Oozi: Earth Adventure Developer Interview

Oozi may speak English but he was born in Poland.

AwesomeGamesStudio creators of “Oozi: Earth Adventure” debuted on the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace March 23, 2011. The Developer took some time to answer a few questions from Xbox Live Indie.

How many people worked on the game and who are they?

There were three people working on the game: Andrzej Pasiński (designer/artist), Marcin Draszczuk (programmer) and Artur Kończak (programmer).

Tell us a little bit about yourselves: where are you located, how did you get into game development, what were you working on before “Oozi”?

Andrzej and Marcin both live in Cracow, Poland, while Artur lives in London, UK. Andrzej had worked at InImages (known for “Turtix” series), while Marcin had worked at Tate Interactive (known for “Kao the Kangaroo” series). We both got into (the) games industry in a pretty standard way: improving your skill as an artist or as a programmer, building a portfolio and sending them (developers) your resume. Nothing extraordinary.

Tell us something you like to do in your free time, something to get away from development.

Well, the answer is pretty obvious: we play video games. You really need to love games to make a good one.

Do you have a job outside of working on “Oozi” or is development your main focus right now?

At the moment Andrzej and Marcin are working on “Oozi” at full time. Artur was working on “Oozi” after his day job hours before Marcin joined the project four months ago.

What were some of the influences behind “Oozi”?

The most obvious were “Superfrog,” “Super Mario Bros,” “Rayman” and “Earthworm Jim,” but we actually tried to recall general feel of old school platformers.

How long has “Oozi” been in development?

It has been in development for over two years. However, most art and animation was already done. It's programming work that delayed the release.

How are you funding development?

We're living on our savings. Pretty much like most garage developers do.

What kind of challenges did development on this game expose you to?

Getting it done was one great challenge.

“Oozi's Earth Adventure” is reminiscent of Mario and other classic platformers. Do you think gamers will find it too similar or do you think they will have a new experience?

The first episode might be “too classic,” but we hope that features we're going to add in the upcoming episodes are going to satisfy both gamers and critics.

You decided to release the game episodically, what was the design decision behind this?

The game was initially going to be sold in a single package at a $5 price, but there are reasons why we have changed our mind. The first and the most important is that on Xbox Live Indie Games your sales are good as long as you stay on one of the In-Dashboard Lists: Top Downloads, Top Rated or New Releases. We hoped to get a spot on Top Rated list, but there are many other nice games on the service too. For Top Downloads, it only matters how many people have purchased the game on the previous day. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if your game is $1 or $5, so anything above $1 stands no chance to compete for #1 spot on the list - it's painfully obvious that people buy cheap games more.

You have released “Oozi,” but you're not done yet. Is there anything you can tell me about the next episode/s in the series? New experiences, release date?

We're going to release three more episodes, hopefully within a couple months. All we can say is that the next episodes will include some innovative features. Not as innovative as “Braid” or “Limbo,” but still.

Do you have aspirations beyond “Oozi: Earth Adventure”? What can we expect to see from your studio in the future?

We haven't decided what our goals are besides finishing “Oozi.” We will release three more episodes on XBLIG and a PC version of the game. Nothing else is defined yet.

Do you have anything you would like to share with other developers or tips for aspiring developers within the “Indie” space?

The best advice I can give is to get some experience as a professional game developer. Even a half a year in the industry will give you a lot.

Thanks to AwesomeGamesStudio for taking the time to answer our questions.