tag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:/games/22932Cheerful Ghost: Interviews2024-03-29T13:40:57+00:002019-04-03T20:25:54Ztag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/40602019-04-02T04:30:35Z2019-04-03T20:25:54Z/jdodson/posts/4060/speedrun-sessions-is-coming-to-portland-my-interview-with-grandpoobearSpeedrun Sessions Is Coming To Portland: My Interview With GrandPOObear!<div class='youtube-player' data-id='YgXJHi6OOuI'></div> <br/>Ever since I’ve been into speedrunning GrandPOObear has been one of the most exciting runners to watch. His ability at speedrunning Mario is legend and that sportsmanship landed him a recent sponsorship by Red Bull seeing him join a roster of incredible athletes. GrandPOObear is also one of the runners in the Games Done Quick charity speedrun, which is the premier speedrunning community event that now happens three times a year. Recently GrandPOObear announced Speedrun Sessions which is a unique event coming to Portland April 4th at Ground Kontrol. Along with GrandPOObear the other runners at the event are Oatsngoats speedrunning Super Metroid and Andy speedrunning Link to the Past. Veteran GDQ MC and speedrunner spikevegeta with host the evening while GrandPOObear will close the event with a run of GrandPOOWorld 2. It’s going to be an incredible night and to help hype the event I reached out to GrandPOObear to ask him a few questions about speedrunning and his first Speedrun Sessions event.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: What got you into speedrunning?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: It’s pretty well known I got into streaming due to an injury that made me have to end my career snowboarding, which eventually led me to speedrunning. I had been obsessed with GDQs since I discovered them, and a run by Dram55 of Super Kaizo world inspired me to pick up the hobby. I started with Mario 3 because it was my fav game of all time, and quickly transitioned to the Mario World Romhack scene soon after. Since then I have been lucky to run in many events live and get to do a ton of good for charities I support. <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: When you were putting the Speedrun Sessions roster together did you have an idea of what kinds of runs you had in mind and did you have any discussions with Oats, Andy or Spike about what they were interested in showcasing?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: Well one thing I want to do with Speedrun Sessions is highlight a ton of different runs from a ton of different communities and runners. I have different players in minds for each stop, but I bet you will see Andy, Oats, and Spike at others (if they would like that is ;). I really wanted to work with these guys for the first one as I know them and trust them, and beyond that I am just a big fan of all 3. They are all hall of fame worthy runners. I did ask for specific categories as I wanted Andy to show off how broken Zelda ALTTP can be while having Oats run a category with really no glitches at all. I will say though each stop will feature different runs and hosts alongside with me so we can try and highlight how awesome so many parts of the speedrun community are. <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: Nintendo is going to launch Super Mario Maker 2 on June 10th and everyone on Cheerful Ghost is pretty excited about it. As someone that ran Super Mario Maker extensively, what things are you hoping Nintendo brings to the second release?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: June 10th? I hadn’t heard that yet! Honestly just more items, and support the game with post release content (even more items). The cool part about Maker is even one item can change the meta in a drastic way, so it Nintendo can give us a solid drip of items for years to come, the players are going to deliver incredible stages forever. Beyond that a robust search system and parameters for things like 100 man would be great, but anything they don’t add in the way of search The company Warp World (which I am a co-owner of) will for sure make up for it.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: *looks up SMM2 release info* Ok so apparently Nintendo has said June, not sure where I got June 10th from.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: Has life changed now that you are a father in regard to your streaming schedule or any speedrun events you take part in?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: I mean to a certain point, but generally not. I’m lucky in that this is my full time job and I dedicate full time hours to it. I couldn’t do it without my wife. Mostly I’ve lost the late night smash and fortnite sessions with my friends more then anything speedrun related. <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: What's your favorite game to speedrun?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: Currently Grandpoo World 2 is my fav but it constantly changes. Too many games to just play one forever. I like to add a new non Mario speedrun to the quiver every few months as well.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: How many Speedrun Sessions are you thinking about dropping this year? I’ve heard you mention DC, Detroit and possibly Denver are there any other locations in discussion?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: This year, hopefully between 5-8. I have some other speedrun live events coming as well, along with MMC 3, so the schedule is already very full for me personally. If the events all go well this year we are for sure going to expand the scope of it next year. Hopefully we will be dropping details on the next city very soon after Portland’s event:) <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: What video game releases you are most hyped for in 2019? Any films?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: It was Sekiro, now Mario Maker 2. For sure Last of Us 2. Spelunky 2 is going to take over my life. I love Derek Yu’s approach to game design. For films, Of course Avengers endgame but I am also one of the people who is hyped on the Disney live action movies, especially Lion King. Donald Glover as Simba is perfect casting. <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: To-date what is the hardest Kaizo Mario or Super Mario Maker level you’ve played? With that, what’s your process for looking at new runs and how to do you approach practice to run them as quickly as possible?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: Well the one that took me the longest was Vals Airspace right when Maker first came out, but I have cleared many levels that I deem harder then that one since. Honestly the skill level of the whole community has just skyrocketed the last two years with the influx of players that Kaizo games being in GDQ brings, and their ability to push the limits has in turned pushed my own skills far beyond what I thought they could be 3 years ago. It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with all the cool tech that gets discovered in the 3 different versions of Mario I enjoy running (3, world, Maker) <br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: SGDQ is coming up soon, any ideas for runs you’d like to submit or anything you’ve talked to the GDQ team about already?<br><br><strong>GrandPOObear</strong>: Games list is out already! But I get no special treatment, I have to submit just like anyone else. Luckily I got two games in this year, both races, which is great as I love getting to share the time with players I admire and respect.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://gamesdonequick.com/submission/games-list">https://gamesdonequick.com/submission/games-list</a><br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: As Poo said he is doing two SGDQ runs this year one being Super Mario 3 All Forts and Mario World Blind Romhack Race! Should be a fun set of runs to watch. I want to thank GrandPOObear for doing this interview and hope you can all make it out April 4th for Speedrun Sessions!<br><br>If you are interested in watching Speedrun Sessions at Ground Kontrol live in Portland on April 4th it’s from 6pm - 10pm and as it's free entry space is limited so make sure to arrive early. You can also sign up on the Red Bull website below.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://community.redbull.com/events/details/red-bull-red-bull-gaming-presents-grandpoobears-speedrun-sessions/#/">https://community.redbull.com/events/details/red-bull-red-bull-gaming-presents-grandpoobears-speedrun-sessions/#/</a>2019-04-03T20:25:54Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/36592018-03-13T15:20:29Z2018-03-13T15:20:42Z/jdodson/posts/3659/game-creator-brad-smith-on-his-all-new-nes-game-lizardInterview with Game Creator Brad Smith on His All New NES Game Lizard!<div class='youtube-player' data-id='Vq1RIXPah3U'></div> <br/>It’s a pretty special time when a new Nintendo games comes out and Brad Smith has something with his latest entry to the NES lineup with Lizard. After reading about the game, playing the demo and quite enjoying my time with it I decided to reach out to him and ask him a few questions about the game and his process of creating it.<br><br>“<strong>Choose your lizard carefully. You can find six different ones scattered across the land, each with its own special ability.<br><br>You'll need these abilities as you make your difficult journey through many dangerous places. Carefully hop your way to the top of an active volcano. Surf down a surging river. Swim an underwater lake. Ascend a snowy mountaintop. What kind of strange creatures will you meet? Can you unravel the mysteries of Lizard?</strong>”<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Why create a new Nintendo game?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong> I got interested in NES development first through a music program called Famitracker. I've always had an interest in video game music, but I found this program (more than 10 years ago now) that allowed me to write music for the NES, and I thought this was great. A few years later I used it to make an NES cover of the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon, and from public response to that I found my way to some chiptune communities. The more I worked with it, the more I had questions about the NES hardware, and finally I bought one and a PowerPak flash cart so that I could write my own programs for it and answer those questions.<br><br>The more time I spent with this machine, the more interesting it became. It's got a great balance of being just powerful enough to be versatile, but it's still very limited and something you have to constantly design your work around. Some aspects of the machine seem very simple, especially compared to modern computers, but in a lot of ways the simple premise will turn out to have very complicated consequences. There are also a lot of dark corners of the NES hardware that are very intriguing, things that are subtly broken, or didn't turn out to be useful in the way their design intended. It's an extremely fascinating machine, and all of its quirks really put their mark on every game that came out for it.<br><br>I very much feel like the machine becomes a partner in design for an NES game, in a way that stops being true when you have more computing power to play with. I liked having to deal with its limitations, and the end product is a game that really belongs to this console. The other aspect of it being so limited, is that its games are just small enough in scope that I can handle one on my own.