Q-Games’ president Dylan Cuthbert hopes that the PS4 and next Xbox will focus more on core games. He also thinks that the “innovation” for next-gen consoles is the graphics technology as “you’ll see things you never seen before.”

Having followed development of ‘PixelJunk 1-6′ (the sixth game of the first series of PixelJunk games) for some time via the development blog, it seems that developer Q-Games have finally totally lifted the lid, giving us a kick-ass gameplay teaser and titling the game ‘PixelJunk Inc.‘

Usually released exclusively to Sony platforms, PixelJunk Inc. will be coming to Steam later on in the year and more teaser trailer may be lined up as the year goes on. This first teaser shows off the co-op ‘base building and soup pipeline management’ of this 2D game where your main goal is to deconstruct materials with a laser, then use those materials to help build your soup-making business. It sounds odd because it is odd folks, but it’s also going to kick major ass so be sure to keep tabs on this one.

Check out the gameplay teaser below and if you haven’t already, make sure to pick up their other titles on the PlayStation Network.

The makers of the popular PixelJunk games series aren’t your normal bunch of developers.

A typical day at their office in downtown Kyoto includes impromptu audio jams at lunchtime, in between making games like PixelJunk 4 am and PixelJunk SideScroller. They don’t see themselves just as developers — now they’re experimenters and space rockers in a band called The Electric Bends.

This can’t entirely be a surprise to lovers of the PixelJunk games, which have included music titles that have awesome use of sound.

Their first two music albums are available digitally on Bandcamp, iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play, Spotify, and Amazon. The first, an eight-track LP titled “real.time,” released on June 5 of this year. The latest, the 9-track “.chroma,” came out on July 27.

The name of the company behind PixelJunk is Q-Games. We chatted with James “Milky” Mielke, fresh from Q Entertainment as Q-Games’ new producer on the PixelJunk series, and Dylan Cuthbert, the studio’s founder, about the band and how it’s strengthened the company creatively.

GamesBeat: First, a little background about yourselves!

Dylan Cuthbert: Hi, I’m Dylan Cuthbert, and I’ve been making video games since I was about 10 years old, beginning on a Sinclair ZX 81. From there, I’ve never looked back and was already designing logos and planning to set up a games company by age 14. It took another 15 years, but I got there eventually and founded Q-Games here in Kyoto in 2001.

James Mielke: I’m the guy everyone calls “Milky” because it’s easy, and I am the newly-relocated-to-Kyoto PixelJunk producer. I formerly worked at the similarly named but quite different Q Entertainment on Child of Eden and Lumines Electronic Symphony. Before that, I just talked about games to anyone who would listen.

GamesBeat: Tell us about your band, The Electric Bends. How would you describe it, how did it begin, and what would you like it to evolve into?

Cuthbert: Eddie [Lee] is a rather excellent guitarist, and he brought his gear into the office to play around with during lunchtime. Bit by bit, other budding musicians around the office decided they wanted to have a play-around, too — namely Jaymin [Kessler], who used to play bass and guitar in a band when he was a teenager, and then Kalin, who had never touched an instrument before in his life and decided he wanted to learn the piano. I heard them practicing Beatles tracks in the corner of the office, and around the time they were having their third session, I grabbed my iPhone with a copy of Nanostudio, a synth emulator, on it and dove in.

The quality isn’t very good because back then, all our instruments were plugged into varying cheap amps and speakers and then recorded via a laptop PC mic. However, as you can hear from our very first jam, we had a lot of potential and were having a lot of fun.

GamesBeat: What instruments or software do you use?

Cuthbert: Initially, it was a very bad audio setup, and after a few jams, I looked around and found the excellent Zoom R24 multitrack recorder, which for the price is quite remarkable. It let us record all our input separately and save them as .wav files, which I could then load up into Cubase — later Ableton Live — to balance, master, and perhaps cut out a few bum notes…although we tend to leave those in because they show we are human and still learning our craft.

