Get Into Games: BAFTA winner thanks ‘God’ Terry Cavanagh

Studio DOS members Silje Dahl, Nick La Rooy, Trond Fasteraune, Lars Andersen and Mattis Delerud.

There are many routes into the game industry, but seldom will the path be easy. That’s a truism BAFTA One To Watch award winners DOS Studios can vouch for, and then some.

Most of the team met up in their native Norway to create a game as a final year project in their Game Design course. That meant submitting an entry to the internationally renowned Dare To Be Digital competition, run by Abertay University. And ultimately it resulted in a £25,000 prize from Channel 4, a publishing deal and a rather pleasant addition to the mantelpiece in the form of a BAFTA gong.

Along the way they flew over to Dundee for a nine-week intensive development crunch and were assigned a Scottish ambassador – or in this case fifth team member Nick La Roy, from England. A period of hard graft, informed by the critical input of professional mentors and fellow Dare competitors, followed. It was a slog, admits DOS Studios CEO Mattis Delerud, but it was well worth it.

“I’d advise people to definitely apply,” he says. “But remember you have nine weeks – that’s the most important thing, because you can over-scope so much. That’s the easiest thing to do. I think 80 per cent of the people on Dare had too big a scope. There are lots of schools which don’t emphasise making a full game, so if you want to have the experience of developing games you should definitely apply.”

Flash forward nine months and a smartly-suited, tidily-bearded Delerud is on stage to receive his BAFTA and thank – among others – the Dare competition organisers and Super Hexagon creator Terry Cavanagh.

“Terry Cavanagh is an amazing source of inspiration to the whole team,” Delerud explains. “He is amazing at scoping game projects – that is a rare art in videogame development. Terry is like the God for us. Thanking Terry is something I had to do. Without him, Size Does Matter would not have existed and that’s mostly because of Super Hexagon.

“I was playing the game obsessively and it made me fail a subject at school… I love the game – it’s one of the best touch games I’ve ever played. I developed the core concept of our game and I was just thinking of how to make very small mechanics addictive, inspired by Super Hexagon. I just wanted to create a simple game, a ‘hardcore’ game that reaches so many people.”

The evidence of Cavanagh’s influence on Size Does Matter is unmistakable. Twitch gameplay, first-clenching difficulty levels, clean visuals and a chirpy soundtrack all speak to that. And, since the competition, Delerud has been in touch with Cavanagh to seek advice from his gaming hero. But what comes next is still a matter of some debate. In the short term, DOS Studios aims to have Size Does Matter in your online store of choice by the end of May. The game will be published with the help of Channel 4, who are taking a relatively modest 15 per cent slice of revenue in exchange for providing legal and publicity support, the latter of which could prove invaluable given the discoverability issues which are the bane of indie developers.

Super Hexagon inspired Size Does Matter’s neon-tinged look and twitch gameplay.

“If you win the Channel 4 award you get £25,000 and the option of Channel 4 publishing your game,” explains Delerud. “We spent the money mainly on Unity licenses and music licenses – we haven’t used revenue share because we have seven artists which would leave little revenue for us.”

After shelling out £1,800 to Abertay University as part of the IP arrangement stipulated in the Dare competition rules, DOS were then free to publish their game. “The Channel 4 deal is very good,” adds Delerud. “It’s definitely possible to succeed without a Channel 4 award and a BAFTA, but it’s a huge challenge to get discovered as an indie. One of the main things indies don’t do is show their product. Many of them are perfectionists. But showing your project early on is something you have to get used to. If you don’t show anything to the world you are never going to get publicity.”

There’s still time to enter this year’s Dare To Be Digital competition. The deadline for applications is 9am on Monday April 21. As well as support from mentors, students receive a funding to cover living expenses if they make it through to the nine-week development event in the summer and, of course, the chance to build contacts and win a BAFTA.

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