Antichamber: An Overnight Success, Seven Years In The Making

[@cynicalbrit]

A slight correction Alexander, that "PR company" is one guy and he works for us full time also doing our art and some editing work. We're a very small company (3 people) and do all our PR inhouse. Otherwise, congratulations on the success of your game. You know, what was actually interesting about this is that what you did changed our outlook on how we do coverage and actually resulted in more success for us as a channel. Over several years of convention coverage and gradually altering and refining how we did it, we came to a few realisations. 1) Unless the developer is EXTREMELY interesting, people prefer not to hear from them. Interview content was not very popular, dual-commentary even less so on most occasions. Your video was an exception to that rule. Otherwise, my viewers prefer to hear my thoughts alone. 2) Pre-release coverage of indie games is not something that interests my viewers, whereas coverage of Triple A releases they have heard of prior to launch generates much larger view counts. It is in fact best to release coverage of an indie game just before its release or right on the day that it becomes available to buy. Curiosity peaks as it appears on the steam frontpage and that results in much higher traffic driven to both the game and my coverage. As a result of our experience with your game, we altered our coverage of conventions as well as our regular WTF is series. I generally release videos of indie titles on the day of release or soon after now and deliberately delay coverage of early code for better results. Unless a game is of great interest I will outright avoid coverage of incomplete code now (only games with a large amount of hype behind them or that are super unique generally get covered pre-release now). So yeah I guess I should be thanking you too. This particular incident with Antichamber helped the growth of our channel and helped refine the way we do business. You were the first person to ask for a delay in the release of coverage of your game and as it turned out, that was the right call for both you and our channel.

[@lothrazar]

TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit Thanks for taking the time to share these insights here.

[@cynicalbrit]

usucdik Yup, its hard (though not impossible) to build hype for an indie game, not to mention that early access often results in a spike of hype which disappears quickly and by the time the game comes out for real, nobody cares. I'm actually concerned that will happen to Darkest Dungeon, because of how many people jumped on and had their fill at the start of early access, not to mention the 39853985 survival games in EA right now.

[@briancrocker3377]

TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit That's actually a really good point about indie games I hadn't considered, especially with regards to how hyped DD was in early access, and how little anyone talks about it any more.

[@cynicalbrit]

Brian Crocker It's the curse of Early Access. You can get money early to help you develop but it can really kill your launch momentum.

[@marsteinou4568]

TotalBiscuit, The Cynical Brit hi total biscuit fancy meeting you here!

[@yikelu]

Alex being vulnerable and real was moving. Antichamber is absolutely fantastic.

[@nesis]

Very informative and helpful. Also, it's scary how much stress he went through. Brave of him to share it so openly.

[@SeamusTheHunter]

ayy, funny seeing you here

[@nesis]

@@SeamusTheHunter Howdy :)

[@PiotrBajbak]

You can see how emotional he gets when he talks. That proves how important it is for him, and how passionate he is. Awesome work.

[@fatplanediaries]

This is probably the best talk I've ever heard from GDC (sorry Samuel Coster!), but also one of the most melancholic. Near the end of the talk, Bruce is asked if all the pain he went through for AC was worth it. He says, he's not so sure. More than 10 years later, Bruce has yet to publish another game to his name and has seemingly stepped away from the gaming industry completely. That's rough.

[@ReverendTed]

"Epic contacted Valve because they thought I should get my game on Steam." What a difference a decade makes.

[@jerobarraco]

Ive met a couple of people from Epic and they really get out of their way to help you in any way. They are so amazing. Maybe they wont tell steam anymore lol, but surely they'll help you out.

[@Taqu3]

This is one of the best talks I've ever seen.

[@convolution223]

This is probably the most motivating and helpful GDC talk I've listened to. It's unmarred by vague syllogisms presenting what's been done as if that's the only way it can be done and I appreciate that. Plus it basically has the cure for an existential crisis ("If I don't do X, nothing will happen; if I try to do X, something might happen").

[@TheZenytram]

And it still hold to this day

[@000Gua000]

This is one of my favorite GDC Talks. After watching it in 2014. I've decided to give Antichamber a try, while not being a fan of puzzle games, but I really enjoyed the game.

[@oopsy444]

He's so choked up that proves the difficulty of it.

