Gamesugar

February 3, 2010

The Evolution of Fret Nice

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 2:24 pm

Fret Nice
Pieces Interactive’s Fret Nice arrives on the PlayStation Network tomorrow, with an XBLA date still to be announced. The guitar controlled platformer has had a long road toward a console release, during which time the game’s unique visual aesthetic has evolved quite a bit.

Remembering the game’s first appearance in 2007, I was hoping to find out more about how exactly this evolution took shape during the development process, and to my infinite delight Fret Nice’s Creator/Designer Mårten Brüggemann offered an extremely insightful and detailed response that follows the game from its origins through to the final release available tomorrow.

Catch it all in Mårten’s own words, after the break.

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January 28, 2010

Q&A – Aksys Talks Deathsmiles

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 7:49 pm

Deathsmiles
Having previously established that I have zero objectivity and nothing but enthusiastic gibberish to share about Deathsmiles finally coming to North American 360 owners, it seemed like the only thing left to do was jump up and down on Aksys’ desk about the announcement.

For the sake of dignity I squeezed a few questions in along the way, which Aksys Games’ PR Specialist Cherie Baker was good enough to answer – while leaving me with a cliffhanger to wonder about.

Catch it all after the break.

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January 25, 2010

Q&A – Catching Up With Little Guy Games

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , — Jamie Love @ 5:12 pm

Little Guy Games
Between the mass-media attention given to the announcement of a new Ubisoft Studio, and the critical success of new titles from Capybara Games (as well as many other happenings I’ll surely be in trouble for neglecting to mention here), it’s safe to say that 2009 was an important year for recognizing Toronto’s growing role in the videogame industry.

It was also the year that indie game developer Little Guy Games opened for business, founded by former Capybara Games President Tom Frencel.

The studio’s first game, the shooter/fighter mix Battle Blasters released earlier this month for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and Tom was good enough to take time out to answer a few questions on two of my favorite topics – game development and my home city.

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Trying to Catch the Wind: an Interview with Jenova Chen, Part 1

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , , , — Chris Lepine @ 9:15 am

Interview with Jenova Chen

“We should find ourselves indulging in similar daydreams if we started musing under the cone-shaped roof of a wind-mill. We should sense its terrestrial nature, and imagine it to be a primitive hut stuck together with mud, firmly set on the ground in order to resist the wind. Then, in an immense synthesis, we should dream at the same time of a winged house that whines at the slightest breeze and refines the energies of the wind. Millers, who are the wind thieves, make good flour from storms.” – G.B., 1958

Direct File Link

December 13, 2009

Designing The Red Star

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , , , , — Jamie Love @ 11:25 am

Designing The Red Star Interview
My first encounter with The Red Star was a moment of complete chance. I happened to pick up the September 2004 issue of Play Magazine one morning – bewitched as usual by the shiny cover. Discovering a preview for The Red Star, I was instantly seduced by the visual style and eagerly read about the Acclaim title, which ambitiously aimed to merge elements of both the SHMUP and Beat ‘Em Up games of my youth into a single and instantly addictive action experience.

There was also a clear intention to create a game that was simply fun to play. Between the images shown, and the glowing preview Play gave the title, the only question that remained was whether I would buy the game for my Xbox or PS2.

But this all came crashing down when, with the game essentially completed and reviewed by several journalists, Acclaim went bankrupt in late 2004. Rumors continually surfaced, claiming that company X or Y might potentially bring the title to retail, but in the end gamers would have to wait until April 2007 for XS Games to finally release it.

And if this delay was painful for me, it was undoubtedly agonizing for Ara Shirinian, who worked as a designer on the game,

“…we were wrapping up the game (that’s a whole other story right there). I and the other designers on the project felt like if we had a few more months we could really polish and fix up the most problematic parts, but you never get to truly finish a professional game project, they just make you stop working at some point.”

Recently, I’d stumbled across a site that contained a scan of that same September 2004 issue of Play Magazine, as well as a listing of several boss encounters throughout the game. I was impressed with the layout, and dumbstruck to find that the page belonged to Ara, who created many of the scenarios within the game that have kept me replaying the title to this very day.

My fingers hesitated more than a few times while typing out an email, which soon after began an exchange that has given me a great deal more to consider not only about The Red Star, but about the process and state of game design as it stands today.

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