Winner | Excellence In Audio
Mattias Dittrich is a developer on the game.
Each year at GDC, MFA students from the NYU Game Center interview the Independent Games Festival nominees, asking them three questions about their development process. In addition to this interview, you can read all the insightful interviews from 2017 here. These conversations, and much more, will happen when the Game Center returns to GDC in 2018. Learn more about the Game Center at GDC 2017.
Mary Kenney: What main concept, image or question began this project?
Mattias Dittrich: I like making action games, and I was working on a soft friendship game. GoNNER was my more aggressive take on that project, and it eventually took over as my primary project. The story is that you’re making your friend happy as she slowly dies. The design is very cutesy-creepy.
Kenney: Describe a specific experience with another game or media that influenced you as you worked on GoNNER.
Dittrich: It was a big lover letter to indie games, in general. Binding Isaac and Downwell.
Kenney: Is there a specific tool or methodology that you feel was important in shaping a unique characteristic of your game?
Dittrich: You’re a blob, and when you get hurt, you drop all of your items (including parts of your body, like your head). You have to pick them back up. If you’re hurt and not carrying any of your items, you die.
Mary Kenney used to be a journalist, but decided she was better at writing games. Ask her about gamedev, tabletop and owning a dog in New York.