Buccaneer Sets Sail on Steam!

If you've been active on the GarageGames site in the last year, then chances are you have seen screenshots and development blogs of Buccaneer: The Pursuit of Infamy. Harvey and Simon of Stickman Studios have been huge supporters of Torque and GarageGames, prototyping the game in TGE and then releasing it in TGEA. Imagine our delight, then, when Stickman Studios got in contact with us to tell us that their game would be released on Steam on December 5th! Not bad for a couple of artists with the dream of making it big in games, yeah?

If you like pirates, proving your sea-worthiness against your friends, or just good action/adventure games in general, then you might want to take a peek at Buccaneer. The game has both a single player and multiplayer campaign. In the single player campaign, players are initially provided with a sub-standard ship, limited gold and no knowledge of the seas surrounding their home port. As missions are completed, new areas open up and new ships become unlocked and available for purchase. A total of 56 missions are included in the campaign, which is non-linear in structure, allowing players to attempt available missions in any order they wish.


In multiplayer mode, you choose a side: Golden Buccaneers against the forces of The Crown. Battles are fought across 10 different multiplayer maps with both sides having a home port area where they may repair and re-arm. The multiplayer game is essentially a "deathmatch" with a difference - all the ships are rated by overall effectiveness and have their own value that is used to determine point losses when a ship is lost. Add in the various pickups and targets that can boost or drain scores, as well as the tactics required by a game that is slower paced than an FPS, and the multiplayer game is quite different from anything most players will have experienced before.

We got in touch with Stickman Studios to talk about their experience making their first commercial success. Read on and enjoy, yar!

What makes Buccaneer a unique experience?

We like to think of Buccaneer as an "Epic Arcade Game." A player takes control of a single pirate ship using a very simple and intuitive control method, allowing them to drop straight into the game and start completing missions with little or no practice. Buccaneer is not a sailing ship simulator, but rather a fully 3D arcade experience.



"We like to think of Buccaneer as an 'Epic Arcade Game.'" - Simon Nevill, Co-Designer

Where did your inspiration come from?

The original inspiration for Buccaneer came while playing a game called Imperial Glory by Pyro Studios. We really liked the naval battles in the game which were set during the Napoleonic Wars. The ships looked great and it had a good feel to it, but it had a point and click interface and (realistically) the ships moved incredibly slowly. We thought that a faster paced, arcade-style game could work for this same period of history. Our own idea was to give the player control over a single ship as opposed to a squadron of boats and make the ship itself the "character." And what ship would have more character than a pirate ship? So the decision was made to base the game in the Caribbean and give the player direct control of their very own pirate ship.

How many people worked on the game team? How long did it take to create Buccaneer?

I'm sure most people that read this interview will simply not believe it, but Stickman Studios is actually just Harvey and myself (Simon). What makes it more unbelievable is both of us are artists and have never dabbled with programming, unless you count getting a Spectrum to display "My name is Simon" way back in 1985. Fortunately our years spent working in the industry prior to setting up on our own has provided us with a number of amazing coding contacts. Some of these guys have been utterly incredible and sacrificed evenings and weekends to help us out with much of the coding involved, and we simply could not have done it without them. All in all I think it's fair to say that we have managed to beg, borrow and steal (OK perhaps not steal) about 6 months worth of solid coding support across the length of the project. The overall development time, since conception, has been just over two and a half years. That said, Harvey and I have spent 15 months during that period doing freelance work for other game companies to keep the Stickman wheels rolling. So overall, Harvey and I spent about 18 months dedicated to Buccaneer full time in our studio, "Das Boot."

We have also been fortunate enough to be involved with some other amazing guys via the GarageGames community forums who have helped transform Buccaneer into a much more professional and polished product. Joel Steudler's awesome theme music, Paul Bergel's incredible vocal work and Aun Arinyasak's stunning AI routines have all contributed to ensure Buccaneer has exceeded all of our expectations.



"I'm sure most people that read this interview will simply not believe it, but Stickman Studios is actually just Harvey and myself." - Simon Nevill, Co-Designer

What was your development process like?