At the beginning, it was Jaymin on bass, Eddie on electric guitar, and Kalin and I on synth — namely Nanostudio running on iPads. It was my birthday around that time, so I got myself a Korg Electribe SX for laying down the rhythm track. Now, about six months later, we have expanded our instruments and our band members — namely Paul [Leonard] and Milky on synth and rhythm, respectively. Along the way, we got a Novation Ultranova and also the appropriately named Waldorf Q, both of which are analog modeling synths. We are still saving for a proper electronic drum kit so we can record “real” drums rather than the live programmed Electribe stuff by Milky. That is exceptionally good, mind you, but, well…nothing beats whacking things with sticks, eh?

GamesBeat: “.Chroma” is the new follow-up album to your debut, “real.time.” Can you describe both albums and how they’re different from one another?

Cuthbert: “Real.time” is an album about us as a band playing and experimenting with sound itself, using a lot of analog synth and “shoegazing” to create an almost Pink Floyd-style at times. It’s quite ’70s and psychedelic for the most part, and there are a lot of tracks on there that paint an interstellar canvas as you listen to them — “Spacewreck on Saturn” and “Enter the Unknown,” to name just two.

The “.chroma” album’s sound is a little different and more experimental with melody itself, often using two bass guitars to generate interesting harmonics. I think the quality of the music itself is a little higher in the “.chroma” album, but the shoegazing level of “real.time” is difficult to beat, and some people love that stuff!

Going forward, we’ll be combining the two sounds and also adding in a peppering of more contemporary sound now that we have Milky programming the rhythm track dynamically live.

GamesBeat: There are a lot of references to different colors in the song names on “.chroma.” How did that become the album’s theme?

Cuthbert: We found ourselves exploring emotions more on “.chroma” probably because of the extra harmonies and melodies on that album, and I think emotions are represented by colors really well. As a result, we found we were naturally naming the tracks with colors, and then when we looked at the track listing, we realized it was full of color and emotion. From there to the album name was an easy jump.

GamesBeat: The first album, “real.time,” is more space-oriented. Again, what made you choose that theme?

Cuthbert: Because we did so much shoegazing during that period, the “spacey-ness” in the naming came about naturally. Most of the tracks apart from “Woven,” which is a very warm and emotional track, are kind of cold and science fiction-like…reflecting the nature of outer space.

GamesBeat: How have both albums grown and changed from one to the other? Did you get to improve on anything specifically with “.chroma,” and do you have goals for the next album?

Cuthbert: The goals for the next album are to mix the two sounds we created before and at the same time add something a little contemporary. You can hear hints of this in this recent track we uploaded, “Broken God,” which is starkly minimal and a lot of fun to listen to. We obviously don’t want to go “techno” as such because we want to preserve our “live” method of recording, but occasionally using modern beats and rhythms is fun, especially now that we have Milky pushing things from that side. It’s also a lot of fun finding ways to combine traditional instruments — bass, guitar, et cetera — with modern sounds.

GamesBeat: How long did it take to complete each album?

Cuthbert: We jam every single lunchtime, producing a huge amount of tracks to play with. Most of which are uploaded to Soundcloud. Surprisingly to us, we found we produced fairly listenable jams almost every lunchtime — sometimes even two or three, which means it can only take a couple of weeks to prepare an album if everything goes right. However, right now it feels like the average time is about a month per album as we like to make sure the very best tracks are on the album.

GamesBeat: How has the group changed the overall atmosphere at Q-Games? Is it similar or different from the kinds of workplace dynamics you’ve experienced before?

Cuthbert: Very different. I’m not sure how many other companies have a band that jams every lunchtime, but I kind of feel we are unique…especially as the president of the company — me — jams too. We also rope in guests from time to time. For example, Sagar Patel, who is interning with us, has been having fun on Indian tablas drums, which you can hear in “Albatross Aligned.” And another artist here, Andy, sometimes steps up for some acoustic guitar.

Mielke: I can tell you with certainty that I never got to play music with the president of any company I worked at prior to this. Ever. So it’s very awesome to be able to have fun like this.

GamesBeat: What’s it typically like when you meet to practice? You said you normally hold these “PixelJam” sessions at lunchtime, right?

