Tuesday 31 January 2012

Interview on The Indie Shelter

An interview I did with an Italian games blog theindieshelter.com went live yesterday! You can read it on their website at http://www.theindieshelter.com/2012/intervista-jamogames/

Here is the untranslated version if you don't want to translate that page, enjoy!


1) First of all, tell us about yourself and Jamo Games! We need a little background!
 I've been working as a game designer/builder in the serious games industry for the past couple of years for a company called PlayMob. I started out doing concept art, but quickly got involved in designing and building the games, until that became my main focus. Some of the smaller projects were fully developed by myself, so I'm not a stranger to one-man development! Jamo Games however, is my first attempt at making games commercially, and without client focused projects. It got the name from a childhood nickname of mine.


2) How would you describe Amp, Watts & Circuit in less than ten words?
A robotic puzzle game with a new kind of challenge.

3) So, what's different about your game? Why should we care, apart from the really nice graphics?
Firstly, thanks for the compliment on the graphics! They seem to catch people's eye which is great.  Amp, Watts & Circuit presents an interesting challenge to players, testing them not only on their puzzle solving skills, but also their multi-tasking, and it takes a lot of quick thinking. The player must get all three robots to the correct goal, past obstacles such as spikes, pits, fire and lava, but they can only move one robot at a time. However, once the robot has been given a destination, he will try to take the shortest route there, regardless of any traps in the way, and the player is free to move another. The key to solving a level quickly is to have all three robots moving at the same time, but it gets tricky as you need to make sure that none of them get into trouble while you figure out the solution, else its game over!
4) You ask the player to collect all 150 bolts in the game. What do you think about completing games 100%? Do you feel a game has been truly completed only when the player hits the 100% mark or is that only for the most dedicated fans? I think it definitely depends on the game. Personally, if I enjoy a game enough or feel that there was a lot left untouched on my first play-through, then I will return to it again to see everything, and to complete all of its challenges, but a lot of games I consider complete when I hit the ending credits! With regards to Amp, Watts & Circuit, I'm hoping that there will be a selection of players who do want to do everything and collect every bolt, although it won't be detrimental to the more casual players who just want to solve each puzzle in their own time.

5) How did you meet Laurie Johnson? The soundtrack is quite catchy!
I got introduced to Laurie through a mutual friend. It is his first attempt at making music for games, so he is well suited for this project, we both had a lot to learn! He also put together a library of sound effects for the game, which really help to bring it to life. I also can't forget to mention Alexander Smith, who also wrote some music for the game. I think the soundtrack that the two of them have put together sounds brilliant and complements the presentation of the game perfectly. I am hoping to make the full soundtrack available at a later date for fans of the game or its music.


6) Anything you'd like to say to our readers?
I hope you like the sound of Amp, Watts & Circuit, and I'm really excited to get it out there for people to play! In the mean time, if you are interested in the games progress or want to get involved and have you input on what we have so far, then I'd love you to join in on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JamoGames, or follow me on twitter @JamoGames. You can also check out some of the games music and dev blog over at out website jamogames.com. Thanks for reading!