<br><br>People often ask about nostalgia, and there is some of that too, but I never actually had an NES when I was a kid. A few of my friends did, but I grew up with an Atari ST and Sega Master System, and then a long string of others. While I have fond memories of those other systems the NES is the one that stimulates a creative urge in me.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Now that Lizard has launched, how do you look at how the project has gone from the initial concept to Kickstarter to launch?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong>Well, I am satisfied with the finished game. It very much is the game I set out to make, and while the specific details of what the game is were gradually decided as the project went along, it definitely fits within my initial plan for what it was supposed to be. It's a game I wanted to see, and I'm glad to have made it.<br><br>On the other hand, I am disappointed in how much time it has taken me. I have spent too many months, and too much money working on it. It's too early to see how well it will sell, but it seems unlikely that I will break even on it. It was more important to me that I finish the game I wanted to make, than to ensure it was profitable. I'm more disappointed in just the time itself, it's been years of my life of doing this one thing instead of many other pursuits I'd like to try. For that reason I'm extremely happy to be finished with it, finally.<br><br>When I ran the Kickstarter, I had been working on Lizard for about a year, and I was confident that I could finish that version of the game as it was going in another half a year or so. When the Kickstarter finished, it had raised a little more than I had asked for, and at the same time I had an opportunity to cut down my cost of living, so I decided to stretch it out. The demo version I had for the Kickstarter felt too small to me, and I decided then that I should double the size of the game, both the literal physical size of the ROM data, and the breadth of the game's world. I drastically underestimated how much extra work this would take to accomplish. I don't regret it, because it resulted in a much better game, but it cost me so much time.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What are your top 5 NES games?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong>In no particular order here are five current favourites:<br><br>StarTropics - The strange grid based action scheme of this game is really amazing to me. I've never played anything quite like that. It has some interesting puzzles, and a very charming theme as well.<br><br>Battletoads - I love how much variety this game has, every level is something new. Great tunes. It's notorious for its difficulty, but I think it's for the most part very fair difficulty, which is hard to pull off. When I die in Battletoads, I can usually blame myself for it.<br><br>Super Mario Bros. 3 - Another one that has incredible variety. The levels are small, but each one has something unique to it. Not like Battletoads where ever other level is almost a completely different game, but just a new novel situation created out of the existing blocks and enemies.<br><br>Mr. Gimmick - This is a fabulous platformer made late in the life of the NES. Gorgeous art and music, very well put together, and has a very solid gameplay mechanic of throwing a star that you can also climb on.<br><br>Sweet Home - A fantastic survival horror RPG only released in Japan. Has a very interesting story that is slowly revealed as you play. You have five characters and any of them can die before the end. It has standard JRPG random battles but the main difference is that healing is very limited; grinding won't help you, more battles will wear you down!<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What’s been the hardest part of launching Lizard?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong>The launch part is a lot easier than everything that came before. Self publishing in itch.io is not hard at all. Steam is more tedious but still pretty straightforward, and mostly self directed. Marketing is harder, and that's an ongoing challenge. I'd like to see Lizard make it to some other consoles, but all of them require significant financial investment, so I have to wait and see how Lizard sells in its current form before I can take the risk elsewhere.<br><br>If I take the question to mean everything before the launch as well, the hardest part of making lizard is the design. I don't mean the high level ideas, like "what lizard powers should I have?" but the small details I have to work through day to day. Should I make this platform 4 or 5 tiles wide? Which of those is more fun? Should I make this crab jump higher, or faster? After making 200 other rooms, how do I make room 201 interesting? Is it better for this frog to be here, or 3 pixels to the left? Will this frustrate players? How much frustration is too much? Which combination of enemies or items fits the NES colour restrictions for this room? These are often subtle, but usually tricky and subjective questions, and there is an endless supply of them every day.<br><br>The big time sink here is that most of these questions have to be answered by building different versions of the game and trying them out. I test and test and test a hundred versions of every room. I shorten a platform and then try jumping off of it 20 different ways to try to get an idea of whether it's better or worse than it was before. All this testing takes more time than any other part of game development. A lot of the design difficulty is trying to find useful changes that don't have a large global impact, or just weighing how much work various ideas require. Changing how an enemy behaves will affect every instance of that enemy in the game. If there's 100 frogs, that's 100 things to test and re-evaluate if I ever make a change to how those frogs work.<br><br>After testing and design, programming is also difficult. Writing a program is like making a machine with a hundred thousand moving parts. When it takes 100 lines of code to make a dog jump, there's a lot of room for mistakes, and even if you write exactly the code you intended, there's a lot of room for unintended consequences. Think about kicking a koopa turtle shell in Super Mario Bros. What happens if it hits a block? What happens if it hits a goomba? What about falling off the bottom of the screen? What if it hits a springboard? A flagpole? A fish? A vine? A mushroom? Mario's foot? Mario's head? A block that's been bumped from underneath? When you have systems of things that can interact with each other there's A LOT of combinations to think about. This is not easy to manage. Complexity grows exponentially, and problems in programming can be extremely unpredictable.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Creating a platformer requires lots of attention to how the gameplay feels. How did you approach getting it right for Lizard and when did things seem right to you? Were you taking inspiration from other platformers in terms of getting the game to feel at home with them?<br><br>The way a character moves in a game has a lot of components. There are a lot of decisions to make here: whether to include slopes, whether blocks are completely rigid or have "soft" edges that push you out, how fast to accelerate, how fast to slow down, how fast and how high you jump, how much control you have in the air, whether you lose momentum for pushing against a wall, whether you can release the jump button early to jump lower, is there water, is there ice, yada yada yada. Some questions are at least fairly binary, so you only have to try a version with it on or off, but a lot of these factors are quantitative... when it's a matter of how much you have to try a lot of different versions to answer that for yourself.<br><br>For Lizard, I made some rooms to test, and put together the character controller with the elements I thought I'd want. I experimented jumping over obstacles with different shapes and sizes, and tried a lot of different settings. I eventually narrowed toward something that felt good to me, and I went with that. Basically from that point on the character physics were set, because the design of nearly everything else in the game is dependent on them.<br><br>At the very end of production, when I began beta testing I was unsatisfied with how many people were reacting to it, and I decided to test an alteration to the character physics at that point. I won't go into all the details on this, as I'm planning to write an article about it, but I wasn't expecting to use this alteration. I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity. When I tested it, though, I was surprised by it. I had found a very low impact change that I think significantly improved the feel of the game for a lot of players. After a couple of complete playthroughs and some review of its design consequences, I decided to keep it. I didn't think I could mess with the physics without having to redesign the whole game, but it turned out I could, at least a little.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> How did you get into game development?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong>I found a book on beginner BASIC programming in the school library when I was a kid. There was a whole series of these by Usborne, colourfully illustrated, and they got me started. Computer magazines used to have code listings in them too that you could type in and run. I learned a lot from reading and experimenting with others' code this way. I really liked video games, and I wanted to make my own, so I did. I made lots of very small video games growing up, and slowly learned more and more about how to do it.<br><br>When I was a teenager we got the internet, and suddenly I had access to some amazing information that I could never find at the public library. There was a set of documents called the PC Game Programmer's Encyclopedia that were shared on various FTP sites back then that I learned a tremendous amount from. At that point I was very interested in JRPGs, after having played Final Fantasy IV and some other Squaresoft games. I was determined to make one of my own. I also found an RPG engine community called VERGE, and hung out on IRC and forums with other people where were trying to make RPGs with that engine, even though I was trying to make my own from scratch.<br><br>Eventually I went to university. I got a bachelor's degree in music, and also in computer science. Between what I'd learned on my own in years prior, and everything I gained at school, I thought I was ready to apply for a programming job at game companies. I was hired by Obsidian Entertainment as a junior programmer. I moved to California, and worked for them for a few years, mostly on an Aliens RPG that would be cancelled, but I still learned a lot.<br><br>After a few years there, my dad died unexpectedly and I wanted to move back home to Canada to be nearer to my family. I left Obsidian, but I had a few friends who were trying to start a game company of their own, and they were willing to let me work remotely from home. For a few years I did that, until the company eventually fell apart (long story I won't go into). We had many dead end projects, but released one game at least (Yar's Revenge, 2011). After this I became a contract programmer for a game engine company for a few years. When that contract came to an end, I decided I'd had enough of making games for other people and wanted to make a game for myself. That's when Lizard began.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Now that Lizard is released and the NES carts are on the way have you thought about what project might be next? <br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong>I actually have enough game ideas to last the rest of my life, I think. I keep a lot of notes about these.