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Hi, please introduce yourself and tell us about your background in the games industry:
My name is Vidar Kristiansen, and together with my brother, Tor Martin, I run Kristanix Games, a Norwegian indie game developer. I got my first computer in my early teens, but didn’t learn to program until I was 19, after attending a computer college. Shortly after that, in 1999, we started making games and programs as a hobby. In 2004 we started Kristanix Games as a part-time business, and then, in 2006, we finally stepped out on the struggling road as a full-time indie game development studio!.
What inspired your latest game (Zamby and the Mystical Crystals), and why did you decide to make it?
Having made a Tetris game and a simple Arkanoid clone as educational projects, we wanted to approach a slightly bigger project. We have always been fans of the old Nintendo game series, The Adventures of Lolo, and wanted to make a similar game. Lolo is more action oriented than Zamby, but we got some of the core ideas from that game, and made them our own. Another game which was very influential was Zelda: A Link to the Past. We also got some ideas from Fitznik, which was released shortly before we started working on Zamby.
Can you explain what the game is all about?
Zamby is an original puzzle game set in an enchanted fantasy world. You must help the young hero, Zamby, to gather the mystical light crystals. Throughout the game, you will encounter a huge variety of different puzzles, which need to be solved using your intellect rather than your reflexes. This is important to us, as Zamby is a no-stress puzzle game, tailored to fit the whole family with levels designed specifically for both kids and adults.
Along the way, you must outsmart dangerous monsters like wizards, medusas, trolls and minotaurs. You must tackle different environments like snow, mud, rocks and rivers by manipulating boxes and blowing up bombs.
We also tried to make the game as user friendly as possible. There is no time limit, there are unlimited undos and you can watch video solutions to every level in the game. Zamby is all about playing at your own pace; the monsters will not move unless you move, and this gives you unlimited time to think before you act. Zamby contains a total of 150 levels where 50 are made specifically for kids.
How long did it take to develop the game? Any big problems you encountered during development?
The project actually started back in 2002 as a hobby project. We actually had a nearly complete version finished in 2003, with 50 levels, and only the graphics and music missing. But then different problems prevented us from finishing the game; we had no time, no resources and no money  .
We spent the next years improving the game when we had the time, adding 100 levels, polishing the presentation and re-writing the platform foundation so the game would run on Macs and Linux machines as well as Windows. The gameplay, though, has remained the same since 2003. We are now working hard on getting the game released at the end of June 2007.
When was Kristanix Games formed, and have you released any previous titles we don’t know of?
We launched Kristanix Games in the autumn of 2004. Before that, we made and released some hobby projects, but it was not until 2004 we actually started a more serious business. Since 2004 we have released, among other games, Sudoku and Kakuro games for both Windows and Pocket PCs, three original puzzle games, and a pirate themed cannon-shooting game, Pirates of the Atlantic.
Alongside our games business, we also run a software company, Kristanix Software.
What’s your favorite casual game at this time?
I don’t have very much time to play games unfortunately (making games take so long!), but I have enjoyed Fitznik a lot. It is quite similar to Zamby, and a very good puzzle game. I also enjoy less puzzle-heavy games like Luxor, Bookworm, Peggle and Zuma.
How do you see the future of casual games?
There’s dark times ahead, I tells ya... Just kidding! Casual games have traditionally been quite simple compared to the more hardcore stuff out there, and I think this will continue. But games like Virtual Villagers, Aveyond and Kudos have shown that the market is evolving and we may get a greater variety of genres on the bigger game portals.
For a small time developer, it’s getting tougher when all the big boys join the game. We cannot compete with them budget wise, so it’s great to see that players are embracing games like the ones mentioned above, even though they weren’t made by a huge corporation .
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Interview with Vidar Kristiansen
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