Interview with Nations of Videogames

We recently had our first interview, with Spanish video game site ‘Nations of Videogames’. Many thanks to Nick for his help in translating our responses, and to Azel for conducting the interview. You can check out the interview in Spanish over at Nations of Videogames, or click below to read the full interview in English.

Click here to read the Interview

Interview:

1. First off, can you introduce yourself and tell us something about your company Rooftop Digital (Team Reflection) for those reading this interview?
   
   My name is Hersh and I am the producer of Reflection DS. Rooftop Digital is actually our team name rather than a company name as we are a group students studying at the University of Southern California. We are hoping that our experience working on Reflection DS and the skills we have acquired will help us attain a job and secure a career in the video game industry.


2. Do you know of the game ‘Chronos Twin’ by Spanish developer Enjoy Up? The concept between the two games is pretty similar. If you do know of the game, was it a source of inspiration for Reflection DS?
   
   Chronos Twins was actually never released here in North America, so nobody on Rooftop Digital (Team Reflection) had heard of it. We first heard of the game well after we submitted the game to the IGF competitions from the video game blog Tiny Cartridge, who pointed out the gameplay similarity between the two games. However, there are some fundamental differences between Reflection DS and Chronos Twin. Whereas Chronos Twin is a run and gun type of platformer game, Reflection DS is much more focused on puzzle solving and the movement of the character. As the highest selling system of this generation, a wide range of gamers play the Nintendo DS; keeping this in mind, Reflection DS is being developed with the intention of being enjoyable to a broader audience compared to Chronos Twin. Due to the simultaneous use of two screens at once, even basic platforming and puzzles can become difficult for more advanced gamers, and so the levels and puzzles are being constantly finetuned.


3. Moving onto the game itself; as it was submitted to IGF, Kagami and Nishith are the primary playable characters, and each of them has their own unique mechanics; can we expect to see any more abilities introduced, or will these be the only ones? And is there any relation between their screens, or are they in two different worlds?
   
   We received a great deal of feedback from our professors, mentors, friends and family on the story and presentation of the game. Taking their suggestions into consideration, we decided to overhaul the story so that it would better integrate with the fundamental concept of a reflection. One of the biggest challenges in a platformer game such as Reflection DS is properly developing the story and characters, as in the platformer genre the focus is not on the dialogue and story but rather the platforming and puzzle elements of the game. Additionally , it was difficult to convey a much more expansive story, such as what we had planned for, with the limited resources that we had. As such, rather than two main characters, we now have one protagonist by the name of Kirra. This has allowed us to focus on the character of Kirra and make her and her story much more enticing. Unfortunately, I cannot reveal more at this time.


4. Will their adventure be a linear or nonlinear experience? And how long will the game take to complete?
   
   Since Reflection DS is narrative driven, the levels are presented in a linear fashion so that we can introduce and develop Kirra and the world she is in. This also allows the designers to properly control and ramp the difficulty of the game. As the project in its current state is a student demo, we are aiming to have a one-hour game; one of our key objectives is to strive for quality rather than quantity, and as such have decided to scope the game so that we may present our best work with the short development time that we have.


5. Does it use any other features of the Nintendo DS, such as the touch screen or microphone?
   
   We are aiming to include a level editor that uses the touch screen with the game so that players can create and play their own levels, and possibly even share levels wirelessly with one another. However, our primary goal is to finish the main game itself and as such we are focused on finishing it and bringing it to a high level of quality. Within the main game there are currently no plans to use the DS’s touch screen or mic functionality, but we are always brainstorming potential uses for these features that will work with our mechanics and gameplay of Reflection DS.


6. I am unsure how Reflection will be released as I see that it has been developed with the PAlib library. Would you say that the project will be released as homebrew project, or do you intend to develop it using the Nintendo SDK and make it playable through normal means?
   
   We would very much like to see Reflection DS developed with an official Nintendo SDK and see it go to retail. It is nearly impossible for students to have access to an official SDK from any company, as they are very expensive and closely monitored, even at the university level. We knew that the project was best suited for the Nintendo DS, and as such, we turned to the passionate homebrew community on the DS and the PAlib library.


7. IGF is undoubtedly the best place for small companies and independent games. Were you excited to know that you were a finalist? Did you know anything from before, or was it all a surprise?
   
   Everyone on the team was overcome with joy and excitement when we found out that Reflection DS had been nominated as one of the ‘Next Great Mobile Games’ in the IGF Mobile competition. As this is one of the most prestigious events in the games industry, and a number of great games are entered, we were definitely surprised with our nomination, and it really reenergized the entire team and everyone’s passion to work on Reflection DS. Our next step is to pitch our concept to the audience at the IGF Mobile Awards Show, and the audience will vote on their favorite nominee; the winner will be alongside all the other finalists from the main IGF Mobile competition.


8. What do you think of the WiiWare service, or downloadable services in general? Do you have any plans to release games for these services in the future?
   
   Downloadable services are an integral part of today’s gaming industry and can be found on a variety of systems, from consoles (WiiWare, XBLA and Community, PSN) to PC (Steam, Impulse), to handheld devices (DSiWare, App Stores for cell phones). There is an ever expanding selection of great, innovative games available on these services—be sure to check out World of Goo and keep an eye out on P.B. Winterbottom, a game from fellow USC alumni. Downloadable services are great for developers to release smaller projects without having to incur the high development costs associated with a retail release. At the moment we are staying focused on Reflection DS, but should the opportunity arise we already have some ideas that can be perfect to release on a downloadable service.


9. And to finish the interview, when can we expect the final version of Reflection?
   
   The current version of Reflection DS will be completed by this May in time for the spring semester GamePipe Demo Day. And perhaps we can spur enough interest to see this turned into a retail title. We encourage everyone to learn more and follow the development of the game at our website http://www.reflectionds.com/. Thank you for your time!