<br><br>I want to make another NES game, but one very different from Lizard. I don't forsee myself ever wanting to make a Lizard 2, but it's not an impossibility either. I don't have too much to share on this future project yet.<br><br>The other thing I want to do is make a BASIC programming environment for the NES. Something that's free and open source, and good for learning. I've already begun work on this, and I'm hoping to be able to sustain myself through Patreon or proceeds from Lizard, but it remains to be seen whether this will be feasible.<br><br>I have a few other projects I'd like to continue as well, such as the NES music emulator NSFPlay, which I've been promising to update once Lizard was done.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> If you didn’t have an idea I have a free game suggestion you can use for your next project if you want. A Super Nintendo game about a family of Super Nintendos where one Christmas they all decide to take a trip to Paris. That night one of the Super Nintendo kids gets dumped on and sort of yells at everyone and is sent upstairs early. That night a power outage resets the Super Nintendo parents alarm clocks and they are late for the airport. In a scramble every Super Nintendo makes it to the airport minus the one Super Nintendo kid who is left behind. Anyways, i’m thinking in the game other Super Nintendos might want to rob him and the kid can build traps and stuff to mess them up but not quite kill them. Anyways, one working title for the game could be SUPER DOMICILE UNATTENDED!<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong> Heh, well I'll say this about game ideas: the overall concept and idea for Lizard took maybe minutes or days, depending on what you consider the "full" idea. Building that idea took 4 years. There's a 1000:1 work to idea ratio here. Game ideas are really fun to come up with, but also not very hard to come by.<br><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Thanks for taking the time to do this, anything you want to say before we wrap things up?<br><br><strong>Brad Smith:</strong> Nothing more comes to mind, but thanks for the interview.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://lizardnes.com/">http://lizardnes.com/</a>2018-03-13T15:20:42Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/35232017-10-21T05:21:18Z2017-10-21T05:29:03Z/jdodson/posts/3523/interview-with-wick-the-creator-of-crescent-loomInterview With Wick The Creator Of Crescent Loom!<img src='https://i0.wp.com/wick.works/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/151_newmusclepoints_trimmed.gif' class='img-responsive' alt='https://i0.wp.com/wick.works/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/151_newmusclepoints_trimmed.gif' /> <br/>To help celebrate this weekend’s Portland Retro Game Expo I absolutely had to run an interview with Wick, the creator of the upcoming Indie mega hit Crescent Loom. Wick is also the creator of Starship Rubicon, a game we published a time ago and he is also fortunate enough to be boothing with us at this years Retro Expo! If you are visiting the con and heard about Cheerful Ghost or Crescent Loom and are checking us out for the first time then Hello! If you are a long time reader then welcome back! I urge everyone to checkout the interview below and ALSO to head over and try the web version of Crescent Loom at the URL below. You know, <strong>for science</strong>.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://wick.works/crescent-loom-demo/">http://wick.works/crescent-loom-demo/</a><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Could you tell people what Crescent Loom is?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Lemme tell ya, it's the next big thing. It's gonna change the way humanity sees themselves & the entire natural world. It's a paradigm shifter, the best thing to hit the educational game scene since Frog Fractions.<br><br>The premise is simple: you're a brainweaver who designs creatures from scratch in order to rebuild a planet's ecosystem. Now, build-a-bug games have been done before - Spore is the most famous - but any semblance of actual scientific rigor is usually sacrificed on the alter of "fun gameplay". They restrict your power "for your own good", ensuring your creations will always be able to happily dart around the screen -- but at the cost of any truly authentic creativity.<br><br>Crescent Loom doesn't mess around. It simulates ion channels opening and closing, neurotransmitters binding to their receptors, microcircuits of flashing neurons, muscles contracting and relaxing, the drag of water across the entire body, and the satisfying crunch of jaws on carapace. Your first creatures will be floppy, terrible creations with seizure-wracked brains, but you will try again. And you will learn.<br><br>And after you've put this all together to make a pulsing, living creature? Send it out into an online ecosystem where its performance is tracked and recorded. The most fit creatures will flourish, only to be toppled by the next biological strategy that you - normal players - invent and implement.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> How’s development on Crescent Loom evolving? Any recent discoveries or experiments that changed how you look at the game?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Crescent Loom is the most experimental game I've ever made, so its design has had to be flexible from the beginning. For example, the current main gameplay challenge - creature racing - is something that I threw together for the Kickstarter campaign and then discovered worked better than my original plan for environmental puzzles.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> At what point during the development have you thought “This is really turning into something special” or something you really set out to accomplish that is working well?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Simulation games have a certain magic where emergent properties will just pop out and surprise you. I remember my first creature after I really worked out the water physics just gliding through the water in this sublime way.<br><br>I was surprised to find that it could propel itself by wiggling, and for the first time was able to do laps around the cavern. I never wrote anything that specifically makes creatures go forward -- it's all an emergent property of the physics and neuroscience.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What games are you playing right now?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Besides playing other create-stuff games for research? The roguelike structure of FTL and Crypt of the Necrodancer fit well into my "de-stress-for-an-hour" niche. For more substantial kicks, I just started playing Banner Saga 2 with a friend.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I imagine there is a totally legit scenario where when I click the right things in Crescent Loom the game achieves an “AI Moment” and becomes sentient. After getting its bearings on being a living computer game I wonder if it had to pick its favorite song and movie, what would it be? This is important to know because when this happens you want to be ready for it.<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Ah, see, this sort of popular conception of AI is one of the reasons I'm making Crescent Loom! I want to show people that a specific brain is a tool for moving a specific body. The idea of a body-less sentience contradicts itself; you can't divide the mind from its body. It wouldn't know what to do.<br><br>I digress. Whalesong and some kind of undersea nature documentary.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> The gaming landscape has changed a lot since it’s earliest roots in the Arcade. What do you think about the gaming industry in 2017?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> It's awesome that the barrier to entry has gotten so low! Despite the occasional indiepocalypse.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> The other day I was at the store and it was an explosion of pumpkin spice items in that there were literally “pumpkin flavored dog treats” for sale amongst a sea of other things. We came away from the store having purchased 11 different pumpkin flavored foodstuffs. This isn’t a question I just think I might be part of the problem.<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Ain't no problem with pumpkin.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> How has the experience of launching Starship Rubicon affected the development of Crescent Loom?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Oh heck yeah. I'm so glad I was able to go through the process of making and releasing a game with such a (relatively) simple design. It forced me to learn the basics of the industry and what my own strengths and weaknesses as a developer are.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Have you learned anything that you’d like to bottle up and send back in time to tell yourself about approaching Starship Rubicon?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Spend more time on the art, make it more screen-shot-able. The marketing starts with the basic design of the game. The hustle is never going to end.<br><br>Honestly, I feel like past Wick also has a message for me: "Why are you working alone? Hubris! Jon is the only person keeping Starship Rubicon playable. Find a person who is good at the stuff you're bad at and work with them!"<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I just wanted to say to you, and also publicly, that being part of Starship Rubicon and publishing it was one of the highlights of my recent life. Thanks for working with me on that and I really hope you get something great out of the development of Crescent Loom. This isn’t a question, I just wanted you to know that. It’s also cool to be boothing with you at PRGE this year, can’t wait to see how people respond to the game!<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Daw. I am so so so glad we were able to work together on Starship Rubicon. I'd probably be going to grad school or something way more conventional if we hadn't gotten that off the ground.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What systems are you planning on releasing Crescent Loom on?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Windows/Mac/Linux. I think it'd be great on tablets, too, but that's a far-future thing.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> In our last interview back in December of 2015 we talked about Star Wars so I need to continue that tradition with a couple questions. HAD TO!<br><br>Episode VIII is coming up and now that Episode VII is out and Rogue One, what are you looking to Episode VIII to do?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Watching Rogue One was the biggest movie disappointment for me in a long time. There were some beautiful shots, but something didn't click for me. It felt like a movie of somebody's d20 campaign. Plus, a film whose entire final quarter that has nothing but the glory of dying in suicide attacks against a powerful enemy seems a little politically tone-deaf. Any excitement I had for VIII was quenched with that.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Now that it seems we are getting a new Star Wars every year and maybe more than that at some point do you think that changes what Star Wars is? I’ve asked this to people before but i’m not sure we’ve really worked out an answer i’m comfortable with yet.<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Look what they're doing with Marvel; a main storyline (Avengers) every few years punctuated with one-offs and spin-offs. Seems likely that's what they're gonna be doing with this property, too.