Empire Eden interview

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Tell us a little about yourself and how did you get into developing games?

My name is Chris Legasse, I began developing games as a hobby when I was in middle school. I started out using Visual Basic, probably wasn’t as user friendly for a child as a starter language could have been. I mostly stuck to making point and click maze games and Myst clones.

What inspires you to make video games and where do you get your ideas from?

I find myself inspired by any, and everything that I come in contact with on a daily basis. Though a large amount of my inspiration comes from finding ways to marry my love of retro console style gaming with next generation effects, gameplay or cinematic wow factor

Which platforms do you mainly develop for (PC, Consoles, Mobile, Web)?

At this moment the majority of my development is done for the PC platform. However with our current project, Empire Eden which you can find on Kickstarter.com, we plan to release on PC, Mac and Linux, and possibly other, even mobile platforms, down the road.

As a game developer how important is sound to you and why?

I believe sound is just as important as graphics, and in some respects, even more important. Just take the first Slender game, the 8 pages. Those graphics were terrible, honestly. But the sound really helped set the atmosphere. In fact, in our game Empire Eden, we put a heavy emphasis on sound design, especially on the sound track. We’ve hired on industry professionals to help craft an amazing atmosphere. Really gives the game that epic factor.

Where and how do you find your audio team (composers, sound designers etc)? Do you go to forums or do you contact them directly via their official websites?

Usually I wait until I’ve programmed enough gameplay to grab someone’s interest. Then I’ll take what I’ve got, and run around a bunch of forums and professional websites and show off what we have to potentially collaborate with. Hopefully we get some bites.

Game audio has been overlooked for years and it’s not considered to be as important as other game development disciplines (art, code, design etc). What are your thoughts about this issue?

Honestly, I think that’s a mainstream issue. Independent developers are the ones who seem to be focusing on experimenting with audio, as well as other parts of the game that get left out by the mainstream developers.

Any specific “lessons learned” on a project that you could share?

Yes, plan everything you do before you do it, and make sure you stay motivated. I can’t tell you how many times a developer will start something, and without the motivation just lose interest and move on.

Any tips, hints or motivational speeches for the readers?

Game development isn’t hard to do. What is hard to do is to create a team that works well enough together to see a project to completion. Make sure you work well with your development team, remember to have a good time. If you don’t get along well, the game will suffer from it.