Cuthbert: Yes, at Q we have a system where lunch can be freely taken between 12 and 2, and in order to jam, we take a couple of hours [to] start practicing and setting up at about 12:45, after we’ve grabbed some food. Stragglers come along a little later, giving us about an hour to play about with the full ensemble. Quite often members are indisposed, so we just jam without them. In fact, it is fairly rare for us to jam with the full set of members: Milky, Jaymin, Eddie, Kalin, Paul, and Dylan.

GamesBeat: For you and the others at Q-Games, does creating music for The Electric Bends improve your productivity? Music and games go hand in hand so well, especially with the PixelJunk titles.

Cuthbert: Most definitely. It also teaches us a lot about how audio works, an area none of us were experts in. But now we are beginning to understand how these things work at a professional level. It’s been a great learning experience and a hell of a lot of fun. Maybe we’ll do the soundtrack for a future PixelJunk title.

GamesBeat: What have your inspirations been for the kind of music you’re creating? Your members share a love of prog-rock, synth-pop, and New Wave bands….

Cuthbert: In no particular order, The Beatles — especially their experimental and jammy stuff, such as Tomorrow Never Knows and “Helter Skelter” — Pink Floyd, of course; New Order — “.chroma” is heavily influenced [by them] — Depeche Mode; David Bowie; Coldplay; and Radiohead. There are others, but those are the main ones.

Mielke: Jaymin never stops talking about the Cocteau Twins. It’s like he’s obsessed with them, so I reckon that’s an influence. Eddie shreds on guitar like he’s got something of a blues-metal thing going on, and Paul plays like he wants to open an acid house nightclub in the early ’90s. So there’s that.

GamesBeat: How do you visualize your music in your head — how do you respond to it? What kind of sensations does the music evoke for you?

Cuthbert: We “feel” everything on the fly, and it really depends on the general mood of the band. If our moods are all over the place, we produce bad jams — and I don’t upload those ones! However, if our moods are just in the right place, we all contribute our own peculiar harmonies. And because we are all so different, we find these combine really well — almost spontaneously — to create some beautiful sound. We surprise ourselves all the time. For example, “Enter the Unknown” came out of absolutely nowhere, and it is one of our favorite tracks. It was actually the wind down of the end of a lesser jam.

GamesBeat: Do you listen to your music when playing video games at all, either your own or others?

Cuthbert: I don’t think we’ve tried that, but it would definitely be interesting!

GamesBeat: What video game music has had the biggest impact on you throughout your life?

Cuthbert: Too many to count, I think! Some of the first tracks I remember that impressed me are from 8-bit games, but the first game where I just left it on to listen to the title music loop was Speedball 2 on the Amiga…. Oh, and then there was Hybris with its astounding synth track. You can find YouTube videos of both.

Mielke: I’m a big fan of the Sega Saturn era of game music because the CD format allowed for some beautiful orchestral scores. Panzer Dragoon, Nights into Dreams, and Grandia all have amazing soundtracks, and Saturn Bomberman has some of the most nuanced drum and bass ever. It still sounds contemporary [even] now.

Shigeru Miyamoto is a major force in the gaming industry and has shaped a lot of what we enjoy today. Being the creator of Mario and Zelda he can pretty much write his own paychecks, which I’m sure he does on a regular basis just for the hell of it.

Founder of Q-Games and lead producer of the original Star Fox Dylan Cuthbert had a few nice things to say about Miyamoto, comparing him to Steve Jobs in the process.
“[Miyamoto's] private face is different to his public face, and his style of chasing ideas and cutting through the bullshit is brilliant–internally he’s kind of like a slightly more friendly Steve Jobs but just as cutting,” says Cuthbert in a fan Q&A on GAME’s Facebook page.

Cuthbert went further into how Miyamoto approaches game design by putting gameplay above narrative. Cuthbert spoke about a time when Miyamoto rejected a design concept that was heavy on story by saying “OK, and where’s the game?”

We all knew that Miyamoto was a heavyweight and its safe to say that its expected for him to always say how he feels. that’s what separates the greats from the many, the ability to tell other people their ideas are crap.

