N-Philes

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Although the match itself was the more daring event of the evening, it was the interview itself that will likely have the most lasting repercussions. The idea of interviewing a developer in the gaming industry live in our very own chat room, rather than privately over the phone or IM client and then transcribed months later, was instantly appealing. Not only did we get to find out a bit about what makes Ian tick and what makes Konductra what it is, but we began the latest ambitious feature for N-Philes. What follows is the first installment of our brand new series of features focused on what makes the cogs of the industry turn, entitled...

 

Live in the N-Philes Chat, Ian greeted hordes of (thankfully silenced) N-Philes readers and Konductra fans. Soon would come the showdown that would mitigate, one way or another, N-Philes' brutal maligning of Ian's ambitious puzzle game. For now, it was just a time for Ian to answer some questions from the N-Philes staff and fanbase about his latest title's success, his future plans for oeFun, and his overall outlook on the gaming industry. Steven emceed the interview, beginning with several of his own questions.

With several months having passed since the game's launch, our first question gauged Ian's feelings regarding its reception.

"Yes, the game lived up to my expectations in terms of quality," Ian began. "It was developed on a tight budget, that's for sure. In terms of how the game was received, unfortunately it seems to have been a mixed bag. Thankfully there have been several positive reviews which highlight the game's strengths."

Certainly, Ian doesn't have anything to fret about. For a premiere venture, and one on a small studio budget, Konductra is certainly nothing to snuff at. We described it as too niche to be recommended widely, and too slow for the average puzzle gamer to appreciate what it was trying to do. Critically speaking, it's hard to tell if N-Philes were in the minority with our fairly harsh description. Maybe we were and maybe we weren't.

As Ben had pointed out in a previous interview, there is a conspicuous absence of single card play, the implementation of which basically boiled down to the lack of time and money. Said Ian on possible improvements he could have made, "It's close to the direction I chose to go with. I can't complain. But you can always do more with a bigger budget. I'd just add different modes and for sure; I'd have implemented the single cart multi-play."

With moderate success on Konductra behind them, Ian's studio is looking forward. OeFun has been known to be working on a few Wii concepts, though Ian was tight-lipped about exactly what those plans might be. "Right now, we're generating docs and shopping those ideas around. We've also spent some time working with the tech/dev kits."

A jump from handhelds to the "new generation" might suggest that oeFun is already planning on expanding in correlation with their rising ambitions, but Ian downplayed the idea. "Right now there has been no expansion as it's not needed. The plan is to expand as needed once we have a solid concept and a publisher on board."

So early in production, Ian couldn't tell us how the game will be distributed. His approach is rudimentary; at the core of an indie dev like oeFun, the most important step is figuring out what game they're going to make. "This new title is going to be a lot more ambitious, so consequently it's going to cost a lot more to develop."

And now for the real nitty-gritty, when Steven began lobbing questions at Ian that the N-Philes' readership came up with all on their own. At this later stage of the interview, Ian fielded questions that ran the full gamut of Internet exuberance from "What's your favorite video game?" to "What is your favorite Konami video game?" Really.

Steve "NightsB": Okay, now time for personal questions. Yay.

Jared "Triple Deac": #1 is N-Philes your favorite website ever?

Steve: SHUT UP.

Dunlop: (canned laugher)

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