One of the features we really wanted to improve was the overall art style. After debating it for a while, we decided to give ToM a magical, fairy tale vibe that’s not predominant in videogames. We gathered a variety of references, but eventually settled on James Jean’s work (who, appropriately enough, used to be the cover artist for the ongoing Fables comic book series).

The beautiful, double-sided cover of Animal Farm.

James’ fine linework and smooth fills were quite striking, but his detailed illustrations would be rather difficult to reproduce in a videogame. More than that, though, we didn’t want to force artists to simply emulate another style, but instead to use it as a rough guideline while bringing their own flavour to the look. With that in mind, we contacted numerous illustrators and commissioned a single piece from each one: a coloured sketch of a Cipactli.

Our original Cipactli.

The Cipactli boss fight proved the most memorable part of our prototype, but we thought that his deformed, Godzilla-like design lacked personality. The monster’s premise was interesting enough — a cayman with jaws on every joint and frog/fish like features — but since it didn’t really come through in-game, it became the perfect subject for a makeover.

Out of all the test runs we did, these were our favourites:

Cipactli #1, a villain with a sinister smile and curled eyebrows.

Cipactli #2, a grotesque figure peppered with snarling jaws.

Cipactli #3, a lithe humanoid with a tribal motif.

Cipactli #4, a muscular beast in a comic book style.

Being so close to a project can make it easy to lose perspective, though, so we figured it couldn’t hurt to ask for some public opinions. We’ve created a little Cipactli poll just below, so please cast your vote and leave us some comments!

1. Online research is hard to verify, and doesn’t often go through the same level of scrutinizing and fact checking as a typical book.
2. The internet is filled with a plethora of information on just about any topic, but the “big picture” is harder to come by as the data usually lacks context.

Needing some books, I naturally headed out to The World’s Biggest Bookstore.

My first stop was the military-focused Osprey section. Comparatively speaking it contained very few Aztec books, but I managed to find one that could serve as a great visual reference. It also contained examples of Zapotec, Mixtec, and various other warrior groups, which was a nice bonus.

The world mythologies section was my next stop, and I found it to be surprisingly small. I picked up one short primer on Aztec & Maya myths, though, which did a nice job of trying to sort out the Mesoamerican pantheon. That might sound like something relatively simple, but it isn’t. There’s an awful lot of cross-pollination between the numerous cultures that existed in current day Mexico, and that makes it rather difficult to put together any sort of hierarchy with the surviving information (not to mention weeding out all the gods dedicated to just maize, i.e., corn).

I also spotted a book entitled Latin American Folktales, but it was a huge letdown. As I flipped through the pages, I quickly realized that it was nothing more than a collection of Christian parables retrofitted onto Aztec mythology — not something that was relevant to our game.

Finally, I stopped off at the history section, which actually proved to be most fruitful. The books I found here simply contained much more information, encapsulating mythology alongside a plethora of other topics. One fascinating tid-bit I picked up was the natives’ reaction to Christianity. Granted I just alluded to Tribes of Mexica taking place in a Pre-Columbian setting — and a mythical one at that — without any traces of Spanish colonialism, but it was the reaction itself that was the interesting part.

As a bit of background info, sacrifice played an integral role in Aztec life. Yes, this included human sacrifices, but also relatively tame rituals such as small, daily bloodlettings. The sacrifices were not necessarily meant to appease cruel gods, but rather to pay back for the gods’ own sacrifices. It was something of a trade that the people had a responsibility to uphold; an honourable act rather than a horrific appeasement.

Still, when the natives heard the tales of Jesus’ own sacrifice, many were quick to embrace the religion. An undercurrent of sorts made itself apparent that revealed a certain dissatisfaction with the sacrificial obligations that burdened the Aztecs. This was something that was integral to the story I drafted, so it was nice seeing some validation of the concept.

Another fortuitous find was the imagery of rituals where the Aztecs danced around in circles. Of course this didn’t really have much to do with warfare, but it was a nice parallel to our core gameplay mechanic.

Overall my trip to the bookstore was a relatively small investment for a veritable treasure trove of content. Realistically speaking, only a fraction of it will ever find its way into the game, but it’s always better to have a surplus of ideas rather than a distinct lack of them.

