Mike Bithell On Why He Can’t Leave Thomas Alone

Thomas Was Alone propelled Mike Bithell into indie developer stardom, as the game’s charming narration and story brought its quadrilateral cast of characters to life.

Since then, Mike has moved on to other projects, with the vastly more ambitious Volume pegged for release later this year, but we sat down with him for a chat, not about Volume, but about another project which he has been keeping close to his chest.

---

TSA: So, I believe you have an announcement about a new game that you’re releasing?

Mike Bithell: So, yes. Well, it’s an old game that we’re releasing again, um… [laughs]

It’s Thomas Was Alone…

TSA: Oh, so is this a HD re-release, or something?

Mike: Well, it’s a Retina re-release, which is interesting!

All joking aside, it’s cool actually. That aspect of it in particular, as a design geek, is actually one of the coolest things, that it looks really sharp.

So yeah, it’s an iPad version of Thomas Was Alone.

TSA: How did you end up coming to this decision?

Mike: It took some convincing and it took me a little while, because I was like, “Really? An iPad version doesn’t sound very good.” because in my head it was very controller focussed.

I know guys enjoy it in their living rooms and on their computers, and I felt it’s not really an iPad experience, but Bossa did me a little demo and I was like, “Yeah, that’s actually pretty cool. I would not be ashamed to put my name to it.”

Then we spent a good couple of months, and I tweaked it and fiddled with it and it’s lovely now. It’s something I’m really proud of and we’ve got it to a really good stage, I think.

TSA: So, this is just coming to the iPad at the moment, but are there plans to bring it to Android, perhaps?

Mike: If people seem to want it, we would definitely consider it. It’s early days, though. For now we’re just focussing on the iPad, but we’ll see. It really depends on how it goes down and if it finds an audience on mobile devices, then the sky’s the limit, really!

TSA: Well, Windows Phone’s the limit, surely… [laughs]

Mike: [laughs] I have a Windows Phone, actually!

I wouldn’t even rule that out, if I thought people would play it.

TSA: You worked with Curve Studios before, for the PlayStation ports, and now with Bossa for this iPad release. How important is it for indie developers to have these companies who are willing to do the dogsbody work for these ports?

Mike: I wouldn’t call it dogsbody work, because in both Bossa’s case and Curve’s case, there’s a great deal of work to do that. It’s not just the brute force thing of making it work, there’s a finesse to making it feel really good on each of the platforms.

That said, I think the big thing is that I’m an indie and I became an indie because I wanted to make whatever the [*%^@] I wanted, and honestly, I want to be working on Volume and doing cool new stuff. What having these external companies work with me allows me to do is to make sure the game an come to as many places as people want it, while not having to do it all myself. Having other people to help with that is massively important.

At the same time, it’s crucial that we make sure we make a game that’s good. I don’t want a shitty port of any of my games, ever, on any platform. That’s unacceptable. So we’ve worked hard and I think we’ve gotten somewhere nice.

TSA: Do you think it’s taken much time and effort away from Volume?

Mike: Honestly, I think it’s taken less time away from Volume and more time away from Twitter…

TSA: [laughs] Yes, I’ve noticed that you’ve been tweeting less lately…

Mike: It varies from person to person, but the way I work is that I’ll have really concentrated periods, and then I’ll have others where I’ll spend an hour looking at articles on the web. What this has really done is given me a more productive use of that time.

So I wouldn’t say it’s had any impact on Volume, whatsoever, in terms of how long Volume is taking to make or how much effort I’m able to put in. Volume’s going exactly as it always did, it just means that this is a little side thing where, when I’m bored of Volume, I can take a little break and do something cool on this.

TSA: In coming to a mobile platform, iOS and Android have come to be largely dominated by free to play, something you’ve been quite outspoken about…

Mike: [laughs] Have I really?

TSA: I think maybe on Twitter a while back, but you don’t go on there anymore…

Mike: Yeah, I can’t remember ever saying about free to play…

TSA: Well, this is surely an experiment for you to see if it’s viable, not just for your games but even just paid apps?

Mike: Well this is free to play, so each character is £10, and you unlock each of them as you play… so it’s about £200 in total… [laughs]

TSA: Those aren’t really microtransactions though, are they?

Friendly PR Man: Megatransactions?

Mike: Megatransactions! We’ve taken microtransactions to the next level!

