Arsecast Interview: Bob Fearon

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: June 12th, 2007

The Arsecast has posted an interview with Robert Fearon, a.k.a. Oddbob, a.k.a. the Mersey Remakes (and Retro Remakes) guy, a.k.a. the guy who recently released Beast Invaders 3. I’m talkin’ about the guy, here.

Graham describes the interview as “more like a informal chat which veers all over the place.” As if we were expecting anything else!

Listen here if ya missed the link.

Braid Preview & Interview

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: June 8th, 2007

Graham Goring, The Arsecast Host, recently previewed Braid, the upcoming time-bending platform game by Jonathan Blow, which won the Innovation in Game Design award at the 2006 IGF. He had some nice things to say. Very nice. Check it out.

You might remember Braid being previewed a while ago in a similarly enthusiastic way. I was skeptical at the time, thinking it was hyperbole. But if Graham feels this way about it… I’m inclined to believe.

BONUS CONTENT: Why not chase all this down with an interview with Mr. Blow over at GameDev.net? You’ll be glad you did.

ALSO: Screenshots!

Defcon Interview

By: Derek Yu

On: June 4th, 2007

Game journalist extraordinaire Kieron Gillen (or Keer-eon Gill-eon as I like to call him), sits down for a chat and a spot of tea with Introversion’s Chris Delay.

“Comparing DEFCON to our other games is difficult. Uplink is rugged and buggy and ugly and still sells more than Darwinia every day. Darwinia is our oddball second album, our very own love letter to the Amiga and the soul of great videogames, and the game I’m most proud of. DEFCON is a relatively simple multiplayer game idea and I think that’s probably the key to its success.”

(Source: GameSetWatch)

Temple of the Roguelike

By: Derek Yu

On: May 22nd, 2007

Our pal Slashie (aka Santiago Zapata) has created a new site for Roguelike news, called Temple of the Roguelike. So far it’s off to a great start, with Slash updating regularly and posting about Roguelikes which I doubt have seen much press outside of a few small circles. There’s even an interview with Glenn Wichman, the creator of Rogue!

All I gotta say is keep going, Slash! Keep going!

Interview: Two of the Most Hated Game Creators Alive

By: Derek Yu

On: May 18th, 2007

Destructoid has an interview with Danny Ledonne, creator of Super Columbine Massacre RPG, and Ryan Lambourn, creator of V-Tech Shooting.

I find it interesting that Ledonne is very articulate and Lambourn is… well, he did it for the “lulz.” Neither game is a success, in my opinion, from a gameplay perspective or a social perspective. What they’ve proved is that games can create discussion and cause controversy… is that something that needs to be proven?

I find this screenshot from V-Tech Rampage to be extremely ironic.

(Thanks, Felan, for the heads-up!)

An Interview With The Podunkian

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: April 11th, 2007

Here’s another Planet Freeplay interview, this time with Arthur ‘The Podunkian’ Lee, seductive creator of The Underside. In the interview, he attempts to clear up the whole Cave Story debacle, talks about his history as a game developer, and name-drops quite a few heroes of the Klik scene, Derek included. Reminding us that, wow, Klik games truly are a vital piece of the indie gaming world. As much now as they were then.

Skimming through again just now, I realize this isn’t exactly the best interview out there… And some of the views expressed make me go, “Huh?” while others are a tad insulting (to Derek, hah). But I’m convinced Mr. Lee is an okay guy, and I don’t think it’d be a bad idea to send more encouragement his way. In fact:

Keep it up, man! The game really is looking good. I cannot wait to play the whole thing!

YOU CAN DO IT, CHAMP

An Interview With Nifflas

By: Brandon McCartin (BMcC)

On: April 11th, 2007

Here is a Planet Freeplay interview with Nifflas, creator of Within a Deep Forest and Knytt. It’s a nice compliment to the recent Notknytt announcement, I’d say.

Hm. That is a lot of links. The interview in question is right here in case you got lost.

I thoroughly appreciate how strongly music influences his approach to game design. It’s one of those neat little things that makes Nifflas Nifflas, y’know?

(Source: Planet Freeplay)

Gamasutra Interview: Emily Short

By: Derek Yu

On: April 11th, 2007

Speaking of Interactive Fiction, Gamasutra has an interview with Emily Short, who wrote Floatpoint, a two-time winner at last year’s XYZZY Awards, and Savoire-Faire, which has won four awards, including Best Game of 2002.

The interview itself is excellent, mostly due to the thoroughness with which Emily answers questions about her design process. Not surprisingly, she’s quite adept at explaining how she sets out to create good pacing, rewarding challenges, and interesting narratives. Even though she works with IF, her methodology could easily be applied to other types of games with great success, I think.

I personally haven’t had much experience with IF other than a brief stint with Colossal Cave Adventure as a kid, followed shortly thereafter by some prepubescent amusement with the hilariously-titled and really poorly-made Madame Fifi’s Whorehouse. But after reading this interview I think I’m going to give Savoire-Faire a spin.

Interview: Rod Humble

By: Derek Yu

On: April 5th, 2007

Caption: “Marriage ain’t easy.” —>

You guys ever take a philosophy course in college, and there’s always that one student that liked to spend 10 minutes of explanation and name-dropping before asking the professor a really, really simple question? Just to show how many books he’s read?

This interview kind of reminds of that, but it’s actually quite interesting. Whether The Marriage succeeds as a game is questionable, but there’s no doubt (in my mind, at least) that it is a fairly important piece of indie gaming. I hope Rod continues his experiments.

Also see: The Divorce

Interview: Greg Costikyan

By: Derek Yu

On: February 22nd, 2007

The Mercury News has an interview with Manifesto Games‘s Greg Costikyan. I’ve been curious how they’ve been doing, so I found this to be interesting:

“Q: What result have you had?

A: We’ve achieved a modest level of sales, and the curve is on an upward path, but we’re very aware that we have a long way to go. To succeed, we’re going to need to continue plugging away to get the word out, and we’re going to need to raise some capital to both build the technical infrastructure and the consumer awareness we need to achieve our goals."

Greg says and has generally said all the right things, but my ardor for him cooled significantly once Manifesto actually went live. To me, it seems like nothing more than Game Tunnel with a store front and a red paint job. Let me just be frank and say, without picking on titles specifically, that when I look at the front page of the site I am not seeing what I want independent gaming to be represented by. I’m seeing (with a few exceptions, of course) a lot of games that are essentially one or two steps above match 3 casual.

And they need to get someone new to write their game descriptions. I don’t know how else to put it – it sounds like they were written by someone lying down and eating potato chips. But it probably be easier to write exciting copy if the games themselves were more exciting.