[@MatthewSchellGaming]

This was a good talk, worth a listen even if you are not interested in making games.

[@elianmusic7452]

..... boy.... what a fking story. Wow. Do i feel inspired. Alexander Bruce is a great great man. This has me feeling inspired like nothing else has. No movie, no piece of music. The determination to make it, the perseverance. Im so impressed. Well done Alex. I hope i can make something of my journey like you have.

[@Trooperos90]

came here after 6 years. this is the most important interview for any solo developer. in anything

[@Rc3651]

Still one of the best talks I've listened to. It's hard not to tear up listening to his passion and frustration. Thanks for the wonderful game!

[@SuperFriendBFG]

Watching these, you don't always expect it to be a predominantly emotional talk, but this was definitely one those. Really awesome. Making games is not easy; not at all.

[@xuraith]

It's good to know that the struggle is real, damn good talk.

[@brianpeterbroderick]

This presentation is a hidden GEM! Amazingly emotional and honest!

[@simonejsing9950]

1:50 - luck is a multiplier it should not be the factor that makes or breaks your success. Well said man!

[@Lowlightt]

RIP luck builds in RPG's then.

[@kitten-inside]

I love how emotional he gets at the end. This is an artist.

[@rul4n]

True

[@Gabzes]

Bruh this is depressing seeing this guy almost bursting into tears. LOved the talk tho!

[@MiloDelMal]

This makes me cry. Peace out to every developer.

[@tristenmacpherson]

I loved this game back when I played it. Stumbled onto this video and I've got to say that this talk was amazing. Favourite GDC talk now.

[@JRichard112]

Don't know Alex Bruce, but I felt this was a genuine speech given by a man who worked hard (and possibly sometimes a bit too hard) to achieve a personal dream. I found myself coming away from this inspired by his success, but at the time daunted by his description of the hardships he faced along his journey.

[@reaktorleak89]

Dayum that was good. His insight into "luck" was spot on, and it's crazy how he was able to go to festivals for free. Also, the people who were avid gamers attended those festivals and served as his constant focus group. That's a really smart strategy.

[@dev_jana]

This deserves so many more views...

[@Xonatron]

I love this GDC talk. Absolutely love it.

[@mustang19ms]

I got depressed watching this guy, fuck it I'll continue learning and I'll feel the failure then decide to stop or not,

[@lunardust201]

keep at it dude, sometimes it just takes a while

[@Smokecall]

Dude was almost crying talking about his story around 25 minutes in. He pushed forward and checked himself

[@StefanReich]

Why do you get depressed?

[@intruder313]

A heartwarming and heartbreaking talk! Hoping the 2nd part alluded to here is also available on YT or similar.

[@Gliptalful]

intruder313 I think this is it: www.gdcvault.com/play/1020586/Antichamber-Three-Years-of-Hardcore

[@IRMentat]

Sounds like you worked incredibly hard to be talking to the right people by first finding out who they were after spending a lot of time making sure the game and coverage were there to support something you had very much invested yourself into. Glad it resulted in a good product and personal success. You certainly seem to have put more work into it than many others think about.

[@Skjoldmc]

This is my favourite GDC talk.

[@ringo2715]

This video literally brought me to tears. This may be the best GDC talk I've ever seen.

[@Blue-jy4sq]

I actually started clapping at the end before I realized that I was home alone and NOT at the speech XD This speech helped motivate me to continue working on my game which as of right now gets about 10 min of game-play before people move on. I don't expect to make it big but I want to still try. Also the procrastinators are coming...

[@evilbarrels2506]

hey, I know it's been two years since you posted this comment, but how is the game going?

[@WnIyLkLvIiAsMt97]

Ray Issa what game is/was it?

[@MrDoboz]

@@evilbarrels2506 he drank too much coffee and died of a heart attack

[@clonkex]

@@MrDoboz What a strange thing to say.

[@georgplaz]

@@clonkex yea. unrelated and not funny, unless death in and off itself were funny

[@StarContract]

Great talk, real passion

[@AndreiTache]

My favorite GDC talk ever!

[@arnesieper8332]

30:00 you can hear all that emotion in his voice, i kinda know how he felt when i got my first gold medal in in the bavarian mauntain-running competitions, and never competed again after that.