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What major things do you have to add to Crescent Loom before you think it’s ready to ship?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Shipping is a blurry line. I'm spending this last month of Kickstarter funds to fulfill all the rewards & polishing the game into an early-access thing. From there, it's a flexible to-do list based on where the next round of money comes from.<br><br>// MORE TUTORIALS<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> If people are interested in helping you out with the game in some way, testing or otherwise what could they do?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> For free, just play the online demo at crescentloom.com and save an online creature or two! I love seeing what people make. If you wanna support it / stay involved, there'll be links to purchase early access.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Thanks for taking the time to talk with me today, anything you want to say before we wrap things up?<br><br><strong>Wick:</strong> Making games with good mechanics is the easy part. The hard part is making something that speaks to the human heart.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://crescentloom.com">http://crescentloom.com</a>2017-10-21T05:29:03Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/31142016-09-28T04:42:25Z2016-09-28T04:43:23Z/jdodson/posts/3114/the-retroprojecto-is-a-16mm-raspberry-pi-gaming-console-interview-with-creator-douglas-welcomeThe RetroProjecto Is A 16mm Raspberry Pi Gaming Console - Interview With Creator Douglas Welcome<div class='youtube-player' data-id='FcQ_VMJPwAU'></div> <br/>Douglas Welcome and I are friends from way back in the 90’s(if you can image that far back). Our friendship shared a mutual affinity for music and various geekery so when I saw a recent post of his about his project the RetroProjecto I reached out to him to talk about it. The RetroProject is a retrofitted 16mm Craig film editor with a Raspberry Pi added in it to run retro games.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What interested you to getting into hacking the Raspberry Pi?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> Honestly it was the price! I have always been tinkering with electronics and was doing a little coding, but when I first started hearing wind of this $35 computer I couldn’t help but get one and start dreaming how I could use it. With the HDMI capabilities, a media center for my home TV was the obvious first project. No more setting the laptop up half open next to the TV and plugging an HDMI cable into it for Netflix! The next project was setting a Raspberry Pi with an external hard driveup as a home server, which still isn’t entirely off the ground. thanks to moving a couple of times since then. Most recently was this retro arcade project.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> From start to finish about how long did it take you to convert the RetroProjecto into it’s final video game playing form?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> It probably took about 4-5 months, but that was putting in a few hours here and there, then letting it sit for a week because you have to order the next part. Then you get around to ordering ordering the next part, only to find a new challenge, which takes a few more days to figure out. Then you break the part you ordered and have to get another one...<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> So you were out walking and saw the Craig Projecto-Editor lying in the street or out in a dumpster? Hard to imagine someone would throw something so awesome out.<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> I know! Capitol Hill is a eclectic community. Young families, Senators, lobbyists, group houses full of interns and Hill staffers, you name it. You have these old houses blocks from Congress and the Supreme Court that as recent at 15 years ago sold for pennies. It was a pretty rough neighborhood. Now the neighborhood is in major gentrification mode and so folks with $$$ are buying these old homes up, gutting them and turning them into ultra-chic row homes. That was the story of the place I walked by. They had emptied out the basement planning to remodel it, and the previously owners were probably an older family that had been there for years. There were old corded drills and other tools piled up on the curb, a long with the Craig Projecto-Editor. A memorial to a man-cave I suppose…<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> So you were out and found the Craig and picked it up, which was the right thing to do obviously but how did you get inspired to turn it into a full retro system?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> The enclosure was just dying to be some kind of computer or arcade. Originally I had plans to turn it into a synth (I am a musician as well) or some other project in the home the would require a “terminal” of some kind. But I was in grad school with little time, and retro arcades are a pretty well documented project, so it seemed like the path of least resistance. Plus everybody loves retro video games!<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Did you try editing some 16mm film on it before you converted it?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> I wish! I don’t have any old film so I wasn’t able to see how it would have worked.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What are some of your favorite old games you like coming back to now?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> Funny how you said “coming back to!” Honestly, I was never much of a cutting-edge gamer and never have owned a real console. My parents were those kind that never let me own a Nintendo and so I would play for hours when over at the neighbors or something. I am a little younger, so the Nintendo 64 was the big console of my childhood. I remember going to Blockbuster and actually renting consoles for sleepovers and such.<br><br>You know though, it really is a small world. I realized this is the shower the other day (where I do all my important thinking), but it was you, Jon, who introduced me to emulators and roms when I was in middle school back 1997 or so. Suddenly I had all these classic NES games at my fingertips that I wasn’t allowed play and suddenly the internet was an AMAZING place. You also introduced me to Napster, but that is another story…<br><br>That said, back to your question. Obviously the classics, like Super Mario Bros., Punch-Out!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Zelda. I also played a bunch of SNES games, and I loved NBA Jam (BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA). One of the stranger titles I find pretty hilarious is Spiritual Warfare. As a child of 80’s/90’s American Evangelicalism, it's not hard to see how something like this was made. You basically go around and throw “Fruits of the Spirit” at evil businessmen, gangsters and Hare Krishnas, converting them into little praying angels or something. The final boss is apparently Satan, which I guess is appropriate considering the context. Oh, and you have to answer annoying Bible quiz questions from a snarky, bow-tie wearing Sunday school teacher about lusting after women and murder. You know, kids stuff.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I had that game and I honestly still have a special place in my heart for it. It’s one of the better Zelda clones i’ve played and I actually made it to hell many times to kill Satan. Honestly I don’t get how Doom got so much grief when you were essentially killing demons and zombies when I was doing it years earlier on the NES. But yeah, I don’t really believe much of that anymore either but it’s a fun game and I still have the original NES game cart. Last year at Portland Retro Gaming Expo I bought some original Spiritual Warfare and Bible Adventures stickers which was a really fun find.<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> Stickers! That’s rad! Like I said, because I didn’t actually own a console as a kid, so it was less a nostalgic feeling about actually playing the game and rather more about a childhood where games like Spiritual Warfare were commercially viable because ya know, Sunday School, Jerry Falwell, etc.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What are some of the better old game titles that play well with the RetroProjecto’s build aesthetic? For some reason Fallout seems to be coming to mind.<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> Aww Man! I have yet to play Fallout on here but it is definitely on my list. Honestly, because of the resolution of the screen, anything better than 16 bit or so gets pretty rough to see, and because I am running all this on an older Raspberry Pi, it couldn’t handle the processing anyways.<br><br>Honestly anything close to arcade style seems appropriate. It's a cool thing to show to friends, so any game where you have to take turns works well for a social setting.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Have you thought about any upcoming projects you’d like to work on now that this has turned out as well as it has?<br><br><strong>Douglas Welcome:</strong> I really want to pick up that synth project I had originally intended. If you haven’t seen Critter and Guitari’s Organelle, definitely check it out. A really cool concept for musical instrument that blurs the line between hardware and software. At $500 though, I am thinking I can build something a lot more economically with a Raspberry Pi running PureData and still use all the patches being developed for the Organelle community. I just have to find a good enclosure…<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://douglaswelcome.com/">http://douglaswelcome.com/</a>2016-09-28T04:43:23Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/30992016-09-07T03:52:23Z2016-09-07T04:13:07Z/jdodson/posts/3099/interview-with-board-game-design-master-kevin-wilson-about-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-moreInterview With Board Game Design Master Kevin Wilson About Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past & More!<iframe width='100%' height='600px' scrolling='no' src='https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b/widget/video.html' frameborder='0'> </iframe><a href='http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/idwgames/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-shadows-of-the-past-b' target='_blank' class='btn btn-primary btn-xs'><i class='fas fa-heart'></i> Back this on Kickstarter!</a> <br/>To say I am a fan of Kevin Wilson’s work would be an understatement. Kevin not only designed my favorite board game of all time, the original 2004 Doom: the Board Game but he has also created many more incredible games including the upcoming Kickstarter smash hit Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past & Mistborn: House War. I’ve done two previous interviews with Kevin one in 2012 and 2013 and realized he was doing so much incredible stuff and way too much time had passed since we last talked.<br><br>I want to thank Kevin for taking time out of his schedule to talk with me, because with all his current and upcoming work I am not sure how he has any time for sleep!<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Hey Kevin, thanks for doing the interview. Can you explain a bit about who you are and what you do for people that might not be familiar with your work?