That’s why I sat down with Martino Wullems, the lead developer at EendHoorn Games, to talk about indie development, the upcoming Steam release of his fabulous competitive game SpiritSphere, and the death of couch competitive gaming.
GameSkinny: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, and the start of your career as an indie developer?
GS: Are you part of a team, or is it just you making games?
GS: Can you tell me a bit about some of the other games you’ve developed?
GS: Can you tell me a little about what inspired SpiritSphere?
After that, I got some problems with my health. I couldn’t use a computer anymore, so the company had to let me go… I joined a friend’s indie company, cause they worked form home, so the times were a lot more flexible. Whenever my arm hurt to much, I could stop, take, a rest, and finish the next day. Last year, I decided I would prefer to just make my own games, since, you know, you only live once.
So, I made that, and when the game jam was finished, I went to an arcade with some friends, and they had air hockey. And I was like “whoa, this is the perfect little game to play in a short session”. And then the two things – the Game Boy Jam and the air hockey – just came together, and that’s when I decided I’ll make an air hockey game based in and RPG world.
GS: Can you tell us a little about how the game evolved over the course of development?
GS: So, you could say a lot of the ideas that came up in the later phases of the game were from working with the limitations of the Game Boy?
[When I] added the audience, I started thinking about the setting of the game, thinking “there should be a setting, why are these two characters playing air hockey?” So there’s a story to it, that these characters are fighting over the SpiritSphere, and there’s actually a spirit inside the sphere, and whenever they strike the sphere, they’re showing the spirit their power, and will recognize their power and grant them a wish.
GS: One last question: what do you think about competitive gaming, and the way triple A publishers have neglected that section of gaming?
I’d like to thank Martino Wullems for taking the time to chat with me. If you want to play a really fun game with some friends, be sure to check out SpiritSphere, which comes out on Steam on July 27th.
