Originally published at Blogcritics.org

By now it's become almost some sort of unwritten law that when you develop a game for a Nintendo system, it has to feature mini-games as well. Nintendo's newest Wii effort harks back to a mini-game series it created on the Game Boy Advance. While the Wario Ware name is nothing new, the innovations Nintendo continues to inject into the series still makes it one of the most appealing and freshest franchises on the market.

Of course with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves being on the Wii, the mass of mini-games thrown at players will utilize the Wii Remote in a crazy number of fashions. While one could say the choice of control is the only asset that sets Smooth Moves apart from its predecessors, the motion control really does add that extra layer of game play which prevents the game from being a mere "been there, done that" affair.

The premise of the game hasn't changed one iota since the original released almost four years ago: Players work their way through a number of levels, each designated by a character in the Wario Ware universe. The levels are filled with nothing but a string of mini-game in which players can only fail four mini-games. Each stage only takes a few seconds to complete but as the stage progresses the mini-games speed up and lead to a more-involving boss stage.

While in initial execution, the stages will only take a couple of minutes to work through, completing them will unlock more stages as well as a number of extra features, galleries, extended mini-games and multiplayer modes. After completion, players can also return to the stages and work through them endlessly in order to obtain personal high scores. So while gamers will rip the plastic off Wario Ware and start off with barebones options, through single-player dedication, eventually a bevy of options will be selectable.

Unfortunately, that marked a glaring weakness for me as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves does not come with multiplayer out of the box. Furthermore, the multiplayer modes won't even surface as selectable options until someone completes the single-player mode's storyline (which will round out at about two to three hours unless one is sidetracked by some of the unlockable options).

Being able to fly through the game in a couple of hours isn't the most appealing of features for those who aren't completists or willing to replay levels endlessly. However, Smooth Moves executes very well on the Wii – the game really shows off the capabilities of the remote, can be picked up and played by virtually anyone and has a multitude of options that can occupy players for either a few minutes or hours at a time. It, in essence, is one of the titles that exemplify the "everyone" philosophy the Wii was created behind.

Smooth Moves brings a variety of art styles to the table all of which are visually appealing and lend to the series' wacky off-the-wall charm. While the menus and cut scenes feature a vivid, crisp paper animation-type style, the mini-games are appropriately themed with some featuring mere lines and white backgrounds, some are more meticulous featuring full environments and characters and others are exact copies of Nintendo titles (my personal favorite theme). With so much going on in such a short time span, the game is always visually stimulating and stays true to random nature of the series.

The audio of Smooth Moves is just as random; yet, it is appropriate to each situation. The music drives the action along in the background, most of which is quite strange, and speeds up along with the progressing levels. As a bonus, the music and sound in each of the retro Nintendo stages is true to the original game, including titles such as Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Animal Crossing and much more.

Players should be thankful all of the control schemes in Smooth Moves are explained in "inspirational" segments, which, much like the rest of the game, are quite humorous. The demanding mini-games are each proceeded with a picture of the control schematic that will be utilized in the next mini-game, giving them a few seconds to position the controller in the appropriate fashion. For the most part, the motion sensing controls are spot on, reacting appropriately whether the player is sweeping the controller back and forth, pretending they are unsheathing a sword or even putting the controller on top of their head and squatting.

The game comes with a few potential frustrations, though, stemming from the motion control and the random nature of the game. The games each appear with a very brief description of what to do and with such a short time to react, there tends to be a small handful of mini-games in each Wario Ware where a player just doesn't understand what to do. Also, there are occasions while pointing at the screen where the controller doesn't register on the screen and sometimes the motion controls up and down do not register.

All in all, though, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is an impressive addition to the Nintendo Wii's quality lineup of casual games. While the single-player mode is hardly deep in any sense of the word, it is a game of potentially infinite replayability due to its random nature and the multiplayer, which spans more than five different game modes, is staple party game material. Just as Wario Ware: Touched served on the basis of showing off the unique system capabilities of the DS, Smooth Moves slides in to show players the multitude of ways the Wii Remote can be used.

