And Don't Look Back was initially just an exercise in a minimalist graphical style before I ended up fusing it with a lot of other loose ideas. Judith, for example, just started from me and Stephen wanting to mess around with some fucked up raycasting renderings. Terry Cavanagh: Pretty much all my games are concept driven I'm inspired by some core idea, so I start working on it and see how it develops. VVVVVV's character leans emotionally joyous and towards pure ludic craft. RPS: Your last two free indie games - Don't Look Back and Judith - have leaned towards the art game side of things, full of negatively charged emotions. Dizzy was a really big influence too - the facial expressions and individually named rooms and single colour sprites in VVVVVV all come right out of that. It's probably just easier to say that I'm influenced by Jet Set Willy, because it's the connection that everybody makes, but I had a C64, not a speccy! It's more accurate to say that I'm influenced by the games that were influenced by Jet Set Willy, like Monty on the Run and Jack the Nipper 2 and Mystery of the Nile and all the weird budget games I had when I was a kid. I wanted to create a game that explored a very simple set of mechanics to its limits. My goal with the game was to explore its level design possibilities as much as I could, without falling back on any elements that I felt would detract from its focus. In VVVVVV you can flip gravity, but you can't jump at all. Terry Cavanagh: VVVVVV is basically an exploration of a single gameplay mechanic. What's the inspirations? What were you trying to do? I never really thought I was going to be able to do this full time - I just assumed that eventually I'd run out of money and that'd be that. Otherwise I was probably just going to find myself working to pay off my debts, saving up and eventually going indie again when I'm 30 or something. I figured I could worry about paying back everything when I got a job, and for the moment I was better off seeing where this game development thing was going to lead me. I try not to think about my debts, mostly - I don't open bank statements or keep track of money going out. If it wasn't for the Don't Look Back sponsorship money from Kongregate, I would have had to quit way back then. I've been doing this full time for over two years now, but I ran out of money nearly a year ago. Terry Cavanagh: Because I found myself months into a big project and it was the only thing that made sense if I had any hope of continuing to make games into the new year. RPS: Hurrah! Why was now the time to make a commercial Indie game? It's a very exciting time to be a game designer! Games have been around all my life, and I've seen them grow and change, and I love that there's so much to explore, still. I'm not sure if I can even explain why, really - I love making games, I love playing games, I love that games can surprise me and reach me in ways that other mediums don't. I've still never made an RPG.Ībsolutely, I'm still fascinated with games. Not long after that I started making proper games of my own - I taught myself QBasic, made a load of silly minigames, but mostly worked on one big failed RPG project after another. I'm not sure if I'd even played an RPG before that it was completely alien to me. On a moment to moment basis I just loved everything that game did, everything about how it was constructed. I think I was maybe 13 or 14 when it came out, and I'd never played anything like it. The game that really made me want to be a game designer, that made me fall in love with games, was Final Fantasy VII. Terry Cavanagh: I started out programming on the C64 when I was a kid, but at that point it was really more of a technical thing - I enjoyed programming, but I didn't really care about making games, exactly. RPS: Okay - how did you fall in love with games? Are you still in love why games? WHY GAMES? Discover below why the Jet Set Willy comparisons aren't quite right, the thinking behind the pricing decision and lots more. After writing a Wot I Think, I decided it was time to talk to Mr Distractionware - Terry Cavanagh - about all things VVVVVV. It's a dream of the past, retro as an idea rather than simple recapitulation. Small, perfectly formed and highly punishing, it reminds me of some of my favourite games - and girlfriends, for that matter - of years gone by. VVVVVV has been my favourite game of the year so far.
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