It is an understatement to say the course of the past year has been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a more focused view, the video games industry has been affected both positively and negatively by the pandemic. Internet usage spiked during the pandemic, and certain games have seen record profits as a byproduct of the pandemic keeping players inside. Gaming organizations have come together to raise funds for impacted communities, and technology has made it easier than ever to connect with people from the comfort of one's home.
On the flip side, the gaming industry has also seen massive shifts in how it operates. Numerous gaming studios were forced to transfer to a work-from-home system, and development on multiple games slowed. Fans are quite familiar with game delays nowadays, but are more often understandable than not. One such game that felt the effects of the pandemic is Loddlenaut, an underwater survival game inspired by Subnautica, the Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure 2, and more. Game ZXC spoke to one of its developers, Ricardo Escobar, about his experience developing a game during the pandemic.
Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Moon Lagoon is an indie game studio comprised of two developers, Escobar and Jin-Young Sohn. Its first project is Loddlenaut, which actually started as a thesis project when the two developers were students at NYU. Like almost all developers, they had to find ways to continue working on their game in a changing environment. Even humongous game developers like Microsoft found ways to work during the pandemic. Luckily, Loddlenaut's two developers live together. Escobar and Sohn didn't have to grapple with transitioning from an in-office workplace to an at-home one, so they were able to avoid some of the trouble the pandemic caused for game developers. However, it opened up new challenges, according to Escobar.
"It’s hard to compartmentalize a project if you’re stuck in your room working on it constantly. It’s one thing to be super motivated to work on a game, but if you’re forced into one room and you can’t do anything other than what you can do inside, then it’s like, ‘Well, if I can’t go outside, then maybe I’m wasting time if I’m not working on the game 24/7.’ So it’s been really hard for us to resist that urge. I think we’ve managed it pretty well, but the lockdown started while we were still students and wrapping up the thesis side of this project."
While understandable, it is unfortunate to have the feeling that a game's development is progressing too slowly. With official development on Loddlenaut starting earlier this year, Moon Lagoon was thankfully able to avoid big interruptions stemming from the pandemic. Mostly, the developers were unable to participate in different end-of-year showcases at NYU, which was disappointing for them. Escobar also says he looks forward to actually having people in front of him trying out Loddlenaut for the first time, and giving in-person feedback.
Energy Grid Issues in Texas
The developers for Loddlenaut are based in Austin, Texas, which has led to other non-pandemic complications. Earlier this year, several video games studios had to shut down during winter storms in Texas that left millions without power or heat. Surprisingly, Texas's energy grid is stressed out yet again due to the heat, which has more directly affected Loddlenaut's developers. Rolling blackouts are becoming a common occurrence in places such as Texas to reduce the energy consumption from an area, according to Escobar.
"We’re very lucky that we live on the same electrical grid as a hospital. So even though everyone’s power went out [during the winter storms], ours did not, as they wanted to make sure that hospital stayed operating. We’ve been more affected with the Texas grid being more stressed out again, because of the heat. Every weekend or so we have the power go out. We actually had the power go out the day after we launched our Kickstarter, and we’re very lucky it didn’t go out the moment we hit the launch button."
Regardless, Loddlenaut was able to run a successful Kickstarter campaign, and its developers are still eyeing a 2022 release. Some Kickstarter backers will have access to an alpha version of Loddlenaut by the end of this year, and a beta sometime in 2022. Various indie games like Valheim launched in Early Access on Steam to help get player feedback, and Moon Lagoon is still toying with the idea.
In any case, Loddlenaut is another example of how environmental stressors like a pandemic or blackout can harm all kinds of developers. Countless games, from smaller indies to Resident Evil Village, were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the newfound attention the game is receiving, and a quickly expanding community interested in the game, Loddlenaut has a brighter future ahead.
Loddlenaut is in development for PC with an anticipated release in 2022.
Source: Kickstarter