"Iron Tail" may be one of the most thought-provoking indie games in modern times.

Tails of Iron, developed by the independent development team Odd Bug Studio, leads players in a dangerous exploration in a seemingly fascinating and immersive hand-painted world. When the deadly frog clan invades, Reggie, the heir to the Rat Throne, must gather a group of fearless comrades to fight back in this RPG adventure to save his crumbling kingdom.

In an exclusive conversation with Suryadeepto Sengupta of Sportskeeda, Jack Bennett, co-founder, producer and game designer of Odd Bug Studio, talked about the studio's journey with Iron Tail and laughed at the future of the title.

The following is an excerpt from the dialogue

Q: Tell our readers something about yourself and your journey. What was the idea behind creating Odd Bug Studio and developing video games?

Jack: I’m Jack. I’m one of the co-founders of Odd Bug Studio, a producer and a game designer. When Dan (Game Director), Martin (Art Director) and I met at Norwich University of the Arts, Odd Bug really started.

It was through NUA that we participated in an event called "Dare to be Numbers" and met Sony, who provided us with the first money to make a game. Our main goal in making games is to create interesting stories and believable worlds. We really like to combine our "cute" art style with dark stories and worlds similar to Grimm's fairy tales, because we think this will give players a unique experience.

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Q: Tell us something about Iron Tail. What makes it stand out in a market filled with AAA games from billions of studios?

Jack: What really makes "Iron Tail" unique is its artistic style. All scenes in the game are composed of hundreds of unique assets, which are individually placed manually, which provides us with the truly strong parallax effect you see in all games.

I think the most important thing is that when we mix it with the dark story and the world, especially the brutality we show in combat, I don't think there is anything like it.

Q: During the development of "Iron Tail", what obstacles did you encounter? How did the team feel before the release on September 17?

Jack: It's hard to develop games! We encountered many problems when creating the iron tail. I think the most important thing for me is when we develop combat. Initially, we have a stamina bar similar to most other soul favorites and RPGs, however, we also have different colored attacks from enemies, and you need to react.

When we watched people's games, we noticed that people were more worried about uninteresting columns in the user interface than really studying enemy attacks.

We want players to have a deeper understanding of the enemy, and really want their attention to focus on this point, so we completely removed the concept of endurance.

This is very effective for us. It allows players to better master the mechanics of the game and has no stamina. It allows players to try new things freely and take more risks, which usually brings more fun and rewarding combat encounters.

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Q: Please tell us some information about the partnership between Odd Bug Studio and United Label. How does United Label help bring the game to a previously undeveloped player base?

Jack: One of the biggest impacts of United Label on the game is to ensure that Doug Cockle is the narrator. When we initially discussed adding a commentator to the game, we jokingly came up with the idea of ​​having Doug work with us, thinking that "Geralt of Livia" would never want to work with such a small independent team.

Somehow, United Label was able to arrange it, and cooperating with Doug is a dream! If you browse the comment section of any of our trailers, you can really see the players reacting amazingly to hearing his voice, which is really cool!

Q: "Iron Tail" is becoming one of the best indie games of 2021. Looking ahead, are there any plans for a post-launch DLC or sequel, or does the team plan to create a new IP project for the next one?

Jack: The first thing I want to say is that "Iron Tail" is just a story in a huge world. What you see in this game is just the tip of the iceberg of characters, factions and locations.

From our initial story trailer, you can see that the war between mice and frogs has been going on for centuries, so there are many stories to explore in depth.

The second thing I want to say here is that everything is currently under a non-disclosure agreement, but we have signed a second contract with United Label, so I will let you do as you wish.

Q: "Iron Tail" is released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC. What are your thoughts on introducing games to cloud platforms such as Google Stadia and Amazon Luna? Do you think cloud gaming is a viable alternative to casual gaming audiences?

Jack: There is currently no plan to bring the game to the cloud platform. We only focus on the traditional console platform and Steam. We are a small team of only 6 people, so we must focus on the platform that best suits our game.

Regarding the second part of the question, I definitely think it has a future. I think when you have giants like Google and Amazon backing it, I think there is no doubt, I just think it may take time to mature and become more mainstream. .

Q: PC gaming giant Valve recently released Steam Deck. What's interesting is that it can run on a customized SteamOS based on Linux. Although Steam Deck can run most Windows games out of the box due to the proton conversion layer, what are your thoughts on bringing Tails of Iron natively to the Linux operating system?

Jack: We currently don't have any plans for Linux porting of the Steel Tail game, we just don't have the manpower to spend the time to do so. Speaking of the Steam deck-it looks really cool! It will be interesting to see how it works and what position it occupies in the market.

Q: Due to the continuing pandemic, many studios around the world have had to adapt to working from home. How did Odd Bug Studio respond to the epidemic?

Jack: We must do the same! When we first started developing Tails of Iron to get funding to make a complete game, we worked in the living room at home.

After signing a contract with United Label and obtaining funding, we rented an office so that the team can get together again and feel like we are starting to become a real studio again!

After about a year of full development, the pandemic has come, and now we are back to work from home. I think that if our employees are satisfied with this, we will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

Q: Five years later, what do you think of yourself and Odd Bug Studio?

Jack: After surviving the pandemic, I don't know if it is possible to plan for another five years! My dream is to expand to a second studio.

We have a lot of great game ideas in the design files, and we only need money and manpower to make them. In an ideal world, Odd Bug 1 will develop the next part of the Iron Tail series, and Odd Bug 2 will develop our other IP.

Q: Any advice for aspiring game developers?

Jack: My main suggestion is to talk to people! Go on Twitter and participate in conversations, participate in local indie gatherings, and participate in games.

I know that it is very difficult for many people to meet and talk with people, but it is important to establish these connections. Just like we are in college, the people we meet there are the starting point of our career.

Once you meet these people, my second suggestion is to start doing something. To do anything, just show that you are willing to learn, willing to cooperate with others, and have motivation and enthusiasm for making games.