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> I originally got my start in the game industry at Alderac Entertainment Group, where I worked on the 7th Sea and Spycraft RPGs, but I'm probably best known for the board and card game design work I did for Fantasy Flight Games over ten years, including designing Doom: the Board Game, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game, and Android, co-designing Arkham Horror and Elder Sign, and developing the new editions of Cosmic Encounter and Wiz-War. <br><br>I've been freelancing for the past four years, and have done several more games including X-Files and Awesome Kingdom (IDW Games), Darkness Comes Rattling (Wyrd Games), and I have a whole slew of upcoming releases, including Arcane Academy (IDW), which I co-designed with my friend Eric Lang.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Coming off the massive Kickstarter success of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past where are you at right now in the process with the game?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong>I'm working on the scenarios for the first few hero packs for the game. The base set is fully completed and we're just waiting to get it back from the printer now.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Working with the Ninja Turtles and Kevin Eastman is pretty incredible how did you get involved in the process?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> When IDW Games approached me to work on X-Files, they also asked me if there were any other IPs they owned that I wanted to work on, and I immediately replied "TMNT." I then pestered them for a year or so about it until they finally gave in and let me design it.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Do you remember one of your first experiences with the Ninja Turtles comic book, cartoon or films?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> My earliest Turtles experience was watching the 80s cartoon after school as a kid. I latched on to Donatello almost instantly as my favorite, and I've loved the turtles ever since. Later on, my roleplaying group tried out the Palladium TMNT RPG, and I played a Scottish terrier mutant in it. Good, silly fun.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> How has Kevin Eastman has been involved with Shadows of the Past?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Kevin had oversight on all the thematic elements of the game and the look to make sure we were nailing it. He had a lot of very nice things to say about how the design captures the personality of the turtles, so I was pleased as punch about that. We hung out for a few hours at the GAMA Trade Show this year while we did signings, too, and that ranks high on my list of favorite memories.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> When you were designing Shadows of the Past what elements did you feel you had to get right to make sure the game was authentic to the source material?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Obviously, I felt I had to really deliver the personalities of the characters, but I also really wanted to make sure the turtles felt like brothers - that you could really feel how closely they work together. That's where the dice sharing mechanic came from, where basically the turtles to your left and right share one of your action dice each, which really gives a strong feeling of supporting each others' actions. Well, except for Raphael...<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I know the game hasn’t launched yet but since the Turtles game was such a huge Kickstarter you must have at least personally considered creating an expansion for it. If you were looking to the future what kinds of things might you explore for a future Turtles game? Also, is there talk of releasing multiple expansions due to it’s popularity?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> I'd like to see the TMNT Board Game continue for several years at least, with us adding all the different villains and heroes that we couldn't squeeze into the base set. We do have some plans for an expansion called Cityfall that will introduce some of the elements of the storyline of the same name from the IDW TMNT comic series, and I want to develop an AI deck for the villains that will let players try the game as a full co-op instead of a one vs. many design, but I want to make sure that when I do that, I deliver a really good AI mechanic.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> There were some Kickstarter exclusives such as the special edition Box and April O’Neil hero pack that look really interesting. For fans that may be late to the Kickstarter have there been any discussions to make these exclusives available at a certain time?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> The hero packs only had Kickstarter-exclusive miniatures, which possibly wasn't communicated as clear as possible. The hero packs will most likely appear again in some form with new sculpts. I've tried hard to make sure that there are few or no mechanical exclusives for the Kickstarter, only aesthetic exclusives. That way backers get cool stuff, but folks who buy the retail edition don't get left out in the cold.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> When you work with an artist on a board game cover how much thought do you put into how it sits on a game store shelf and how likely people are to be intrigued by what they see? <br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Heh, I usually have very little to do with the title or cover of my games. Those things are normally handled by the publisher's management or marketing department. That's not always the case, of course, as Little Circuses and Escape from 100 Million B.C.! are two games coming from IDW that kept my original titles.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> You have talked a about diversity in games and how you approach that. Do you have any guiding principles that help when you are working on your initial game concept to final product?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> I've had to become a lot more self-aware of my own assumptions and of the assumptions that artists make. If you give a basic art description and don't mention gender or race, you're pretty much getting a white male back 99% of the time. <br><br>So I've had to start being more careful about that. I also keep a much tighter watch on how women are depicted in my games these days. I want heroines to inspire a young girl, not for her older brother to ogle. The hobby is growing and I think it's important, as well as good business, for game creators to include everyone who wants to play.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Looking back at any of your published games would you tweak something if you could knowing how it turned out for people that have played it?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Of course. There's not a single game I've done that I'm perfectly satisfied with. You do your best in the time you have to work on them, but there's always little things that slip through the cracks, and better ideas that you think of when it's too late. That's just how it is when you're doing anything creative if you keep trying to push yourself to get better and better.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> As a long time Twitter follower I am curious to know more about your project Frontier “Space Opera” board game. When I think of space opera a few things come to mind and maybe you could give us a few hints as to what this may be? Maybe a special exclusive reveal perhaps?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> It's a 2-player card game of planetary conquest between different alien races. Rather than a big sprawling board, however, it's more like a knife fight in a phone booth. It plays fast and has a lot of replayability, and I've already thought of 8 alien races for it. I'm currently still shopping it around to publishers and ironing out the game balance between races, so it'll be awhile before it makes it to market.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> For quite some time now you’ve been collaborating with IDW Games on nearly all of your recent board game releases. What’s it like working with them and how open are they to you pitching your new games to them?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> IDW has been great to work with. They're very open to my ideas and they try hard to make sure I'm satisfied with the quality of the releases I'm doing with them. Nate Murray in particular has worked himself to the bone on my stuff, so here's a big thank you to him for that! You rock, Nate!<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Speaking of successful Kickstarters you’re involved in, Mistborn: House War was recently funded so congratulations on that. With this and the Turtles Kickstarter at what point do you realize that a game you are designing should be Kickstarted? What kinds of games don’t make sense to Kickstart?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Typically, I'm not making the decision whether or not to kickstart a game. It's mostly based on the publisher's financial situation and level of risk they're comfortable with. As for which games do best on Kickstarter, I'd say that well-recognized licensed games and miniature-heavy games are the best bets. Games that aren't as physically impressive and which lack name recognition definitely tend to suffer.<br><br>So for Mistborn, although there weren't a ton of fancy miniatures like in the TMNT game, there was still an extremely loyal fanbase that was excited to get a game that takes place in the Mistborn setting. Crafty Games also ran a very tight campaign, which helped the game do really well.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What stands out to you as something important that makes a Kevin Wilson game?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Even when the game is intended for a lighter audience, I try to bring something clever to each of my designs, whether it's the dice in Doom: the Board Game, the skill sliders in Arkham Horror, or the tech pyramid in Sid Meier's Civilization: the Board Game. In addition, I really enjoy including storytelling elements in my games. I love planting story seeds here and there in the designs and leaving them for players to find. I also really like it when I get to do some worldbuilding for a game, but that's less frequent than I'd prefer.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> So I think maybe everyone on earth watched the new Star Wars The Force Awakens. It’s a great movie and I really liked it a lot. That said, one thing some of my friends and I can’t shake is… why another Death Star? Like if you count The Phantom Menace “sort of Death Star like space battle” and subsequent blowing it up from inside thing that’s like 4 Death Stars. Why do bad guys think yet another Death Star will be the ticket? I mean this one was super big and had it’s own independent sheild generator so they upgraded it from Jedi but still…. Why a fourth Death Star Kevin? I need closure. Do you think the first order will create even more Death Stars and if so what would be the hook?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Well, when you start with a weapon that can destroy a planet in a single shot, where do you go from there? That's why they went with another Death Star in Return of the Jedi. And technically, they upped the stakes to entire solar systems in a single shot in The Force Awakens, so maybe next time they'll have a solar system-sized gun that blows up whole galaxies!<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Thanks for taking the time to do this Kevin, I really appreciate it. Anything you want to say before we finish up?