Join the forum discussion on this post

An unexpected storm has left you shipwrecked on a mysterious and remote private island. Seek & find cleverly hidden objects and solve puzzles to find a way off the island.

Escape Rosecliff Island, by Spin-top games (now owned by Popcap) is a fine addition to the casual gaming library and definitely something to checkout. We had some questions for the team about the title and they were kind enough to answer them for us!

Can you please give us a little back story on the game if you don’t mind?

When we set out to create the first game in our new “Escape” series we wanted the setting to be intriguing and mysterious but not scary so we remained family friendly.  We felt a rugged private island estate created the right environment with the right natural obstacles.  The back story in our games is very important but we like to keep them simple and to the point so our protagonist can unfold the story in their mind.  “An unexpected storm has left you shipwrecked on a mysterious and remote private island.”  From here the adventure immediately begins and you must find your way off the island!

What type of puzzles can we expect to see in the game?  Also how many different variations of puzzles are there?

We included five unique types of mini-games: Match 3, Word Search, Puzzle Rotation, Memory Match, Jigsaw plus a very unique final puzzle game.

Which type of audience are you looking to capture with this type of game?

Our games are targeted towards 35 – 65 year olds, male and females.  In addition to this core market our games are played with parents and children all the time – hidden object games are a great social game.

Every game has music.  What makes your in game music stand out to make the player feel as though they are there?

As you would expect music and sfx are critical to creating an immersive environment.  The music and ambient tracks are filled with supportive sfx that reinforce the scenes and settings you are exploring.

During development, what was one of you’re biggest concerns and was one of the best things that happened?

Our biggest concern during development was creating an environment that was too dark and dreary for our customer.  As always it is a fine line between just right and really wrong…but based on the early reviews and customer feedback, we hit it just right.

We wanted to offer a special thanks to Duncan Magee and Craig Hamilton, co-directors of the SpinTop Games for taking a few moments to answer some of our questions. We also want to thank Toby (ATC 1982) for running the interview for us, you can checkout his site and all his past interviews at Shotgunglass.

How big is your company?

My company, SR Entertainment Inc., consists only of me.  I outsource any work that I cannot handle myself.

The Iphone/iPod touch have become popular gaming devices and the App Store has taken off as well, did that influence your decision to develop for the iPhone/iPod Touch?

Back in 2006, I launched an online interactive murder mystery game titled ‘Mystery At Mansfield Manor’ (www.mysteryatmansfieldmanor.com).  It has been compared to a combination of Clue and a choose your own adventure movie (both of which influenced me during my youth).  As the audience grew through the media reviews, I received a lot of feedback; from both journalists and customers.

When the App store became a very popular gaming device, I decided to continue to offer more interactive mysteries.  However, implementing the feedback, I decided to make several episodes and keep each of them very short so that people can play them while they are commuting to work/school, or are waiting for a friend while inside a Starbucks etc., hence I came up with the idea for 2 Minute Mysteries.

I am sure you have played your fair share of games, which game made you want to become a developer?

I would have to say it is a combo of both a passion for movies and a passion for games.  I enjoy mysteries, and as a kid I enjoyed playing Clue.

Where did the idea for 2 minute mysteries come from?

As mentioned earlier, I adapted 2 Minute Mysteries from my first online game Mystery At Mansfield Manor into shorter games to appeal to people who don’t have time to sit for two to three hours, but instead two to three minutes.

The interactive mysteries are an interesting game concept, why did you go with interactive mysteries over other types of games?

I have always enjoyed mysteries…plus it gives the player a goal to achieve as they watch the videos.  This way, the audience is active rather than passive.

The format for the mysteries is really short, is there a reason you went with a short format over a longer format?

It appeals to those people who are always on the go.  If they find themselves with a few free minutes while waiting for something, 2 Minute Mysteries is perfect as it entertains them…similar to writing short stories rather than novels.

I like the concept of the video. Did you shoot the video yourself?

I did.  I wrote all 10 episodes (with more to come), then placed ads for non-union actors and auditioned them. Each episode has a different location (for example a hotel room, a garage, an office, an alley etc.) so it took 3 days to film all 10 episodes. I am a 1-man crew so I also directed all of them, filmed them with my HD camera, purchased all props & wardrobe etc. I edited all of the videos on my laptop using Adobe Premiere. Then once all of the videos were done, I outsourced to an Apple developer to create the apps. Now I am my own PR rep so I am contacting the media in attempt to get some exposure for 2 Minute Mysteries.

