Omega Warp dev discusses the challenges of creating indie games

Omega Warp is a sci-fi Metroidvania that follows a crew of mechanics as they’re called to investigate a space freighter’s loss of communication with Earth, a mission that forces them to face aliens, robots, and a rogue faction of humans.

The game pushes you to explore the six decks of the space freighter as you uncover the truth of what happened and uncover secrets, all while steadily unlocking new abilities and acquiring weapons to help you.

“I wanted to tell a story with intrigue, create a futuristic sci-fi setting with lots of exploration and secrets,” solo dev Andre Schmitz of Cian Games told SimpleGamer, “where the player would start out weak but become powerful as the journey progresses.”

Despite its futuristic tone, the game’s visuals harken back to the SNES era with 2D graphics that help set the scene of a dank, expansive space freighter. The game’s inspirations, however, take on more modern-day roots from “several Metroidvanias” like Super Metroid, Alien Infestation, and Metroid Fusion, as well as “other good science fiction or survival horror games” – Dead Space, Resident Evil, System Shock 2, and Mass Effect are cited as references.

Having played the game I felt the inspiration and adored the way Schmitz embraces Omega Warp‘s sci-fi nature, but, as mentioned in my review, I feel Omega Warp could have done more mechanically and design-wise.

“Since Omega Warp was a self-funded project, financial resources were scarce,” he explained, highlighting one of the many challenges indie developers face in their journey to create and publish games. “Since it was made by a small team, practically just me with some outsourced artists, time was a big issue as well.”

These time restraints led Schmitz to drop a fast travel mechanic from Omega Warp, but the dev hints that, although he has no plans for new content, it could be added to the game in the future through an update.

While indie devs are more often hit by these hard restraints, the triple-A industry faces its own set of problems.

“The AAA industry is certainly focused on results, especially financial ones, due to the high levels of investment”, Schmitz explained. “This greatly limits the creation of new IP [Intellectual Property], as they avoid creating a game with huge investments that the public may not accept.”

“I feel that the AAA industry tends to focus more on franchises that are known and accepted by the public,” he continued, “especially due to the number of remakes, remasters, and reboots that have occurred in recent years. Indie games, on the other hand, have greater creative freedom and generally lower investments, which allows for greater risk related to new IP.”

Brazil, where Cian Games is based, is currently experiencing a gaming industrial boom. Reflecting on the change, Schmitz said: “Brazil is among the ten countries that most consume games in the world. It’s worth noting that many developers are already localising their games to Brazilian Portuguese, which was practically impossible 20 years ago.

“I feel that the local gaming industry is growing a lot and the interest of professionals in this area is increasing. All of this leads to an increase in the quality and acceptance of Brazilian games in the world, which is good for both the industry and the players.”

The challenging and turbulent nature of the gaming industry may put future devs off, but Cian Games encourages up-and-coming creators to try and utilise local and online communities for assistance, saying: “I see that there is room for everyone who dedicates themselves to this [gaming] area.

“The most important thing is to make games: make several small games, participate in GameJams, study the area you want to work in, whether through courses, books, tutorials, and more. Seek help in online communities and groups and in local communities in your region. There are always associations or people who can help, especially for those who are starting out.”

Throughout his work and the launch of Omega Warp, Schmitz still managed to find time to squeeze in some game time, praising the likes of Blasphemous 2, Sea of Stars, and Planet of Lana as three indie games that caught his attention in the last year.

Cian Games’ Omega Warp is available for PC via Steam now.