3D Space Tank (DSi) – it looks better when moving, honest

We don’t think it’s possible that there could be a more obscure sequel than this released this or and indeed any year. If the outrageously retro name hasn’t already put you off, this is the latest release from Q-Games – makers of the PixelJunk series and other DSiWare games such as the excellent Starship Patrol.It’s called X-Scape in the U.S., a reference to its being a sequel to X on the original black and white Game Boy. X just so happens to be one of the first games worked on by Q-Games founder Dylan Cuthbert (Q-Games are based in Japan but have a very multinational workforce).Cuthbert previously worked on Starglider 1 and 2 at Argonaut Software and X was the first game to gain the company the attention of Nintendo, who at the time were convinced that the Game Boy couldn’t do 3D graphics. Argonaut proved otherwise and although X was never released outside of Japan it did lead to the eventual release of Star Fox and the Super FX chip.That little history lesson is not important so much in terms of the details but in providing the shopping list of influences that are so obvious in actually playing 3D Space Tank.Whether you grew up playing an Amiga or SNES this will seem like the secret lovechild of Star Fox and Starglider. 3D Space Tank doesn’t make any attempt to push the graphical abilities of the DS, but instead uses a purposefully limited colour palette to create a strangely familiar retro future – one familiar from not only early ’90s video games but also movies such as Tron.The story (presented via a Blade Runner style red on black text intro) is entirely irrelevant, especially because it ties in very closely to the original game.Instead the ultra literal name tells you all you really need to know, as you explore a long series of planets in your space tank. Fighting on the ground looks and plays like ancient coin-op Battle Zone, except with more modern mission objectives and opponents.Control is almost solely by the touchscreen and allows you to quickly and accurately speed and strafe around the map, much like a first person shooter. Running into special pyramids lets you to take to take to the air, at which point you can dogfight in full 3D (this is even called all-range mode).There are a few minor complications in terms of collecting and using missiles, while progression almost always boils down to collecting power crystals and activating a warp to the next planet.The journey between worlds is achieved by a timed race through an even more retro looking tunnel, where every bump or hit sees your tank knocked back a few frustrating feet. No matter how basic it looks though the silky smooth movement and controls means these sections, and indeed the rest of the game, retain a timeless sense of instinctive and addictive action.Having to backtrack to earlier planets isn’t entirely welcome though, especially as the two tone colour scheme occasionally becomes a bit of an eyesore in some combinations. The high price Nintendo charges for these DSiWare downloads also means the game isn’t quite as cheap as it probably should be.The superb soundtrack is almost worth the asking price alone though and like the rest of the game can be appreciated not only be the nostalgic but by anyone that appreciates a video game whose sense of immersion is not based on realism.In Short:Whether you mourn the absence of Star Fox and Starglider or you just like a good 3D actioner this is one of the DS’s best first person shooters.Pros:Superb minimalist style graphics and music, with similarly simple but engrossing gameplay. Excellent controls and a surprisingly long challenge.Cons:The gameplay eventually gets repetitive and some of the colour schemes a little too garish. Quite expensive and the story does go on a bit.Score: 7/10DSiWare, 800 Points/£7.20 (cert 7)Publisher: NintendoDeveloper: Q-GamesRelease Date: 16th July 2010

Thoughts? Email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

Those of you hoping for another perilous adventure involving Fox McCloud may have a lengthy wait ahead of you.

Starfox creator, Dylan Cuthbert, recently sat down with gaming publication G4 to discuss the possibility of another Starfox related adventure for the Nintendo Wii. What become quite apparent during the interview was Cuthberts reluctance to work on a future iteration of the series for the Nintendo Wii, as he primarily citied the Wii controller and staffing issues as the major factor behind the disappointing decision.

Source

Parallaxed Game: In an interview with PS3 Fanboy from GDC 08, you mentioned that when pitching the PixelJunk series to Sony at GDC 07 you had 10 or 20 cards with your prototypes. You said that you weren’t going to make them all, but that you wanted to make as many as you could. Could you maybe tell us one of the ideas from the cards that you axed, and why you axed it?

Dylan Cuthbert: Even our old ideas might make a re-appearance at some point so unfortunately I can’t really go into detail about past axed ideas. Some of them were taken to full prototype though, and then we assessed the prototype to not have enough “oomph” or depth to take it to a full product.