Smooth Moves definitely serves as the Wii's greatest title so far for 2007 and fits nicely in Nintendo's releases of mini-game games for the Wii. Wario steps up and fills a gap in the Wii’s launch list, which finally picks up again in the middle of the month. With all there is to do in Smooth Moves, there's no doubt the title will keep players occupied until the next batch of releases for the Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

Originally printed on Blogcritics.org

By now it's become almost some sort of unwritten law that when you develop a game for a Nintendo system, it has to feature mini-games as well. Nintendo's newest Wii effort harks back to a mini-game series it created on the Game Boy Advance. While the Wario Ware name is nothing new, the innovations Nintendo continues to inject into the series still makes it one of the most appealing and freshest franchises on the market.

Of course with Wario Ware: Smooth Moves being on the Wii, the mass of mini-games thrown at players will utilize the Wii Remote in a crazy number of fashions. While one could say the choice of control is the only asset that sets Smooth Moves apart from its predecessors, the motion control really does add that extra layer of game play which prevents the game from being a mere "been there, done that" affair.

The premise of the game hasn't changed one iota since the original released almost four years ago: Players work their way through a number of levels, each designated by a character in the Wario Ware universe. The levels are filled with nothing but a string of mini-game in which players can only fail four mini-games. Each stage only takes a few seconds to complete but as the stage progresses the mini-games speed up and lead to a more-involving boss stage.

While in initial execution, the stages will only take a couple of minutes to work through, completing them will unlock more stages as well as a number of extra features, galleries, extended mini-games and multiplayer modes. After completion, players can also return to the stages and work through them endlessly in order to obtain personal high scores. So while gamers will rip the plastic off Wario Ware and start off with barebones options, through single-player dedication, eventually a bevy of options will be selectable.

Unfortunately, that marked a glaring weakness for me as Wario Ware: Smooth Moves does not come with multiplayer out of the box. Furthermore, the multiplayer modes won't even surface as selectable options until someone completes the single-player mode's storyline (which will round out at about two to three hours unless one is sidetracked by some of the unlockable options).

Being able to fly through the game in a couple of hours isn't the most appealing of features for those who aren't completists or willing to replay levels endlessly. However, Smooth Moves executes very well on the Wii – the game really shows off the capabilities of the remote, can be picked up and played by virtually anyone and has a multitude of options that can occupy players for either a few minutes or hours at a time. It, in essence, is one of the titles that exemplify the "everyone" philosophy the Wii was created behind.

Smooth Moves brings a variety of art styles to the table all of which are visually appealing and lend to the series' wacky off-the-wall charm. While the menus and cut scenes feature a vivid, crisp paper animation-type style, the mini-games are appropriately themed with some featuring mere lines and white backgrounds, some are more meticulous featuring full environments and characters and others are exact copies of Nintendo titles (my personal favorite theme). With so much going on in such a short time span, the game is always visually stimulating and stays true to random nature of the series.

The audio of Smooth Moves is just as random; yet, it is appropriate to each situation. The music drives the action along in the background, most of which is quite strange, and speeds up along with the progressing levels. As a bonus, the music and sound in each of the retro Nintendo stages is true to the original game, including titles such as Star Fox, Punch Out!!, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Animal Crossing and much more.

Players should be thankful all of the control schemes in Smooth Moves are explained in "inspirational" segments, which, much like the rest of the game, are quite humorous. The demanding mini-games are each proceeded with a picture of the control schematic that will be utilized in the next mini-game, giving them a few seconds to position the controller in the appropriate fashion. For the most part, the motion sensing controls are spot on, reacting appropriately whether the player is sweeping the controller back and forth, pretending they are unsheathing a sword or even putting the controller on top of their head and squatting.

The game comes with a few potential frustrations, though, stemming from the motion control and the random nature of the game. The games each appear with a very brief description of what to do and with such a short time to react, there tends to be a small handful of mini-games in each Wario Ware where a player just doesn't understand what to do. Also, there are occasions while pointing at the screen where the controller doesn't register on the screen and sometimes the motion controls up and down do not register.

All in all, though, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves is an impressive addition to the Nintendo Wii's quality lineup of casual games. While the single-player mode is hardly deep in any sense of the word, it is a game of potentially infinite replayability due to its random nature and the multiplayer, which spans more than five different game modes, is staple party game material. Just as Wario Ware: Touched served on the basis of showing off the unique system capabilities of the DS, Smooth Moves slides in to show players the multitude of ways the Wii Remote can be used.