<br><br><strong>Kevin Wilson:</strong> Just a heads up. The next 12 months or so are going to see a TON of releases from me - most of which I can't talk about just yet due to NDAs. Anyone who wants to keep up with my release schedule should follow me on twitter (@KevinWilson42 - <a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://twitter.com/kevinwilson42">http://twitter.com/kevinwilson42</a>). I make sure to announce any new and upcoming releases there once I'm allowed to talk about them.<br><br><strong>**If you want to read my previous two interviews with Kevin where I gush more about Doom: The Board Game you can read those below. Because you should. For science.**</strong><br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/666/interview-with-board-game-designer-kevin-wilson">http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/666/interview-with-board-game-designer-kevin-wilson</a><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/986/interview-with-game-designer-kevin-wilson">http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/986/interview-with-game-designer-kevin-wilson</a>2016-09-07T04:13:07Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/28022016-02-11T14:58:19Z2016-02-11T16:36:07Z/jdodson/posts/2802/smooth-operator-launches-today-interview-with-beardo-gamesSmooth Operator Launches Today - Interview With Beardo Games<div class='youtube-player' data-id='usDpf5P52yo'></div> <br/>One important goal of Beardo Games is to create weird games and there is no better example than the launch of their new game Smooth Operator. Smooth Operator is a couch co-op mobile kissing game where two players both select a character and attempt to follow the on-screen prompts to keep the kissing mojo strong and gain a high score. If you want to score well you will need to work with your partner to execute an array of tongue moves that would make Sharon Stone blush. If this all sounds strange, don’t feel bad, the game is but it’s also fun and well worth a look.<br><br>I first met Beardo Games at a Portland Indie Game Squad event where they had a booth. Smooth Operator is a hilarious game to watch people play and even more so if the people have no idea what to expect. I’ve really enjoyed interviewing local Portland Indie Game Developers and I wanted to do this interview a bit differently. I asked my friends at Beardo if they were interested in doing a video interview and the results are embedded above. I also was able to sneak in a few more questions you can checkout below.<br><br>If you are looking for a uniquely strange two player kissing game, you need to check out Smooth Operator available on iOS today!<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/smooth-operator!/id988455996?mt=8">https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/smooth-operator!/id988455996?mt=8</a><br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Indie Games have changed so much in the last couple years. With most change there is good and some bad. Has any of this change helped or made certain parts of making games harder for you?<br><br><strong>CHRIS:</strong> The overall accessibility of game making tools has made it easier to prototype ideas super fast-- a good thing! At the same time, they're so accessible that I've seen two ideas I had get made into games before I got around to making them myself.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What games have you been playing lately you recommend people take a look at?<br><br><strong>MILES:</strong> With a brand new baby I don't have a ton of time to play games as of lately. I have been actively "playing" Neko Atsume. And as well Simpsons Tapped Out, strictly for research of another game idea.<br><br><strong>CHRIS:</strong> I've been playing Xenoblade Chronicles X and it's great but requires a lot of time. On my phone I've been playing a lot of Space Forest Dilemma by PapaQuark Games. My last recommendation is for handheld: Project X Zone for the 3DS is a lot of good, stupid fun.<br><br><strong>KATE:</strong> I played Read Only Memories a few months ago- really enjoyed it. I also only recently got around to finishing the last Resident Evil Revelations. Twofold has also been fun on my phone.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> VR seems to be a new technology that is getting a lot of attention. Is this something you are taking a look to for any of your next projects?<br><br><strong>MILES:</strong> I’ve been super amped about VR in general. But, with that said we haven't really put a whole lot of thought into a VR Beardo experience as of yet. I assume it would possibly be a close up experience of glistening Beards in some way.<br><br><strong>CHRIS:</strong> We are, and we've had a lot of ideas floating around for possible VR projects. I'm excited to try and subvert people's usual expectations for VR games by finding some less than obvious applications.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What games have you played that have influenced how you approach making them now?<br><br><strong>MILES:</strong> I personally appreciate and enjoy unusual games, specifically my top influential game is probably Katamari. <br><br><strong>CHRIS:</strong> Jet Set Radio and Katamari Damacy are at the top of Beardo's collective influences list along with Street Fighter II, but for me personally, I've been influences heavily by Atari 8-bit titles like Necromancer, Shamus, and Alley Cat by Synapse Software, and by all kinds of awful or not traditionally fun games like T&C Surf Designs for the NES and JJ & Jeff for the Turbografx 16.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Thanks for taking the time to do the interview, I really appreciate it. Anything you want to say as we wrap things up?<br><br><strong>CHRIS:</strong> Thanks Jon, we had a blast! <br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://www.beardogames.com/">http://www.beardogames.com/</a>2016-02-11T16:36:07Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/27452015-12-22T03:35:13Z2015-12-22T03:43:11Z/jdodson/posts/2745/all-new-video-interview-with-wick-creator-of-starship-rubiconAll New Video Interview With Wick, Creator of Starship Rubicon<div class='youtube-player' data-id='0O2Z-vF-cX0'></div> <br/>Recently I got together with Wick to do a retrospective interview discussion about Starship Rubicon and get this thoughts on this years launch. We talk about some of his new projects as well as some of his early memories of Star Wars and his start in game development modding Star Wars Battlefront II.<br><br>This video is part of a larger holiday video project. I really enjoyed cutting together this video and working more with this documentary interview style. It was also my first use of 4K which seems to have worked out just fine even if most people will ever see it in 1080p. I plan on doing more of these interviews in the Portland game scene so expect to see a few more of these pop up next year.2015-12-22T03:43:11Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/27202015-12-05T17:32:48Z2015-12-05T17:50:40Z/jdodson/posts/2720/interview-with-travis-newman-creator-of-indie-sensation-animator-s-nightmareInterview With Travis Newman Creator Of Indie Sensation Animator's Nightmare<img src='https://i.imgur.com/5MJoeH4.png' class='img-responsive' alt='https://i.imgur.com/5MJoeH4.png' /> <br/>In the wake of this years many gaming disappointments, community fiascos and the ever growing disappearance of the sacred dollar menu at restaurants many wonder about the future of gaming and culture. Will the industry see a new wave of games that captivate us in the same way as the ones that came before? Or are we to be held in a creative limbo where everything created is the exact same as the things that came before? In a world of sequels, reboots and DLC packs some developers are taking the gaming basketball down the court and jumping up for a slam dunk. I was able to experience one such effort in developer Travis Newman's brand new game Animator's Nightmare. After experiencing the game I asked him if I could tap his creative energies and he was gracious enough to let us in on his process and creative vision.<br><br>I encourage you to experience the game first hand and you can do so by communing with the link below.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://nrccstudents.org/newmant/flash/final_newman.html">http://nrccstudents.org/newmant/flash/final_newman.html</a><br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: So congratulations on the successful release of Animator’s Nightmare. We all know that lots of game development is crippled by slipped deadlines, bugs and unmet expectations. How were you able to release the game nearly bug-free so quickly?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Not only did it release on time, but I was able to launch a few days early! The final code wasn’t due to the publisher for another three days. But as for the bug-free quality of the game, I’d have to attribute that to myself. Being the smartest person in the room has it’s advantages.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: How is it working with Epic Software to license the Unreal Engine for the game? I know they recently switched to a new flat price model that seems to have gained them much attention from Indie Developers.<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Epic are amazing people. Who knew that you could easily wrap a Flash SWF into the Unreal Engine? This is truly next-generation thinking on their parts.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: Animator's Nightmare starts with a view of someone sleeping and the player can clearly hear crickets in the background. Are we experiencing a creepy telepath watching the player from outside a window and then later uses his mental abilities to invade the Animator's mind?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: You know, I had the idea of all the symbolism in my mind, but I think I’ll let the player decide on this one. I don’t want to tell you how you should feel about something, or what symbolism you should see in the game. If you think you’re playing as the animator, or if you think you’re playing as a telepath, it doesn’t matter to me as long as you love the game.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: After watching Indie Game the movie I realized a couple things. First off, I am just like them in that I am a guy that loves video games. I am also strange and quirky and can talk for hours about nerd things. Since I shared so much in common with the people in that movie that later went on to become quite rich doing the things they loved I expect to achieve that level of success. Since it will happen for me any moment you must feel similarly being a creative so I wonder what your plans are for spending your first million dollars? I don’t mean to say we will stop at just making a million dollars, I bet we will make like 50 million dollars I just mean what you will do with your first million?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: The first mil goes toward fixing world hunger. That should only take a million to fix, right? Then, you’re right, I’ll make 50 easily. The next 49 is all yachts, planes, and mansions. I’m in talks with ISA to customize a Granturismo already.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: With the social and cultural impact of Animator's Nightmare being so large have you considered releasing the game as Open Source?<br><br>Travis: I had no idea how huge it would be. With the next release, I’m definitely shipping the source. The next release will be transcendent, genre-defining art. I’m just worried about making it too hard for future developers to follow this up.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: So the first place where the game started becoming truly great for me is the first time I had to jump over the first static alien graphic. Something about pressing any key to jump and seeing the character fly upwards was magical. It’s as if my spirits were lifted with the key press. As you consider game design elements, how do you try to imbibe these emotional elements as a gift to the player through your art?