Survivalcraft Developer Interview (2011)

Source: WP-Games.pl interview with Kaalus (Survivalcraft developer)
Date: November 26, 2011
Language: Polish/English (bilingual)
Archive: Wayback Machine
Interviewers: Paweł, with translation by Łukasz & Paweł

Overview

This extensive interview with Kaalus, the developer of Survivalcraft, was conducted shortly after the game's initial release on Windows Phone 7 in November 2011. The interview provides insights into the development process, platform choice, and future plans for what would become one of the early successful Minecraft-inspired games on mobile platforms.

Key Development Insights

Origins and Inspiration

The developer purchased Minecraft Beta 1.7.3 in July 2011 and became immediately engaged with the concept. As a professional programmer and indie game developer, Kaalus read through Notch's entire development blog from May 2009 onwards, describing it as fascinating technical documentation that "reads like a book".

Platform Choice

Survivalcraft was specifically developed for Windows Phone 7 because no Minecraft clone existed for that platform at the time. The developer chose this niche despite significant technical challenges, including slow CPU/GPU performance and lack of shader support.

Technical Challenges

The Windows Phone 7 platform presented substantial optimization hurdles:

Initial performance was approximately 4.5 frames per second
Extensive code optimization was required to achieve playable framerates
The Adreno 200 GPU was described as particularly limiting
Absence of shader support forced reliance on vertex data with "needlessly large" requirements

Development Team

The project was essentially a solo effort, with the developer's young son serving as the primary tester.

Game Design Philosophy

Survival Focus vs. Minecraft Similarity

The developer initially envisioned a survival-focused experience rather than a direct Minecraft clone. However, player feedback pushed toward more Minecraft-like features. The developer expressed intent to maintain survival elements including:

Environmental hazards (cold, hunger, thirst)
Natural disasters
Progressively dangerous enemies
More challenging gameplay that doesn't "peter out so quickly"

Pricing Strategy

The developer implemented a graduated pricing model where costs would increase with each update to reflect the growing value and feature set of the game.

Market Performance

At the time of the interview, Survivalcraft had achieved notable marketplace positions in the UK:

15th in overall games ranking
7th in Action & Adventure category
Ranked higher than Pro Evolution Soccer

The developer remained modest about sales expectations due to the limited Windows Phone 7 install base, noting "I don't think I will get huge sales".

Development Timeline

The interview was conducted during preparation of a major update, with the developer indicating it would be released "soon, maybe in a week or so". Two features remained to be completed for that update.

Legacy Considerations

The developer committed to backward compatibility, ensuring that existing worlds would remain playable with new updates, though acknowledged that certain new terrain features or blocks might not appear in pre-existing worlds.

References

Sources

WP-Games.pl interview with Kaalus, November 26, 2011 (archived version)
Conducted by Paweł, translated by Łukasz & Paweł

External Links

This entry summarizes a bilingual interview originally published on WP-Games.pl. The original source provides the complete text in both Polish and English.