Here are a few new concepts from Abel Oroz, a couple of in-game models by Elijah Brown, and a some minigame drafts by Derek Koncewicz:

Of course ToM isn’t meant to be a historical simulator, so why all the effort?

Well, three main reasons:

A resplendent Quetzal-feather headdress, one of the major iconic images of Aztec culture.

1). Not to be callous.

The conquest of Mesoamerica might not be an extremely touchy subject in Western media, but it was a nasty affair. What’s more, whenever exploring a new culture, it’s important to understand the context of its traditions and way of life. Without that, it’s incredibly easy to make faux pas, or worse.

2). To take advantage of existing material.

What’s the point of turning to an existing mythology and culture if its riches are to be ignored? Granted we had an idea for ToM’s core gameplay before anything else, but even that was enhanced by the setting. The research also helped to tie it together with other game mechanics and provided a canvas for the world itself and an overarching story.

3). To distinguish the game.

Ruined pyramids amidst the overgrowth of the jungle is a common image associated with the Aztecs, but there’s so much more! Looking into what other videogames, board games, movies, comics, cartoons, etc., focused on allowed us to not only identify the recognizable icons, but also to take note of the numerous cultural aspects that have never been mentioned. These in turn should go a long way toward making our game stand out from the crowd.

Tlaloc and Mictlantecutli, two gods that play a key role in ToM's story.

Keeping these points in mind, I did what most people do when they first research a new subject: I went online.

Starting with Wikipedia, I read about the various aspects of Aztec culture, paying specifically close attention to their mythology. I then went through some of the bigger one-stop resource websites such as Aztec History, Mexicolore and The Aztec World. Finally, I checked out countless blogs and smaller sites that focused on specific details.

Aside from learning about stuff like warfare, education, naming conventions, supernatural pantheons, etc., I took note of a lot of smaller but equally interesting tidbits. A large portion of them were a great fit for the existing base of the game, while others supplied me with some new and unique ideas.

Some examples:

• Although bartering was prevalent in the Aztec world, the cocoa bean was a natural currency. This was a great substitute for gold/coins, and provided me with lots of references to various goods and their relative values.
• For the sake of variety, I wanted to append the game’s combat scenarios with small, random boons and handicaps. The Aztec calendars — whose days/weeks were dedicated to various objects, entities and events — solved this by giving me an excuse for the mechanic and a more structured approach for its implementation.
• The Aztecs believed in three different versions of the afterlife, each one designated for people who died under specific circumstances. This was a rather unique take on the concept, and something that became a key point in ToM’s story.
• Smoke emanating from the ground was considered a sign of precious gems. Gameplay wise, I immediately saw this as a great tool for hinting at hidden treasures and a possible alternative to treasure chests themselves.

One of the giant head statues of the relatively unknown Olmecs.

• The Olmec civilization was revered by the Aztecs, and their giant head statues and face masks were visually gripping. This culture provided a sense of history and (pardon the rhyme) mystery, and its ruins became an obvious must have for in-game locations.

I made notes of many more points like these, and hopefully they’ll be able to add colour and enrich the final game.

Of course there’s also more to research than just websites, but I’ll talk about that more in future posts.

Here’s some our early concept work for Kelvin’s Space Ranch:

And as a neat little reference, here are a few screenshots from the previous title in the series:

A screenshot from an early prototype of Tribes of Mexica.

When I was first prototyping the game’s radial approach to colour-matching, I knew I wanted to make it combat-heavy. Something along the lines of Puzzle Quest, but in real time and with a few elements of fighting games. I also wanted an a unique setting; I suppose I could’ve created one from scratch like I’m wont to do with many of my ideas, but I decided against it. For our first title, I thought it’d be beneficial to use a pre-existing and somewhat recognizable universe.

Not wanting to resort to generic fantasy tropes, I took a look at some of the lesser known world-mythologies. There was definitely plenty of material to pick from in that rather broad category, but in the end I chose to go with the Aztecs.

The Aztec empire was quite immense and contained many amalgamated aspects of the societies that resided in current-day Mexico. Some of its vibrant imagery was fairly recognizable too, but as a whole I realized it was an underrepresented culture in Western media. As such it provided us with exactly what we needed: a setting with a mythology that was somewhat familiar yet largely unexplored.

