Friday, March 16, 2012

Fred's Friday's Ep.3!!!: "An Interview With the Developer"

Have I got at treat for you, my lovely readers! This time around me, and the developer (Adam A./@StickyDPadGames) of 'the upcoming XBLIG titles 'Dawn of the Fred', and 'Night of the Fred' decided to treat you guys & gals to a 1-on-1 interview. I think I managed to come up with some fairly good questions that may interest you, and Adam definitely gave some really good answers. Without further adieu I present to you the interview (that rhymes ^.^) ...



My Interview With Adam A. of @StickyDPadGames:

The following is an interview between myself (Brad/OtakuDante), and Adam A. of @StickyDPadGames. I decided to touch base on some questions that will interest future XBLIG game developers as well as some questions about 'Dawn of the Fred', and 'Night of the Fred'. I hope you enjoy this "Fred's Fridays" interview, and that it brings light to @StickyDPadGames' work in progress. As a reviewer I don't get many opportunities to do something out-of-the-box like "Fred's Fridays", so this has really been a treat for me so far. I will continue to bring you off-the-wall coverage in my "Fred's Fridays" articles until Fred decides to venture elsewhere. Until then I present to you this special Q&A session between me and the developer of @StickyDPadGames!!!

Brad: "I think I'll tackle a straightforward question to start off the interview. What inspired you to become an indie game developer?"

Adam:
I think growing up with video games had a huge impact on that, as with any Indie Dev. As silly and as obvious that last sentence sounds, I think it plays the biggest part in whether a developer succeds or fails. You can often tell developers apart rather easily that love video games, and make them for the passion. And the developers who make games uninspiringly to try and make a quick buck.

I attended college for 2 years learning game development, before going onto University only to quit months later. For me, that was a massive eye opener. I knew I didn’t want to learn how to make games anymore, I just wanted to make them. It sounds naïve, but most devs would agree it’s the best way to learn.

Growing up with playing games like Conkers Bad Fur Day and Shenmue, I think I knew, even as a kid that I wanted to create video games as awesome as these!

Brad: "As an indie game developer do you think the Xbox LIVE marketplace is a good venue for newly emerging game developers?"

Adam:
I think it’s one of the best around at the moment. Yeah, it has it’s problems, I’m sure everyone knows about the neglect in recent times the Indie Channel has had. But aside from that, it creates a lot of possibilities as a developer starting out. From XBLIG, you can port to PC almost instantly, which is obviously a massive plus. It also gives you a chance to get your game out there, and create a following. From that, you can go onto much bigger things like Steam, Desura and a whole load of other PC distributors.

Brad: "What is some advice you would give to those who are interested in creating XNA/XBLIG games?"

Adam:
Make games. Just keep making games! :D I can’t stress that enough. After a couple, you’ll soon start to get a feel with what direction you want to go in when creating a larger project. I mean, personally, I can’t speak first-hand about this. The first game I worked on is ‘Night Of The Fred’, a massive action RPG, which may not of been a wise move, but I had worked on games for college projects prior to that. I don’t think if it wasn’t for making small games in college, I wouldn’t have jumped straight in at the deep end.

The other key thing is, once you’re comfortable with the whole designing aspect, and feel you’re ready to work on something more ambitious, make the game you want to play. It doesn’t matter what anybody thinks, if you make something you want to play, people will respect you more for that than creating another Minecraft clone, to a certain degree! Chances are, people will like your game too. Think outside the box too! If there’s something you want to implement, yet haven’t seen it done before in video games, don’t be intimidated by that, be excited! The fact you’ve got a new gameplay mechanic you haven’t seen before is something special, work on it and flesh it out. Now, there very well could be a reason for why you’ve never seen it before, but you’ll be respected for trying something new.

Brad: "I noticed some original artwork within the 'Dawn of the Fred', and 'Night of the Fred' gameplay trailers as well as the screen shot you provided for me last "Fred's Fridays". Who is the artistic talent behind these two indie games?"