Are the actors hired actors or are they friends?

They were hired…however I gave myself two cameo roles.  One is in the episode called ‘Ransom’ (which is also in the opening credits for each episode) and the other is in the episode ‘Witness or Murderer’.  However, you can’t see my face in either of them.  When you watch those episodes, you can figure out which character I am.

How long does it take to develop one of the interactive mysteries?

The longest part is coming up with the story.  I would write excessively, then have to keep editing the story down so that it would not go beyond the ‘2 Minute’ limit, however ensuring that all relevant clues are revealed plus some false leads to try to throw some people off.  I started writing all ten episodes in the beginning of January.  Once all were ready to be filmed, I scheduled the film shoots in February.  The apps were finally launched in the last week of March.  However, the future episodes will be a much quicker turnaround now that I have created a ‘formula’ for them.  I am definitely influenced by Law & Order as that has been a popular TV show for over 15 years with their own successful formula for their episodes…if only I could replicate a tiny fraction of their success, I would be an extremely happy man.

The mysteries are short and don’t take long to play. Do you have intentions of releasing a compilation of mysteries?

Right now it is a compilation of mysteries.  There are ten episodes with more planned for the future.  The first episode, 2 Minute Mysteries – The Bank Robber, is free and all others cost $0.99. All of the loglines and descriptions for each episode are revealed in their description listed in the App store.  I believe what makes them fun is that it offers both visual and  audio clues so that the player has to watch and listen carefully to the opening video in order to solve them correctly on their first attempt. If solved correctly, the solution video plays.

Are there any plans to adapt 2 Minute Mysteries to other devices?

I am in the process of creating them for Blackberry’s App store (which officially announced last week that they opened an App store to compete with Apple’s App store).  Additionally, I am also in the process of building the website so that anyone, anywhere, at any time can play them online or on their mobile device.

We thank Rory from SR Entertainment Inc. for taking the time to answer our questions.

They construct the wonderful music that sets the stage for many game genres and add dynamics to an otherwise plain world of beeps and bleeps. Kane Minkus had plenty to say about the game industry, casual games and where we’ll see audio going in the future. His answers will make you stop and listen to the music…

Since the invention of the 16-bit console game, we’ve had huge leaps in graphic capabilities. Today, Sony and Microsoft over-hype their graphic intensive systems, how important is the audio component to video games?

Audio is an incredibly important aspect to any multimedia or interactive experience. Let’s take an extreme example – next time you are playing a game, turn the volume off completely and notice the difference of your experience of this game – is it better or worse? Are you more engaged or less?

Now, usually it is not a question really of whether audio should be there or not be there in games, but the real dividing line comes when a judgment call has to be made about whether or not to invest in a great team to produce great audio. The difference between top notch audio and just ok audio will have the same net affect on the users experience.

To test that theory, next time you are playing a game, put on high school marching band music while you are playing and notice the difference in experience you have. In fact, changing the audio track to a picture changes the experience to something so dramatically different that this technique is used in therapy. If you want to change the experience of some event that has happened to you in the past, in your minds eye, replay the whole event and run a different soundtrack behind it (in your head) and instantly the experience will change. This is how powerful audio is in determining the experience of something.

Are there any genre’s of games that benefit more from high quality audio? RPG’s for instance?

Well, every game benefits from an appropriate and high quality soundtrack, and the genre and quality of writing will determine the value of the audio. For example, a fun casual game, for example a time management game, should in no way be given a dramatic RPG soundtrack.

Unless of course, that was the intended experience the producer wants. And that’s the great part about audio – you can tell so much story with the music in the instrument choices, dynamics and melodic/harmonic choices. Each game should have a well crafted soundtrack. Even the sound effects (SFX) can give you a much better experience based upon the way they create the realism of an animated object – choices in material, dynamics and progression through a SFX can tell so much about what the animation is on the screen.

What genre of game has your team really loved to work on?

Genre is not so important to us as much as games that are willing to take risks with the audio and really tell a story. So much can be done with audio to differentiate one game from the next that we love working on games where we have more creative freedom to go a little out of the expected ordinary approach. More and more games are doing this.

Do gamers actually buy sound tracks for video games as a secondary purchase?

