BROOM SWEEPER
Broom Sweeper is a Minesweeper-inspired indie game by BandsWithLegends, published by Bandwidth Games. We had the opportunity to play this game at GeekFest West, and had a great time with this fun rogue-like experience.
My first impression of Broom Sweeper was that making the classic game, Minesweeper, into a roguelike game with a story is a fantastic idea. I really enjoy games like Bolatro, Solitarica, and Slay the Spire, which have a similar concept. To be honest, I usually just clicked around and hoped for the best when playing Minesweeper as a kid, so I found this to be a great opportunity to actually figure out how to properly play, as Broom Sweeper helps to walk you through the process. Broom Sweeper features 2D detailed pixel art. It is highly detailed and brimming with charming little sprites that give the game a lot of personality. I really liked the game’s art style, and how colorful and detailed it was, which you don’t see often with pixel art.
The premise of Broom Sweeper is a lot like Minesweeper where you progress by clearing squares in rooms. In Minesweeper, you’re clearing bombs, but in Broom Sweeper, you are a janitor clearing dust and trying to avoid dust bunnies. But, this game also has the added roguelike elements where some rooms have shops where you can buy upgrades for the following rooms, or story progression that can also give you upgrades. These upgrades and additions to the story help to teach you more about broom sweeping and assist in clearing rooms faster and more efficiently.
This game is very addictive. I easily could have sat there all day and kept playing. With each room, you unravel a bit of the story and mysteries about where your character has been hired to work. With seemingly infinite choices for upgrades, each new run feels like a whole new game. Exploring what combinations help you progress more efficiently is a part of roguelikes that makes replayability endless. The game also offers easier levels to start with, making it feel a bit more approachable for newcomers to the concept.
Something unique that I thought was really cool was that Rue, who helps with marketing and ideas for the game, added a personal touch with a Mongolian pun. One of the items is called a Modenhore, which is a play on words with the Mongolian words “nudenhore” (meaning a cello) and “mod” (meaning broom). The item is a broom/cello combo. Puns are great additions to add a giggle during gameplay, and puns in different languages help engage people from all around the world and help them feel included and seen.
I would highly recommend this game, not only to people who enjoy roguelikes like Balotro, but to anyone. This style of game can draw in anyone from the most experienced gamer to beginners. There is currently a demo, and Broom Sweeper can be wishlisted on Steam. They also show up to a lot of events, so check out their website for updates on pop-up demo locations too!
LilForestFae: So what got you into making an indie game?
Adam: Yeah, so I would say the primary reason that I got into making an indie game was definitely that I had made a lot of small hobby projects before, but for this specific game, there wasn't another game like it. And so I really was like, Well, I have all these ideas. I have those cool stuff, you know, how can I I want to make this like I want to make a game for myself. I want to make a game for someone who's just like me. And so I started messing around with it. I made a prototype. I showed the prototype to my friends, and they were like, This is so cool. This is a really cool idea. I like what you're doing with it. Keep going, like, I want to see this, like, turn it into a thing. And then eventually it got to the point where enough of my friends were like, Please, let me buy this game. I just, you know, it just kept going and going and going. And so I was like, okay, like, this is really popular. I'm making this commercial project, putting it on Steam, letting everyone and letting everyone all over the world play it.
Fae: Yeah, wow, that's really cool. You always know if your friends will buy it, then probably other people will too.
Adam: Basically, the story goes is that I sat people down and I said, I want you to play my game for like, 15 to 30 minutes just to get a feel of it, just to try it out in the beginning. Like, you know, don't worry about it too much. I just want to get an initial feel. And then our, our shortest play test was two hours long, because people, even when they won or they lost, they said, no, no, I want to try again. I want to see if I could put this together in a different way. Like, I want to try this combination of items, you know, or I just learned enough about it, and I want to see the other things I could do. And so I was like, Well, if I have to, if I have to forcefully pull people away to go do something else, that's a pretty good sign.
Fae: Yeah, yeah. That's a beauty of roguelikes. Like, yeah. Like that, yeah, you get kind of hooked in. Like, oh, well, maybe if I do this part. So it is based off of Minesweeper, which is the classic game that I think everyone, at least in our generation, the millennial generation, knows Minesweeper very well. Was it, um, when you said games that you like, is it more the Minesweeper type or the more rogue-like type that you're, or both?
Adam: Yeah, it is the beautiful marriage of both. I definitely played a lot of Minesweeper, like as a kid growing up, I definitely was a little more chaotic in my youth, you know, trying to understand exactly how it worked. But I definitely returned to the game later in life, and I tried some of, like, the variants where there's like, a little bit extra, like, oh, it's triangles, or oh, you have different shaped boards and stuff like that. But I said, there's more I want to do with this. I also have played a lot of Slay the Spire, a lot of Bellatro, all the other classic game, like, yeah, I achieved my and I think it's called The Ancient One achievement in Slay the Spire, which is getting all of the achievements, which is also beating all the characters on Ascension 20. So, like, I have a lot of experience in that. I have gold stakes, all of the Bellatro decks, and so having that kind of knowledge, and having that experience of like, well, what are the fun items that I like in these video games, something that, as a game designer, I don't really like, are the like, 10% upgrades. So just, you know, you do 10% more damage. It's not really, like, interesting to me. So all of the upgrades and items in Broom Sweeper are big things. They make a big difference. You can see them happening on the screen. They interact with something in an interesting way. And so that's as a game designer, that's how I approach the perspective is, like, I don't ever want to just give someone, like, a slight upgrade or, like, a little meaningful thing, like, they should all change something in a dynamic way. And so that's really what I take to heart as a game game designer. Instead of just having a little upgrade, I want it to feel different. I want each step up you get to feel like I'm playing like a slightly new game with all the things that I'm thinking about and considering as I play the game.
