This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. You can find the rest by clicking here.
Circa Infinity is, it would be safe to say, an assault on the senses, a swirling, undulating spiral of moving parts and constantly shifting environments, it’s not exactly the most comfortable setting for a gravity-bending platformer. But that’s entirely the point.
It’s made by Kenny Sun, a developer and photographer coming out of New York University. He originally tackled the concept for a Ludum Dare before fleshing it out into a full release. The game has been nominated for Best Student Game at this year’s IGF awards,
With the awards just around the corner, Gamasutra talked to Sun about the process of creating the arresting Circa Infinity.
What’s your background in making games?
I first started making games early on in high school, playing around with Flash and uploading my projects to places like Newgrounds and Kongregate. After a couple years of making a few cool little games, I kind of lost interest in it and moved on to other kinds of side projects. Later on, I took some game design courses at NYU, which rekindled my enthusiasm for the medium. So, I decided to download Game Maker and made a mobile game with it that nobody really played.
And then I made Circa Infinity.
What development tools did you use to build Circa Infinity?
Game Maker for the game and Adobe Fireworks for the art / animation.
How much time was spent working on the game?
About 9 months. Circa Infinity started off as a Ludum Dare game that I made in December 2014. I thought it was cool, so I decided to work part-time on fleshing it out during the following semester of college (January – May 2015). After graduating in May, I continued to work on the game full-time from June until it’s release in September 2015.
How did you come up with the concept?
I watched this video and thought it was cool.
And then I played this game and thought it was cool.
And then I decided to participate in the Ludum Dare for some reason.
And then I came up with the concept.
Have you played any of the other IGF finalists? Any games you’ve particularly enjoyed?
Her Story is really cool.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is cool.
Mini Metro is real cool.
Undertale is very cool.
GNOG is pretty cool.
Kingdom is really cool.
The Beginner’s Guide is real cool.
Cibele is pretty cool.
Ape Out is very cool.
Beglitched is real cool.
The rest I haven’t played, but they all look super cool.
Don’t forget check out the rest of our Road to the IGF series right here.