Closure is a sidescrolling platformer that uses light and the absence of light to create a constantly changing, unpredictable environment. Its creators are now working on a sequel of sorts; a re-imagining of the original game, the new Closure will feature grayscale graphics, new gameplay, and will be the culmination of the original creators’ efforts. The lead artist of both Closures, Jon Schubbe, was at E3, where I played a bit of Closure 1. I interviewed Schubbe and Tyler Glaiel, the lead designer for Closure:
TC: For those not in the know, how did you two get together and make the original Closure? Were there other ideas you tried out, or did you hit on what you wanted right away?
TG: I had the flash game in development for a little bit before contacting Jon about doing the art for it. Flash had a lot of limitations so we couldn't implement most of the ideas we had for it, and it wasn't even worth it testing the water with some of them since I already had to jump through hoops to get the flash version running at a decent speed. There are a few things we tried which didn't quite work out too well in the end. They were in the engine but they weren't used, and they aren't in the new engine at all. Also, a lot of "side effects" turned into gameplay elements (such as no drop zones). Those are implemented differently in the new one, but the idea came out of a "glitch".
JS: Tyler and I met through Newgrounds.com, where many Flash artists gather to submit and share their work with others. We've known each other through the website for almost 4-5 years. Tyler came to me with the original idea and we went from there. We made other Flash games/animations independently of each other for awhile before he presented this idea to collaborate with me.
TC: Closure’s unique visual style and puzzle structure are like some other games out there, but they have their own flavor. How did you arrive at these kinds of visual style and gameplay mechanics?
TG: Trial, error, and intuition. For gameplay, it just kinda flowed out. It's tough to describe but it felt more like an instinct thing than actually thinking too hard about it when I was designing puzzles.
JS: The visual style is created for the atmosphere to make one perceive and create images in their head without directly showing the whole picture at once. The white and black in high contrast look to the game parallels the idea of what you see exists, and what you don't see doesn't exist. The graphics are also speckled as they fade in and out as the player's distance changes from the environments. This creates more mystery as you walk around, trying to light up objects on screen to find out exactly what they are.
TC: What went into making the original Closure, and how long did you work on it? What influenced you in creating it, and do you feel that those influences stood out prominently?
TG: It took about 2 months, influences were Portal and Braid, and people seemed to notice and compare it a bit. Some people mentioned Super Mario Galaxy (matter splatter level), I had played that but I didn't even notice the similarity till someone pointed it out. People also mentioned Echochrome, and I kinda see the resemblance if you strip both games down to one sentence descriptions ("what you see is what you get"), but I only ever saw a trailer for that game like 2 years before making Closure.
TC: For you as designers, what worked about the original Closure, and what didn’t?
TG: Most of the mechanics worked, art style "kinda" worked, music worked, jumping controls were flawed, the atmosphere most definitely worked, inverse orbs worked in a gameplay sense but not in a presentation sense, and there were a lot of other features which worked but needed to be clarified for the player. The game itself was pretty solid, there was just a lot of room for growth.
JS: Well I believe part of what worked and what didn't can be up to the player's own opinion to decide. However, there are a few things that stand out to me that just weren't up to par with the rest of the game. First, as I was the artist of the game, the graphical style, however simple, is not the extent at which it could have been. There are many more ways to play with the lit up environment than to 'speckle' graphics in and out of the darkness. I plan to come up with some other tricks to add more interest in lighting things up and exploring the levels. Second, some design aspects were thrown in last second because of an error in the difficulty curve or some other last minute decision before we uploaded the game to the internet. Some things such as the black shrinking orbs were not as obvious as we as the designers thought they were so more thought will go into the learning curve in the next version. Third, a lot of the levels, though very unique of each other, dragged on a little bit whether it be repetition of puzzle design, graphics, or even the ambient sound. We plan to make the new version of the game more exciting and rewarding than it 
already is.
TC: On the customer/gamer side of things, what did players like and not like about the original? What kind of feedback did you get?
TG: They liked it but were confused about a lot of things. People complained about the finicky jumping a lot. I also got a lot of complaints about some of the level design because people were continually trying the "wrong" way to beat a level and therefore missing a lot of jumps, or getting stuck on levels. I can't really control how someone plays the game though, but I can try to guide them in the right direction. There's a balance though cause I don't want to hold their hands the entire game.
JS: We actually got very positive feedback for how original the puzzle design and overall 'atmospheric experience' was. There were also many mixed reviews, telling us the game was either too hard or very hard, but fair. Most thought the difficulty was fair though, which is a good sign. I believe the next version will have more of a gradual curve, being a longer game with more levels.
Darke
said:
 |
I have never heard of Closure before, but after seeing it in this interview and playing it. I would say it one of my favorite games now. Thanks for the interview. |
deckard47
said:
 |
Cool, I'm glad you liked it. It's nice to turn someone on to a game I only just found myself. I keep on playing the Flash game, trying tpo beat it, but I always get distracted... Some day soon. |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
x
