Note: This is an article I wrote for the latest issue of JumpButton Magazine. The words of the article are below, but I highly encourage you do view the PDF version to see the great layout with images from Antichamber. More than that, it’s a great magazine, so head over to Jumpbutton’s Magcloud site and get a copy (the digital version is free).
Antichamber.
Alex Bruce.
The first is the name of an award-winning indie game; the second is the single man behind it.
In reality, they’re both the same thing. You can’t separate Alex Bruce from Antichamber any more than you could create Antichamber without Alex Bruce. The development of one is the development of the other.
And the creation of Antichamber, it would seem, has been a continual cycle of improvement.
‘You go past a whole lot of things that you don’t understand,’ Alex says to me as I play, his voice in my ear low and even, ‘but the thing that actually solves it is your understanding.’
It’s statements like this that, when conveyed in isolation, make it difficult to know whether Alex Bruce is giving life advice or talking about his game.
Perhaps the start of the next sentence–‘Of course, if you’ve got the double jump boots or whatever…’–clearly gives away the answer, but it goes a long way in showing how much the sentiment of one is reflected in the other.
“You’ll encounter a situation where you’ll look at something and say ‘I can’t do this yet’, but realistically it’s just that you haven’t learned HOW to do it yet.”
Getting out of here
Very early in Antichamber, you’ll find yourself presented with a choice of going up one staircase, or going down another. Regardless of which you choose, you’ll quickly find yourself walking in a circle, and seemingly back to the start of the same staircase.
You’ll eventually notice a sign that recommends you turn around and go the other way.
It’s counterintuitive.
Surely there’s no point doing that, you’ve been there before. Surely you’re meant to power forward like you always do. FPS maps don’t change.
But soon enough–with Alex sitting next to me, studying me as I play–I finally turn around to discover a new path is there instead of the one I just walked.
‘Are you dropping a new piece of the map in there once the player turns around?’ I ask.
His response is nothing but a knowing smile; a silent sign of approval to a new student.
I wasn’t more than a few minutes into the game and I had already been bested. I did not give up.
A couple of years ago, Alex worked himself into a spiral of depression in an attempt to prepare Antichamber (then known as Hazard: The Journey of Life) for its first competition, Sense of Wonder Night 2009 (part of the Tokyo Game Show).
Alex always wanted to go to Japan. He planned a trip inspired by the competition and his own sense of wonder. He was then contacted to say he was a finalist. He won.
The trip cleared his head. He came back renewed, refreshed and with a new outlook on his project.
The change has allowed Alex to enter his game into 10 competitions, receiving 10 nominations for best game and landed him somewhere from $30,000–$50,000 in prize money.
Try and stay negative after that run!
Upon Antichamber’s eventual release later this year, the player will see that it’s filled with messages to help propel them forward, many appearing ‘after the fact’ as reinforcement, or as clues on how to reinvestigate an area or idea.
“Venturing into the unknown can lead to great rewards.”
“If you never stop trying you’ll get there eventually.”
“Even things that seem insignificant at the time can have a great impact on how we think about problems later on.”
“Failing to succeed does not mean failing to progress.”
“How we perceive a problem can change every time we see it.”
As evident by the examples above, the messages are relatively positive and could be read for wider inspiration. But, given what was actually happening in Alex’s life, the messages in Antichamber were not ones he could identify with.
“So in the context of progress, which way is your camera view looking right now?
Forwards
And what have you done several times previously to move forward?
Gone backwards
So to progress forwards you may need to work backwards.”
Being the principled man that he is, Alex refuses to put anything in his game that he can’t fully stand behind. If the player reads, sees or enacts anything, Alex wants it to be a true reflection of himself.
As easy as it would have been, then, to simply change the messaging in the game, Alex realised that he preferred what was in the game to what was in his mind…
So he changed his outlook on life instead.
Why wouldn’t you?
“So I was getting all this feedback, like ‘maybe you should have it flash red if you’re doing it wrong, maybe they should be colour coded so I know immediately what I’m doing, maybe the map should highlight where things are.”
Taking the hard path to the easy life
This is where the real development cycle of Antichamber began.
It’s so easy to jump on that slide that takes us on a ride to the bottom isn’t it? But speak to Alex now and he’ll be a constant stream of positivity, you’d never know there was a downside to his work and the life of an independent game developer.
“Don’t go back that way, that’s the failure path, and I say failure because it’s the most obvious path, not because it’s wrong”
During Alex’s acceptance speech after winning the Best Game and Best Game Design awards at Melbourne’s Freeplay Independent Games Festival 2011, Alex imparted some advice:
‘See what is within your realm of possibility, then set the bar much higher.’
Read alone, it’s simple and straight forward, much like the messages you’ll come across in Antichamber. However, put that sentiment within the context of many others being made in the field of game development, and it’s a breath of fresh air.
