Exclusive Interview: Ryan Drag of Backflip Studios 1
By saying the three words incorrectly, I got a chance to interview Ryan Drag of Backflip Studios. Backflip just released Army of Darkness Defense on iOS devices. It’s incredible. Check out my video review here.
Tell me a little bit about yourself, how you wound up with Backflip Studios and what you do there.
I’m the Art Director at Backflp, and I’ve been with the company since a month after it started back in Mar. 2009. I worked at Midway games for a bit then had a similar lead artist job at a flash game company before Backflip. When we started, there were only five of us, myself being the only artist. Actually when I applied at Backflip my email was returned because they were so new they didn’t have email set up yet. After I did PaperToss and Ragdoll Blaster 2 we began to grow the art department to it’s now 5 full-time artists and 5 freelancers. We have a lot more programmers than artists so I’m still hiring.
What is some other previous video game work you’ve done?
I’ve worked on all of Backflip’s titles in some form, (although I did a lot more than usual on AoD). Before Backflip I worked on Blitz 2, Ballers 2, and a few others at Midway. Then I designed and did art for about a dozen flash games for a site called splashspot. Small(ish) games are my specialty and I plan to stay with this sort of work for as long as I can. You just never get bored or burnt out.
A very important question that will affect the rest of the interview: Do you like the Army of Darkness movie? And why?
I LOVE Army of Darkness. I saw in in theaters when I was really young and ever since have known it to be the best move of all time. In my office at Backflip I have a full-sized, framed, mint-condition, Japanese-release, movie-poster on the wall. I have seen it maybe one hundred times and can nearly recite every line start to finish from memory. In summary: I’m a pretty big fan. I’m also a fan of the Evil Dead movies but AoD is my favorite. Why do I like it? It’s hard to put into words really. Maybe I like most the fact that it fully embraces it’s over-the-top style, humor, and characters to make it so much more than a hokey horror movie. Truly it is a classic.
How did you guys secure the rights to the Army of Darkness movie? And all the sound effects?
Everything audible seems to be pulled straight from the film.
The funny thing is MGM came to us. I almost thought it was a prank because there at the top of their list of ideas was Army of Darkness. I may be the biggest fan, but I’m not the only fan at Backflip. We jumped on the opportunity. I’m not sure how much I can say about the specifics, but we were able to use most content from the movie with approval from MGM. It was pretty cool going through the raw, studio-recordings of all the lines.
How did you go about deciding on the type of game to make AoD? For the record, the ‘defense’ idea really worked. It seemed to make it easy to incorporate every possible element of the movie and totally feel like Army of Darkness. But did any genres come up?
I really pushed for the defense idea because the main part of the movie itself is a castle defense. We all agreed Ash had to be a huge part of the game, that the player needed to control. So, we made him your camera control and main weapon, but had him “auto-attack” to allow the user freedom to use abilities, and build units. Still, other ideas were thrown around. Everything from platformers, to pit-fights. Most of these didn’t grab the bulk of the movie too well. I really think we landed on the perfect scope and genre for this IP on the iPhone.
As the art director, explain how you went about the art direction of this game. It has a cartoony look to it, which is in line with the film. And for obsessive watchers like me (I’ve seen it about a hundred times myself) the characters, from specific heroes down to background characters, look exactly like their film counterparts.
I wanted to really exaggerate the characters because at that size, people still needed to connect with them. This drove most of the overall look. To maintain some of the darker feel of the movie each character was first molded in 3D, then cut up and arranged in game as a sort of “puppet”. This process created some of the more realistic textures. Each character had a movie-counterpart because the big fans know these characters and even know the “background” lines. I always laughed my ass off when “sword boy” comes running out in the movie.
Anything get left on the cutting room floor?
Several things were left out of the initial release for various reasons. I can’t say too much because some of these may appear as content updates. Some things were: Other characters, abilities, environments, and game modes. Overall we were really happy with the game we delivered, and most of these elements, though fun, would just be extra.
You say you prefer smaller games as to not get burnt out, which makes sense. But what if you had a chance to make a full-blown multi-platform Army of Darkness game?
One thing I learned about this experience is that it can be dangerous to work with an IP you are so attached to. Like I said, I’m a super-fan so it was hard to live up to even my own expectations. I feel the platform/scope/idea for this game helped keep me in check, but honestly I didn’t have much of a life for a while. With a much larger game I would just never leave the office, and maybe go insane. That being said, I don’t think given the choice I could say no to it.
And what would you vision that game to be like?
That’s a big question. I’m not sure what a “full-blown” AoD game would be, (but I would LOVE to play it). I know I would like to see Ash level/progress/grow like he does through the series. At the start of Evil Dead 1 he is just a scared kid, and by the end of AoD at S-Mart he is nearly a god. Everyone loves ash and I think at least that RPG element would be great.
You hinted at this a little bit, but can you confirm or deny a future of Blackflip and AoD?
I can’t confirm or deny anything, but I will continue to hint at content updates for the game.
Now, I’m all over the happenings of the video game industry. But I noticed a lack of AoD coverage. Is this due to marketing budget? I believe iOS games tend to sell themselves anyway, but for geek culture, I figure all the outlets would be all over this. Are you surprised?
Well part of that I’m sure is a budget thing. We were also on IGN, Spike TV, MSNBC, and several other “non-app” locations, but the best buzz always seems to come from the app-specific sites. We were also heavily promoted by apple on iTunes and in the App Store, which is really the best for point of purchase. Still with the IP that it is, I am a little surprised it wasn’t very viral.
What video games are you playing at the moment?
Portal 2 (duh), Starcraft 2 (I love strategy), Words With Friends (scrabble with spell-check), Backyard Monsters (the only Facebook game I enjoy). I try to keep my game genres diverse.
Should an Evil Dead 4 happen? If so, what would your take be? I’d like a continuation of the AoD alternate ending.
I don’t think Evil Dead 4 should happen. If you have seen Indiana Jones 4 you might get what I mean. I always assumed it would be: Ash is back in his time, but after saying the words wrong again has brought the Deadites with him. He would then be forced to go back to the cabin to stop it once and for all. It might sound cool, but would likely end up feeling forced. Still, the alternate ending might be “out-there” enough to make be it’s own movie.
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So there you have it. As an AoD fan and hardcore gamer, this sounded like a great way to make a game to appeal to everyone. Best video game to movie translation? You bet.
