Interview with Chalk Creator Joakim Sandberg

Chalk’s been making the rounds in the indie-games blogosphere recently, and deservedly so. It’s a thoughtful, charming rail-shooter with an fresh control scheme. Instead of firing off bullets, you use your chalk to trace obstacles (thereby eliminating them) and deflect bullets back to enemies. It’s a simple concept with a mischievous learning curve. Sandberg’s done some work on a few GBA titles you probably haven’t played if you’re older than 12. But don’t be surprised to see this kid on the front lines of some triple-A titles in the future. I shot Sandberg some questions after falling in love with Chalk on Friday afternoon. He talks about the the game’s suitability to waggle (or something else, as he corrects me), the sorry state of indie gaming and a little bit about his take on game development.

Question: Where’d the idea for Chalk come from?

Answer: The idea for Chalk just came from me making a solid line engine and wanting to use it. Meaning, a line that doesn’t have (big) gaps.

Question: For me, the difficulty arced perfectly. By level four, things are really chaotic all the time, but I never felt overwhelmed. Is that something you had to test and modify as you went along, or did it just seem natural from the core design plans?

Answer: As for difficulty, I just tried to have more things happening later in the game. People tested and said where they died a lot, and how quickly they died, so I added things like checkpoints etc. I didn’t change much of the design of the levels from what they said, it was mostly some more health or so.

Question: Forgive me if this is cliche, but it’s hard not to think Wii when you first start scribbling around. Was Nintendo’s new focus at all an inspiration?

Answer: It’s not cliché for you to think Wii, because everyone else says DS.
DS was not an inspiration to begin with, but of course I thought about it later because it’s one of my favorite platforms. I always wanted to think of something that would work on DS though, since I thought a lot of other developers didn’t really try. Ironically that was my goal from the start with the game Tripline, but that game ended up being dependent on NOT being freeform drawing.

Question: This is a pretty polished product, and it’s great that the only barrier to entry is finding out about it. But do you ever think you could try to charge five bucks?

Answer: As for charging for games, I don’t really think I’ve made enough of a name for myself to be successful in selling something. I want to work as a game designer, but as I’m still alone and not that known, I’d rather release games for free so that as many as possible can play it and talk about it. Also, if Chalk was made as something to sell, I’d make a lot more content. There were ideas I skipped because they were pretty complex, or MMF2 would never be able to handle it, as is often the case with that program…

Question: The sound design seems like a big priority in this game. Do you ever build a stage around a song?

Answer: The only real design to the sound was to make important actions all have their own sound, and the more you collect on a line the higher the pitch of the sound. As for music, I didn’t create any levels listening to a song I made, because I made this soundtrack last-minute, in virtually one sitting.

Question: Your site says you’ve worked on X-Men 3 and American Dragon for the GBA. What’s more satisfying? Seeing your work in a high-profile retail SKU or producing a whole game that far fewer people will play?

Answer: When I work for money it’s 2D animation work… as you can tell from games I’ve released, animation is minimal. That’s because I really don’t like animating, and I find it ironic that’s what I’m working with within the industry. I do want to be a game designer, and making games and releasing them is much more satisfying.

Question: Are there any other indie PC developers your look up to?

Answer: I don’t really play other “indie” games. They’re usually all the same, unpolished or just boring. Some parts of the “indie scene” are too busy trying to make games art, and seem to be against the professional industry. It’s the professional industry because they’re professional. Just make games that have some nice gameplay, anyway. REALLY don’t pursue games like “The Marriage”… that’s not what game playing and game making are about to me, it’s fun, not contemplating why your wife makes you feel belittled when she forces you to do the dishes instead of watch the game.

Question: What’s next for Joakim Sandberg?

Answer: As for what I’ll do next, I don’t know. At some point, if I can’t work a more settled job in the industry, I don’t know what I’ll end up doing. I really want to make games, but it’s a competitive industry.

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