At that same festival, industry veterans mirrored a common piece advice that failure is OK, you just learn from it.
But why accept that? Why settle for anything but the best?
This is Alex’s first game, and he’s set his own bar extremely high. He’s not stepping on the carcasses of failed games to get to the top; he can see the goal in the distance and is meticulously crafting his way there, step by step.
A game defying an industry
One look at the heavenly whiteness and brightness of Antichamber, and you’ll quickly forget the drab, grey and brown of many modern video games.
The visual style was one that Alex came to simply. Antichamber started as an experiment, and expanded into a full game with striking visuals.
Just imagine walking into an art show, and in a room full of traditional, beautiful landscape paintings, there’s one in the corner that consists of bright colours splashed over a white canvas titled ‘Antichamber’.
Despite this concerted effort, when showing the game at various trade shows and gaming events around the world, Alex has still been asked questions such as: ‘How is this going to appeal to my little girl?’ Or the now classic, ‘How would you sell this to the Call of Duty market?’
The mere fact that there isn’t an answer to those questions means Alex is on the right track. In fact, despite using similar epigenetics, Alex intends for it to not appeal to that ‘shooter’ audience, and has said he’d be fine if the game didn’t sell a single copy (as outrageous as that may sound) because of the lessons he’s learned throughout the journey of its creation.
“Games these days are getting more and more about dumbing things down or making sure everyone can play them, but you can do that without making it blatantly easy, without putting HUD text everywhere. There’s no HUD in this game other than the cross-hair, which I should probably remove at some stage as well.”
“I’m not putting any shininess to help out for a specific reason. Cos that’s so standard. The reason the game stands out is because it looks nothing like a normal game. I’ve had other people come up to me and say, ‘You should put textures in the game.’ And I say ‘Why? That’s just going to take it closer to everything else.”
You can’t pigeonhole Antichamber. And Alex’s desire to make the game a reflection of himself is a large part of the reason why.
‘People haven’t played something like this before; it’s not a mechanical game, it’s a psychological game,’ explains Alex.
Consequently, it’s quite entertaining reading and listening to people’s attempts at explaining what Antichamber is. It’s also interesting to see Alex’s responses to other’s descriptions and interpretations via Twitter (@demruth for those so inclined).
‘Trying to describe the hour I spent with Alexander Bruce’s PAX 10 Finalist indie game, Antichamber, is going to be one of the most difficult descriptive feats I’ve ever attempted. I think that the big hang-up is that it’s going to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.’ —Griffin McElroy, Joystiq
To which Alex responded:
‘Griffin spent quite a while at the Antichamber booth, talking to me, watching other people play, playing the game, then watching more people play while I spoke about things. It really shows in this review. He got it.’
Then there are the other attempts:
‘Escher painting meets Bastion, then someone did some heroin and threw paint on a wall.’ —Blair Herter, G4TV
And:
‘This game is trippy as hell, and will bend your perception of the world into impossible angles.’ —Ken Ellis, DIY Gamer
Then, of course, there are less-refined responses, such as:
‘The craziest… the one that I still have no idea what the fuck is going on is Antichamber’ —Ryan Davis, Giant Bomb
But the trick to understanding doesn’t necessarily lie in the game. Anyone can play a game and understand its mechanics. Playing a game and understanding its meaning, and giving it definition, however…?
That’s a whole different question.
It’s not so much that Alex doesn’t want you to ‘get’ his game. In fact, given the right circumstances and prodding, he’s more than willing to describe how much of him is in there.
Unfortunately, though, not everyone will be able to play Antichamber while sitting next to Alex Bruce.
“I can see by the way you’re playing that you can see other paths, but you’re thinking ‘this one seems easier.’ Which is totally fine. The game will feel good to you because it’s adjusting to the way you’re playing.”
Escaping the regular
Even now—despite the quotes and screen art, the in-game references and these words—perhaps you still have no idea what Antichamber is. Perhaps you’re still unaware of what you actually do in the game, how the mechanics work, whether or not there are ‘weapons’ or ‘tools’, or a clock counting down, or even how the different areas are connected to each other.
Good.
When Antichamber eventually comes out, like you, players will finally have the chance to decide what the game is and what it represents for themselves. As it should be.
Of course, should you become overwhelmed and need to escape, all you need to do is hit the appropriate key and you’ll be back at the central hub, allowing you to renew, refresh, and get another outlook.
Unsurprisingly, it’s the same process that led to Antichamber. That changed Alex’s life. That led to Antichamber.
It’s a game that resonates with those who play it, but so far few have put their finger on what it is or why.
The answer is as complex as it is simple:
Alex Bruce.
For a team that developed Apple’s iPad Game of the Year, was nominated for a BAFTA, and has made some of the best received iOS adaptations of console games, IronMonkey Studios doesn’t often enter the public conversation.