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Look, I don’t pretend to be a master at evoking emotion. I don’t have to pretend. You’ve seen it. Not many people have been animators before, and I wanted to really make the player feel like they’re the animator, trapped in their animation software, and being attacked by their former creations. It’s terrifying, and if the player isn’t terrified, what’s the point?<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: The moment in Animator's Nightmare where we all approached the dancing baby is iconic. I think it really allowed generations of gaming history to payoff in a way I haven’t experienced before. What aspects of game history influenced you here?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Ah, yes. The dancing baby. An homage to the dancing baby gif of the 90’s, and a tribute to my friend’s son. But it takes on whole new meaning when the baby is a danger, and must be jumped over. To be honest, game history didn’t influence me in this moment; I’m making *new* history.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: I’ve played Animator's Nightmare for around 36 hours and I am still not done with it! I appreciate how much time and effort went into creating a game that rivals Skyrim in terms of hours spent. How long did you target the single player campaign to take the average person to beat and what are your thoughts on other games that simply offer a couple hours of gameplay?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: This is the beauty of the game, and not to spoil it for you but… the game never ends. You can only ever escape by being killed by the former animations. It’s a statement on how stress affects us all, and the inevitable end that we all must face.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: Fallout 4 was panned by many for it’s lack of graphical fidelity. The level of clarity and artistic vision demonstrated in Animator's Nightmare is truly breathtaking and seen more so when you jump over a chicken with a plain paint bucket grey background and a Microsoft Paint styled window in view. I can’t help but this this style is a statement but I wish you could elaborate more here?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Fallout 4 is terrible. Weird physics glitches, and many textures that just look jagged up close. That grey background you mention: did you see any texture issues? Of course not.<br><br><strong>jdodson</strong>: Is there anything you want us to say before we wrap things up here?<br><br><strong>Travis</strong>: Two things: First, why are you even reading this interview when you could be playing my game? Second, in case anyone read this far without realizing, all of this is for fun. I made a game for a class and Jon and I thought a faux interview would be funny. Any HR employee reading this considering whether to hire me, I promise I’m actually a very nice person.2015-12-05T17:50:40Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/26592015-10-07T13:36:57Z2015-10-07T13:37:21Z/jdodson/posts/2659/interview-with-tiny-horse-games-tyler-edwards-and-hagen-deloss-on-mimic-arenaInterview With Tiny Horse Games Tyler Edwards And Hagen Deloss On Mimic Arena<div class='youtube-player' data-id='OgDE89JnF3c'></div> <br/>One of the things I want to spend more time doing is interviewing game developers making great games. Portland has a very active local game scene and I plan on giving it more attention over the upcoming months. Some of my local friends over at Tiny Horse Games are working on a local couch multiplayer platform shooter that is so frantically fun it gives me some of the original Unreal Tournament feels. I reached out to Tyler and Hagen to do an interview with us and after a great PAX showing and a few local cons later they had time in their indie rock development life to talk to us about making games.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I want to congratulate you both for the game coming out on Steam Greenlight and Mimic’s upcoming launch. Tell us a little bit about how you both met and decide to start working together?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Mimic started as a global game jam a few years back. I’ve been working on it alone off and on for about 9 months when I approached Hagen at a Pigsquad meeting for suggestions on an artistic direction. I was squeaking by with minimal programmer art for far too long. I handed Hagen a controller and for a brief moment our hands touched, that is when I knew it was destiny. Haha ok maybe it didn’t happen exactly like that but he definitely had some genuine excitement in Mimic and wanted to be part of it.<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> We are totally pumped to get Mimic Arena on Steam through Greenlight!!! I met Tyler through Portland Indie Game Squad about 2 1/2 years ago and he asked me to work on a global game jam (2013) project he had. I liked the idea, so we drafted up a contract and I spent nights and weekends creating art for the game for about 9 months.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Mimic Arena is a couch co-op deathmatch game that in my mind is very reminiscent of Unreal Tournament. What are some things you felt really worked about the game and what are some things that you tried that you scrapped?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> Pretty much everything. On the art side, I rarely go with my first game concepts, so "scrapping" wouldn't really be the correct term. The fast, iterative building blocks are vital to the game as an end product. All games finished visuals are built on top of an invisible tower of "scrap". <br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> You are actually the first person to make that Unreal Tournament connection, there was definitely some inspirations there. Rounds of UT are typically very intense with minimal breaks in action. Often when people play UT the get into “the zone” a Zen like state where they spatial awareness and reflexes are amped up, they are able to make and act on split second decisions; even if you cannot achieve this state in a meaningful way, you’re still having fun and are rarely punished. So back to your question, what seems to enforce this ideal in Mimic the best is the projectile presence. Weapons needed to still feel dangerous when fired from a Mimic, who wouldn’t be conscious of what they are shooting at since they are just a copy of a player’s past life. We slowed down projectiles then allowed them to ricochet off walls. This causes projectiles to be easier to react to but now from multiple sources/angles which makes it much more satisfying when you dodge or land a hit. One Idea I’ve scrapped to allow players to have more of an active means on recording and spawning Mimics. This was meant to give the game a bit more strategy and further spotlight the main hook of the game with the clones. Unfortunately this added a layer of complexity that was too difficult to set up anything effective while focusing on any of the other existing machinates. It felt an awful like rubbing your stomach and patting your head, just not very natural, at least not without a good deal of rework that would've created a completely different game.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> One game mode you added to Mimic is “cross the line.” This mode seems to be a fan favorite and as such I am wondering about the process of how it came together?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> For a long time Mimic was not really using its main unique feature in strong way. Yea it was possible to use them tactically but most often there would just add to the bullet hell and were ignored completely by the player they were based off of. I wanted to find a way to make the Mimics more integral to the play cycle. I’ve have a good amount of history playing competitive multiplayer games and they typically sport some sort of objective based game modes outside of death match. Most modes and be broken down as kill those, get that to there, and protect that. Cross the line is definably of collimation of those. For those who are not familiar, Cross the line mode functions identically to a bombing run or capture the flag in most other games. You need to get something (your past self) to a physical location while the enemy team tries to stop you. I started with a prototype and saw instant potential that was only confirmed by my buddies and the local community. I still feel incredibly lucky with well it feels with the Mimic mechanic and how well it was received.<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> I dunno that was all Tyler, but it's brilliant.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What things do you want people to feel when they play Mimic Arena?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Definitely that “zen” moment I was mentioning earlier. Where a person get sucked in and can no longer focus on anything else. I don’t even know how many times I’ve tried to hold a conversation while playing and literally can’t.<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> I want them to feel feelings, I dunno man. I want them to have fun! The game isn't a super deep, meaningful game. I do like when people play the game and wrap their brain around the core "past life" concept and get psyched!<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Do you plan on adding anything to the game before launch?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> That is all dependent on $$, if we get any type of publishing help or the the game's launch is popular, then we can use that dosh to put it right back into developing some features our initial project life cycle didn't allow. Reverse gravity stages perhaps?<br> <br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Definitely some more stages. Some last minute polish here and there. Most of my future attention however will be going to porting.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> This one is for Hagen. I follow you on teh social and see your art in process and completed. Your work has an almost mad scientist feel and at times you mix the beautiful and horrific in human and animal hybrids that are hypnotic and puzzling. How was your process on working your unique flavor into creating the art for Mimic?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> I created artwork that worked for the gameplay, I didn't expect the game to function around my art. We went through a few other visual styles before landing on what you see in Mimic Arena now.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Why make games?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. Something that, while not very easy to achieve, is still very rewarding to pursue; giving you an opportunity to learn a lot of skills not only in your field but others while still being a creative outlet of expression. Plus you know, making games is cool.<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> Cuz it’s fun.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What do you consider to be some of the best games out there and what do you like about them?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> All games are great, but I prefer RPG and TBS games, If you’re asking me to list a few favs, despite that being a little cliche, I would say Push me Pull You was a standout because of its unique visuals and their integration into the core game mechanic. Massive Chalice because duh, a TBS with character and family tree customization is rad. <br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> The games I’ve enjoyed the most were the ones with a single well rounded core mechanic with everything else there to enforce it. Splatoon is great example. Shooting ink is at its core. You shot enemies but are also encouraged to shoot the environment as it directly influences your ability to traverse it.