Adam Robinson-Yu released his gorgeous little game about a bird going on a hike in April of 2019 as a Humble Bundle Original. It’s since released on other PC platforms and received loads of love from the gaming community, earning spots on many 2019 Game of the Year lists (including my own). A Short Hike has also garnered several prestigious game award nominations including from the Independent Games Festival.

Adam Robinson-Yu is a Canadian, currently living in Toronto, where he’s a member of the game dev community. We wanted to find out more about the creator of one of 2019’s most surprising and delightful games, and so did our community! Here’s our interview with Adam, with questions from myself and from some folks the CanadianGameDevs Discord (which you should totally join).

Enjoy!

[Stephan] What was your path to game development?

[Adam] I’ve wanted to make video games for pretty much as long as I can remember! In elementary school, I made a whole bunch of half-finished RPGs using a DOS-based RPG maker called OHRRPGCE. In high school, I started following Game Maker tutorials and slowly learnt how to program through that. I tried making things from many different genres and ended up with another big pile of unfinished projects. I had a lot of fun with them though, and I learnt so much!

In 2010, I went to the University of Toronto to study computer science, where I joined the local game development club. I started creating games using the XNA framework and submitted them to their annual competitions. Eventually, I started going to game jams and making games with my friends. I did a few internships for some game development companies and then worked as a software engineer after graduating university. About two years ago, I started trying to do indie game development full time!

[Stephan] Was Animal Crossing a big influence for A Short Hike? I see so many similarities (anthropomorphic characters, digging at cracks in the ground with a shovel, fishing for shadows, etc.). Were you inspired by any other games/media? Are you ever worried about being too similar to another game?

[Adam] Yes, Animal Crossing was a big influence! I have very fond memories of playing Wild World on my DS. I think all the games I play influence me in some way. When I was putting together a design document for A Short Hike, I listed Breath of the Wild, Firewatch, Frog Detective, Animal Crossing, and Minit as my main inspirations. For Animal Crossing in-particular, I wanted to borrow the same relaxed and kind-hearted atmosphere. However, I end up borrowing some of Animal Crossing’s visual language too, as you mentioned with the ground cracks and fish shadows- they just do a great job of letting the player know how to interact with them.

Sometimes I worry about being too similar to other games. For example, I initially didn’t want to put the fish shadows in the game for that reason, but without them, players would forget about the fishing mechanic! However, I usually don’t worry too much about these similarities, since games have been building upon each other for pretty much forever.

[Stephan] Joeb asks “After seeing a previous tweet of yours showing a tool you created for building waterfalls in the editor, I'd be interested to hear some further information on what other tools, if any, you created throughout the development process? What was the decision process was for which parts of production you chose to automate or write tools to make easier and what parts you didn't?”

[Adam] Other than the waterfall editor, I created a few helper tools for little things, such as placing objects more easily and previewing camera behaviour in the editor. I also wrote a script to automate the creation of builds for different platforms. Over time, I’ve built up a local library of helper scripts that I carry forward from project to project. I also rely on a lot of external tools, such as ProBuilder, Cinemachine, Yarn Spinner, InControl and the Unity terrain editor. I usually decide to build a tool myself once it has become too annoying to do a task without it!

[Stephan] Another user asks “How did you manage scope and production timelines to create and deliver the project within such a short span of time. Were there any corners you had to cut during production to speed things up, removing features, etc.?”

[Adam] I committed to releasing the game as a Humble Original in April’s Humble Monthly, so I had a tight timeline to make the game on. A Short Hike was intended to be a small project, but I still had a bunch of ambitious ideas for it. I think it helped that I designed the core gameplay to be very lean and easy to achieve. After that was finished, I just kept adding in my stretch goals until I ran out of time. In that way, I think the scope of the game scaled naturally to the speed at which work was actually getting done. There was still a bunch of ideas that didn’t make it into the game, but some of those were added for the Steam release in ‘The Extra Mile’ update.

[Stephan] The most popular question on our Discord was simply “Console ports? 😇”

[Adam] I’m looking into them, but I can’t confirm anything yet!

[Stephan] Tyler asks “A Short Hike’s story felt so personal, I’m wondering if any life events inspired Claire’s journey and struggles?”

[Adam] A Short Hike is a personal game to me. For a while, I’ve wanted to make a game that was meaningful to me and hopefully to other people as well. When I started A Short Hike, I was feeling kinda worn down and I was anxious about a lot of things (and I still am!). I wanted A Short Hike to be loosely about coping with anxiety and self-doubt, appreciating nature, and (with regards to the ending) how your relationship with your parents changes as you get older.

[Stephan] Were there any real-world parks or locations that inspired Hawk Peak Provincial Park? I personally felt like I was walking through Algonquin Park again 🌲❤️

[Adam] I used to go to Algonquin Park growing up! I specifically referenced photos of the Canadian Shield when picking colours for the game. Last year, I went on a hiking trip with some friends, and that led me to try and capture that experience in video game form. In particular, there was a hike I went on to Mount Pilchuck Lookout, which inspired the fire tower in A Short Hike. I was also inspired by the time I spent at the Stugan game accelerator in Sweden - I hadn’t had that kind of access to nature in a long time!

[Stephan] What’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew at the start of development on A Short Hike?

[Adam] That it was going to turn out ok! It was a hard decision to step away from the RPG I had been working on and make A Short Hike. At the time, I was worried a game “inspired by hiking” wouldn’t end up being interesting. I’m really glad I took the time to explore that idea!

[Stephan] Where do you see the Canadian Game Development scene in 5 years, speaking to the indie scene/Toronto scene specifically? Where do you want it to be in 5 years?

[Adam] As far as I can tell, I can only see it growing! The Toronto indie scene has given a lot to me over the years and I’m really grateful for the community we have here. As a student, it felt like there were lots of opportunities for me to get involved in games here. In the future, I hope it’s accessible for everyone who wants to become part of it!

[Stephan] What’s one piece of advice you’d give to designers trying to get a publisher for their game?

[Adam] I’m not entirely sure! I feel like I was lucky to have my work noticed by publishers on Twitter. I had been sharing my work there for a while. I’d say to try and share GIFs of your game as it’s in development. Try and create something that’s visually exciting and shows off a unique aspect of your game. The #gamedev tag was a good start to get people to notice my work, but it takes time to build up an audience.

🐦

We would like to thank Adam for his time and for everyone in our Discord who waited so patiently for this interview. CanadianGameDevs.com is made possible through our amazing patrons. Head to patreon.com/canadiangamedevs if you want to help us do more cool things like this!

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Interview with A Short Hike Creator Adam Robinson-Yu