Now the word Mexica is actually the indigenous term for the Nahua people who resided in the Valley of Mexico, not a misspelling. The empire they created started off as a tribe, but quickly grew to include multiple city-states and smaller towns and tribal villages that paid tribute (i.e., taxes) to the ruling body. This is what inspired the title “Tribes of Mexica” as it clearly hinted at the game’s setting while retaining the proper terminology.

During my research I also came across lots of other interesting information that fed back into the game and its creative process, but I’ll go deeper into that in future posts.

GameOn Finance took place inside an awesome building that used to serve as the Toronto Stock Exchange.

There weren’t any publishers at GameOn Finance, but it was still an incredibly useful experience. I returned home with 50+ business cards given to me by everyone from freelance contractors to venture capitalists. Along the way, I also made a few notes:

• Although there are some Venture Capital firms that target game companies, those are few and far between. VC deals are usually based on networking and connections, and rarely happen as a result of direct pitches from unknown sources. The amounts of money involved are also very large and not really suitable for small startups.
• Angel Investors are a better bet, but even they expect to control large chunk of the company and receive a return of 3-10 times their original investment. For a list of AIs, check out this link.

A shot of the 1-on-1 meetings. I had a few of these myself, including a rather interesting chat Jason Della Rocca.

• Digital distribution is still growing and is seen as somewhat more stable than social and mobile gaming. Investors are excited about the possibilities of Facebook games thanks to the success of Zynga and Playfish, but are a bit wary of the bubble bursting. The mobile side of things is still mostly a mess, and even though the iPhone has been a huge success, its marketplace is very congested and therefore not that appealing.
• “Advergaming” is not really viable right now, and even the biggest online games only generate 7-8% of their revenue from ads. Smaller developers even mentioned that they stopped using ads altogether as their returns were too small to justify them.
• Locally in Ontario, OMDC is still the go-to organization for videogame related grants and tax returns, while Telefilm is currently restructuring but will return as part of the Canada New Media Fund. This should create a pretty significant work-for-hire market for developers interested in teaming up with TV IP holders.
• Mobile Capital Network provides consulting and aid in preparing tax returns and pitching for the above grants/funds. We will definitely be taking advantage of their services.
• Serious Games and the BREW-based Zeebo are seen as two promising venues for developers and publishers alike.
• EEDAR is a market research firm that not only helps publisher plan their releases, but can also aid developers with data for their pitches.

A shot of me at the after party. I'm pretty sure I asked for it too, but I wasn't expecting an extreme close-up.

Of course that’s not all that was mentioned at the event, but I think it’s a pretty good overview.

Oh, and for more photos, check out IO’s Flickr page!

Initially we had thrown together two quick splash pages, one for Incubator Games and one for Tribes of Mexica. They contained only basic information and served as good placeholder, but it was time to upgrade. Before we did, though, I wanted to do some research.

Our original splash page...

1). Preparation

Small developers have the advantage (and the obligation) of self-promotion. Without the red-tape of PR, concerns over trade secrets, time-lined marketing campaigns, etc., we can much more freely engage our audience. Consequently, being able to create posts just like this one was a big priority.

Now community involvement is a rather obvious point, but there’s more to indie game sites than just having a blog. To pinpoint some other themes, I visited 2D Boy, Wolfire, Tale of Tales, Introversion, The Behemoth, thatgamecompany and various other developer websites. Here are a few common things that popped up:

...and the Tribes of Mexica placeholder.

• Sticking to your true motives — whether they’re artistic endeavours or silly, humourous games — is a must. It might not always come across as professional, but one should remember that professional can be something of a synonym for impersonal. Besides, I seriously doubt any publishers would turn down World of Goo because its creators run a whimsical website.
• Sections for about/contact/games are pretty standard and should be easily accessible. You might want to create something more unique for your website, but I’d advise against it. New visitors won’t have a lot of patience, and if they can’t find out who you are and what you do in a short amount of time, they’ll leave.
• No one relies on Flash or large resolutions as that might alienate some users.
• Splash/title pages are common, but some sites simply use the news/blog section as the homepage.
• Aside from RSS, e-mail newsletters and subscriptions are always provided. These are either used to send out e-mail versions of the news posts, or simply as a delivery system for press releases.
• No one likes spam, so e-mail forms are pretty standard (although, as was pointed out in this thread, making your e-mail public isn’t such a big deal with GoogleApps).
• Stores are not always individual sections (sometimes they’re external or appended to each game’s individual page), but info on how to get the product into the user’s hands is always available.
• Photos of the teams and their offices are pretty common and help to add a humanizing touch.