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> You just showed Mimic at PAX Prime 2015. My fear of showing at PAX is that there is so much going on my mind would explode. How did you guys handle the show and what did you take away from it?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Be prepared, pace yourself, and take breaks often. We went up there with a couple extra friends who helped a ton. If I would have changed anything it would have been to build up a stronger community following beforehand. Despite that the whole thing was still amazing; nearly lost my voice, made some friends, and got Mimic in the hands of some new people.<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> I handled it by embracing that mental explosion. I have been to PAX a few times but it was way more fun to be on the other side of things this time, showing a game was really rewarding. <br> <br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What games have you both been playing recently?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> Life is Strange chapter 1, haven't gotten a chance to play any more.<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> The last three games have been Shovel Knight, Axiom Verge, and way too much Destiny. Haha may need to cut them all back for know if I plan to make these next few deadlines.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> During Mimics development Hagen posted a video to Twitter of one of the Mimic fighters dancing to Single Ladies by Beyonce. After that I’m sure we were all wondering what aspect dancing would have in the final product? Hoping for a couple game modes where you can put rings on other players. (you can have that one for free)<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> Noh<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Haha yea that was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, unfortunately there’s just no way we could get the rights to that song so we had to cut it. I still want to visit the idea of extra modes either in the form of a single player or cooperative.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> This one is for you both. What’s the most rewarding part of game development?<br><br><strong>Hagen Deloss:</strong> I love the process of creating worlds and then seeing people interact with them, love them, and get frustrated and confused by them, and then turn to me and say..."whoa."<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> It has to be watching others thoroughly enjoying something you made or seeing the same group of kids continually coming back to play at a show.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I’m torn between super excited for the Star Wars VII and super nervous. MESSAH TINK DIS MIGHTEN BE TERRIBLE! You know, like is this going to be good or is this going to be another Gungan nut punch? I guess I just need to keep talking this over with friends because I need to work out all my prequel trauma.<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Well I’m pretty confident Disney will be very careful to protect their new domain and they haven’t done anything with it yet (with it or Marvel) for me to think otherwise. I’m still much stoked to watch it, I have actually been avoiding trailers due to the risk of spoilers. A little bit of me is hoping it comes out exactly like Patton Oswald described it in Parks and Rec.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Thanks you both for taking the time to talk with me, anything you want to say before we go?<br><br><strong>Tyler Edwards:</strong> Thanks Jon. I guess the only thing to add would be look for Mimic Arena on Xbox One and Steam early next year and for anyone that wants to ask about the development or anything else to go ahead hit me up on twitter @TinyHorseGames.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> You can vote for Mimic Arena on Steam Greenlight right now.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498344168">http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498344168</a>2015-10-07T13:37:21Zjdodsontag:cheerfulghost.com,2005:Post/26082015-08-22T16:52:30Z2015-08-22T21:18:16Z/jdodson/posts/2608/interview-with-justin-baldwin-of-sleep-ninja-games-about-upcoming-mutiplayer-deathmatch-arena-super-splataclysmInterview With Justin Baldwin of Sleep Ninja Games About Upcoming Multiplayer Deathmatch Arena Super Splataclysm<img src='http://i.imgur.com/AcQbv2V.png' class='img-responsive' alt='http://i.imgur.com/AcQbv2V.png' /> <br/>Being active in the Portland Indie Game scene is pretty incredible as you get to meet a ton of great people and can see games from an early form to final release. One game you might see shown at any upcoming PDX event is being made by my friends over at SleepNinja Games called Super Splataclysm. Splataclysm is a multiplayer arena that focuses on violent fast paced combat reminiscent of Smash TV or Thunderdome. Even in a very early stage the game is great and watching people enjoy the carnage is quite a bit of fun. A few moons back I asked Justin Baldwin over at SleepNinja games if I could talk to him about the game and how the studio was doing in a post Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake world.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I played an early alpha version of Super Splataclysm that was really great. What kind of game do you envision making and what things do you plan on adding to the game in the coming months?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Thanks. We really want to make a multiplayer game that is just fun, chaotic and ridiculous. We really want to bring back the vibe from classic multiplayer and sports games like Mutant League Football, Super Bomber Man, and Smash TV. Our goal with Super Splataclysm is revisit overlooked game design choices of early era couch multiplayer games will still adding our own twists. Focusing on an experience that is fun regardless of the mix of player skill levels. Basically trying to capture the feel of Mario Kart, but in the form of a top-down sports brawler. We also chose to have the general presentation be a satire of the mid to late 90s "edgy" culture. We drew a lot from 80s-90s post-apocalyptic action films, games like Killer Instinct and Smash TV, as well as a lot from Nintendo and Sega's edgy advertising stint during this period.<br><br>As far as what we plan on adding... A lot. Special abilities for characters, a bunch of different weapons, more characters, more arenas, more enemies, huge boss like enemies, the list goes on.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What platforms will you release Super Splataclysm on?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> We are still working the logistics of that out, so nothing is set in stone quite yet, but the goal is PC, Mac, PS4, Wii U, Xbox One.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> How are things going for Sleep Ninja Games as a new game studio?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Things are going well right now, we are at least able to survive for a little while, haha. We have a few projects going and are staying busy. We are having do some contract work to pay the bills, but thankfully it’s still fun work.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Portland is becoming a bigger tech hub and I see more and more people making games here. Is there anything Portland could do to help the growing games industry?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Tax incentives, which I know things are happening now there, so it’s taking steps in the right direction. I also think we need rent control, the influx of people in the tech industry is letting rental companies sky rocket rent and it’s really screwing over people that rent here. I’d rather not push the talent that we do have here already out because they can’t afford to live here anymore.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Now that Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake has shipped and people have played it what do you think about it and how everything went?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Overall it went pretty well for our first game as a studio. There were a few major headaches and hurdles but overall it went well. It’s interesting to see how everyone that plays it reacts to it. Our goal was to make something more engaging than just action. One thing that we didn’t realize going in is how it’s engaging peoples kids. I always hear how they play the game and read the story with their kids and how the funny writing keeps them engaged. It’s also really cool to hear that these parents realize how bright their kids are with their problem solving skills with the puzzles.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> With that, is there anything you might have changed about the game or how you made it?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> There are some things I would have liked to have added. I’m sure every dev says it, but I also would have liked to have added some more polish in places. More butt jokes too maybe?<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> I really enjoyed the Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake Christmas update. Are there any other plans to add content to the game or DLC?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Thanks! Currently there is no plans to do any content updates, to be honest we are too busy with new projects. We also just needed a break from the close to 3 year meat grinder of literal blood, sweet, and tears creating it. Don’t get me wrong, we still love Monsters and plan on doing more with the property in the future.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> Super Splataclysm seems to be inspired with classic post apocalyptic fiction like Mad Max. What do you think of the classic Trilogy? Have you had a chance to see the Fury Road yet?<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Yeah it’s pretty heavily inspired but lots of 80s and 90s post-apocalyptic and action films and games. Mad Max is definitely an inspiration, I’ve always had a place in my heart for the films, Road Warrior being my favorite. And yes, I caught Fury Road, and I thought it was incredible. So many approaches to film that you don’t see much of anymore, it was a breath of fresh air in the action movie genre. Was nice to see Miller show the newer directors how it’s done, hopefully they learn something.<br><br><strong>jdodson:</strong> What did you all pick up in the last Steam Sale? Somehow I made it through this latest sale with my credit card intact.<br><br><strong>Justin Baldwin:</strong> Hmm. I didn’t go too crazy, mostly because I just don’t have the time to play as much stuff as I would like. I picked up Banner Saga, Sunless Sea, Legend of Grimrock 2, Ori and the Blind Forest, System Shock 2, Ziggurat, The Wolf Among Us, Hand of Fate... Okay, maybe I did buy quite a few things.<br><br>I want to thank Justin for taking the time to get back to me about the game and we all wish SleepNinja Games the best on the launch of Super Splataclysm. If you want to see more gameplay screens and art from Splataclysm check the imgur album below.<br><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://imgur.com/a/D4Lqr">http://imgur.com/a/D4Lqr</a><br><a target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="http://sleepninjagames.com/">http://sleepninjagames.com/</a>2015-08-22T21:18:16Zjdodson