The Pusher of Polygons: An Interview with suitNtie

All images are from Merchant 64 by suitNtie

There’s a joke I’ve seen online that the best era for video games is whichever one was active when you graduated from middle school. Don’t get me wrong, it’s funny–but I’d also be lying if I said I wasn’t the most nostalgic for that original grey PlayStation and, of course, the (darker shade of graphite) Nintendo 64. 

That hypothesis might be true. 

Most of us who swear that the medium peaked with Resident Evil 2 and Metal Gear Solid are old enough to be making games of our own now. On the indie side of the industry, there’s no shortage of low poly adventures. One of the most impressive solo devs I’ve found working in this space, so far, is suitNtie. He has a cozy game launching next month and was kind enough to answer some questions I had about what goes into crafting a modern title that bleeds those feel-good, retro vibes. 

For readers discovering you for the first time–who are you, what have you worked on, and how would you describe Merchant 64?

My alias is suitNtie but my name is Brent Lattery. I've worked in video games for about 5 years as an animator and VFX artist, mainly for cancelled mobile games. My side work for a while was doing low poly retro inspired characters which eventually led me down the road to Merchant 64. The game is a Nintendo 64 themed tiny adventure where you take the role of a traveling merchant going from town to town trading goods. To be honest, my no.1 reason for the project is just to experience the process of releasing a Steam game and hopefully having it be a success :)

What game or moment made you interested in becoming a game dev?

I've always wanted to make games since I was a child, not sure when exactly it was though but I think around when I got an N64 for Christmas. As for taking the plunge into solo game dev, it was like my 2nd year working in the industry. In the industry, if you ever want something made you need to convince A LOT of people to work on your vision, or at least fund your vision. If you actually get to do that though you still won't own it and are often fighting to not let trends define your project. For example, I pitched a mobile game that was essentially the setting of Dragon Quest with the gameplay of Punch-Out, a weird idea but it was cool. In order to make steps I first needed to present the monetization practices the game would have and where in the marketplace the game would fit. It quickly fell apart as the higher-ups didn't want to move forward ‘til the data said it was guaranteed to make money. So one day being frustrated I decided to learn how to make games on my own without help from anyone else and it all kinda snowballed.

What are the tricks to capturing the look and feel of a Nintendo 64 game?

I mean a big one is the texture filtering. Best way to hit that N64 look is to have very small textures with compression to make them look fuzzy. As far as character styles and silhouettes the best thing you can do is just study old character models and try to recreate them. See how they make hands, legs, faces, bodies, etc. ModlersResource is the best website for stuff like this.

Do you have a signature “thing” that you try to incorporate into the models/characters you create?

Hah not so much. I usually just reuse a lot of elements from old models to speed things up. So for example almost all of my characters look like they're from Mega Man Legends ‘cause, for a while, I was reusing the head but painting new textures on it. I do love the Mega Man Legends style, though. It's my favorite retro low poly look by far. Although all that being said I really try to sneak in a suitNtie face in my stuff every once in a while

Are there any specific, obscure, or impressive 3D models from the PlayStation, N64, Saturn, or Dreamcast that don’t get enough attention?

Vagrant Story has some of the best, most premium low poly work I've seen. It's like paintings stretched over the blocky models; it just looks so cool! It toes the line of ps1 and psp styled models perfectly and just looks so nice in cutscenes when the characters talk, I really like those ones. I mentioned Mega Man Legends above is super GOATed. They did this technique where some of the mouth textures only make sense from a specific angle, so in cutscenes they point the camera at the character a certain way and it looks really good, It's interesting to use up precious texture space on specific angles only. One I recently fell completely in love with is Rival Schools. They're nice big chunky models with great detailing. The proportions really hit where I like them being with larger features like hands and feet. Essentially anything Capcom from the era I’m a big fan of!

What’s the most difficult thing you’ve had to learn on your game dev journey? 

In terms of skills I would say it's coding by far! Coming from an art program I could not wrap my head around the concept of variables until I used GBstudio, a small engine for Game Boy games. Still to this day there is so much with coding I am unaware of and would love to take a year just to go through some program for it just to get really good at the basics, but at the moment that's not feasible. Something I also feel I struggle with is getting the presentation I want but in the engine during gameplay. When I make animations in Blender I can use tricks and very unoptimized methods of getting good shots, but in the engine you have to make sure it runs well and doesn't tax the system so much. It's hard because all of that stuff is technical hurdles and requires so much knowledge of what is going on under the hood.

Did you fight scope creep while making Merchant 64? Or did you embrace it?

I can say this. I'm actually very good with scope creep, and lately I enjoy removing things more and more. With my art I always had a "meh, good enough" approach, which can sometimes be a very bad thing if the work requires fine polish, but for things like scope creep it's actually fairly useful. I also want to say my mindset really is not on "this current project is going to be my best thing ever!" as I really want this current project to be a jumping off point to the next project, and the next, and so on. With that thought process in mind I LOVE the fantasy of looking back on the games I've done and seeing a large quantity of interesting small titles rather than one big mega game that did it all and failed, or worse, got shelved. A good way to look at it is that I want to write short stories, not novels.

Something else I want to say is the no.1 cause of scope creep for me is discussing or showing the game off to friends. The dreaded "it would be cool if..." or "you know what would be neat for this...". When it comes to discussing or showcasing projects I really am nihilistic as nearly every feedback I get to add more than I designed for is met with a "I won't be doing that." Unless it's a REALLY good idea that I feel confident in implementing.

Without spoiling anything, what is something in Merchant 64 you’re proud of that people might not notice?

There's a couple of secrets here and there I tried to add :) one easter egg I did a similar thing way back in my first game, Far After for the Game Boy, where I get a bit meta with the player leading to some extra stuff at the end so I hope people enjoy that if they find it.

Something else I found rewarding was just adding Steam achievements in which I tried to reference things in the names of the achievements. I hope people find those enjoyable, as well.

Are you already planning your next project? Any hints? 

Hopefully a horror game with the same N64 look. I kinda teased this whole idea very early on where I asked my followers what they thought about "Wholesome vs Horror" game types. I find these two genre types interesting ‘cause they're opposites yet are extremely similar and sell well. So, for instance, both genres have audiences that are more easy to please then say an action game or a simulation game. With wholesome games it just needs to be COZY. For horror games it just needs to be SCARY. With this in mind I thought it would be interesting to try something more wholesome and cozy which in this sense is Merchant 64, and then I want to try something scary which is hopefully the next project. We will see if this does well and I get to make the horror game, and then we will also see if that works to see if I was right in trying this whole concept out. After that... maybe an action game about bigfoot :P

What is a book, movie, video game, or album you feel everyone should experience? 

That's a fun question! I think to not be too specific, try to find something that isn't conventionally "good" but is beloved/successful. For me it's the game No More Heroes. It has technical issues, not great writing, weird characters, goofy gameplay, but I love it and so many people do. Finding something like this for yourself is wonderful because it makes the whole concept of making art feel feasible BECAUSE it has flaws. 

I want to thank suitNtie again for his thoughtful answers. Make sure to follow him on YouTube for more insights into the world of 3D modeling:

https://www.youtube.com/@suitNtie22

And, of course, wishlist Merchant 64 on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3440000/Merchant_64/

Are you ready to talk about your small or strange project? Reach out on our contact page. There’s nothing we love more at Tactical Reload than discovering new games from passionate people.