It’s not uncommon for the mechanics of a card or board game to make their way into a video game intact. But not many of those video games are as action-focused as Hand Of Fate, which Defiant Development are making for PCs, PlayStation 4, and, as they recently announced, Xbox One. But in talking to the game’s creative director, Morgan Jaffit, it seems there’s more to this game than what they’ve laid out on the table.
In my career, I’ve interviewed a lot of interesting people. But since many of the magazines and websites that originally published those stories aren’t around anymore, I’ve decided to pull some of the more interesting interviews out of my archive.
The following interview with South Park co-creator, co-writer, and voice actor Matt Stone was conducted in July of 1997, a few months before the show first aired on Comedy Central. The interview was used as the basis for a story for Bikini Magazine.
As a journalist (and I use that term loosely), I always use my skeptical eye when reading a press release that declares a book is one thing or the other. But in talking to Candace Beck Moesta about her debut fantasy novel Soul Shift, it seems the press release was spot on when it say the book is “Fantasy fiction for the anime enthusiast.”
In 1963, The Beach Boys said we should go surfin’ now, since everyone was learnin’ how. But what if you can’t swim, don’t live near water, or just fear sharks so much that you won’t even go into a pool, let alone the ocean? No worries, you can just play Surfy, a new iOS surfing game from DreamWalk Interactive. Though in talking to lead game developer Sam Russell, it seems that doing well at Surfy won’t necessarily mean you’re good at surfin’ the U.S.A.
With The Pinball Arcade, FarSight Studios have brought classic pinball tables from Williams, Bally, and Stern to the PlayStation 4, 3, and Vita, iOS and Android devices, PCs, and the even the Kindle Fire and Ouya. But how exactly do they recreate those classic pinball machines so exactly, and what does the future hold for this series (and does that include bringing this series to the Xbox One)? I spoke to art director Jason Juneau (who’s been at the company for six year, starting as an animator) and Lead Designer Bobby King (another six year vet who’s also the VP of Product Development), to find out.
Whitney Houston once sang that children are our future. And that’s certainly true when it comes to making video games. Consider Fat Loot, a PC game made by a couple of kids from USC’s GamePipe Lab (a class held in conjunction with the university’s Viterbi School Of Engineering and their Interactive Media division), which you can now play free at fatlootgame.com. So what’s it all about? I spoke to Chen, the team leader on Fat Loot, and Pat, the game’s lead designer, about their interactive final exam.
With a science fiction setting, jetpacks, and a studio called Red 5, no one would fault you for thinking that the free-to-play PC sci-fi shooter MMO Firefall is one funny ’droid short of being a Star Wars game. But in talking to James Macauley, the CEO of Red 5 Studios and production lead for Firefall, it turns out that George Lucas’ space opera isn’t the only big influence on this game.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s new novel City Of Stairs is not an easy read. Not because he uses big words or his grammar is atrocious, it’s because this fantasy novel isn’t easy to classify. It’s a spy novel with a murder mystery, and it doesn’t have a clear enemy, but instead shows both sides as having flaws. But in talking to Mr. Bennett, not being easy this is exactly how he likes it.
After the success of the really difficult platformer Super Meat Boy, it’s no surprise that other game developers would follow suit. But while the upcoming Fenix Rage — which Green Lava is making for PCs, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 — may be tough, and is made of platforms, in talking to executive producer Ted Lange as I played the game, it seems that this isn’t just Exceptional Fish Girl.