LOL – it is funny that you ask that! We have sold a couple soundtracks separately and in online games recently. I would have to say at the moment, they seam to not be buying the soundtracks that much. Occasionally, a really definitive soundtrack connects with an audience and sells like hotcakes, but on average, I can not say it is something users buy. This is a shame from our perspective, as some of the music for games is absolutely extraordinary works of art on their own.

For example we released three soundtracks this year that were recorded with the Berlin Film Orchestra, an incredible orchestra that records all the film music coming out of Berlin.

Many publishers are pushing collectors edition style bundles, do you see these shipping with more audio soundtracks in the future?

In tie in with your last question, although people are not specifically buying soundtracks, they have become a great marketing tool and additional way to easily add value to a bundle or download. Since the work is already done, providing it for the user to have as an extra nice bonus is becoming popular. And I would guess we will see more of this in the future. It is really a per game decision based upon the listen-ability of the score separate from the game – like does it really stand up on its own as a work of art – or is the score primarily there to support the game play.

Somatone’s portfolio includes many popular casual games like Peggle, Talismania, Mystery Case Files, the Diner Dash series, Wedding Dash and so many others. Is the desire for quality sound tracks growing in the casual game space?

Absolutely. I think our company is a direct expression of how in demand high quality audio is for Casual Games. We first started at the beginning of Casual Games and, of course, then it was hard to convince people that it was worth the investment. Now, it is obvious. And with our recent recordings with the orchestra, I believe it is a strong statement from the publishers and our company that the market and attention from the customers to production quality is strong enough to warrant that investment.

Ultimately, no one would be spending that kind of money if we didn’t believe there was a return on the investment. So I believe it is very clear now that high quality audio in Casual Games is essential to compete in the market place.

You’ve worked on console games, DS games, PC games, XBLA games, mobile games and many others, which have you found the most joy working with?

I can’t say any particular platform is more enjoyable then others. Our team thrives on the challenge of making each game a superb “piece of art.” So, a really clever DS game can be as much fun as recording the military or orchestra for a console game. There are different challenges with each – limitations and technical particulars also – and we like to have to shift our thinking in terms of markets (as DS tends to not cater to the same customer as console products all the time), but no platform is always particularly better to us then others.

You’ve worked with Big Fish Games, Konami, Mattel, Mumbo Jumbo, Popcap, Playfirst, Vivendi, Ubisoft and so many others. Any memorable experiences with any of them? Any one of them that really put a challenge to your team?

Each company has a really distinctive culture and each company comes to the table with certain strengths. I could tell you about memorable experiences with all of them! Specifically, our work with Konami on the American Idol games was very challenging.

There level of accuracy on the music reproductions was actually shocking to us when we did the first game with them. We are already extremely anal about quality of production and accuracy when doing pop music reproductions, and each time we would hand in a song or review, we would get two pages of notes back on it. But the experience certainly upped our level of impeccability with production.

When do you begin working on sound tracks for a video game? From day one, or does the developer hand over a near final copy for you to start your audio?

Each game is different and depends on how the developer would like to include us in the process. The best ones come early (and often!) and include us from the start. We can creatively concept with them early and discuss technology options. Then we usually wait until the game has been more fleshed out to start production. Many times, games change before the end (levels are dropped, cut scenes are added, etc), so the longer we can wait the better.

How do developers react when you lay a soundtrack behind their game? Do you get good feedback from them?

LOL – well normally yes!! We do a great deal of creative design with our clients and pitch concepts, so by the time we craft an original score, we normally get a huge smile that their game now has an original score that is all theirs!

How long does it take you to design a full soundtrack for a game like Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst?

That took about 3 months in total. It was about 2 months in writing, and a month in production. There is the arranging, recording, editing, mixing and mastering that takes up that production month.

How do you go about designing the “theme” behind the soundtrack for a game title? What draws inspiration?

Well this is an interesting question – it is sort of like asking where do creative ideas come from. I can tell you how I do that, but I would guess it is different for each composer. I like to see the art (actually without the game play first), and hear the story from the producer. I immediately start noticing how I would feel if I was literally standing in the world as the character – a process called “shifting” – when you take your consciousness and pretend it is in another person to hallucinate what their experience might be like. I notice what emotions I would be feeling and the start thinking about how I would evoke that emotion through music – with instruments, tempos and melodies/harmonies.