With all that in mind, we designed a site that would look fairly sleek and uncluttered, and would fit the motif of our logo.

2). Wordpress

Once we had a visual design and a good idea of what content to include, we had to decide on the best way to actually create it. I had previously used WordPress for my blog and got pretty comfortable with it, so I decided to try it out for our website.

WordPress provides an integrated system for posting news items complete with comments and RSS, and an easy way to implement static pages. Its customization options are pretty good as well, and I knew it’d be able to support most (if not all) of our desired features.

What’s more, WordPress has a huge community behind it that creates various plugins. These plugins greatly enhance and append to the functionality of WordPress, and there’s one for just about anything you can imagine. The plugins we’re currently using on this site are:

• Akismet – anti-spam software also used by other plugins.
• WordPress.com Stats – traffic tracker.
• WordPress Automatic Upgrade – streamlined updating system for WP and its plugins.
• NextGEN Gallery – custom galleries manager with built-in image/thumbnail resizing, watermarks, tags, etc.
• WP-prettyPhoto – prettyPhoto lightbox clone used to open all WordPress and NextGEN images.
• WP Clean-Contact – e-mail form plugin.
• WP Email Capture – e-mail capture form (used for newsletters/mailing list services).
• Sociable – social bookmarking collection that can be appended to individual posts or the WordPress’ index view.

We had to tweak some of these plugins for our own purposes, but it wasn’t hard to incorporate them into the website.

As a side note, Pods is a plugin that can bring WordPress much closer to a fully-fledged CMS. We didn’t have time to try it ourselves, but we’ve heard good things and might give it a go in the future.

3). Nuts ‘n’ Bolts

One of the most useful resources for web developers (especially ones that are a bit rusty) is W3Schools. The site is filled with numerous tutorials and one-stop references for HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP and many more areas of web development.

The IE Developer Toolbar. Chances are, you'll be using this one the most.

Of course it’s often browser cross-compatibility that gives developers the most headaches, and that’s where developer tools come in. These include Firebug for Firefox, Dragonfly for Opera, IE Developer Toolbar for Internet Explorer, and Web Inspector for Safari and Google.

All of these applications share a lot of functionality, including the ability to inspect the properties of any element on the website. In short, the user can easily track down a component and view its box-model and HTML/CSS attributes. This might not sound like a lot, but it helps to visualize how the browser interprets and outputs the markup, and how rendering problems can be mitigated.

Another useful resource for browser cross-compatibility is BrowserShots. This free service can render a website as it would appear in various browsers at various resolutions. The screenshots it outputs can be viewed on the site or downloaded in a single zip — definitely useful.

In addition to these tools — and WordPress.com Stats — we’re making use of Google Analytics and StatCounter. All three of these applications are used to monitor traffic, but they also contain various levels of complexity and unique features that make each one worthwhile.

4). Promotion

Our webhost provides search engine submissions, so we took advantage of that instead of searching online for similar services. Providers for search engine submission certainly do exist, but the free ones seem to require a link-back, and we can’t personally vouch for the paid ones as we didn’t use them.

Social bookmarking sites have generated a fair amount of traffic for us in the past, so we made sure to include them, particularly the ones targeted at game development such as IndieGaming and GameDevKicks.

We also submitted our site to Open Directory and sent out a press release using Games Press, but, admittedly, there’s a lot left to do.

One final — and quite vital — source of traffic I’d like to mention is conventions. GameOn Finance and Vortex were recently held here in Toronto (in fact, the competition portion of Vortex is still going on), and we wanted to make sure that we had the new site ready for them. While at the conventions, I met lots of people and saw a significant spike in our direct traffic and referrals from LinkedIn.

And, of course, it’s just good to get out there and make yourselves known.

We even got our business cards early!

When things calm down a bit I’ll go into some detail on what we wanted to do with the site and how we did it, but for now everyone comment so I can test the custom gravatars!