The interactive nature of video games make them inherently different from other entertainment mediums such as television and film. Whereas a filmmaker is generally creating a product to be absorbed passively, video game developers have to consider interactivity on top of aesthetics, narrative clarity, and more. However, there are skills that carry between various creative pursuits.Cloudscape’s solo developer Christopher Gottron credits his 12 years working intelevision animationfor growing his skills as an artist, letting him take on interesting challenges, and learning how to hit critical deadlines.
Before starting his own indie studio Konitama LLC in March 2020, Gottron spent about six years at both Nickelodeon and DreamWorks. He worked on 2D and 3D animation, but said he “had to wear many hats” at work: 3D modeling, rigging, lighting, compositing, developing special effects, and scripting software tools and plug-ins. Game Rant spoke to Gottron about the way his experiences contributed to his current work onCloudscape, which is running aKickstartercampaign until June 03, 2025.
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Jack of all Trades
Gottron’s credits at Nickelodeon includeSpongeBob SquarePants,Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, andT.U.F.F. Puppy— with which he excitedly points to the 3D car in its opening sequence as an example of his work. Meanwhile at DreamWorks, Gottron worked on shows such asVoltron: Legendary Defender,She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, andKipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts. While he said working with so many different software programs for animation and effects helped him learn a lot, it was being around so many other artists in the studios' creative environments that truly shaped his skills and preferences.
“Every day I was learning new things. I found myself liking both 2D and 3D styles of art, and it was interesting to see how we could blend both of those together for unique looks.”
Even so, Gottron describes video game development as his “lifelong passion,” stemming back to his first games on the NES and dissecting the design ofThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Paston SNES. Gottron said he has been teaching himself pixel art for over two decades and it holds a “special place in my heart.” As a result it was not difficult to transition out of traditional animation when he began working onCloudscape, which has clear similarities toStardew Valley,A Link to the Past, and more; if anything the studio work affected his pixel art in a positive way. “I definitely pay more attention to things like squash and stretch, anticipation, and action curves,” he said.
After prototyping some games in his spare time, includingCloudscape, Gottron saved up enough funds and “took the plunge.” He said the initial programs he used kept leading him into roadblocks, so after breaking away for a few months he triedUnityand “instantly fell in love,” knowing he could use it to make the game he has been envisioning.Cloudscapeis described as “an action-adventure farm-life survival game” on its Kickstarter page, and Gottron has been messing with the idea of aZelda-like game withHarvest Moon’s farming elements for around 20 years.
The artist had some experience with game development at Nickelodeon when he tried creating a mobile app to help his department “be of further use to the studio,” even if that was never made available to the public. However, when going into game development full-time, Gottron said he wanted to maintain full ownership ofCloudscapeout of fear that investors might want to change his vision, and because of the stress that would come with paying them back. Afterwatching and backing games on Kickstarterfor years, Gottron decided that would be the right path for him to, “Raise enough funds while also hopefully gaining more of an audience.”
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Overall the Kickstarter experience has been “really great” for Gottron, and he said he would “do it again in a heartbeat.“Cloudscape’s campaign reached its $50,000 goal in one day, and as of this writing it is about $1,000 away from $135,000 — the cut-off point for its currently second-to-last stretch goal adding interior and exterior decor. Beyond that, he said he’s received a ton of support and nice comments from backers and those who caught wind of the game on social media. The campaign will also help him live out a childhood dream ofreleasing physical copies on a Nintendo console, as he was able to get his hands on a Switch developer kit.
It hasn’t all been positive, though. For one, he said there are still a handful of people who say mean or hateful things, particularly regarding a game that wears its inclusivity on its sleeve via features like agender-fluid protagonist. “You have to kind of ignore those people as they aren’t going to change their minds and support your game anyway,” Gottron said. It also took months to prepare the Kickstarter, as he planned out a reasonable “asking goal” that only covered the basics, leaving the rest to stretch goals. This also eats away at his actual development time, which he’s excited to reclaim once the campaign ends.
Luckily, the campaign has been a resounding success thus far, and there’s about a week remaining to backCloudscapeas of this writing. Though much of the work has been shouldered by Gottron alone, he said it’s good to step back and be critical of one’s own work; figuring out where a creator needs help so they can focus on what they’re best with. One selling point forCloudscapeis Samantha van der Sluis coming in as a composer, whose experience includes tentpole films likeAvengers: Endgame,Toy Story 4, andStar Wars Episode 9.
Gottron said he’s open to getting more help, because he doesn’t “need to prove to anyone that I can do it all by myself, or put my ego in the way of making the game.” He wantsCloudscapeto be as great as possible, especially after all of the support he has received.
“I’m thankful for the small community that has built up around the game over the past year and a half, and I’m happy that so many people are already finding joy withCloudscape, even before it has released.”
Cloudscapeis currently in development for PC, PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox.
