PAX 2011: Vessel Interview With Martin Farren

One of the best places to go during PAX is the Indie area. Away from the larger throngs of PAX attendees, the loud music of Dance Central, and the 5hr line for Mass Effect 3, are the games who's budgets are far, far away from six figures but, sometimes, just as amazing.

One of those games is Vessel, a 2-d platformer with a striking art style that has the player using a combination of liquid physics and sentient creatures called Fluro's  to solve the games many puzzles. You play as the inventor of the Fluro's, sentient beings made of liquid that the world has utilized for cheap labor leading to new industrial revolution. That is, until things start to go wrong, and you are tasked with exploring the shut-down factories in search of the problem.

I had the chance to play Vessel and to sit down with Martin Farren, Technical Director and co-founder of Strange Loop Games, for a nice talk about all things liquid. Have a read, then watch the official trailer at the bottom to get an idea of how the game looks in action.

JC: So we're looking at Vessel today, and you've described it as a liquid physics based puzzle game.

MF: yeah, absolutely right. It's our the first game, and it's a 2-d platformer, but it's a puzzle game that's heavily influenced on fluid physics. So in all the puzzles you're really manipulating different types of fluid, and also you're creating creatures composed of different types of fluid, and each of these creatures also have their own variations and own unique behaviors.

JC: And whats a little history of the game, it looks to have a very Steampunk style to it.

MF: Yeah we've gone through a few variations. Our artists are based in Australia and they've just done an amazing job getting a very unique look. But as far as the story goes, and the kind of theme we're bringing out, it was really based on the core mechanics of the game that we started out with initially being the liquid physics, and what we could do with that mechanic, and the chemical reactions of different types of fluid. We really built the storyline around that, and we came up with this inventor in this sort of Steampunky world, a type of alternative universe where you created these inventions called 'Fluros' which are these creatures composed entirely out of fluid. And the world quickly adopted this as a source of free labor. So all the factories started using them, and really the world took off with a new (industrial) revolution. But over time, the Fluro's started malfunctioning, they started evolving, and all these factories started to shut down. So now you're the inventory going back to all these factory sites, cause you feel an obligation. You created all this life and now it's not doing what you intended. So you're going back to try and right what you feel was wronged.

JC: I noticed that the Fluro's have the ability to jump on switches, in what other ways are they able to interact with the world?

MF: Those are the operator Fluro's, and that's the first Fluro you get to. They're main behavior is they are able to push buttons, so the early puzzles are using them to do that. Other variations are the Chaser Fluro which chases you, and if they are made of lava that’s obviously pretty hazardous. We have Light and Dark Fluro's. Light Fluro's go toward light and Dark Fluro's are afraid of light. One of the worlds is heavily light and dark focused, it's a mine underground and you're using Glow-Goo and spraying that to setup the environment. Then there are also Drinker Fluro's which suck up fluid and there are two variations of those. Splitters, which split in two when they suck up too much fluid and will continue to multiply.

JC: Hah...they birth more of themselves like self-replicating machines.

MF: yeah almost like a Gremlins type thing. And then there is also the Exploders which, when they suck up too much fluid they overload and explode. And you'll be creating the Fluro's from the different elements in the game, we have Water, Lava, Glow-Goo, and sort of binary fluids Red-Goo and Blue-Goo which are harmless when they are separate but when combined they explode. We also have variations between those fluids. For example, when water and lava combine it creates steam and steam is also used in the puzzles. There's really a plethora of what you can do, and all the different mechanics that this simple simulation entails.

JC: I really love how all these liquids interact with each other.

MF: There's this whole notion that we would have a really heavy interaction between fluid types, and selecting the correct Fluro with the correct behavior, for each puzzle. And each of the worlds is based, primarily, on one of the fluids.

JC: Ah, so is it setup like a Water World and then a Lava World...?

MF: Yeah, the water is just an introduction fluid. We have a Lava World which is the factory, the Glow-Goo World which is mines, and then the Red and Blue Goo which is the Tree World.

JC: You're a Seattle based developer?

MF: We're a Seattle based developer and some of our artists and contractors are based in Australia.

JC: I live in Seattle as well and looking at the fluid based gameplay and all the rain in the game, I'm sure some might wonder if living in a presumably rainy place like Seattle might act as some inspiration.

MF: I would say not really because John was living in Australia when we really formed and started working on Vessel. John was in Australia at the time, Pandemic Studios had just shut down and I moved back to Michigan in the United States. We worked for a year and a half before we actually met up for the first time at an awards show in Las Vegas. So now we work with all the guys in Australia who are amazing. We all used to work together at Pandemic Studios.

JC: I also really like the main character himself. Are there any other human characters you meet as you progress through the story?

MF: The storyline is a little but under wraps currently, but the inventor is the center of the story, and the Fluro's themselves are really your main interaction with the environment. The Fluro's are sort of a neutral party, and there is also this thought of “are they robots or are they real life?” They have pretty predictable behavior in the sense that they are not out there to harm you, but at the same time if you summon a Chaser Fluro out of lava, and he starts chasing you...

JC: So you can really harm yourself then.

MF: Absolutely. You know part of the fun is that you get into some frustrating situations where Fluro's are running toward you and you're panicking a bit but it's all in good fun.

JC: I noticed he has a tool rig of sorts where he can pull in fluid and shoot fluid as well. Is that the only type of tool he has, or are there other tools that help you to further interact with the fluid?

MF: Right. So you have all these machines in the game and in the puzzles that you're manipulating. You have the different Fluro seeds that you can drop down to create different Fluro types, as well as your backpack which can be used to suck up fluid and spray fluid which makes you more portable throughout the level. Those are your main tools. There are some upgrades that are optional throughout the game. We have a currency called Protoplasm which is found in a lot of hidden areas and hidden puzzles in the game which you can collect as reward. Then, in your workshop you can use it to purchase different nozzle types or different canister types.

JC: You mentioned hidden rooms and areas. Is there a type of backtracking system in the vein of Metroid, where there are different areas you can only access if you upgrade?

MF: It's more of a linear game. But, you can solve every puzzle as you get to it or, if you do get stumped, you can continue to progress and come back to it later. We're trying to give some flexibility so you don't have to solve every single puzzle to progress to the next world, but you will have to solve a majority of them.

JC: I see, so there's actually a lot of exploration involved?

MF: Absolutely. We want to encourage people to come back to older levels after you complete them because as you acquire more and more stuff you can complete the puzzle in different ways. So we're hoping there will be a high replay value to the experience. And some of those hidden levels can only be found or reached once you get those later upgrades, so I think people are going to have a lot of fun re-exploring the game once they have those new abilities.

JC: Nice, and what platforms are we going to see Vessel on?

MF: It's going to be released on XBLA, PSN, and PC download through Steam and a bunch of other sites. And that will be winter of this year.

JC: Sounds fantastic. Thanks so much for talking to us today.

MF: No problem, thanks.