This time, our developer interview is with Jens Isensee – Head of Creativity, and Martin Wahnschaffe – Head of Development from Serious Brothers developers of Imagine Earth. I’ve reviewed Imagine Earth on Steam and, more recently, on the Nintendo Switch for Imagine Earth’s release on console, and I gave the game a score of I like it a lot.
Of course, LadiesGamers is always about the personal story in an interview, so we asked Jens and Martin how Serious Bros was founded and the story behind the development of Imagine Earth.
Interview with Serious Bros
Who are the people behind Serious Bros.? Can you each tell us about yourselves?
Jens: Hi, I’m Jens, the game designer of the project. Responsible for everything colorful in our game. I did everything from 3D models to the interface and the story.
Martin: Hi, I’m Martin. I’m a programmer by trade. I was responsible for bringing everything together, implementing the game mechanics and working out the gameplay together with Jens.
How did you both start out as game developers?
Jens: We started this project back when I was a student studying art and wanted to drive forward an idealistic, real, and concrete project to address climate change.
Martin: I started making games in my youth, back then I was still making text adventures in basic and other simple programming languages. It was always a little hobby on the side. But it got really serious when, as Jens says, we met as (then) students to make a game about climate change for a competition. And here we are now.
Inspiration for Imagine Earth
What inspired the development of Imagine Earth? E.g. life experiences, other video games, or something else?
Jens: For me, the main thing was probably the feeling that we had found a really good approach to making a gripping and motivating game about such an earth-shattering problem as the climate crisis. Today, there are still hardly any titles that dare to tackle such controversial and complex topics, and we learned why ourselves. For example, there have been a relevant number of Steam reviews from climate deniers that were simply ideologically motivated and cost Imagine Earth crucial rating points.
Martin: I always felt the need to try my hand at something bigger, like a real build-up simulation game. The game concept competition, which was about sustainability, was the perfect catalyst to get started.
What did the early versions of Imagine Earth or prototypes of the game look like?
Jens: Over the incredibly long period of nine years in Early Access, Imagine Earth has undergone at least two fundamental evolutionary shifts in all areas and complete redesigns. Other people would probably have released at least two or three games at the same time, but since the project started to fund itself in Early Access, we had the luxury of making our world simulator richer and richer in detail, context, and possibilities, and putting as much complexity and love into it as it deserved.
What’s the biggest challenge you had to overcome while developing Imagine Earth?
Jens: The biggest challenge right from the start was to strike a balance between seriousness and entertainment. The game mechanics of our build-up simulation had to be motivating and entertaining and the story had to tell the subject of building the right society and sustainable transformation in an exciting way, without becoming demotivating or even moralistic. It should be the player’s free development decisions and their consequences that make it possible to experience such a colossal chapter in human history.
Do you want to read the rest of the interview, too? Find out what advice Jens and Martin have for aspiring developers and much more.
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