The road to GaMaYo Day on Thursday 23rd November continues and so does our look at the incredible games that are going to be on show as well as the more talks with the incredible people behind them!
Next up we would like to show you…
Clodhoppers
This is being developed by the team over at Claymatic Games and we asked Malcolm Reed to tell us a bit more about the game before people get a chance to try it out in November!
Q. What would be your description of Clodhoppers?
Mal “Clodhoppers is a light-hearted, pick up ‘n’ play, arena-based brawler rendered in a clay animated style. It’s Super Smash Bros meets Worms mixed with Gang Beasts, laced with Wallace and Gromit and a dash of zany humour, starring the inhabitants of the world’s strangest rural community.”
Q. How did development begin? Were there any key inspirations or ideas that drove you?
Mal “The game is inspired from an older IP, Cletus Clay, an Xbox game made with stop-motion photographic sprites, that sadly didn’t make it to release. We dusted off an old demo of the game and took it along to a Ga-Ma-Yo event in Leeds to see how it was received. The visual style and slapstick humour still resonated strongly and people loved the fact they could combat each other even though it was a co-op demo!”
Q. Tell us a bit about Claymatic Games and the team working on Clodhoppers?
Mal “The team was formed from a group of friends who’ve been making games for quite some time. Anthony Flack was the original creator of Cletus Clay and design lead. Stuart Yahram and Mal Reed were brought in originally as contractors to see what could be done with the IP and Clodhoppers was born. Soon after the group formed Claymatic Games to work on the game.”
Q. As an individual or team, what experiences do you hope to bring to the players?
Mal “From our earliest talks about what Clodhoppers should be, we decided to ‘follow the fun’ and importantly develop the game in-the-open. We made Discord our base for all our game dev discussions, produced weekly builds and invited people to join us.
So we’ve been playing the game with people all through development, it’s a lot of fun. Game sessions are always filled with laughter and much of it aimed at yourself – it’s packed with zany unpredictable antics – you just can’t take it too seriously and that’s what we love about it.”
Q. In 10 words or less, highlight the appeal of Clodhoppers?
Mal “Play with friends and have tons of fun and laughter.”
Q. How have you found the experience of open development of Clodhoppers?
Mal “Initially the concept was rather strange as we’ve all come from a background of making games in ‘secret’ – often tied into your employment contract! So being able to make that decision was rather liberating and alien all at the same time. The experience has been great though, we get valuable feedback on features throughout development and that as a driver builds confidence in the product. We’ve also made friends and even hired one of our Discord members as a community manager.”
