Flashbulb Games, which is developing the upcoming brawlerRubber Warriors, has grown a lot in its seven years. Starting with four co-founders who were left in the cold when Microsoft shuttered their previous studio Press Play in 2016, they now employ a team of 45 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The road hasn’t been entirely smooth. As recently as December, thedemo ofRubber Warriors(titledRubber Royale Holiday Prologue)felt “at Steam’s mercy” according to developers, and that resulted in a well-received, but not widely discovered, initial outing. These kinds of challenges aren’t uncommon for mid-sized studios, which must also navigate the normal rigors of a growing business. Flashbulb co-founder and Rubberverse creative director Mikkel Thorsted recently spoke with Game Rant about the Flashbulb Games' growth, the upcomingRubber Warriorstitle, and more.The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
The Birth of Flashbulb Games and the Rubberverse
Q: Can you introduce yourself?
A:I am Mikkel Thorsted. I am the creative director of theRubber Banditsgame and also the next Rubberverse game. I’m a co-founder of Flashbulb Studios, which has been around for seven years or so. Before that, I founded another game studio about 15 years ago. That was Press Play, which was basically the same people, but we made some other games that you might know.Max: The Curse of Brotherhoodwas probably the biggest game we made during that time.
For the last year, we’ve been working on a new game in that universe, which we have calledRubber Royale, but that is actually not the name anymore. That’s not the name of the game. Currently, at Flashbulb, we have around 45 employees. We’re working on both theTrailmakersgame–that is actually most of the team–and then a little less than half of the team is working on theRubbergames. We are based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Q: How did Flashbulb get its start?
A:That’s a little bit back to what I said before–me and the three other co-founders also started our last game studio, which was called Press Play. It was acquired by Microsoft. We became a Microsoft Game Studio and worked at Microsoft for three years, and then Microsoft had strategic changes that made them close down most of the small studios, especially in Europe.
Press Play was closed, and we ran with it and started the Flashbulb with some of the key employees from Press Play. That was seven years ago. We knew that we were going to makeTrailmakers.We thought it was the only game we wanted to do, and it came about because we had worked on a prototype while we were Press Play. That was the prototype for what becameTrailmakers.
That same time, Press Play actually worked on three prototypes. When Press Play was closed, other Press Play developers formedGhost Ship Games who madeDeep Rock Galacticwhich was also one of the prototypes from back then. Almost all the people from Press Play went either to Flashbulb or Ghost Ship.
Q: Can you dive into Flashbulb’s overall approach to game design?
A:For us, we’ve been very passion-driven in our development. We start with base ideas and mechanics, and we just keep experimenting. Every time something feels right, we will attempt to discover more in that direction. We follow the fun until we have something that we can see as a whole game. I think, to a large extent, that has helped make usus.
We started with the basic idea that it could be really fun to make something with modular blocks that could become vehicles. The whole gameTrailmakersbasically grew out of following that idea and experimenting a lot. ForRubber Bandits, we started looking at a lot of games with physics and ragdoll mechanics and found there’s something in there we could make something fun out of–having ragdoll characters that do silly stuff.
At first, we started thinking we wanted to dosomething like the oldRampagegameswhere there were monsters that were destroying cities. Then we got the idea that it would be really fun to have weapons and be likePaydayand have your rubbers that have to rob banks, but with a much more silly tone. WhenRubber Banditsstarted, we were three devs working on it for almost a year when we tested all these ideas. It ended up okay that we did not have a design document from the beginning. We did not know where we were going. We were basically just following what we like. That’s basically howRubber Banditscame to be.
Of course, when we start up new games and when we’re developing games, we’re always looking at a lot of what is going on in the whole industry, and as gamers, we are inspired by other games as well. We looked atGang BeastsandHuman Fall Flat, which had some of the same physical space gameplay. We really liked those games, so that was an inspiration. However, compared to some of the other ragdoll games, we chose to go in a more easy, accessible way: pick up and play, everybody can be part of playingRubber Bandits. Our game is for the whole family. It’s not about learning the controls because it isn’t like many of the other ragdoll physics games, but we still have the emergent gameplay that comes out of having everything physics-based with ragdolls, destructible arenas, and so on.
Q: How important is community engagement for a small studio?
A:ForTrailmakers, the community is basically everything. It’s such an engaged community. It’s a game where people spend hundreds of hours.Rubber Bandits, on the other hand, is much more of a party game. It’s something people don’t play every day, they play it occasionally. And in that sense, it is not really a good place for community because the attachment is not that high.