Smooth Moves definitely serves as the Wii's greatest title so far for 2007 and fits nicely in Nintendo's releases of mini-game games for the Wii. Wario steps up and fills a gap in the Wii’s launch list, which finally picks up again in the middle of the month. With all there is to do in Smooth Moves, there's no doubt the title will keep players occupied until the next batch of releases for the Wii.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

It seems you can’t release a puzzle game anymore without having some sort secondary genre gimmick, and the newest puzzle and RPG hybrid comes from the combined efforts of a company known for casual puzzlers and another company that is most certainly known for its RPG titles. PopCap and Square Enix have teamed up for a new downloadable effort entitled Gyromancer, and given this team up, players are certainly expecting great things to be birthed from this collaboration. While the initial concept is hardly original, these companies’ new spin on the hybrid effort pieces together with far more pros than cons, resulting in a title that doesn’t just copy the full Puzzle Quest formula.

In Gyromancer, players assume the role of Rivel, a beast summoner on a quest through Aldemona Wood. Of course, the quest hardly plays out smoothly and Rivel runs into resistance, and in typical RPG fashion, he becomes involved in a larger plot. The story progresses at the beginning and end of each stage along with dialog at specific encounters. Overall, the scripting is handled fairly well and the splashes of “Ye ole English” give the dialog a bit of a unique flair; however, every bit of story is handled with static portraits that rarely change to show emotions and action. Also, even though I enjoy the classic dialog style, I could imagine some players would find it hard to follow, and there were a few portions of the story that I found confusing due to the story flow and the methods used to tell the story. The storyline is standard fare for any RPG title, however, the way it is told lacks any sort of polish outside of dialect – some animations, brief cutscenes, more backgrounds, more portraits, small voice clips or really just anything in this vein would have thrust the storytelling to a much higher score. This is especially true since the single player storyline is the only mode Gyromancer has to cling to. While players can unlock “gauntlets” of enemies to run through, there is no free play or multiplayer to speak of, which is undoubtedly the title’s most glaring weakness.

Fortunately, aside from the blatant lack of originality I’ve already touched on, everything else proves to be a much better experience for players. While most of the game’s visuals are static, they are very well done, featuring a fantasy theme that one might say is comparable to the art from Magic: The Gathering. It works extremely well in context, and each character and beast is drawn in extravagant detail. However, again, the glaring lack of animation in most of the art really works against the visuals. The map screens literally looks like a player is moving a game piece on a game board, leaving most of the graphical punch to rely on the bursts and flashes of lighting seen when players trigger switches or similar events on the map. Even in battle, attacks are given the same treatment, with the beast/character portraits never animating or featuring different stills to convey actions, pain, fatigue or victory. The bottom line is the visuals provided in Gyromancer are very well defined, however, they are just never given the chance to truly shine due to their repetition – even some minor animations and alternate portraits could have raised the graphics score into the INCREDIBLE or above territory, because the drawings are, in fact, that well done.

Not only is Gyromancer great on the eyes, but the sound also comes through to round out a satisfying presentation. Anyone who has picked up a puzzle-RPG hybrid should know what to expect from Gryomancer’s sound effects, which mostly come from your basic puzzle game effects of rotating pieces, the bursting of gems and the jingles associated with navigating menus. Gyromancer takes it a bit further, with sound effects that reflect nature elements based on the affinity of a given attack, and appropriate music accompanies every scenario in the game. Players are welcomed to the game with a loud, epic sounding piece, the story-based and map segments are appropriately calm, and the strength of the enemy determines how intense the music is. For a game of this nature, there is a surprising sampling of tunes, and each is used at very appropriate times.

Honestly, there isn’t much novelty to the gameplay, however, that isn’t to say players won’t have an engaging and fun experience with Gyromancer. Not only will the theme be familiar to anyone that has picked up a title such as Puzzle Quest, but the basic mechanic implemented for the puzzle gameplay is a pound for pound recreation of Bejweled Twist, courtesy of PopCap. For those not in the know, Twist follows the same match-three mechanics as Bejeweled, however, players position four jewels at the same time and movements may only be made in a clockwise rotation, which really limits the player’s options and adds challenge to the game. In Gyromancer, of course, this formula has been expanded upon – matching jewels adds juice to your beast’s three attacks, and by filling up an attack, a jewel on the playfield is sparked with energy. Grouping this sparked jewel in a match inflicts damage to your opponent. Of course, players are facing off against an enemy and, as such, every single move made by a player juices up their attack meters, and when an enemy meter fills, a jewel is ignited with enemy energy, leaving a player with seven turns to remove it from the playfield before the attack damages them.