PG: Was there ever a moment in your career where you thought to your self, “well, I guess I got to get a ‘real’ job if this doesn’t pan out soon”?

DC: Actually, never. Sometimes there’s some political nonsense that makes me want to just walk away from the games industry entirely, but then the games themselves, the creativity and ideas always bring me back. Games are such a blank canvas when used right, they are the most powerful form of expression that exists I think.

PG: Now that time has passed since Racers, Monsters, & Eden have come out; do you have any regrets that you would fix if you would have noticed it from the beginning?

DC: Well, the cool thing about PSN is that we can not only look at things in retrospect but we can also fix them if we want to. The recent Monsters patch is an example of this. For Racers I wish we had encouraged people to play the Random Mode/Random Track single race mode more, as in that mode you can play the game all night when you have a few friends around, it’s so addicting.

PG: Was there something in the original Monsters and Eden design documents that was cut from the final product because it would have made the game easier or too complicated to control?

DC: For Monsters we had originally had far more instantly usable weapons than the mines that eventually in, but we cut down the special items to Dash (player related upgrade), the Mines (attack related upgraded), and the special tower (tower related upgrade). At one point we had a little R2D2 like droid thing running around after you that would jump up and take out the enemies. It made the game a little too action oriented.

PG: Monsters had special levels to unlock items that added another layer to the gameplay. Did you ever think about doing the same with Eden? (maybe a longer thread, ability to swing off rocks, stronger thread, etc)

DC: With Eden the game is all about the unique controls, so we didn’t want to unlock new abilities as it would change the game irreversibly (either that or we would have had to have added menu options to let you disable them to revert back to the original play style). We obviously considered it though.

PG: From the previous 3 titles in the PixelJunk series, what level from each stood out as you favorites level & what about that level made it your favorite?

DC: Garden 7 in Eden, and Racer Gardens in Monsters, which is based on the PixelJunk Racer track “Redwood Lakes” (which is based loosely on the Redwood Shores Oracle buildings area in Silicon Valley).

Questions for today:

PG: How many trophies do you currently have in Eden?

DC: At some point I’ve had them all, but across a few different accounts while testing the game. Right now I have a fair amount on my home account, but LBP is taking up my home game playing time recently. ?

PG: Do you have any favorite indie/web game that you play when you find yourself in a rut?

DC: No, not really. I don’t really like web games that much, they don’t have enough depth with their controls (probably because they are played on the PC with variable frame rates). I tend to enjoy RTS games, so I play Command&Conquer Generals: Zero Hour a lot here at work with people, because we modded it to remove the stupendous inflation problem it had. Since we did that we have been playing it every lunchtime for about five years.

PG: What is the best and the worst thing about being the boss of a game company?

DC: The best thing is that anything you say HAS to go. The worst thing is everyone coming to you for all the answers to everything. ?

PG: What kind of feedback do you get from your fans and what are some of the most unexpected things that you’ve read or seen?

DC: One fan not being able to clear Easy 1 on Monsters was very surprising to me. We get lots of feedback, mails daily from users, 99.9% positive too! I do attempt to reply to most of them personally too. I suppose if we ever make a million seller that’ll be difficult to fulfill though.

PG: How do you select the music for PixelJunk games? Do you already listen to music from that artist, or do you go out looking for something? Also, once the music is selected, does this ever effect the art style or gameplay so that they fit together better?

DC: It’s a combination of events – some people in the office might already know the artist, or if they don’t they know someone who does. We then listen to prior work they have done and play it alongside the images or prototypes of the games we are making to see if it fits. In the case of Eden however, we brought in Baiyon early on and worked with him on the full visual audio package. For Monsters, Otograph adapted their style to fit the lighter melodic nature of the game.

Questions for tomorrow:

PG: You have mentioned that there are 6 games in the first series of PixelJunk, and that 1-4 is called Dungeons. How far along is Dungeons and when can we expect to see it revealed? Are you waiting for GDC 09?

DC: We can’t talk about any of the future titles yet, we might not even show anything at GDC09, who knows! The next title isn’t necessary based on the Dungeons prototype work as we develop several ideas simultaneously, finally going with the idea that has the most momentum.

