Joe: Since no one asked us to do an interview about our Ludum Dare submission Tiny Thor I thought I will interview you, Emme. Just to get used to that feeling what it’s like to be a celebrity. Because that is the reason we’re developing games in the first place, right?
Emme: Well, Joe, actually I am in this business for the pretty booze and the cheap women. Or was it the other way ’round? Anyway, yeah, being famous (or rather infamous?) is pretty fun! I get loads of nice emails from people who wanna help me managing my money and stuff, and I am instantly surrounded by a crowd of people wherever I go.
Joe: So, tell me: Was this your first Ludum Dare? Will you join for another one in the future?
Emme: It was my first, and it was cool, and I was rather surprised that we got into production mode so quickly. I definitely will contribute to the next LD!
Joe: Which tools did you use to do the art and animation?
Emme: I started with Graphics Gale, then shoved everything into Photoshop. Once you have a basic palette, it makes sense to work in PS, because its just very comfortable for me.
Joe: Your sprite of Thor is only 32 pixels in height. Aren’t you afraid the mighty Thor himself will punish you for your blasphemy?
Emme: Ha! The larger they come, the harder they fall, so I am prepared for golden boy and his hammer. Bring him on!
Joe: What’s your favourite game of Ludum Dare you’ve played so far?
Emme: I like those with the simple ideas and polish, cause thats hard to get done in such a short timeframe. The effort from George Broussard was very cool, but I am a sucker for dungeon games 😀
Joe: Who is the best coder and sexiest man alive?
Emme: Well, fishing for compliments, are we? Of course you are the best coder, and I am the sexiest man alive. So we both do what we do best! But what about you? How did you get into coding?
Joe: I started to code as child on the Amstrad CPC of a friend and the PC of my father and later on my beloved Amiga 500.
Emme: How quickly did you get an idea of what to do for the Ludum Dare?
Joe: I had this idea of a platformer where your only weapon is a stone you can throw away right from the start. But didn’t liked it. Since no better idea popped up after two or three hours I decided to give my first idea a try. Later on when playing around with the prototype the idea popped up to go with the Thor-theme and a hammer.
Emme: If you could turn back time on the LD jam, would you do something differently?
Joe: The source code has some ugly copy/paste code in the collision system which did cost me quite some time in the end and I wished I had chosen a more general approach than copy the same code in each class over and over again. The physics are also quite ugly and very simple implemented and a physics engine like Box2D oder Chipmunk would have helped to get more realistic physics I guess.
Emme: You have been a megastar on the app store for quite some while now, is there any challenge left in the world of games for you?
Joe: Yes. Can’t talk about it right now, but in 2014 something BIG will happen.
Emme: Blue pill or red pill?
Joe: As I’m not the chosen one I’ll go with the blue one and have plenty of fun.
