Lighting the Way is a feature series about the stories behind emerging indie studios, creators, and voices. This time, we spoke with Fuzzybot, a 25-person crew of industry veterans who previously have worked on gaming behemoths like Battlefield and Assassin’s Creed before going indie.
It’s quite hard to succinctly describe a game as unique as FuzzyBot’s debut title, Lynked: Banner of the Spark. On one hand, it’s a peaceful and cozy city sim, where you can spend hours just wandering around your customized town, chatting with bots, and fishing. On another, it’s a fast-paced, action-packed, multiplayer roguelite pitting you against hordes of evil bots hellbent on ruling the world.
It’s quite hard to succinctly describe a game as unique as FuzzyBot’s debut title, Lynked: Banner of the Spark. On one hand, it’s a peaceful and cozy city sim, where you can spend hours just wandering around your customized town, chatting with bots, and fishing. On another, it’s a fast-paced, action-packed, multiplayer roguelite pitting you against hordes of evil bots hellbent on ruling the world.
One thing, is for sure, though: it’s fun.
FIGHT EVIL, HANG OUT, REPEAT
When asked what clicked with these two genres, Max Spielberg, Creative Director at FuzzyBot, takes a trip down memory lane. “During the early days of covid, he recalls, everyone was playing Animal Crossing. I played it for a long time as a fan and loved this style of cozy games, but I asked myself what else I could do if I was allowed to spend more time in this world. As a developer of action games, it was easy to connect the dots: what if I could go adventuring?”
From that idea, Lynked was born. While fighting evil bots, players can collect resources to build their town – which will, in turn, allow players to become stronger and obtain better skills, weapons, and augments. It’s a formula designed to appeal to both cozy and action gamers, allowing them to help and hang out with each other.
AN ASPIRATIONAL APOCALYPSE
Lynked tells the story of a post-apocalyptic world overrun with evil bots, where players team up with good robots to build and protect safe havens. Unlike your typical post-apocalyptic dystopia, however, Lynked is colorful, cartoony, vibrant, and dripping with optimism.
From the beginning, Max explains, the goal was to present an “aspirational apocalypse.” Every aspect of the game lends itself to the ideas of friendship, sharing and hanging out. “We used a lot of references from cartoons like Bugs Bunny,” he says. “Even if enemies are dangerous, there’s always some element of comedy and wackiness to balance it out.”
ALIGNING THE STARS
“Both Max and I dreamed of going indie and doing our own thing,” Tatyana Dyshlova, FuzzyBot’s CEO, says. “We were lucky and had that opportunity with Covid. Our design philosophies aligned, plus there was a really good funding environment for games at the time.”
Last year, FuzzyBot formed an official partnership with Dreamhaven. Founded by ex-Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime, Dreamhaven now acts as Lynked’s publisher. “They have been fantastic in terms of helping to develop the game,” Max says. “They’re not necessarily giving us directions, but they’re always coming up with strong, legitimate feedback on how to make the game as good as it can be.”
Now that Lynked is publicly available, it has a small but dedicated player base and very positive reviews on Steam. Dreamhaven acts as a “marketing powerhouse” and helps FuzzyBot get the word out through updates and, potentially, a future console release.
CREATING GAMES DESPITE HARDSHIPS
It’s no secret that making an indie game is a scary task. Tatyana admits that “Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot of investor money going into new games today. During Covid, when we started out, there was a lot of growth propelled by everyone being at home, but that has dissipated now.”
However, she points out, the tools available to indie devs are better than ever: “You can go quite far with a demo or a Steam page. Use Reddit, Steam, and festivals to create a cheaper proof of concept early on. Then, once you have some early enthusiasm, you can use that traction to get mid-level project funding, such as finding a publisher.”
Tatyana also stresses the importance of managing expectations. “If you want to put out a game in two years, design one you think you can do in less than one. If you scope things out at a high level in the beginning, you’ll avoid having to rip out core components and features towards the end. Because in reality, making a game will take one more year than you think… or double that!”
Max adds that managing team size should be an early goal. “There’s also a tendency to get everybody on the team right from the beginning. We took a more reserved approach and asked ourselves, ‘How far can we get with as few people as possible until we need to hire a specific type of developer?’ We didn’t need everybody in the first two years, so we hired as we thought necessary. It also helped with the team dynamics, since we avoided flooding the team with people who didn’t know each other.”
So, if you’ve always dreamed of making an indie video game, don’t let the hardships and negativity stop you. Because, as Lynked reminds us, there is no apocalypse so terrible that you can’t find a bit of joy along the way.
Lynked: Banner of the Spark is available in Early Access on Steam.
