Surgeon Simulator 2

The theme of the 2013 Global Game Jam was the "sound of a heartbeat" but what outside influences (if any) inspired you to interpret that in the way that you did and come up with a surgery themed game?

I think our actual first thought was a heart transplant, something very literal involving a heart. We toyed around with a couple of other ideas after that because we felt it was a little on the nose, and not a very creative way of interpreting the theme, but ultimately we kept coming back to the heart transplant idea!

The original Surgeon Simulator prototype was made in just 48 hours, what do you think the biggest development challenge was with such a short window?

You never have as much time as you think you do. If you think you have a small idea, make it smaller, and then make it smaller again. The biggest challenge is always when you start trying to finalise the "game". Suddenly you're like "Oh we need a score, timers, main menu, completion screen..." and those things can really sneak up on you.

Were there any features that you would have liked to have included in that original prototype that eventually made it in to the full game?

Nothing major actually, one thing we thought we could do was add more to completing a surgery. In the game jam we originally wanted you to have to attach the new organ but we ran out of time and couldn't think of a good mechanic for it so we just went with "just slap it in the right sort of position and call it a day...". When it came to the full game that vague completion criteria actually drove a lot of the setting and narrative so we ended up leaving it how it was and focus on different organs and areas of the body.

As mentioned, the original prototype was made in just 48 hours and then the full version of Surgeon Simulator was made in just 48 days. Was it a conscience decision to restrict development time of the full game to 48 days to keep in-theme with the original 48 hours, or was just purely coincidental?

Hah it was neither. As we were getting closer to launch I think we looked at the development and it was close to 48 days so we stretched the truth a little and said that it was, just because it sounded nice for the trailer. I'm sorry to anyone who feels betrayed by this revelation.

What did you find most challenging about scaling the prototype experience up into a full game?

For me it was certainly a "now what?" moment. It wasn't immediately obvious what areas to expand into a full game. Early on we figured we could do a kidney transplant but after that humans don't really have much more to dig around in their torso for. The possibilities really opened up when one of our IT guys suggested trying to do surgery in the back of a moving ambulance, it was a bit of a lightning strike moment and we instantly knew we had to do it. We still had to keep the scope small but extra environments allowed us to put twists on the already existing surgeries and mixed up the gameplay and chaos enough to warrant us calling it a full release!

The controls in Surgeon Simulator are legendary by this point but also very divisive - did you ever consider taking the "simulation" aspect a little more seriously and making the controls a little less "slapstick"?

Nope, never came into question haha. We had a few people in the company coming to us and saying "We literally can't select the first level" but we were young and stubborn and decided that would be the defining aspect of the game. Though I will clarify that while the controls are very difficult, they are consistent. We tried very hard to make sure the controls only did what you told them. This is what lead to many players persevering and having 1 more go, because ultimately each attempt you would do a little better!

Finally, looking back is there anything that you would have done differently with either the original game jam prototype or the full version of Surgeon Simulator 2013?

We had a location idea of doing surgery in the back of a plane in flight, complete with loops, barrel rolls and banking, that would've been wild. Essentially I would've loved to add more locations and other environmental challenges to interfere with your... attempts at surgery. Perhaps in a future game?....

• Levels showing with 0-star ratings in the thumbnail and terminal.
  
• Parties do not re-matchmake when restarting a level after a player leaves.
  
• Loss of some controller functionality when closing a community-made level.
  
• When in a party and the host leaves during Creation Mode, all players are brought back to the lobby.
  
• Various localisation fixes.
  

• Level ratings now correctly appear on the thumbnails in the terminal, so you can easily see which is a highly rated level!
  
• General UI improvements, such as ensuring appropriate buttons are highlighted.
  
• Newly created and validated levels can now be seen in the ‘Newest Levels’ list in the terminal.
  
• Fixes for the terminal displaying as blank when loading into the lobby.
  
• We’ve given Bob his blood back in the Surgery 101 level… where did it even disappear to!?
  
• SFX fixes in Creation Mode.
  
• Improvements for controller on PC, including a fix for loss of controller functionality when viewing Community-Made Levels in the terminal, and the ability to ‘favourite’ and ‘unfavourite’ levels using controller input.
  
• Winning players will now (rightfully!) be displayed on the end of the level screen in Campaign Levels.
  
• Thumbnails for Community-Made Levels levels now appear, rather than being stuck in a loading state.
  
• Levels no longer appear as ‘invalid’ when players create a custom queue.
  
• Sometimes the vactubes get a bit blocked, and now all players will receive a ‘Tubes Jammed’ prompt should an issue occur.
  
• Backend improvements to speed up the client.