Behind the Scenes with the Creators of Crest to Crest
Crest to Crest is an online educational game that features calming waves and tropical islands, it’s an adventure and visual novel in one. We got an insider view of what it’s like to be behind the scenes with them. The team, PointBreak Studios, is composed of a few people, 6 to be exact. They’re a small but mighty team.
“It’s easier to manage when your team is small, it’s nice to get to know everyone individually” — Michelle, one of the team members
With a time crunch of approximately 10 weeks and a team of 6, the people at PointBreak Studios hurried to get started on their dream game. ‘It’s easier to manage when your team is small, it’s nice to get to know everyone individually’, one of the team members, Michelle stated. Because of their team size, they were able to include a lot of the team’s ideas and inspirations early in the ideation process.
Q: How did Crest to Crest come to be?
A: Our inspiration drew from one of our team member’s love of tropical islands and their love of vacations. Combine that with an insane admiration for Super Marios and a conscious will to educate others on environmental factors affecting the world, Crest to Crest was born!
Q: What are the pros and cons of a small size? Any tips for any other indie studios?
A: It’s great, you get to get access to everyone on the team at an instant, there’s no ‘I need to go through the dev team’ when you can pitch it in front of everyone and hear their thoughts all in one place rather than relaying. At the same time, it’s also difficult every so often when we’re carrying different conversations, or have ‘limited perspectives’ on different topics. Overall, we make decisions fast and we’re doing good with what we have.
Q: How was it like developing a game that touches topics such as global warming and oil spills?
A: Being aware of the environmental impact everyone makes on a day to day basis drove us to implement those concerning topics you mentioned among others we added into our game. It was important for the team at Crest to Crest to not only make a fun game but a game that also teaches the importance of taking care of our waters.
Q: Are the islands in Crest to Crest based on real places?
A: As mentioned earlier, the team loves to visit tropical islands during their vacation time, it’s where they developed a lot of inspiration on the islands in-game. For places we might not have visited, the team made sure to do a thorough research on the area to ensure accuracy.
“We really tried to capture the essence of tropical islands with each level that we made, among research other places we wanted to include in our game” — Sabrina
Q: Do you see any more games in the future? A sequel perhaps? *wink*
A: Well…that's off limits for now..but check back soon :P
And that concludes our interview with the creators behind Crest to Crest! We hope you learned a lot about their team and go check out their game!