So, no. This is a premium game, and it’s $10, the same as it is on desktop. That’s really an experiment to see if I have an audience on mobile platforms. if there is, great, that’s really useful information and that will guide what I do in future.

I’m sure there’s going to be people who say it should’ve been free to play or whatever…

TSA: Are you looking forward to having a Thomas Was A Clone come along three months later?

Mike: Well first of all, this has to be successful, because no-one clones an unsuccessful game, but in that imaginary future, I think it’s harder to clone than most games. I mean, you can’t clone Danny Wallace – God knows science has tried! [laughs]

TSA: There’s a secret lab somewhere…

Mike: There’s a secret lab trying to create lots of Dannys… I think the world would be a better place with lots of clones of Danny!

But you can’t copy my script, which is very easily copyrighted, level designs are harder, puzzle mechanics… so I think there’s a few things where if it’s super successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tries, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

TSA: Thomas has really stuck with you, even as you’ve been busy working and promoting Volume. Now you’ve got these Thomas Was Alone figurines. I think that’s something which might have passed some people by, so how did this idea come about?

Mike: Yes! So it started when I got a 3D printer, and I was just printing things off the internet. I printed a cube, which is a nice easy mesh to print out, and tweeted, “Hur-hur, I made a Thomas figure.” and the internet just went mad insisting that I make Thomas action figures.

I thought it was really funny and, conveniently, my girlfriend is a toymaker – she makes bespoke art toys – so we have all of these plastics and pigments and materials lying around, and I just went to my girlfriend, “Could you make a Thomas Was Alone action figure?”

So she kind of fiddled with it for a couple of days and we had a little set. I think I tweeted an image of the set, saying something like, “£20. Who wants it? Here’s a mailing list.” Something like 300 people signed up to that list, saying they wanted to buy them.

We’re now manufacturing an initial run of 300 sets, so you’d get all of them, and we’ll see!

TSA: If they’re really successful, could you see yourself doing an NFC-based sequel to go up against Skylanders and Disney Infinity?

Mike: I think Disney and Activision are safe…

TSA: But you could have interchangeable parts. It’d be fantastic!

Mike: I’m not sure I have the same commercial appeal as the Disney universe!

It’s just going to be interesting to see if anyone buys them, and then if we sell out of that first range, we’ll make more and see how it goes. It’s also interesting, going into Volume now, so that if people like these things we could approach and do more action figures.

TSA: Speaking of Volume again, how has this project been coming along?

Mike: Volume is getting there. Gameplay-wise, a lot of the code is there and working; we’re doing a lot of server and backend stuff now; I’m about to go into the studio with the actors and start putting this together… so yeah, it’s coming along, it’s just a lot of work now.

I’m very aware of the level of polish that I want to achieve. This thing has to feel like a very impressive project, so while it was fun doing a little rectangle game, now I’m playing with the big boys and want to do something more impressive.

It’s already fun, and that’s the important thing.

TSA: The way that Volume’s being developed must be quite similar to working with Bossa, in terms of decentralised work and collaboration?

Mike: Yeah. Well, Volume is about 9 people making the game and then a cast of 5 actors, so it’s pretty big. It’s a lot of sitting around in our living rooms Skyping each other. We’ve not done the full-on studio thing yet, but we’re going through the process.

TSA: It sounds like you’re surely on target for the 2014 release you had pencilled in?

Mike: We are hoping for 2014. I’ve got a feeling it might slip, but the bottom line is that Thomas Was Alone did really well, so I’m not in any rush to release and I can release it when it’s ready, basically.

If, towards the end of 2014, I’m feeling that it’s not quite there, then it may slip into 2015.

TSA: Finally, you recently teased a little thing about the villain, in the wake of the Call of Duty announcement, saying you’d have to find a way to out do them… have you been working with Kevin Spacey too?

Mike: [laughs] No! Kevin Spacey is unfortunately not on the project. I haven’t announced my villain yet, and I’m just waiting for him to sign the contract so we can be in the studio at the end of May recording his dialogue. But I’m not saying who it is yet.

I think there’s a certain ground of nerds who are very much going to enjoy my choice. I know I’m excited!

---

Thanks to Mike for sitting down to speak with us in a noisy Starbucks. You can read Blair’s thoughts on the iPad release, which were posted earlier today.