Adam:
That would be me! I’m the art/design side, as well as PR and other bits. Jamie is the code ninja that lurks in the shadows coding 24/7.

Brad: "I'm a big time zombie fan, and I was wondering where the inspiration for 'Dawn of the Fred', and 'Night of the Fred' came from? I'm sure my readers would love to know as well."

Adam:
Oh me too! We wanted to create something that kinda mocks the sub-genre, yet pays homage to it at the same time. I absolutely love the Italian Zombie flicks! Zombi and City Of The Living Dead being some of my faves. Then there’s the Romero series and the Return of the Living Dead series, which are ‘must watches’ if you will when it comes to zombie films. Following that, you have a load of awesome one off flicks as well, like BrainDead (Dead Alive), 28 Days Later and Zombieland. I love B-Movie Zombie flicks as well, I don’t know why, there’s just something about them!

When talking about games, the Resident Evil series is my all-time favourite. I adore all the games in the main series. Each one of them is different in it’s own right, yet completely different to the previous, which is what I like. If I had to pick a favourite, it’d have to be Resident Evil 4. I’ve lost count of the amount of hours I put into that game trying to unlock the Chicago Typewriter!

Brad: "What can we as gamers expect from your two upcoming "Fred's" games. Are there any special modes, or anything else that you'd be willing to share about your projects?"

Adam:
‘Night Of The Fred’ is going to be massive, we can tell you that! For $1, I honestly think you’ll be hard pressed to find better value for money on the XBLIG channel.
‘Dawn Of The Fred’ is going to have 3 games modes. The first is the Campaign. It’ll be a brief, action packed prequel to ‘Night Of The Fred’ following the 4 main characters we released for ‘Freds Fridays’ last week! Then there’s the Survival mode. You and 3 friends can team up to try and survive a flesh eating zombie horde! It’s not going to be just wave after wave, with nothing inbetween though. We’re going to try and switch up the wave system so that something new and exciting happens frequently. Finally there’s the Escape! Mode. You’ll be starting in one end of the city, and must escape with 3 other friends to the evacuation point on the other side. Whether or not we’ll have one massive map, or 4-5 small ones still hasn’t been decided yet, but we’ll be starting work on that shortly.
With 10+ playable characters, 70+weapons and 100+Unlocks, we hope people enjoy it for $1!

Brad: "I recently saw a tweet where you were asking your followers about 2D platformers. Are you considering making a "Fred's" game in that fashion?"

Adam:
It’s certainly a possibility, but not on the cards at the moment. If people like the whole ‘Fred’ universe, it’s something we may think about if the demand is there. Regarding the tweet, we’ve got a 3rd project in development that is a 2D sidescrolling platformer, which is a completely new IP. We’re super excited about it, we honestly believe it is going to be stunning.

Brad: "Beyond 'Dawn of the Fred', and 'Night of the Fred' are you planning anymore games in the series, or can we expect something new down the line?"

Adam:
We’ll touching back to the previous comment, a 3rd game is in the works, which is a completely new franchise. With us working on these 3 games at the moment, we have nothing else planned, YET! We have a whole notepad of ideas and concepts drawn out, about 5 of which we know we’ll defiantly be making next year. Our goal now though is to get ‘Night Of The Fred’, ‘Dawn Of The Fred’ and ‘Project #3’ out this year.

Brad: "I've enjoyed working with you so far on the "Fred's Fridays" articles. As a reviewer it's definitely nice to try out new things. I appreciate your participation with this interview, and I'm sure my readers will enjoy reading it. Thanks!"

Adam:
No, no. Thank you! It’s been a pleasure working with you! :D
 - OtakuDante -
 'Dawn of the Fred' is scheduled for a Summer 2012 release, and 'Night of the Fred' is scheduled for an October 2012 release on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace (XBLIG)!!!

Feel free to stop by stickydpad for insight on the developers, and their work. You can also follow my indie friend via Twitter stickydpadgames if you haven't done so already! 

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