Interview with Octodad’s Kevin Geisler

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is an upcoming indie game that will be released on Steam, and recently announced, the PlayStation 4. It is the sequel to Young Horses’ 2010 indie hit Octodad. This year at the Sony E3 press conference, Octodad: Dadliest Catch made a splash when it was featured in their indie games segment. We were able to catch up with the man who was on stage at the Sony presser, Mr. Kevin Geisler. On top of being the COO of Young Horses, Kevin Geisler is also programmer and producer of Octodad: Dadliest Catch.

Octodad is one of the craziest games I’ve ever played. It features a very creative control scheme, and it is laced with some really good funny bits. Who came up with the idea to add humor?

Well, the humor had been there since the beginning with the pitch.  I think if we were going to ask a player to buy into an awkward control scheme, it had to involve humor in order to keep them from getting completely frustrated.  I think it’s the same reason why games like QWOP, Katamari Damacy, Surgeon Simulator 2013 have also been well-received.

After having a successful first game, and an anticipated sequel, you’ve no doubt inspired a lot of future game developers. Who or what inspired you to take the plunge into making your own game?

I can’t speak for others on the team, but I was inspired to work on more experimental games after attending GDC a few years back.  It was very interesting to see a lot of really cool games at the IGF pavilion and realizing that great games can be made with only a handful of people.  We had a very positive experience working on the first Octodad and just decided to go for it commercially, since it felt like enough of a following to warrant a full version.

After having your game demoed at various cons, and especially at the Indie Megabooth, how does it feel to interact with fans face to face who have played your games?

It’s always incredibly motivating to see people enjoying our game.  We get used to seeing our game so often that it’s hard to tell if people will find things too boring or difficult, and these cons are a great way to help put us in check.  Though, I do think there is a bit of a positive bias with people who talk to us face to face, which we try to keep in mind in order to avoid becoming overconfident.  We’re always trying to take care and listen in order to continue improving Octodad, and there’s really no better place to get this kind of feedback.

One of the new features about the new Octodad game is the ability to go outside and go on crazy adventures. What else is in store for us in Octodad: Dadliest Catch?

The plot of this game revolves around Octodad going to the local aquarium with his family.  He hesitates with agreeing to go and his family has trouble understanding why.  Octodad runs into a lot more types of characters besides his family in this game, so it could be said that more thinking has to be done by the player in order to get through unnoticed.  The tasks aren’t exclusive to household chores like they were in the first game.

How did it feel to be onstage and have your game featured at the Sony press conference at E3 2013. 

It was pretty surreal.  Sony has been nothing short of incredible to work with.  Since we were playing the game live off the dev kit, I worried that something might go wrong, but everything ended up going smoothly.  We were surprised at the big response, and it makes us really glad we chose to work with Sony and took the time to get a build ready for E3.

What is the next step for the Octodad team at Young Horses

We’re obviously working hard to finish Dadliest Catch by the end of this year/into early next year.  We have endless ideas for it and limited time, so I’m sure we’ll be supporting it for quite a while after release.  We do have a trove of other game ideas we’d like to work on together, but we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves just yet.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch will be coming soon to PC, Mac, and Linux, as well as on the PlayStation 4. If you wish to follow the Octodad team, you can find them on Twitter, Facebook, and on their blog.