PG: You have mentioned before that for PixelJunk series 2, you would begin to use 3d graphics, you also mentioned that you want to start it as soon as you can. Why are you so egger to move on past series 1 before the first 6 games come out?

DC: Why not? Basically I’d like to make any game that I can think up, PixelJunk series 1 is primarily 2d so if I wake up with an idea for a 3d game I’d like to have series 2 set up and running so we can try out ideas with that. Maybe series 3 will be 4D? ? Our schedules are very flexible so there is no confirmed order to the releases yet.

PG: Eden’s ability to use custom soundtracks was locked out to those who have finished the game. This was because the music was so important to the creation and the playing of the game. So I was wondering, what are your thoughts on making a PixelJunk game where the gameplay and music were in sync, like with Vib Ribbon, Rez, and Everyday Shooter?

DC: I’m a bit wary of music games. I don’t mind a little bit of interaction but to have the game driven by the music makes the game a lot harder to design in a precise way.

PG: When the PS3 EyeToy came out there were a couple of PSN titles and a few retail titles announced, yet most future development appears to be only EyePet. Do you see the EyeToy as something that you would like to include in a future title, or is it not something you see as useful to enhancing your games?

DC: Not right now, no. Little Big Planet has shown what kind of potential the eyetoy has though.

PG: Misconceptions often effect most games, movies, and albums, because someone sees or hears about the product and forms an idea about it. If the idea isn’t modified to what the product truly is then that person tends to have an “ohhhh” effect. This more often than not is a negative effect on their feelings towards the final product. If you could make a statement to prevent this from happening about PixelJunk Dungeons, what would it be? (e.g.: Racers isn’t a racing game as much as it is a puzzle game, Monsters requires more thinking than building, and Eden is much more difficult than an “organic Mario”)

DC: Heheh, no comment on Dungeons or future PixelJunk titles yet. Btw, I disagree that Eden is more difficult than Mario – it all depends which Mario you are talking about, and I am talking about SMB3.

PG: There are two images I found on the web that are taken from a Japanese magazine that are labeled 1-4. One of them looks like a snow covered mountain with specks in a few different rows. (http://www.vertigogaming.net/pixeljunk_2a.jpg) The second looks to be a side view of an underground tunnel with bodies of “water” that look like you would move the water to progress through the level. (http://www.vertigogaming.net/pixeljunk_3a.jpg) can you comment on these “screens” or “concepts”?

DC: Those are simply pictures from the initial prototype “cards” we knocked up. On the reverse side is written the game design spec for each game. Some of those games will make it, some won’t. The numbering is fairly irrelevant at the moment though.

PG: You created a music visualizer of the world for the PS3 based on your pitch for the opening on the PS3 which is the one I use when playing music. My question is, can we ever expect to see a PixelJunk visualizer theme for the PS3?

DC: Right now there are no plans for a PixelJunk visualizer, it takes a lot to persuade Sony to put stuff in their ROM.

PG: Have you thought of making a PixelJunk title for WiiWare since you can have controls that are currently different from anything that the PS3 or 360 can give you from a design perspective, or is PixelJunk an exclusive title to Sony?

DC: In the future there is always the possibility but right now there are no plans to take PixelJunk to another platform. I am interested to see if WiiWare takes off but right now I’m not sure the types of users buying Wiis are also the types to buy experimental independent games.

PG: Is your next Nintendo project going to be for the handhelds, the console, or WiiWare and how far are you in development?

DC: I can’t comment on our Nintendo-related projects, they are all top secret.

Other questions:

PG: Screw, Marry, Kill: Racers, Monsters, & Eden?

DC: I’d have to become a mormon to fulfill this answer.

PG: If a fan of yours ever happens to run in to you at an event with a bar, and wants to send you a drink, what kind of drink should they send?

DC: Japanese beer, preferably draft, or a good red.

PG: If Sony and Media Molecule approached you to make a level for LittleBigPlanet, would you make a PixelJunk level or would you try something new? (Sackboy would look great with a Monsters mask)

DC: I think making a whole level would consume a little too much time, but you never know, a Monsters mask sackboy might be in the works as it would look pretty nifty.

