XBLIG Uprising Developer Interview: hermitgames – developer of QRTH-PHYL

September 6, 2012 Tristan Rendo 4 comments

As part of our ongoing coverage of the Indie Game Uprising III CBR asked hermitgames to tell us a bit about themselves and their upcoming game, QRTH-PHYL (read our PREVIEW of the game HERE). They were kind enough to take the time to tell us about their studio’s game and their career as a developer. The full interview can be found in its entirety below. Enjoy, and of course a big thanks to hermitgames for taking the time to answer our questions.

First, tell the readers a bit about yourself: what is your history as a game developer, previous efforts, why you decided to start getting involved in making games?

Started hermitgames in 2002, been making games since 1985, just got bored enough to start programming. Last thing I released was Leave Home on XBLIG and PC: http://hermitgames.com/leavehome.php

How would you describe your game in a sentence? What do you feel makes your game special or unique?

Arcade documentary of maze/dot/snake mechanic within changing dimensions, axis locks and the corruption of the system. Collect, grow, avoid your past, find new space, wake up…

If you had to pick one specific game to describe as your inspiration (for this game or in general), what would it be?

BLOCKADE – GREMLIN INC, 1976

How long did you spend in development? Could you walk me through the timeline for the game, all the way from the conception of the idea to the final marketing ofthe game a few months ago? What software and tools did you use?

Prototyped the idea in 2004 ish, reworked that code in 2010 until now. though I did some sleeping and had a kid and moving house and stuff which slowed me down on this one.

Have you in the past, or do you currently have plans to work in any other platform? What made you decide to develop for XBLIG?

XBLIG: I like that I can release anything I want, no publisher/permission. I want to do a game for raspberry PI frozen in apoxy resin next.

A game’s soundtrack can make or break a game, tell us how you selected yours. Did you produce in house, team up with a music producer or simply purchase royalty free music?

I made it all myself using a modified ZX spectrum 128+ stuck through some effects. AY-3-8912

If there was one thing you could improve on, or simply do differently in development what would it be?

Have more time.

How did you go about deciding on the name for your game and why did you end up with the title you have? Were there any rejected titles that didn’t make the cut?

QRTH-PHYL is what I wanted to call it.

Many gamers dream of making their own games, what advice would you give someone hoping to make the jump from gamer to developer?

Make what you want to make.

The XBLIG market has had mixed results so far in its existence. What do you believe could make it better? What do you believe could improve the service as awhole, from designer to consumer?

A proper online leaderboard system, playable offline, appear in game history, MS employ at least one person full-time to do interesting quality curation,

What can fans of your game(s) expect in the not too distant future?

brain damage

What game in the Indie Uprising are you most excited to play (besides your own of course)?

City Tuesday maybe? Gateways is the only one I’ve had chance to play and that’s ace

Anything else you would like to say?

QRTH-PHYL will be out on PC same day as the XBLIG (10th sept). hermitgames info on twitter @hermitgames // cheers and thanks!

We would like to thank hermitgames once again for taking the time to answer our questions! Stay up to date on all of our coverage of the Indie Game Uprising III by bookmarking the following page: CLICK HERE. CBR will be providing previews, developer profiles, interviews and of course reviews for every game involved in the Uprising. And, as always, support indie developers!