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FAVORITE GAME:
Ian: It would have to be Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo.
Why?
Ian: It's fun.
Oh.
There are so many directions we could take this. Press harder for Ian to justify his tastes? Ask about what inspiration Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo might have been on Konductra? Relay the awkward story of how we found a copy of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo on the ground at E3 '05, promised it to the winner of that week's Keopardy match, and then lost the game in a cab? Ultimately the stress of such a decision outweighed our urgency of actually making one, and we just moved on.
FAVORITE DEVELOPER,
UNLESS IT'S MIYAMOTO (token answer) OR KOJIMA (esoteric answer):
UNLESS IT'S MIYAMOTO (token answer) OR KOJIMA (esoteric answer):
Ian: I've never been asked my second favorite. Probably Will Wright, because of his body of work. It's simulation-based, which I can identify with because of my own design/programming background.
His first favorite was Miyamoto, for anyone keeping score.
HOW HE GOT HIS START:
Ian: I come from the UK originally, and we had a large home computer industry (back in the early '80s) where a lot of us learned our stuff before leaving school. By the time I was 18 (in '87), the computer games industry was growing and there was plenty of room for new games programmers. So it was really just luck.
This segues appropriately into the next bit:
ADVICE FOR YOUNGSTERS INTERESTED IN GAME DESIGN:
Ian: These days, taking courses in the various disciplines is a good thing to do. But I think if you're really interested, grab a few books and make a game in your own time. It's fun and adds to your experience. There are also schools which do game courses, but I can't vouch for any of them.
Steve: *Full Sail stab goes here* (more like Full Fail).
CONCERNING WHETHER PLAYING GAMES HE'S DESIGNED IS STILL FUN:
Ian: Yeah, it is, actually. For me, I can often play games that I had fun developing. It's the games where the development process was difficult - those are the ones that I can't even look at.
Ian declined to comment on which despised games he's referring to there. But at the very least, Konductra is not one of them. Dude is gonzo for Konductra. You can probably find him on WFC right now.
WHY THE HELL NOT, FAVORITE KONAMI GAME:
Ian: It would have to be the Parodius series. I love that series of shooters.
For some reason, people think it's a better answer to respond with a series than with a singular entity to these kind of questions. The entire original Star Wars trilogy cannot be your favorite movie; it is three movies. Nevertheless, this answer inspired its fair share of admiration when the chat's Segaphiles learned that Ian owns Sexy Parodius on the Saturn. What happened next was, perhaps, inevitable.
FAVORITE VERSION OF "MAGICAL SOUND SHOWER":
Yes, we posed this question. No, Ian didn't answer it.
The interview broke down surprisingly quickly after we crossed the line from "charmingly droll" to "hipster douchebags", which is an ever-present danger when you run a small, quirky site like N-Philes. You have to admit, we typically tread that line pretty well. Regardless, the awkward silence at this point signaled the end of the interview, so we proceeded to the Konductra match, and the rest is another golden nugget of N-Philes history.
After a few rounds of puzzle battle, we thanked Ian for coming and giving a live interview for the fans, and for the friendly match. He appeared to have enjoyed his time with us, as evidenced in the use of sincere emoticons like ":)" rather than the shallower and duplicitous "=]".
As we began arguing about the best way to transcribe the interview, Ian slipped out of the chat and back into reality. For him, a return to the slow, methodical labor of what will be oeFun's next -- possibly Wii-bound -- project. For us, a return to the familiar bleating of the N-Philes Chat, where some day we will hopefully once again challenge, interview, and ultimately alienate other indie developers in future installments of the Developer's Series. Until then, try to catch Ian for some online Konductra yourself, and learn a new meaning of pain (in the context of puzzle multiplayer).
Oh, just for the record: "Magical Sound Shower" is a song from Sega's Outrun that is popular with video game remixing. Don't feel bad, I don't think Ian knew what it was, either. I had to look it up on the Internet myself.
Special thanks to: Ben Wood, Desiré Garcia and Oliver Chen, as well as duomo, MH, Kyouji, and Koji.
