How Skala surprised its own creator with its scale-shifting mechanics

gamedeveloper.com:

This interview is part of our Road to the IGF series. The IGF (Independent Games Festival) aims to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize independent game developers advancing the medium. Every year, Game Developer sits down with the finalists for the IGF ahead of GDC to explore the themes, design decisions, and tools behind each entry.

Skalaallows players to change the size and shape of the world and everything in it, asking them to solve puzzles by stretching and growing things.

Game Developer caught up with the creator of the Best Student Game-nominated title, Gustav Almström, speaking with him about how designing a custom engine really helped make the scale-shifting mechanic work well, bringing the appeal of looking into the night sky into this world, and how the surprises that came out of the game's mechanics delighted and mystified its own creator.

Who are you, and what was your role in developing Skala ?

I'm Gustav Almström and I am the developer of Skala.

What's your background in making games?

One day I basically decided to Google "How to program" and I've been making games in my spare time ever since.

What thoughts went into the mechanics players could use to alter the scale of themselves and the world? Into making them intuitive to work with?

The core thought behind the design of Skala was to try to explore what actually happens in a world where things can change scale. By experimenting and playing around with the game's mechanics, I found things that stood out as interesting and made levels about them. An example is how the player falls slowly when they are short.

I always tried to explore the mechanics I had as deeply as possible, and only added new ones when I had