Some of the most intense and stunning battles are fought not with guns, swords or fists, but with pillows!
A unique casual fighting game, Pillowfight lets players serve up powerful pillow beatings with simple controls and fast paced gameplay. With sexy characters, intense special attacks and lots of player customization, Pillowfight is quite unlike anything on the market.
Pillowfight's story began when some of Capybara's founders were taking a break from GDC 2006 preparations. We had wanted to bring a couple small concepts to GDC 2006 to flash in front of our publishing partners, but we hadn't really had time to formulate anything. During that break, creative director Kris Piotrowski sarcastically said "Here's an amazing idea: Let's make a pillow fighting game starring total babes!" We all had a good laugh, but the laughter quickly died off as we realized: "No seriously, let's make a pillow fighting game starring total babes." We created a one-page pitch for a casual-minded fighting game (starring total babes), slapped on a couple gorgeous mock-screenshots and headed off to GDC not really expecting much to come out of it...
Pillowfight
Fast forward a year, and Pillowfight has become one of Capybara's highlight projects. Our publisher I-play proved to be a perfect fit for the game, and I-play producer Chris Johnson helped us shape a simple yet engrossing one-thumb fighter that's more than just the sum of its.. um... parts.
Pillowfight was recently reviewed on both IGN and Mobilegamefaqs, receiving the IGN Editors Choice Award and the Mobilegamefaqs Gold Award respectively, proving that titles with sexy subject matter don't have to be devoid of great gaming experiences.
What went Right
1) Simple tools build better games
We made heavy use of tools during development, many of which were new, untested or developed specifically for this game. One tool we found to be a particular success was Capybara's custom "Fighter-Maker". Initially we began with an overcomplicated and un-flexible GUI, but when it became clear that the tool wasn't working, lead programmer Adam Rivard stepped in and quickly developed a simple yet robust spreadsheet-based tool that provided designers a greater level of control while taking very little time to learn. This let us easily test new fighter patterns, tweak timing and continuously refine fighter difficulty resulting in the fun and challenging opponents you see in the game today. Determining where to put Stef Summers' panty-flashing split attack took a lot of fine tuning... but it was worth it. We proved that effective and robust tools can be developed easily and inexpensively via tailoring commercial or freeware applications to our needs. It isn't always necessary to reinvent the wheel when it comes to tool creation.
2) Seeing eye-to-eye with I-play
From the get-go, Capybara and I-play were on the same page. We understood that, due to our subject matter (total babes with pillows) we had to make a great game to back it up, or the game could be cast aside as drivel like so many other sexy-themed games. I-play provided focus testing information early and often, which helped us figure out where we were succeeding, and where we were failing. Constant constructive feedback flowing from I-play producer Chris Johnson to Capybara producer Tim Maly meant we could always clear up issues as they arose, keeping us from wasting precious development time. From the first menus, to the character customization, to slamming your gorgeous opponent in the face with goose-down, Pillowfight development played out as a team effort between developer and publisher, with the end result being a game we are both proud of (and can actually show our mothers...maybe).
3) Hey Pretty Ladies (wink)
We didn't kid ourselves about Pillowfight - we knew from the first conversation this game would live or die on the quality of visuals, and in the end the art in Pillowfight definitely went right....sexily right. We knew we wanted larger characters in order to give each fighter some personality, but there were huge issues with both heap and JAR limitations. Tasked with creating these beautiful pillow assassins, Lead Artists (and twins) Mike and Vic Nguyen focused immediately on making each character special. Everything from idle animations to special attacks were drawn, animated, broken into body-parts so that they could be compressed on the heap and jar, and then put back together through our code/art tools combination. Supporting the Nguyen's amazing sprite art was programmer Kenneth Yeung's amazing procedural effect touches on everything from the menus to spewing feathers on impact. The end result was immensely satisfying visuals that we're all very proud of...and often stare at...
4) One-Thumb Fighter
We researched as many mobile fighting games as we could get our hands on and we rarely enjoyed what we played. Because of the extreme control limitations every mobile game faces, it was clear to us that trying to emulate arcade-style fighting would just lead us to an over-bloated and clunky experience. We really wanted to avoid that, so designer Matt Repetski and the team decided try to create something that was more akin to Mike Tyson's Punch Out than it was to Street Fighter. By focusing on a very simple move set, our game became much more about timing and reading the opponent's attack pattern, instead of cumbersome movement and complex button inputs. Focusing on these key areas helped us deliver a fighter that is appealing to the hardcore crowd, but was easy enough for a casual player to pick up and play. Furthermore, this approach let players spend less time fumbling with buttons and memorizing special moves and more time looking at pretty ladies hitting each other with pillows, which was also one of our objectives. Mission accomplished!