Rubber Banditsis also a lot bigger in China than we’ve ever had a game before. I think the Chinese audience really likes party games. Most players are on Steam in China, and then on the Switch console, and that’s in the whole world. It doesn’t have an activity engagement withRubber Bandits, even though we really would like to, because it’s a very good wayto shape and get knowledge about your gameand target people who love it. It’s just super fruitful for us, and it’s very motivating. But unfortunately, it’s not really the case withRubber Bandits.
Growing the Rubberverse with Bandits and Warriors
Q: What made you decide to make a party game withRubber Bandits?
A:That’s very much about being passion-driven in the sense that at the time we madeRubber Bandits, we’d been working for four years onTrailmakers. It became very slow to work with, and another Flashbulb co-founder and I wanted to try something just as a palette cleanser, to some extent. We wanted to try something very different from what we’ve done before, and something that would just be easy and fun to work with. In that sense, the game just felt like the right thing.
We had plans of makingRubber Banditsa six-month production and then the game should be released, and we were done with it. That was not what happened. It’s now been a little more than two years since it was released, and we’re still working onRubber Bandits. With the development before release added in, we have been working on it for more than four years now.
Q: For the upcoming sequel, you mentioned thatRubber Royaleisn’t going to be the final title?
A:Right now, the working title isRubber Warriors. We have gone a little bit back to some of the initial concepts of framing forRubber Royale, andwe’re currently working towards making this a game with all kinds of different body types and also addressing less family-friendly audiences. It’s going to be more mature to some extent, but we’ve also been looking ataSouth Parkkind of humorwhere we can be extremely brutal but also silly at the same time. We’re doing it in this world that is filled with all kinds of warrior types. It’s cowboys, Indians, knights, and whatever warrior type you come up with. It’s quite a different take fromRubber Banditsin that sense.
You can cut up limbs and there will be blood and hostility in general, but it mixes them equally with humor. We’re basically trying to make this a game that is way less party game. It’s looking atgames likeFortniteandFall Guysbut also like the way that you playRocket Leagueor the knight fighting gameChivalry. We’realso looking at that. It’s a mix of brawlers and a little trend of party games or casual-ness built into it like having quick rounds. It’s more hardcore thanRubber Banditswas but still pretty easy to get into and quite different.
Q: What separatesRubber Warriorsfrom other battle royale or brawler games?
A:I think one thing is that we’re really looking at making the combat and especially the melee combat interesting compared to what we’ve seen in other brawler games orbattle royale games.
I don’t think we can classifyRubber Warriorsas a royale game. I think it was, to some extent. It has similarities withFall Guysin the sense that you start with 16 players, you have these rather short rounds, and then you eliminate players as you go on and then you will have a winner. That is theFall Guysrecipe to do minute-to-minute gameplay, where there’s not a lot of games doing that, but I think we’re adding a lot to it by making what you can do in the game a lot more complex and a lot more interesting.
This should also be a game that players feel like playing every day, but trying to make it so playing for 10 or 15 minutes a day is enough. you may, of course, keep playing more and more rounds if you want, but having something where it’s bite-sized and easy to start up and leave again was important to us. We try to hit that spot where it’s still interesting to somebody who wants to play often, but it’s also something that even though you don’t have an hour, you can get a meaningful session out of it.
I don’t think there’s a lot of games having this mixture ofbeing really funny, but also really brutaland bloody as we’re going for.
A:Yes, that’s true.
Q: What was the reception to that like?
A:The reception and the sense of Steam reviews, also surveys and so on, was people really like playing it! But we didn’t have as many players as we would have liked to really. It was hard for us to get attention on Steam. I think you’re very much at Steam’s mercy in the sense of…if they’re not promoting it on Steam, then it’s very hard to get something that people realize is even there. We got a lot of good feedback and we got a lot of positive vibes around the game, but we didn’t see as many players as we would have liked.
Q: That’s a segue into another question I had about Flashbulb in general: what are some of the biggest challenges for studios your size?
A:Good question. I think one of our biggest challenges is that we have around 45 employees, as I said, and even though it’s not a big studio, there are still a lot of ways we need to act like a big studio. It becomes quite expensive to do anything. While it’s expensive for us to develop and just keep the studio running, it’s also when we release something. It’s not really a small indie game and it’s not a triple-A game, so I think there are some players who are unsure of what to expect. Some people judge it like it’s a several hundred dev production and other people see it another way, and I think our size is a little bit hard for people to perceive or know what to expect from.
As for the studio right now, we are also growing. We have had four founders being part of everything we’re doing, but now as we are growing, we are trying to also mature as a studio, make more structure and organization, and be better at handling what’s going on. So far, we’ve managed to do things in a sort of chaotic way. Now, we’re realizing that we need to act more as a structured organization and that’s, I think, part of this same thing—growing all of a sudden.