[@commondrms110]

Alexander Bruce is to be commended for his youthful determination to practice the development of self-awareness and he has been generous in telling this story. During research for the film US AND THE GAME INDUSTRY I met the peer group of the 2008 - 9 period he mentions. By 2008 I had secured Jason Rohrer and thatgamecompany and filming of their stories was underway. I was looking for individuals to add variety to these first two quests by eighteen months into filming. I sensed that Alexander would be a compelling segue character so might suit part two of the film plan. I respected his determination to think things through. Alexander's hunger to be an independent would become one of the well regarded moments in game developments history. The lead up to ANTICHAMBER's release, back from when he did bedroom video with Canada, was so evidently supplemented by his live presence at Festivals and competition events. I went especially to Indiecade 2011 to look out for him. decided to invite him into the film him after I watched him on the floor in the Fire Station. I sensed he was going to get through the whole cycle. He was so proactive with questions and was so prepared to work. Thanks to you, Alexander, you give perspective on the toll hard work takes, how it makes you the person you are and it is great how you give back with some of your learned wisdom.

[@maanvis81]

Thanks for this talk! I currently work in a programming/consulting job, but I always dreamed of being a game developer and had some great ideas of my own. But seeing how much effort you had to put in and how it affected you, and the fact that I'm hardly capable of doing the networking with people that you did, I could be making the game that I wanted to make but hardly be able to make a living out of it. Thanks for making me realize this :).

[@235overlord]

Seeing him so emotional and so absolutely passionate during this, It made me cry, super inspiring

[@mollyheadycarroll]

My favorite GDC Lecture ever. :)

[@gabrote42]

This is enormously inspiring, at least due to his methodology.

[@m_nikitin]

This is so inspiring! Thank you very much for the talk.

[@swyxTV]

what a great talk. i hope he is in a better place today.

[@Vegalyp]

Alexander Bruce, your game is one that stands out to me as the game that made me interested in doing research with video games. Know that your game was in my mind perfect and I hope you can take it easy and always find time to relax.

[@ask.repeat]

Amazing talk! Thanks for being so open and congratulations on the success!

[@CristalianaIvor]

Also thanks for your hustle. I really loved your game.

[@parboilrice]

What an amazing talk. This has seriously boosted my outlook on what I've been going through trying to work on my game. Now to keep working hard.

[@Talon3000]

TBs video was the first I heard about this game and I immediately decided to buy it. Such an awesome concept. Also, a great talk. I hope this will help some more games as interesting as Antichamber getting the spotlight they deserve.

[@beat461]

Succes stories don't happen spontaneously out of nowhere, they are made by smart people like him. What an awesome game.

[@animedreammachine7123]

This is the best GDC by far. I had no idea AntiChamber sold so well or the path it took to get there. Puts you in place as a developer. The market place and landscape has changed so much since then. With Steam Direct and the high traffic of games, making a great game is more and more important. But damn 5 million dollars is crazy!

[@mcpepa]

one of the best talks in GDC.

[@themrfj]

Can't wait to watch his other talk, when you release that! :)

[@maltr2447]

That was one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen

[@NeverduskX]

As an aspiring developer, this is a very inspiring conference to listen to.

[@rhysgriffiths9675]

This guy is seriously the best

[@ringo2715]

Beautiful work

[@lensssle]

this is inspiring :-) thank you a lot sir.

[@Hdtjdjbszh]

I've always wanted a sequel to Antichamber, but after seeing this I am just so so happy we got one. I would not want him to go through all that again just to have a game compared to the original by everyone

[@jaxsonharper9091]

He sounds like he's about to cry like half the time throughout his presentation.

[@craigcutler6919]

He is a bad person trying to use everybody around him and feeling sorry for himself the whole time, he can go right to hell

[@crazyfingers619]

Is there something wrong with accidently going through years of hell and then venting about it to people in an educational way that can genuinely help them in their own journey? You are a bad person trying to use everyone around you to feel superior about yourself. You can go right to hell.

[@pressviktortocontinue2761]

Have to agree with Jeff here, what did he do that was wrong in your opinion? He made connections with people that made them genuinely want to help him out because they believed in him and his game. It was a great talk, I enjoyed it all the way through

[@mbilbo]

I was also about to cry about a dozen times. Absolutely moving talk.