Fae: Yeah, I, I would very much appreciate that, because sometimes, you know, you did the work to get this upgrade, you want to see the results of it. And sometimes it does feel like, okay, I got 10% but is it really making much of a difference?
Adam: Is this game feeling faster than that? Anyway.
Fae: Yeah, that's the beauty of making a game based on the kind of games that you already like, because you, as a player, know the kind of things that you're looking for. So that's really cool. And let's see, is there anything like any advice or anything that you'd give to yourself back when you were first beginning that, that you now know that you didn't know when you were first getting yourself into this project.
Adam: I would say for me, for me, for this project and for a lot of indies the thing we always say is marketing. You always want to start earlier. You want to post more often, even when it's your like, even when it's your play test stuff, even when it's just, you're just thinking around with like an idea. A lot of people have it like that. I forget what they call it, but it's like a valuable idea. Like, it's like a valuable secret their ideas, like a secret that they want to hold. And I just want to challenge that idea a lot and say that the idea for your game is not actually its most valuable asset… It's an asset. Yeah, the idea is not the most valuable asset. It is the work you put into it that is actually the most valuable thing you can do for it. And so, you know, ideas, they come and go, but the work you put into it, the development process, you know, creating all the art, the sounds, the ideas, and the mechanics. This is what really happens when people play your game; they're like, Wow, this is cool, but you do need a good idea to hook people in initially. So yeah, I would say starting marketing earlier. Also, this is the first time where I've done visual art. I'm a musician. I have a degree in music, and so I'm very familiar with like different kinds of art. But as for doing like pixel art, specifically, my first time making pixel art was for this game, and we have, we have learned a lot. We have done a lot of YouTube tutorials, and we've done a lot of like giving, getting feedback from other artists and stuff like that.
Fae: That's really cool because that is very inspiring, so a lot of people think they need to have the degree and, you know, in something, to be able to do it. So instead, just put yourself out there. Try!
Adam: Speaking to the people out there. If you do not have a background in art, I highly recommend pixel art. It's, it doesn't have to be perfect. There's a lot of assets that are just, you know, we did the best we could, but there's only so many pixels. So, there can be some faults.
Fae: Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, that's awesome. Um, so are you working solo or as a team? How? How big is this production? I guess.
Adam: So, I like to say that at my solo indie dev, I'm 90% of the game. My partner, Rue, is 10% of the game. The thing that they do is mostly the writing and the marketing, and honestly, the number one thing that they do is just be a feedback machine for me. I say, you know, would this be fun? And they're like, No, that's not really fun. And I'm like, what if I change it up like this? And they're like, oh, yeah, that's better. And then, so, you know, anytime we're driving in the car, sometimes we'll see something and say, Oh, we should put that in the game. Like, what? How would that translate to Broom Sweeper? Like, this is a cool idea, or, honestly, a cool pun. I am a person who loves to put comedy in everything I do. The main character's name is Jenny Tor. She's a janitor. Like, I'm gonna put puns in everything that I do. Yeah.
Adam: So the really interesting part that Rue brings to this is that there's actually a pun in Mongolian in the game. So Rue speaks Mongolian. They're fluent in the main dialect of Mongolian, and there's an item in the game called the nudenhore. And this is basically a Mongolian cello. But the name for a broom in Mongolian is mod M, O, D, and so we called it the modern whore. So it's literally like a broom that's also a cello, and so getting to include a pun in a different language is, like, very fulfilling to me.
Fae: Yeah, because I bet there's gonna be someone who also speaks Mongolian, and love that about it.
Adam: If somebody plays my game who speaks Mongolian. I really want them to see that. That would be very satisfying.
Fae: Oh, I bet there is. So that's really cool. I love that. Is there anything else you would want to share about your game that you'd want someone who's just learning about it today to know?
Adam: I would say if you really like puzzle games, like Sudoku, crossword puzzles, like 2048, the number game, this is definitely the kind of person who has really gravitated toward this game, people who like retro games, like Minesweeper and Solitaire, stuff like that. And then, you know, we just give it a new look. We give it a lot of new items, new abilities, so you can kind of relive that first play experience all over again.
Fae: Yeah, I would say Bellatro, I think it was a good kind of comparison. Obviously, it's a card game. It's a little different, but that idea of like, kind of the rogue-like aspect to it. So if you like games like that, definitely check this one out. Because I played it for a bit, and I had to be like, pulled away. I didn't check the time. I was like, Oh my gosh, I only have so much time here.
Adam: Yeah, it has that effect.
Fae: It does. Yeah. So congratulations on creating a wonderful game, and thank you so much for letting me talk to you. Have a great day.
