Monday, 07 December 2009 17:09
ESG had the pleasure speaking to one of our favorite indie game developers Charlie Knight of Charlie’s Games. For those who are unfamiliar with Charlie’s Games, he makes retro style shooters such as the popular Bullet Candy which you can buy from major digital distribution such as Steam or Direct2Drive. Throughout the interview...
ESG had the pleasure speaking to one of our favorite indie game developers Charlie Knight of Charlie’s Games. For those who are unfamiliar with Charlie’s Games, he makes retro style shooters such as the popular Bullet Candy which you can buy from major digital distribution such as Steam or Direct2Drive. Throughout the interview we will learn about the history of Charlie’s Games and see what lies ahead in the future. This will be part one of our interviews with Charlie Knight, stay tuned tomorrow to learn about his latest game Irukandji.
ESG: Please give us a brief history of Charlie’s Games and how it came to be about:
Charlie Knight: Writing games was just a hobby to begin with. I was working a fairly dull job about 5 or 6 years ago and making little graphics toys and games was a way of letting some of my creativity out. It never really occurred to me to release anything until a few friends said that what I was playing around with at that time was actually pretty good. I guess that’s about when Charlie’s Games started, roughly the end of 2005, and I released Bullet Candy in April 2006.
ESG: As an indie developer, please share with our audience the benefits and difficulties of being “indie”.
CK: Having complete control over my work is the biggest benefit by far, no question. I’m at complete liberty to create what I like, whatever it may be. Of course there are downsides to it; plenty of ideas that consume time and come to nothing, the motivational rollercoaster that is working from home and the minimal income my games generate all detract from the experience. What is it they say, you have to suffer for your art? ;)
ESG: Are you an avid gamer? If so what type of games do you play?
CK: Yeah, I play games. Probably not as avidly as I used to, but I do take an evening or two each week to sit and play. What I play is pretty dependant on how I feel, and I’ve got a pretty big collection of games and consoles that I’ve amassed over the years. I’m not dreadfully up to date though, most recently I’ve been playing Duke Nukem 3D, Immortal Defense and Runman on the PC, Resident Evil and F-Zero GX on Wii and I’ve always got my Neo-Geo plugged in for Metal Slug and King Of Fighters ‘98.
ESG: Currently you have entered two of your latest games to the IGF (Independent Games Festival), please tell us about that experience.
CK: The overwhelming feeling of the experience so far is of stress trying to get the games ready before the deadline. I actually nearly wasn’t able to enter either as a rather badly timed water bill ate my entry funds, but a number of kind folks helped me out by donating some cash at the last minute, if you’re one of those people and you’re reading this then you’re awesome :-) Hopefully one of the two games I’ve entered will do well, I guess we’ll see…
ESG: From the infamous Space Phallus to your latest title Scoregasm, all of your games have been retro style shooters. If any, what was the inspiration for those titles?
CK: I guess I just like those old games, and wanted to put my own spin on that formula. I have a lot of fond memories playing shooters in their heyday, and I like coding big, screen filling particle effects so something like Bullet Candy was a pretty natural thing for me to do.
ESG: Space Phallus was well received for its retro style and 8-bit music. Any plans to make another game in a similar style?
CK: Well, I’ve still got to add a couple more levels to Space Phallus, but yeah, it’s pretty fun taking on that 8-bit aesthetic with modern hardware, and I think I got the feel about right in Space Phallus. There is one idea I’d like to do something with, kind of fusion on Track And Field and Punchout, but I don’t really have too much time to work on that right now.
ESG: Thus far your games have only been released for PC’s, Mac, and Linux; do you plan on releasing Xbox Live Arcade or Playstation Network versions of your games?
CK: I’d love to release some console games, but they’d be new games I think. I don’t really like doing the same thing twice. Maybe if Scoregasm works out well I could find out about getting a dev-kit for one of them and see what I can come up with?
ESG: For your latest titles Bullet Candy Perfect & Scoregasm, do you plan to sell them at major digital distribution outlets such as Steam, Direct2Drive, GamersGater, Impulse, etc?
CK: It’d be great if they’d have me…
ESG: After completion of Scoregasm, what’s next for Charlie?
CK: I’m probably going to take a little break from shooters after Scoregasm though. I think I need to try my hand at something else. I always like games where you explore stuff, so I’m thinking of doing something like that. I’ve also got an idea for a kind of musical game/toy that I’m hoping to do with John Marwin (who’s done music for most of my games now).
I’m also planning to release some of the stuff I’ve done over the past few years that I haven’t quite had the motivation to finish. These will most likely be just short single level things. They mostly were fun ideas that I just couldn’t see how to make work as full games. The code is just sitting around doing nothing, and it seems a shame not to do something with it…
*ESG would like to thank Charlie Knight for his time. We wish you the best!*
**Be sure to tune in tomorrow for part 2 of our interview with Charlie Knight of Charlie’s Games. **
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