Our development process was very...open and fluid. Chaos would be a word used by many on the outside looking in, I'm sure. We didn't begin with a set design document and work to any specific plan or schedule, but rather just started creating assets and throwing ideas back and forth. "Wouldn't it be great if it did this?" and "I'm going to build a such and such." Obviously as the game progressed it became a much more ambitious project than we ever originally imagined it would be, and we were compelled to become more professional. That said, the actual design of the game has changed constantly since day one and we were implementing new features up until almost the release date. This is something that would have been unheard of when we were working in the industry prior to setting up Stickman Studios, but that is one of the perks of working for yourself.

Why choose Torque?

It's been a while since we started work on Buccaneer and while I'm sure we did look at a number of other technologies, we quickly decided upon Torque. Price was the main governing factor in our choice, as we were completely self-funded and didn't have a great deal of cash. We were also attracted to the idea of much of the work being handled by scripts, reducing the need for lots of coding since neither Harvey or myself are programmers.



"We put the concept together in TGE, and then ported to TGEA once we had some decent gameplay, then went to town on the artwork...Trouble is, once it looked next-gen, we really had to go to town on the gameplay to get it up to the same standard as the look! It's all GG's fault!" - Harvey Greensall, Co-Designer

What were a few major development challenges you encountered?

We encountered a number of challenges - like trying to get our ships to float and move properly - but nothing like the challenge of keeping ourselves funded throughout the development of the project. Being predominantly self-funded we have been responsible for not only building the game, but finding the cash required to keep us supplied with tea-bags and coffee, the fuel of developers everywhere. No easy task, and we have had to spend a considerable amount of time working as freelancers for other local game companies to help line the Stickman coffers with gold. Maintaining momentum on your own project is very difficult when you need to put everything aside for months at a time to generate cash for the business, just to keep your own "bums on seats" as it were.

What has been Blitz Games Studios' role in getting Buccaneer out into the world?

Our involvement with Blitz Games Studios and their 1>UP Programme has been great. Having the game in Blitz Arcade's QA department really opened our eyes and provided an unbiased and often uncompromising view of the game. Receiving criticism, even constructive criticism, is always hard to take but is an absolutely essential part of the process. As a result the game has a much more polished feel than it did even a few weeks ago and provides the player with a much more enjoyable experience.

Another massive area of support from the 1>UP Programme has been with industry networking. While our own "cheeky charm" might land us a free ice cream, Blitz Games Studios is a large and highly respected developer and its connections and influence within the industry are considerable. Already this partnership has secured Buccaneer a release on Steam, one of the world's leading digital distributors, as well as interest from a number of more traditional distributors for a boxed version of the game for 2009. Last week during the Game Connection Europe in Lyon, Business Development Director Chris Swan had the opportunity to showcase Buccaneer to a number of other industry veterans and had this to say:

"We were focused on showing 5 games at GC Lyon, with Buccaneer featuring prominently in the list. The game went down brilliantly well with every client I met, even those it didn't fit with still gave praise for what the Stickman guys have achieved. I've come away with loads of positive take up on the game in a wide number of territories, so it couldn't have been better from my perspective."


"We were particularly nervous about our first QA test beforehand, but it went so well that we really began to feel like we might have created something that might appeal to the toughest gaming crowd there is...the PC gamer." - Simon Nevill, Co-Designer

What did you learn in creating the game?

Without doubt the biggest lesson was: don't attempt to create a computer game without full time code support. It is possible, as we have demonstrated, but so much more difficult that we wouldn't recommend anyone else ever trying it.

In fact I think it's fair to say that most of the lessons you learn during development are how NOT to do things. You really do learn from your mistakes, and hopefully our next project will run much more smoothly and be largely free from stress, long weekends and sleepless nights. :)

What can we expect to see next from Stickman Studios?

We have a number of game designs waiting in the wings, but each is totally dependent upon the success of Buccaneer. If all goes according to plan and Buccaneer sells a few copies, then we shall be adding a third Stickman to the team - "an uber-coder" - and wading straight into our next project. Which game design we settle upon will be governed by personal preference, technical difficulty and time afforded us by Buccaneer sales. One thing we can guarantee, though, it won't be water based or pirate themed. :)


Maybe we can hope for something like Guitar Hero...if this video of the in-game cameo of the band Swashbuckle is any indication.

Huge thanks again to Simon for the interview and Harvey for taking the time to send me boatloads of art assets for this blog (no pun intended). Now stop reading and go check out Buccaneer, ye maties!

For more stories like this, check out GarageGames' Developer Interview series.