Interviews

Gone Home devs on player agency: “We all appreciate games that trust us as players.”

I shared Tom’s fascination with Gone Home when I had a chance to play it earlier this month. It’s relatable, contemporary, comfortable like your dad’s sweatshirt, and you get to sift through the drawers and closets of your in-game family to unravel the question “Why is no one home?”

During that demo, I spoke with The Fullbright Company co-founders Steve Gaynor and Johnnemann Nordhagen about how they approach designing a game driven by player curiosity, and where clues and story elements can be found achronologically.

Nitronic Rush developers discuss Distance, Kickstarter, and who or what is in that flying car

Nitronic Rush was one of last year’s hidden gems – a slick arcade racer set in a glittering digital city and starring a flipping, flying, rocket-boosting car. It was the final year project for a group of students at DigiPen, the Washington-based game development university, and picked up awards from multiple indie competitions – including the IGF, Indie Game Challenge, and indiePub. We liked it alot, and featured it in last year’s New Years free games round-up.

Three members of the original Nitronic Rush team – Kyle Holdwick, Jordan Hemenway, and Jason Nollan – are now going indie full-time as Refract Studios. Their first game is Distance, a spiritual successor to Nitronic Rush that is currently entering the final week of its Kickstarter campaign.

I spoke to the guys about their plans for the new game, the benefits of getting a second shot at a good idea, and their experience of graduating from university into a maturing indie scene.

DayZ Bounty wants to pay you real, actual money for killing zombies and fellow players

Most of us have built up a reflex that makes us distrust anything that combines the phrases “make money” and “playing games.” Profit and play can’t coexist, and any program that says it can is a scam. A damn scam.

DayZ Bounty is such a program, but its founders promise that it isn’t a scam. After launching a website earlier this week, I talked to the creators to get a sense of their intentions and learn more about how they plan to implement such an unusual idea.

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs interview: we talk to the devs about their scarefest sequel

As reported earlier, The Chinese Room have released the latest trailer for Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, the follow-up to Frictional Games’ deeply unsettling Amnesia: The Dark Descent. Set in Victorian London, some sixty years after the events of the first game, Pigs isn’t a straight continuation of that story, but a wholly new tale set in the same universe. That doesn’t mean it won’t be looking to recapture the same sense of giddy terror that the Dark Descent induced in its hapless, cringing players, however. We got in touch with The Chinese Room’s boss-man and creator of Dear Esther, Dan Pinchbeck, to discover how the scares shake down.

CD Projekt RED interview: Cyberpunk 2077, Witcher 2 piracy, Windows 8, and more

Earlier this week I had a chat with CD Projekt RED PR Specialist Agnieszka Szóstak and GOG Head of PR & Marketing Trevor Longino. We briefly discussed several topics, including CDP RED’s upcoming open-world RPG Cyberpunk 2077, GOG’s take on Windows 8 and its new Mac library, as well as some of the piracy issues CDP has been so vocal about in the past. Here are the best responses on those topics.

Interview: Arma 3 developers’ jailing is “a real nightmare for all involved,” says Bohemia

It’s been 36 days since Bohemia Interactive confirmed that two of its developers had been arrested during their trip to the Greek island of Lemnos. Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar face up to 20 years in prison for charges of spying, which they continue to deny. And now, a strike in Greece’s judicial system is impeding any progress in their case.

To get an update on Ivan and Martin, I spoke with Jay Crowe, Creative Director at Bohemia, about the imprisonment of two of his friends and colleagues.

Prison Architect paid alpha released for good behaviour, new trailer and interview within

Introversion’s gorgeous-looking sim Prison Architect is out now! Sort of. A range of Kickstarter-style rewards has been made available, with $30 getting you access to a current alpha of the game itself. The real question, of course, is whether this game is fit for a place among the law-abiding citizens of polite society. The answer to which is a lackadaisical “Probably not?” Not only is the alpha feature incomplete, it’s also a bit buggy. The good news is, you’ll be able to shape its development.

But why now? And what’s their end goal with the game? A big ol’ interview with Mark Morris and Chris Delay awaits you after the jump.

Diablo 3 Patch 1.05 interview with Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng

Frankly, a lot of us are playing that other game this weekend. But I say you can’t have too many ARPGs in your life, and thus ventured toward Sanctuary once again to discuss Diablo 3′s upcoming 1.05 patch with Blizzard’s Jay Wilson and Wyatt Cheng. They gave us the run-down on the upcoming Monster Power adjustable difficulty system, how common collaboration is between the different teams at Blizzard, and all manner of other hellish topics.

Mists of Pandaria interview with Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street

Mists of Pandaria, the latest expansion to MMOdom’s longest-reigning king, is just days away. We caught up with World of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street and talked at length about everything the new expansion is bringing to the table. Check out the full, mega-sized interview for answers to your most pressing, directly and tangentially panda-related questions!

Incredipede interview: how lizards and subways inspired the bohemian globetrotting devs

Two years ago, Colin Northway – the extravagantly-bearded, globetrotting creator of Incredipede – sold everything he owned except for a backpack, some clothes and a laptop, and got on a plane with his wife and a plan: to travel the world making indie games.

Since then, he’s been to Turkey, Czech Republic, Italy, Malta, Scotland, Paris, British Columbia Canada, Honduras, Costa Rica, BC (again), Tokyo, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Greece, Scotland (again), and France.

I caught up with Northway to ask about the inspiration for creature-constructing puzzle-game Incredipede, how travelling helps him make better games, and how to stay productive while working within a stone’s throw of a tropical beach. You can read more about the game in our Incredipede preview, vote for it on Incredipede’s Steam Greenlight page, and even pre-order it at Incredipede.com.