Everything starts off simple enough – players are positioned on simple maps with little room for exploration against standard enemies with very little to worry about in regard to penalties. While on maps, players can move one space at a time. Moving onto the same space as a skull thrusts players into a minor battle, players are shown a full beast skeleton that shows where that level’s boss is, fountains restore some of your beasts’ health and there are code icons which allow players to purchase new forms of beasts in a shop. As players progress though, they will run into roadblocks that have players solving a puzzle (such as clear x amount of jewels at the same time, make an x chain, etc.) in order to proceed, certain spaces on the map will force players to automatically move in a specific direction, enemy spawn points will appear with mini-boss characters and more. Even in the battles, enemies will throw a bunch of tricks at you, locking jewels in place, turning jewels into useless rock pieces and more. Fortunately, more tricks become available to players as well, as they come across items that allow them to rotate counter-clockwise for one turn, reset buffers and more. Obviously, as players progress, the game gives them a Pokemon vibe of “gotta catch them all,” offering up a number of beast types with three different evolutions each to provide more powerful forms that give players a chance on the later levels.

As such, while some players may find the game to be insultingly easy in the beginning, the pace definitely picks up, providing some thought-provoking challenge, especially when players begin being severely punished for taking turns that do not clear jewels from the field. It may take a few stages too long to really pick up, but once players dive into all of the nuances that makes Gyromancer so much different than other titles in the genre, that’s the point where the title becomes the most addictive and rewarding. All of the controls are simple in puzzle game fashion, but the actual mechanics surrounding them is what makes the game so intricate. Even so, there are some safeguards that allows less skilled players to manage in the game, with indicators notifying players of possible matches when they are stuck and at any time on the map or in battle, players can press a help button to allow them to highlight anything of note on the screen for a description. While puzzle veterans might feel the game takes a tad too long to get to the meat of the meal, these mechanics should be more than enough to ease anyone into the game in preparation for when the challenge starts to kick in.

While the title sounds like a straightforward puzzle romp through more than ten levels, Gyromancer does a lot to encourage players to revisit levels a number of times, and the scope of hidden items and multiple paths on the maps should have players coming back to them time and time again. Not only will players have to take part in a number of battles to keep their beasts leveled up, but in nearly every map, defeating the boss opens up a locked path that takes players to new sections of the level that can be nearly the size of the original level. This encourages players to revisit the level to find a large number of new beast codes, items and gil. Not only do the new areas open up, but each level features a lineup of “achievements.” Defeating the boss character unlocks the first achievement, but players will have to go back and take out the mini-bosses, find four codes per stage, score x amounts of points and more to have a complete 100 percent clearing of the level. As I’ve mentioned earlier, players will also unlock a “gauntlet” lineup of monsters, which is the closest Gyromancer comes to offering a type of free play mode, so PopCap and Square Enix has implemented a number of mechanics to keep players coming back time and again, and very little of these mechanics seem forced or cheap.

Overall, the companies have seemingly combined the puzzle, RPG and monster management genres all into one, satisfying package. There is a ton to do and see, and in my experience, I found a good amount of challenge to the title. Since the CPU has no active turns, getting damaged was less a matter of the computer taking the best possible move every time combined with luck; here, the player’s skill (well, yes, along with some luck) is the determining factor in what plays out in Gyromancer. Most of the downsides to the title amount to a lack of polish to the solid mechanics implemented in the title, but the full package is a welcome addition to the Xbox LIVE Arcade library. The mash of themes should be appealing to anyone looking for a solid puzzler and although most of what is presented is hardly original, there are a number of small additions to keep Gyromancer fresh and a worthy purchase. While the lack of a multiplayer or online component is disheartening, what the title does offer will keep dedicated puzzle fans tied to the system for a number of hours.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

Gyromancer hits the ball out of the park in every department a puzzle game should – the challenging mechanics and rewards make the title addictive and there is a score of replayability in this seemingly simple title. You’ll find some kinks in the game’s storytelling and the title is far from original, but PopCap and Square Enix have managed to craft an extremely solid downloadable title. Some lack of polish and slow initial pacing hold the title back just a tad, but once players dive into the meat of the game, it becomes very hard to put the controller down. At the heart of the title is a total recreation of Bejeweled Twist, but the tweaks and additions make Gyromancer a very intriguing title that can hold players’ attentions for hours at a time.

