but nothing has confirmed yet. I need to balance my time for Minutes against contract work and moving on with the next game.

If there were a sequel, what would you add to the format?

I don’t think I’ll create a sequel. The challenge was to create a minimalist console game. A sequel would move away from this ethos. I’m more interested in creating something completely different for the next game.

Are there any DLC plans for future levels or perhaps a Co-op mode?

Again, it depends what time I’ve got available and what my priorities are. If there’s a decent level of demand for it then I’ll go ahead. But, in keeping with my last answer I’d still want to stick with the game’s basic ethos – so perhaps 30 more levels, and some new “enemy” types. My current thinking is that I’d throw the new modes (that I mentioned previously) into the update for free at the same time as the DLC launch. It’s likely to be single player still though, not co-op.

Thank you very much Richard Ogden for the interview. Minutes is currently available on PlayStation 4 for £6.19/€7.49 /$7.99 and you can checkout our review here.