Killer Queen: Half Joust, half StarCraft and one giant snail

The Killer Queen arcade credits screen sports logos for Sortasoft and Smashworx, DeBonis' and Mikros' independent game studios, but the game is a passion project: there are no investors or contracts, just two developers and one local multiplayer game.

They started working on the digital version in early 2011, developing it alongside the physical game. The goal was to make Killer Queen more accessible, to allow people to bring the experience home — no need for a field, foam swords or two dozen players.

"In our minds, it was way less difficult to play, because you could boot it up on your iPhone or PC," says DeBonis. "But as we started developing it, we realized that actually you do need to come to a physical location, and you need 10 people to play it. We playtested it right away and knew it wasn't going to be a conventional video game."

By working on the two versions simultaneously, Mikros and DeBonis can take what they learn testing the field game and implement it in the digital game, which they view as Killer Queen's "flagship product."

"The way that we really playtest [the video game] is by playing the field game, because the iterations are just easier to implement," says Mikros. "We just change it, no coding involved."

Although they've both been programming for decades — Mikros started on an Apple IIe — DeBonis writes all the code for Killer Queen. DeBonis says he's not a great programmer, but Mikros disagrees, saying he's excellent at getting his ideas working and quickly iterating on them.

Killer Queen is built in Unity 3D — a bit ironic considering it's a 2D game. But regardless of game type, the user-friendly and platform-agnostic Unity engine is rapidly gaining traction in the indie community. DeBonis thinks it's nearly as ubiquitous among indie developers as the Unreal Engine has become for triple-A games.

"I love the asset store and the Unity community," he says. "I'm constantly buying middleware. We're using 2D toolkit for Killer Queen. Today, I bought three different things for client projects for $100, and that probably saved us 500 hours of work. It's unbelievable; it's almost like cheating. I'm making games faster than I ever have before."

Mikros creates all the art for the game, which has been a gratifying experience for the veteran developer. "I never get to do the art these days," he laughs. "Originally we were going to give the workers really tiny wings, but then nobody could tell what they were. And the little things on the side of the ears started off as antennae. I was like, 'That doesn't really look like antennae, but they're so cute!'"

The workers look like bear–raccoon hybrids, while the soldiers and queens seem more like bees or flies. It's far from consistent, but the disparity between the creatures gives the Killer Queen world personality.

"It's not some generic bee world," says Debonis. "Bees obviously don't ride snails, but it makes sense in our world for whatever reason."

Many players love the snail, whose origin dates back to the field game. Bombing the opposing base didn't work in the 2D environment, Mikros and DeBonis decided, so they brainstormed other victory conditions. They wanted a tug-of-war mechanic, but had yet to decide what form it would take.

When the video game was a very early prototype, the screen was vertical. To get back to your base, you'd have to go up the wall. So, they thought, what would stick to the sides? A snail! Either team could ride it back to their base for a win. Eventually, the screen returned to a horizontal view, but the snail stayed put.

"Even in the horizontal version, the snail used to slide around the corner and go up the wall, but that was just extraneous and weird so we took it out," says DeBonis. "Now our game just has a giant, ridable snail."

It's carnivorous, too — the snail devours enemy workers who cross its path, which always gets a big laugh.

"It's funny: the snail violates everything I know about game design, because when you're riding the snail, you're doing almost nothing," muses DeBonis. "You're just holding the stick in one direction; you're not making many meaningful choices — really just judging whether to stay on it or not — but it still feels super fun and empowering."

DeBonis and Mikros want as many people to play Killer Queen as possible, but they don't want to compromise its local multiplayer experience, which has become so essential to the game's identity.

With that in mind, they're considering several options.

Mikros thinks it's no mistake the cabinet ended up at NYU. He'd like to make internet-ready cabinets and sell them to colleges.

"How cool would it be if you're a student at NYU, and you could play locally there, but your team could also play a team at Caltech? It's perfect for colleges. The cabinets would be expensive, for sure, but if they were in a college setting — maybe they charge a quarter, or maybe the school buys the cabinet for the students up front. Either way, student unions would be an ideal setting."

They've also tossed around the idea of building custom hardware and selling it directly to consumers, like a five-player controller that houses a computer. These internet-ready devices would probably go for $100 a pop. It's a pricey proposition, but they think they could garner enough support on Kickstarter to make it happen. They'd treat it like a platform, pushing out new content on a semi-regular basis.

Ultimately, they might buckle and sell the software on the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live or Steam.

"It'd be nice to make some money," says Mikros, "but we really just want to do something cool for the community. Something would be lost if we just released it as a PC game. That's our dilemma."

Whatever happens, "it's been a pleasure to work on this game," says DeBonis, smiling. "I'm excited to see what happens next."

DeBonis and Mikros are just happy Killer Queen exists. Asked to share the high point of their professional careers, both of them say "now."