Originally posted at Diehard GameFAN

The path from independent to retail is a long and selective journey, but given the resources available to aspiring developers today, we are seeing a resurgence in original ideas akin to when computer games could be written by a couple of programmers on a computer in a garage. While the advance in technology has made the “garage studio” model extremely difficult, it certainly isn’t impossible, and today’s up-and-coming developers are finding ways to battle the hardships involved in the process. Tomorrow, gamers will be able to get their hands on the results of the newest rise of the independent game, The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom.

P.B. Winterbottom comes from the minds of graduates of the University of Southern California’s Interactive Media MFA program. In 2008, the Odd Gentlemen started off as an independent studio founded by Matt Korba and Paul Bellezza. Now in 2010, they are setting out to expand their mission of making experimental games. The first of these titles is a re-imagining of P.B. Winterbottom, set to be expanded and improved upon thanks to the Xbox 360 hardware and published courtesy of 2K Play. The publisher has taken a recent effort to expand on its portfolio with key downloadable titles on the Xbox LIVE Arcade format and so far, P.B. Winterbottom is looking like a perfect, and surely an original, addition to the service.

Hot off the heels of the development of The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, The Odd Gentlemen co-founder Paul Bellezza took some time out of his schedule to answer some questions in regard to the game and its development, The Odd Gentlemen, what it was like to develop games independently, what the future holds for the company and more. We figured someone whose initials were P.B. would give us the best insight on The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom (although we had to lock up all of our pies), so please continue reading as we examine the past, present and future with Paul Bellezza:

DHGF: To set the stage for those not in the know, can you introduce The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom to our readers and describe what makes the title a unique experience?

Paul Bellezza: The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a 2-D side scrolling puzzle platformer starting the nefarious P.B. Winterbottom – pie thief extraordinaire. The game takes place in a macabre silent film inspired universe and involves Winterbottom’s quest to chase the elusive Chronoberry Pie, which has caused P.B. to become unstuck in time. Because of this, Winterbottom receives the ability to record any of his actions and spawn time clones that repeat his previous actions. With the help of these time clones, Winterbottom can stand on his own head to get to higher places, smack himself or his clones with his umbrella, which is a launching mechanism, and can be in multiple places at once. All of these tricks are good for one thing: Nabbing delicious pie.

DHGF: P.B. Winterbottom’s noir motif definitely gives the title a unique identity. What are your concerns in regard to current gamers being “spoiled” on today’s visuals? What kind of challenges did producing the title in this art form produce?

P.B.: In this current generation of consoles, the march over the uncanny valley is expensive, draining and consists of mostly green and brown color palettes. We don’t care about creating visuals that are photo real. We feel we get enough of that in the real world. We’d much rather create stylized worlds that are bent, twisted and fantastical as these are the types of places we dreamed of as children. These are the worlds that suit the games we want to make.

In terms of Winterbottom’s development, we were able to create our aesthetic by modeling all of our assets in 3-D with global illumination, exporting them to 2-D and then painting them over. While we were able to create a one-of-a-kind look, it’s the most inefficient art pipeline ever. In essence, each puzzle scenario has as much detail as a movie set. It was a balancing act trying to keep the bar of high quality up during production. Stylized art is hard work but it tends to age better in the long run. Games from the PlayStation One 3-D era were cutting edge at one point but, by today’s standards, they are unsightly.

Now that’s not to say we don’t appreciate the glitz and glamour of today’s modern games. Uncharted 2 is one of our favorites. We just don’t have an interest in making worlds that utilize that style.

DHGF: Can you expand on the game’s silent movie inspiration? Were there any silent films or actors from the time period that directly inspired P.B. Winterbottom?

P.B.: We’re fans of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton. There are several segments in the game that are heavily inspired by Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last and Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr. A Trip to the Moon, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis inspired us as well.

DHGF: The original development page for the title shows a number of concepts for the P.B. Winterbottom character. Can you reflect on the evolution and creation of the character? How did you know when you finally had exactly what you wanted in the character?

Paul: Our creative director, Matt Korba, modeled and animated the first version of Winterbottom, which we used in the student version of the game. Even in the student project, Winterbottom went through a few transitions. We knew we wanted him to creep around in a gremlin-like manner while keeping an air of dignity around him. When we started the commercial version of Winterbottom, we set out to revamp the character for HD. With the help of our concept artist, Vincent Perea, we began rethinking him. We added more details to his face and attire and got him re-modeled and running in the game world. Several months later, Matt Clausen, along with Korba, decided we wanted to revamp him a third time. In this final pass, we gave him a new color treatment and added extra details like black shadows around his eyes, while reshaping his head to make for a better platform. We almost didn’t have enough time to get the final version in the game but once we got a set of test frames into the game itself, we knew he was where we wanted him to be.