[@b152349]

Fucking children on KZbin shitting on a good person..

[@Sergalt]

Great and very informative lecture. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@masahiroueno6146]

I really liked and learnt from this talk

[@KasedaFromMinecraft]

I was sent here by a man who has a mosquito problem, has a bit of a headache, has a rash, and has troubles keeping it up.

[@wtfhithere]

Kaseda By a man who needs antihistamine, has a migraine, has trouble with diabetes and has a cold

[@insomniac-afk]

Kaseda Kappa

[@HappyHusbandnWife]

+Kaseda PILLXZ !!!!!

[@fricknfrackgames6558]

What an inspirational talk!

[@Trooperos90]

this is brilliant

[@Pyraus]

Appreciate your brave honesty.

[@PumpedUpKicksShoes]

This is comforting.

[@hemangchauhan2864]

Its now been over 7 year since Anti-Chamber

[@PhanRotom21]

this talk explaing very much every tip inside Antichamber, I wonder if Alex write down everything before even think to put in the game...

[@LiamKarlMitchell]

I enjoyed this talk. Thanks for sharing.

[@챈캐이프란티쟄헝가리]

Daaam give him a fucking hug

[@chrishyde952]

Thanks for this real talk. You aren't lucky.

[@zionen01]

Great talk, I totally agree with your views on luck.

[@RMJ1984]

Congrats well deserved. Its a great game. Now what i really wanna know, is what decision lead to that hair cut?. How, where, when and why. :D

[@freekuki]

is there a link to the other talk he refers to at the end?

[@EconaelGaming]

Please normalilze the audio so that the speaker isn't this much quieter than the intro.

[@danielgmjr]

Amazing talk!

[@TheZenytram]

I wanna see a "indie game movie 2" about him, such a awesome history.

[@CristalianaIvor]

"What a fucking weirdo!" Story of my life, dude.

[@mikeGNTR]

Jesus christ that talk was good

[@ansien]

Amazing talk, very inspiring.

[@Koniving]

Loved the game, but once I got to a point when I couldn't figure out what to do....and I let it sit for a long time before picking it up again.

[@RobertElliotPahel-Short]

You are my hero. Alexander Bruce, I actually am in love with you. You are the realest person I've ever seen.

[@nationalmaverick]

Great speech, only thing I could think was, stop letting the cards reset you when you're on a roll, I really wanted to hear the end of some of those cut off thoughts but you were rigidly keeping to the cards if you went off track.

[@Js103036]

Amazing talk. :,)

[@jior6]

God Bless TotalBiscuit

[@FTWRahul]

Holy fuck this was breathtaking ;_;

[@kaiya7942]

Love this vid but the audio is horrible for this video

[@kim15742]

Jow do you get nominated for IGF?

[@marsteinou4568]

man i loved antichamber, full on mind fuck, confusion adn agony, i loved it! the great sense of exploration it gives you since you dont have a clue of what is happening makes it just amazing game and expierence! :D

[@ishdx9374]

I'm assuming this game took 1 year to program and 6 years trying to wrap head around designing levels !

[@pabloveloso7736]

And I was asking to myself when the sequel of antichamber is gonna come out. lol. The important thing is your mental health by the way.

[@DefsNotAsa]

Nice...

[@BM-qb3oo]

Luck is not hard to understand, and it's not magic. It's when preperation meets opportunity.

[@benox50]

Making game is fun until the $ get involved. Its not just making the game, its also lotsa recognition work and an hard big load of social. Having the expertise of a seller. Making games is hard yes Touching video

[@TheZenytram]

Making game is easy. Making a success business is hard.

[@Trooperos90]

What makes me different?

[@alexanderhugestrand]

After watching this I'm happy about not being into games anymore.

[@Bram06]

I was sent here by a man who runs a Big Pharma

[@wtfhithere]

Bram06 By a man who got master at the last moment.

[@Fabelaz]

Well, I don't get, what he's doing with his life now and if he's going to make games, but at least he's in those conventions helping other developers)

[@Ankhtepot]

Great speech, just very unpleasant to listen to, he feels like hes going to fall apart at any second. Poor guy, hes going to kill himself like this.

[@loupax]

I'm sad now :(

[@zissou6928]

Cawthon didnt really follow any of these rules did he?