The Indie Game Magazine May 2014 | Issue 37 | Page 12

IGM: One of the staples of old-school platformers

were that they were always accompanied by
great wall-sized posters. Will Freedom Planet
have retro-styled posters for fans to hang up?

Strife: Actually, we have commissioned a few pieces
of artwork out of Japan that would work pretty well
for this! Thanks for the idea.

IGM: Another key aspect of ‘90s platformers is
the soundtrack. How does the OST for Freedom Planet
stack up against the likes of, say, Sonic the Hedgehog?
Strife: I think I’ll defer to my main composer, Leila,

to answer this question since she said basically the
same thing that I would have:

Leila “Woofle” Wilson: When we approached
the soundtrack, we definitely were going for a retro
feel with it. A lot of the tunes we composed feel like
they’d fit right in, in that era of catchy tunes and
simple arrangements. We drew inspiration from the
‘90s as a whole, but at the same time, we didn’t
necessarily want to sound exactly like the ‘90s,
so we added in some more modern ideas, while
keeping that nostalgic flair. So while we kept the
idea of catchy tunes intact, the arrangements are

more diverse. I’d say that, as a result, the soundtrack
stacks up pretty well!

IGM: The game’s Kickstarter far surpassed
its original goal, making over $25k when you
were only asking for $2,000. How has the game
changed in light of such unexpected success?
Strife: Hoo boy... I was absolutely floored when we

reached our initial asking amount of $2,000 in less
than a day, and as the numbers went up, our ideas
for the game suddenly expanded. We suddenly had
enough funding at our disposal to bring the game
up to a level of polish that wouldn’t have been
possible otherwise, especially with the artwork.
I would caution fellow indies about using Kickstarter
in a similar way unless they know what they’re
doing, of course. There are a few things you can
do that will dramatically increase your chances of
getting funded, such as providing a playable demo
of your game right out of the gate, and having a
team with a solid set of connections to help spread
the word. You also want to clearly outl