DHGF: So far, the title seems like a pretty big victory for The Odd Gentlemen. What was your initial reaction to a publisher such as 2K Play being interested in your title? What kind of a process was involved in going from an independent effort to a spotlighted retail release?

P.B.: The whole journey has been an amazing but surreal journey for us. We never had any inclination that this would turn into a full-fledged downloadable console title. As students, we were only interested in making the best game that we could make. The real turning point for us was when the game earned entrance into the Independent Games Festival at GDC 2008. Demoing the game on the show floor at GDC opened up a ton of doors for us. We met every major publisher in the industry and garnered attention from the gaming press. 2K Play was one of the first publishers we spoke with and from the get-go they made it clear that they would support our creative vision for the game. After signing with 2K, they provided us with tools and resources to get our studio up and running. It has been very collaborative, as they’ve worked with us to develop a schedule that would best suit the development of the project. All in all, it’s been a smooth working relationship.

DHGF: Do you think P.B. Winterbottom would have had the same appeal if it would have been built in the suggested Ogre 3D, as a postmortem for the USC thesis build indicated? What is it about the differences between 2-D and 3-D that you feel defines a game and how it is approached and developed?

P.B.:To be frank, we couldn’t have pulled off the look we have achieved with The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom for XBLA if we used Ogre 3D. The type of shading and lighting used to make our models just wouldn’t have been possible to do “live.” Furthermore, we were interested in making a puzzle platformer and a 2-D plane was the way we envisioned the game happening. As a puzzle game, we wanted the player to be able to see the problem they were facing in one shot. Were it in 3-D, the puzzles would have required a different type of design that wouldn’t necessarily work the same way. So the decision to design the game for a 2-D perspective was a deliberate design choice.

DHGF: What aspects of the game were made possible through Xbox development as opposed to the Adobe Flash format utilized originally?

P.B.: Developing the game on the Xbox gave us more raw power than what was available to us in Flash. Therefore, we got more clones on the screen, higher-resolution assets and less slowdown.

DHGF: With the original product, were there any instances or comments that still stick out in your mind when the game was showcased at the Independent Games Festival 2008?

P.B.: The critical response was overwhelming. I don’t think anything else will compare … well, maybe upgrading my 1999 Chevy Prism to a non-broken, smelly car will … but nothing else.

DHGF: What does it mean to you as an independent developer to have the awards and press you’ve been receiving thus far?

Paul: I felt honored by the warm reception we received from the gaming press and industry. When we were at E3 2008 with Indiecade, we received several E3 award nominations. We were flabbergasted that our little student Flash game were uttered in the same sentence as titles such as Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, and Spore. The awards and press help with morale, but we never lose sight of the fact that attention is only as good as the game you are making. We pour our energy into making the best games we can and everything else is just gravy.

DHGF: What is next for The Odd Gentlemen? Would the team rather move on to bigger, disc-based games? What is the ideal genre the team would like to work on and why? How is the company mission statement of being the buffest development team in the world working for you?

P.B.: We have another game baking in the oven right now and it’s just as crazy as Winterbottom is … and it’s in COLOR. As for disc-based games, it’s not out of the question for us in the future but we’re not in a rush to go big. The size of the game we make will be determined by the game design and direction we’re chasing, so if an idea warrants a large scope, then perhaps we’ll end up making a disc-title.

It’s no fun working in genres… we want to shatter them.

Well, we definitely have a lot of muscle under our post-crunch love handles. So in that regard, I’d say it’s going quite well. Making a game about delicious pie was not good for our goal.

DHGF: What are your thoughts on the overall landscape of the independent video game development scene? Is there any advice you would give to someone with aspirations for getting into independent video game development?

P.B.: The indie game scene has a lot of interesting games. Developers take big and very exciting risks. As long as people are passionate about making games their way, then the indie scene will continue to yield more great games. Every year the number of submissions to the IGF and Indiecade increases and this is testament to a new generation of self-guided game developers rising up. It’s awesome!

Advice for anyone passionate enough to going into independent game development, the best tenet we recommend is to make sure the game you’re making is personal to you. When a game is personal to the creator, it shows in the design and is more effective.