Q. You said Super Mario Bros 2 was your first game. What are your top three favorite games from any era?
Any Era? In that case, I’d have to pick Half-Life 2, Portal 2, and for its time, Mario 64. In the case of the first two, I think Valve has an incredible ability to polish their experiences that I very much respect. For Mario 64, that probably has more to do with the age I was when it came out. That marked one of the first jumps to 3D games, and I was around 13 at the time, so it completely blew my mind.
Q. Is there a genre that you miss? For me it’s old school 3D platformers.
Funny that I just mentioned an old school 3d platformer. I wouldn’t say I miss any genres in particular. Nostalgia aside, I think that our industry is constantly improving, and I’m finding that I’ve had more great and varied experiences in recent times.
Q. You told us your game inspirations. What were your scifi inspirations while creating the fall?
Alien was probably the first and most obvious inspiration, but I suppose just about everyone can make that claim. Every time I watch those movies, I notice more and more about them that was done so well. They really did influence most of Science Fiction… at least most that I’ve seen, anyway.
Q. The voice acting is fantastic. Were there a lot of auditions to comb through?
Thanks! We did get a few auditions, yes, but managed to process it all in two days, thanks in large part to my fantastic writer/voice director, Caleb. We had a few candidates that were very compelling, and the final decision was very difficult. We’re very lucky to have found the people that we found.
Q. How long was the narrative for The Fall in your head?
No time at all, actually. In fact, negative time–I started work on The Fall without any idea of what it was that I was making. It was a very organic self expressive process in that sense, and quite an unusual experience. I believe that will inform my future work, actually…. Think less! Make more! Think about it after there’s something there to think about!
Q. Did you always envision it as a three part game?
Yes, and that was mostly a financial decision. The goal was to raise enough money to fund a small part of it (because that was likely all we could get) and let the sales fund the rest of production. So far, so good! That method also gives us a good opportunity to respond to player feedback and process our own experience of the game as well. Hopefully part 2 will be much better than part 1!
Q. Will players have to pay for parts one and two, or will there be a season pass of sorts?
We will be selling both parts separately, but our goal is to also keep each installment at a reasonable price.
Q. Are you going to use Kickstarter to help fund the other two parts of the game?
No. The idea has been suggested to us, but running a Kickstarter Campaign is a huge pain in the ass. It takes several months of planning, and the execution month is incredibly busy. We’d basically be looking at three solid months of development time that would be lost. If we needed to, then sure, I’d be happy to do another one, but since we don’t…. We won’t.
Q. I enjoyed the game a lot, as did most reviews. However, a common nitpick people had was the difficulty of some of the puzzles. Are you planning on making future ones a little easier or will you keep the difficulty about the same since we all beat them anyway?
Thanks! Yes and no. It’s hard to say. I like a challenge, but there are one or two in there that are a little too obscure. Without getting into too much detail, we’re experimenting with ways to structure the gameplay a little better in part 2, so that it should be easier to get hints, at least. I think as we get better at leading players through the game, we can still have challenging puzzles without creating the “How on earth was I supposed to know how to do that” experience.
Q. Speaking of puzzles, which one is your favorite?
My favorite one is currently the most difficult one–the baby puzzle. I like that it requires a few mechanisms working together and ideally for players to explore and read in order to understand perhaps what to do. I also enjoy that you have to fail a previous test to pass it, which is thematically relevant for me. Again, I think that one is probably too hard, but I had fun making it, at least. Also the end is a fun pay-off.
Q. How does it feel to receive positive reception from the community?
Fantastic! But also not. It’s funny – The Fall was made by a small team so it very much feels like a form of self expression. When you put something out that’s so intimately tied to your sense of self like that, it’s rewarding when people like it, but also really painful when people don’t. The internet is a crazy, unpredictable place, and after a while, I tend to sort of emotionally distance myself from it to a large degree — I get most of my feedback from friends who are supportive of me, but also honest. The internet can, of course, be a great place for feedback, but wanting to get something from it in an emotional sense is unpredictable, to say the least. The internet is like an abusive boyfriend; you’re not sure if he’s going to love you or hit you. Best to just leave that relationship.
Q. Are there plans to bring The Fall to handhelds like PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS? If so do you think it will support cross-buy and cross-save?
We had some early experimentation but it quickly became apparent that it wasn’t a good idea. I didn’t exactly build The Fall with optimization in mind, and porting it to hand-helds would probably be more of a chore than it’s worth.
Q. After the team at Over The Moon Games releases the other two parts for The Fall are there any other projects in the pipeline?
Not that I can say publicly! I’ll go with the can’t-confirm-or-deny response on that 🙂
Q. What was the meaning of the studio name “Over The Moon”?
Haha no meaning there. I was in the car with my fiancée and my mother at the time, and asked them for name ideas. Over The Moon was my mom’s idea, actually, and I really liked it. I think that it really wouldn’t have worked if I picked the wrong visual branding, but with a simple dark treatment, I find it to be compelling and vaguely science-fiction-y without tying our hands to much. Anyway, there you have it. No grand meaning, just some simple family connection… Which is probably a better thing to build a company on anyway.
Q. Thank you for your time! 😀
Thank you for doing this! Always a pleasure 🙂
I thought there were some interesting reveals in there. I especially found it interesting that The Fall was created without any prior planning. You can read our review of part one of The Fall here. You can pick it up for Wii U, PS4, Xbox One, and Steam.
