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Hi, please introduce yourself and tell us about your background in the games industry:
I’m Gabriel Gambetta, a 26 year old engineer from Uruguay, co-founder, director and lead developer of Mystery Studio. In late 2002 a friend and I decided to make games, even though we had no previous experience in the field and there were no game development companies in this country, so we founded Mystery Studio. It turned out to be a fantastic experience  . A few years later we’re producing several in-house games, co-producing games with some big industry players, and selling outsourcing services – all of this with a very compact and efficient team.
When was Mystery Studio formed, and what previous titles have you released?
We formed Mystery in late 2002, mainly to work in a local project that never materialized. We decided to make games by ourselves anyway. Our first game, PegSweeper, was very experimental in every sense – we laid down the foundation of what is now our game framework, which powers all of our games to date; we experimented with ecommerce for the first time; in the end we proved to ourselves that we could make commercially viable games after all (that may sound silly but bear in mind that none of us had any game development experience and there was no game industry here).
Then came Betty’s Beer Bar in November 2003, which was our first hit, made Mystery known and profitable, and also establishing a new genre that has become extremely popular lately. We released FaceIt in 2004, Wild West Wendy in 2005, Pirate Poppers and Pigllionaire in 2006, and now Cathy’s Caribbean Club in 2007.
What inspired your latest game (Cathy's Caribbean Club), and why did you decide to make it?
Betty’s Beer Bar was the both the game we most enjoyed making and also our most successful one; we had tried to build on its success with Wild West Wendy, but apparently we didn’t stay true enough to what worked in Betty’s Beer Bar. Cathy’s Caribbean Club is in a way a return to our origins, a game based on the basic idea of Betty’s Beer Bar but vastly improved in every sense, applying the experience we acquired in the last few years.
What’s the most interesting thing about Cathy's Caribbean Club and why?
If I had to choose just one interesting aspect of the game, I’d choose the upgrade store. You can buy upgrades that have a dramatic effect over gameplay, not just slight variations – they really can transform it completely. Take the barmen, for example; you can hire a guy to prepare the smoothies so you no longer have to (although you can if you choose to), so you can concentrate on serving them. Or the specially trained parrot who picks up used glasses.
Another aspect that had set Betty’s Beer Bar apart which is also present in Cathy’s Caribbean Club and very few other games of the genre have imitated is the abundance and variety of special characters. You may find Dracula, an alien, a japanese Geisha, and even Betty and Wendy drinking smoothies in the beach. My personal favorite is the Bear, which also appeared in Betty’s Beer Bar. In addition to the special characters, there’s an almost infinite variety of regular customers, so you’re almost guaranteed to find your lookalike there  .
How long did it take to develop the game? Any big problems you encountered during development?
It took us slightly over a year to make – although the development process was quite smooth. The reason it took so long is simply the huge amount of art used by the game. Cathy’s Caribbean Club was built using Betty’s Beer Bar code, which was rock-solid after three years of bug fixes and performance improvements.
What’s your favorite indie game at this time, and which recent mainstream titles do you admire, and why?
I don’t really play a lot of games, but I love the Wonderland series (very cute and with very interesting puzzles), Professor Fizzwizzle (looks fantastic and plays great), Deadly Rooms of Death (clever puzzles and fantastic humor!), and Atlantis (addictive as most chain poppers and with excellent music and art).
How do you see the future of casual games?
The casual game landscape has changed a lot since we started being part of it and we expect it to continue changing. Games have become way more complex, expected production values have increased exponentially, there is more competition than ever, big companies have noticed the casual game space and started to invest large sums in it. I expect all these trends to continue. At the same time, the scope of casual games is such that a small studio still can have an unique idea and compete with the big guys and produce a big hit. I think this is very interesting because you get both a steady supply of high-quality games and wildly innovative ideas.
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Interview with Gabriel Gambetta
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