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Next to my desk I keep an old pocket watch. It's not there for any practical reason; I sometimes wind it up, but more often I turn the cool oblong over in my hands, following the engraving on the case and marvelling at the inner workings. It keeps time perfectly, if required. But I keep it because it feels like treasure. That sensation, a well-made thing that acquires an aura of magic, is something every developer would love to capture - yet how few do. Toronto's Capybara Games is one of the exceptions, having recently brought a little wonder back into adventure games with Sworcery (co-developed with Superbrothers), an offbeat follow-up to the studio's breakthrough titles Critter Crunch and Clash of Heroes. Capy is currently working on Super Time Force, which is Contra on (good) drugs, the awesome-looking Below (a timed exclusive for Xbox One), and another unannounced title. Their growth and projects are a shining example to other indie developers but getting here wasn't easy - and it involves a little grey DS cartridge that I consider a true treasure: Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes.
Capybara was founded in 2003, but the team were working in their spare time until, in Autumn 2005, there was finally office space - and a whole bunch of licenses. "At the time I'd say 90 per cent of what we did was work for hire," says Nathan Vella, Capybara's co-founder and president. "Pre-smartphone cellphone games, so old crappy devices where games can only be 256kb, you couldn't press two buttons at once, things like that. We were making games for things like Cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Happy Feet, Scarface, ESPN. It was pretty harsh. Quality was not necessarily a focus for these games whereas for us that was all that mattered. We wanted to make rad s**t."
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