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Hi Mike, please introduce yourself and tell us about your background in the games industry:
My wife, Heather, and I founded Aisle 5 Games in 2006. We both wanted to work from home to spend more time with our young son so we decided to follow a dream and make video games. Before Aisle 5 Games, Heather was working as an engineer for Boeing. She is now responsible for the programming of our games. She also uses her musical talents to create the soundtrack for each game. I was previously working as a graphic artist and 3D modeler/animator for GoTV, a company providing multimedia content for cell phones. I am now responsible for the graphics on our games.
What inspired Ghost Hunter, and why did you decide to make it?
Mystery Case Files Prime Suspects was the main inspiration for “Ghost Hunter, Inc - The Haunting of Majesty Manor”. MCF was the first “Hidden Object” game that we tried and we had a blast playing it. The only problem was the game ended and we wanted more. So we decided to make our own game. We choose the ghost theme because we’ve always wanted to make a spooky video game. Some of our favorite games of that genre are Gabriel Knight the Beast Within and Realms of the Haunted.
Ghost Hunter, Inc is definitely knocked down many notches in the fright department from those games. We want this game to appeal to the casual game player so we tried for a good balance of spooky atmosphere without scaring you into not sleeping.
How long did it take to develop the game? Any big problems you encountered during development?
We started development of Ghost Hunter, Inc in November of 2006 and plan to release it in April of 2007. If everything goes as planned, it will be about a five month development cycle. Since we are new to developing games, we had start from scratch. We began by choosing Torque Game Builder Pro as our game engine, which has been a very good choice for us. I had previous experience with Adobe Photoshop so there wasn’t any learning curve in making the graphics. We really haven’t hit any big obstacles so far.
What unique features set Ghost Hunter apart from games such as Mystery Case Files and Mysteryville?
Graphics set Ghost Hunter, Inc apart from other games in this genre. Most of these games use an 800x600 pixel screen since nearly all computers can display graphics at that resolution. We are using a 1024x768 resolution that allows us to produce sharper graphics. We don’t want to player to ask, “Is that a smudge on the wall or is it a butterfly?” This design choice will keep a small number of people from playing Ghost Hunter, Inc because their computer system won’t meet the minimum requirements.
However as a result of the sharper graphics, we were able to hide objects in clever ways that would have been impossible to do at the lower resolution. We believe this will allow the player to have a more challenging and rewarding game experience. We also decided not to have puzzles in between levels. As game players, we were “in the zone” of finding hidden objects and didn’t enjoy the puzzles since it took us out of the game experience. We decided to have more hidden objects to find and more environments for the player to explore.
For example, Mysterville has ten scenes to explore and Ghost Hunter, Inc has almost double that with nineteen scenes. Also, Ghost Hunter, Inc - The Haunting of Majesty Manor has an embedded puzzle in the game that is separate from the actual game play. This puzzle will be difficult to solve and will offer another layer of entertainment for those interested. It is not necessary to solve this puzzle to play the game. In fact, you don’t even get your first hint about the puzzle until you have completed the regular game. The puzzle is similar to the type embedded in the storybook “Masquerade”. That book was the first of it’s kind and has spawned an entire subculture of “Arm Chair Treasure Hunt” books. We took that concept and adapted it for this Ghost Hunter, Inc game.
How do you see the future of casual games?
The casual game market is growing and casual game players desire a diverse range of game types. It’s very encouraging to see the new and original game ideas coming out as well as additions to established genres. People will always want an inexpensive form of short-term entertainment and casual games fit the bill.
What game(s) are you guys currently working on?
We are a two-person team so we only have the “Ghost Hunter, Inc - The Haunting of Majesty Manor” title in production right now. We hope to follow it up with another Ghost Hunter title. We already have a good story idea and a fresh environment in mind that should make for a great game. We also have a couple of original ideas that we plan to work on down the road.
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Interview with Mike Wright
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