Dev contests ‘a huge motivator’ for development

Entering numerous game competitions helped spur on the development of indie title and Kickstarter funded project Faster Than Light, says Subset Games’ Matthew Davis.

Speaking to Gamasutra, the indie dev who forms half of the game’s two-man team, said he had previously been happy to sit in his apartment and program, but that entering competitions and meeting deadlines became a huge driver for continued development.

Davis added that with deadlines constantly coming every three-to-four months for entry into various competitions, the developers were forced into creating a playable game to help ensure they could gain as much publicity as possible, and stated these were of “huge benefit” to FTL.

“The deadline of people wanting to play this game, and ultimately judge this game, was the motivation to get this into something playable,” he said.

“These deadlines would come up every three-to-four months, reminding you that it has to be a balanced, functioning game that people can play. That was important for us because we don’t have marketers or publishers telling us we have to do anything.

“The publicity came even if you weren’t nominated. Most of these have 300 judges playing the game. And even if we weren’t nominated, we’d have people mail us and say ‘Hey, I played that game and I’d like to talk to you about it.’”

Faster Than Light is a strategy title where users take the role of the captain of a spaceship, and must guide their crew through various systems while defeating enemies and upgrading their ship.

FTL successfully completed its Kickstarter campaign on April 1st, raising more than $200,000 from 9,818 contributors, smashing its goal of just $10,000.