PG: You have mentioned in an interview with IGN Insider that if not making games or designing desserts, that you would really like to write novels. So will any of the future PixelJunk titles have a focus on a story? Or would you prefer to leave that for a different series?

DC: Hardcore sci-fi. I’ve always been interested in writing sci-fi and wrote short stories before I found I could program.

PG: If you could work on any IP (from games, movies, books, comics, etc), what IP would you want to work on and would it be a download game or a full retail game?

DC: I’d prefer not to work on existing IP. At a stretch if I really had to, I would like to work on something based on the Culture universe created by Iain Banks. It would have to have the scope of a full price packaged game.

PG: From playing all 3 PixelJunk games, I would guess that you really like your games to be hard as balls. What are some of your favorite hard games? (feel free to include games you’ve worked on.)

DC: I like to make games that are a challenge. I’d prefer it if players didn’t simply ace through a game without really lifting a finger or thinking about it. I try to make PixelJunk games give back more than you give in, but you do have to put the effort in at first. If every game feels the same as every other game what’s the point?

PG: What games have you had the chance to play off of PSN, XBLA, & WiiWare, and what did you feel was worth mentioning as a great game or a game that tries something new worth checking out?

DC: Braid had some really good game mechanics although I found the atmosphere of the game a little dry and serious somehow (still an excellent game mind you). I enjoyed Everyday Shooter quite a bit too, but right now I’m not seeing anything on PSN/XBLA that I want to play so I have got stuck into making levels for LBP in my spare time.

PG: Have you had the chance to play either of the previous titles on the PS2 from Vanillaware, Odin Sphere and/or GrimGrimoire?

DC: I have only seen these games and haven’t really had a chance to play them – they don’t strike me as the type of games I like for some reason. I think this is just a personal taste thing.

PG: I’ve searched online to see if there were any PixelJunk related shirts or other merchandise out there and turned up nothing, is that something that you would be interested in doing? If so what would be the first thing you would want to have released? (shirts, messenger bags, hats, toys, etc)

DC: We have T-shirts made up internally but there is no merchandise as of yet. It’s something that we might be interested in doing in the future but not just yet.

Final Questions

PG: What is something you learned along your way that would be helpful to people who look to get in to gaming? (something you can’t learn from school)

DC: Never give up – good games come from lavishing attention to detail on everything. Don’t ever think that something is “good enough”. If it is “good enough” it can be made even better, don’t stop making something better even if you think it is the best it could possible be.

PG: If you were given the opportunity to create a full price retail game with unlimited budget, team, and time; with the goal to reinvent an existing genre or try something completely new to gaming, what genre would you look to freshen up? Or would you try something new, and what would your focus be (control, story, ai, etc)? What about that genre do you feel are the biggest blemishes that need to be cleaned up or forgotten?

DC: I wouldn’t mind taking another look at the Captain Blasto genre (3d platform shooting with a 3rd person camera and surreal graphics). I’m sure a lot more can still be done with the ideas we had for that the game.

PG: What do you feel is the biggest problem right now for the gaming industry?

DC: Gamer complacency. It’s not their fault of course, but there are so many games out there, that it is impossible for them to try them all, so they swarm in droves for the big titles without giving some really good quality smaller titles a second look. PixelJunk is a great collection of games that cost a pittance and we still only sell to a fraction of the PS3 installed user base.

PG: If you had a power what would it be? And what would you use it for?

DC: A super power? Why, the ability to see through women’s clothing, of course! Seriously though, it would be to be able to fly, who doesn’t want to be able to fly, eh?

PG: Is there anything you would like to pimp? (either your own or something you enjoy and think people should check out)

DC: The Eden and Monsters soundtracks on PSN! C’mon people, get in there and buy them, they are only 3 bucks a piece and for the PSN store it is a historic first to have game soundtracks available, we need to encourage the powers-that-be to do more of this.

I would like to thank Dylan for taking the time to complete this interview. And as a big fan of LittleBigPlanet, I would like to see a PixelJunk Monsters Costume… it might look something like this.

PixelJunk Monsters costume for LittleBigPlanet?

- Austin Trees
parallaxed.game@gmail.com