Q:What makes a game indie?
A:I’m of the opinion that, first thing, it needs not to be owned by some big corporation that’s basically making the decisions, so independent in that sense. I think that has to be part of it. And then, for me, there’s also something about being independent where it has to be passion-driven.
Q: Going back toRubber Warriors, I know that the marketing talks about some weapons returning fromRubber Bandits. What are those?
A:I think it’s important that when we look atRubber Warriors,Rubber Royale, what we’ve tried so far is basically like our early, early prototype. We just tried to see how it flies on Steam, so I would say everything that we said about the game so far is up for change. But what is there on the Steam page? It’s like yeah, there’s the rocket launchers and the BFG we have, or the baseball bat. A lot of the weapons have basically just been carried over fromRubber Bandits.
But as it looks right now, where we’re going withRubber Warriors, I can’t really say. We want as many weapons as possible. I don’t think we can have the philosophy around the game that everything is a weapon and then have a short list. There should be tons and tons of different weapons, and that’s what we’re working on. And of course, there’s bats and swords and guns and so on in both games. For some of them, we will probably adjust for nostalgia using some of the same assets as well. That’s only if we feel or if we think it’ll be fun. We’re not really thinking too much about reusing, only if it is something that we think would add extra fun to the game.
The Future of the Rubberverse and Possibly Project Knoxville
Q: Do you have a target release window?
A:We do. We hope that the game will be out this year. And when I say that, then you can probably guess that we are at least in Q4. That is currently the plan. Right now, we’ve done a lot of investigation on what could be fun. We’ve been down many routes of what we wanted to do with the game; now it feels like we have all the parts to the puzzle. A lot of the gameplay, systems, and all of that is in place. It’s getting ready to do the actual production, and we have all the right tools to do it. That’s where we are now.
Q: What is the process of narrowing down an idea? And what does it feel like to go through that process?
A:I think some of it inRubber Warriors’case was, honestly, in the beginning, I was like, “Okay, we do everything very close to howRubber Banditsis.” That is very much when we do these experiments, and we have prototypes ofthis brawlerFortnite-ish gamelook in theRubber Banditsuniverse. It just felt wrong.
I think that sort of happened because what I look at in the early parts of the project is much more around the game mechanics and the feel of the game. Basically, the game design comes first, whereas the framing, themes, and so on come second to gameplay. I think there are many approaches to that, but for me, it’s just like I want to add something that I feel is fun, where I can see some clear vision of how the game could feel and play. Secondly, it becomes asking what would fit well for this game. When I started thinking about that, it was pretty obvious to me that’s what we did withRubber Royale–the whole framing, the whole idea, just for me, it didn’t feel right. I thinkWarriorsand adding the brutality and so on feels good as it is right now. It’s now that I’m certain we can say we’re heading in the right direction.
I couldn’t sit with a game and then have everything around the concept locked down and only have something on paper. I need to have something where we have prototypes, and we are capable of playing a game and discussing it. From that place, we start thinking about what we can do to frame it right. Everybody has different approaches, but for me, it’s always been mechanics first.
Q: What is the future of the Rubberverse? Do you have other ideas once you getRubber Warriorsout the door?
A:If I were to answer now, I think that we started withRubber Banditsbeing the super family-friendly, casual, party game, and now withRubber Warriors, I think we have moved a little bit more mature, a little bit less casual, deeper gameplay, blood and so on, but still accessible and on the short side. I think the next game, if you ask me now, would be something that would be even more hardcore, maybe team-based? More complex and longer gameplay sessions. Bigger worlds.
When we at were Press Play, we had three prototypes of games that we wanted to do. One was what becameTrailmakers,one has becomeDeep Rock Galactic, and then we have our last game, which was calledProject Knoxville, a social experiment mixed withHunger Gameskind of game. One where you create alliances as you play. This was the game that we were actually about to do when we were closed down by Microsoft at Press Play. What we did in that game I think would be a really interesting place to take the Rubberverse next time, meaning more complex gameplay, longer sessions, teams, and something about social alliances that happen as you play. I think that could work really well with the humor that we have in theRubbergames.
I think it would be a nice move fromRubber Warriorsinto that. I think we also have some more things to say about the direction that theRubbergames are going in that you have these games that can be everything from super casual, family-friendly to something that’s a pretty hardcore gameplay experience all in this franchise. I would like that as well. This is just what I’m thinking today. I’m not sure what will happen.
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