Herobyclicking talks with Dejobaan founder, Ichiro Lambe, about Drunken Robot Pornography, their new title Elegy for a Dead World, platforms and design influences.
Herobyclicking: Why do you make games?
Ichiro: Instead of tossing me a baseball when I was a kid, my father sat me down in front of a TI 99/4A. Flash forward 30 years later, and when I wake up in the morning, I think about creating games. And when I go to sleep at night, I think about creating games . It's a wonderful obsession.
Herobyclicking: Why should people play Drunken Robot Pornography?
Ichiro: Folks love DRP for its fast-paced, bullet-hell action. There's a certain visceral thrill involved in going up against a giant, 30-story tall Titan and picking it apart, piece-by-piece (first the fins, then the arms, then the hardened joints, then the core weapons). On the flip side, building those robots and levels is a blast -- we've had players create all sorts of challenges -- someone did a pinball machine, where you're the pinball. Crazy.
Herobyclicking: What element of game design do you hold above all others?
Ichiro: More and more, we're thinking that if something's been done before, do something else. For instance, our next-up title, Elegy for a Dead World, is a writing game. You explore long-dead lands based on the works of British Romance-era poets such as Keats, Shelley, and Bryon, then write stories about them. I want us to ask ourselves what's new and interesting from a design perspective?
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Elegy for a Dead World http://www.dejobaan.com/ele...
Herobyclicking: Drunken Robot places the player in a role of a bartender who has allowed his robot run amok. What led you to that concept? How many bar napkins is this game written across?
Ichiro: While on a magical high-speed train out of Shanghai during the Game Developer's Conference, fellow developer extraordinaire Tim Ambrogi suggested to me that our game should experiment a bit with narrative. I listen to whatever Tim says, because he's bright and awesome. So, in DRP, you're a bar owner who owns a robot bartender (named R. Tim Ambrosia in honor of Tim Ambrogi -- see!). You give him sentience, he processes all the patrons' sob stories all at once, and goes crazy.
Herobyclicking: With the success of Drunken Robot and Dejobaan's other games on its current platforms, can we look forward to seeing this on Wii U, Xbox 360/Xbox One, PS3/PS4, heck why not Vita or 3DS while were are at it?
Ichiro: I hope so; we're talking to Sony and Microsoft about that. We're already invading the living room via Alienware's sexy Alpha console, and I'd like to see our games go beyond PC/mobile.
http://s2.n4g.com/media/11/...
Herobyclicking: Can we expect DLC? Sequel or follow-up? When?
Ichiro: Right now! In fact, for the past half year, we've been putting out new levels as part of our Drunken Robot Battle Royale. Every week (except when we're travelling), we've put out a new challenge that typically comprises a new level, new Titans, and so forth. Players give that a go, and compete for first place. Rinse. Repeat. This is giving us a chance to have fun with the game's level and Titan editors (how many times can I copy-and-paste a row of robots before it bogs down the system?) and feature the best player-created levels.
Herobyclicking: What non-video game games, movies or books if any, have influenced your design/development processes?
Ichiro: The question is timely, because I'd recently been telling myself that we shouldn't let too many things influence our design. But that's silly -- we should experience as much as we can, and build on the best bits. To wit, these things have really gotten me excited lately:
• Valve's VR room, which is pretty much like the Holodeck, minus Professor Moriarty coming to life and screwing everything up.
• Jodorowsky's Dune -- there's a creative lunatic who brought together some of the most interesting minds to [almost] make a movie.
• Creativity, Inc by Ed Catmull. You know, the guy who helms Pixar, and INVENTED TEXTURE MAPPING. It's a book about failing repeatedly, and analyzing what went wrong.
Cheers!
Day 7 | Dejobaan Games
Stellar Blade’s combat may take some getting used to at first, but when it gets going Eve becomes an unstoppable force in the PS5 RPG.
"The Jyväskylä-based (Finland) indie games developer Act Normal Games today announced with great delight and thrill that their isometric post-apocalyptic point-and-click adventure “Rauniot“, is now available PC (via Steam, GOG, and GMG." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
The game, which has launched in early access, has been in development for years with more than 3,000,000 wishlists on Steam.
Love that they are constantly expanding the game. :) Looks like a heck of a time!
Keep making great games, wishing you all the best of luck and a very bright future.
Looks great , and i hope sony get the game on PS4
and i love shooting big giant titan robot and destroying it piece by piece !
wow such a contrast between drunken robot and Elegy for a Dead World but im really interested in playing both!
Hoping to see a Wii U release.