These are the first three layers that pop up to me and they are such interconnected tools to create an emotional response to music, that they all come as a package to me. I would cal this the initial “creative impact.” Then I get a bit more strategic and heady about it (where as initially – I spend more time listening to body cues). I start referencing other material that has been done before in this style to get some specific ideas, then I am off and running. Of course, the Main Theme needs to tell the story of the whole game – or the bigger picture. So this is all taken into consideration during creation as well.

What inspired SomaTone to design video game sound tracks? Any particular games that gave you the desire?

We gravitated towards games mainly because of our rapport with the people in the industry. My partner, Nick Thomas and I, were in the record and film industry before. We were asked a few times to work on games and noticed that we really got along with the people in that industry better and there was more room for creative risks. This immediately drew us to work more in games.

SomaTone does music product, do you work in other areas such as sound effects, voice overs and such?

Absolutely, we are almost always hired to produce the music, Sound Effects (SFX) and Voice Over (VO) for a project. We have a full staff of sound designers and VO directors. Lately localization has been growing and we expect to see more localization of voices as 2009 goes on.

What type of tools do you require to make your audio experiences? Do you work on PC or Apple?

We work on both PC and Apples at our studios. There are rich tools on both and also the games require us to be able to test on both platforms. The actual software we use to create our audio is a LONG list, and a better discussion for next interview!

As consoles become more competitive and intense entertainment experiences, where do you see video game audio heading? Are we all going to need 7.1 surround sound systems to immerse ourselves?

Perhaps, there are those who would like to see it go there. I actually think at some point we might get to a full 3D experience that people actually like – meaning we have touched a bit on it with glasses and helmets – but it has not caught on yet. When we get to this experience I believe audio will stay up with the need to evolve. However, for different platforms, I think there will be different levels of evolution.

For example, DS would likely never be in 7.1! What we focus on, more then the technology, is where games are evolving within the consciousness of the society. Meaning, I would love to see less war games, and more complex thought provoking gaming. Stimulating game play and games that are both fun and develop skills or abilities of people. Guitar Hero is a great example of a game that is both really fun and develops ones experience to consider performing, or playing a guitar.

Naturally, you will not become a great guitarist by playing the game more, but more kids might become performers or musicians because of the exposure to it. I think games like that are awesome and a real triumph for that form of entertainment. I recognize that after all it is just entertainment, but why cant we learn, grow and evolve while we are being entertained?

To new game developers and independent developers, do you have any suggestions on the importance of the audio experience when they’re developing titles? Any experiences you’d like to pass on?

Work with highly experienced professionals when it comes to audio. Audio is your highest ROI as it is one of the lowest costs to developing your game while it gives you so much richness for your user experience. Treat it like you would art, because it is going to be revealing the mind behind the production – when done well, the whole product occurs like a higher quality product – therefore selling better.

With what we have learned from talking with Kane Minkus, we’ll be paying much closer attention to the audible experiences in our gaming environments. From casual gaming, to hardcore action adventure and RPG, the music tells a story, do you know what it’s saying?

How big is Sandlot games?

About 50 people in the states and in Russia. Three teams, dedicated developers and contract teams.

How many different franchises do your teams work on? It seemed like you had a lot of projects going on.

We always do. We have the Westward franchise, the TradeWinds franchise, the Cake Mania franchise, the SuperGranny franchise and Glyph. Five major franchises and every once in a while we also do a new project like Eye for Design. We have dedicated teams on all of our franchise games.

Are the people that work on Cake Mania very familiar with every new release of the game?

Yes, Yes we have people that have worked on Cake Mania since the very FIRST Cake Mania.

How long has Sandlot games been in existence?

We have been in business since 2002. Since the beginning of the casual games revolution so to speak. We have been around for a while and we have seen a lot of companies come and go and we have focused on games that we like to play and I believe our audience likes to play as well.

Speaking of which, in 2006 you guys had the best casual games award from Yahoo for Cake Mania did that bring on a new wave of Cake Mania fans or were they already dedicated by then? Did that bring you a lot of different exposure or did you already have that momentum?

The momentum was there, I think, just on the success of Cake Mania alone. You’ve got a game that is pretty much a phenomenon everywhere that it launched. As a DS title, we sold about 300,000 units of the first version of Cake Mania one DS. Cake Mania 2 DS is out, Cake Mania Skills is out. We have a Wii version planned by the end of the year. We’ve got two mobile games for Cake Mania, Cake Mania 1 and Cake Mania 2. Cake Mania PSP and PS2 just launched. It’s definitely a phenomenon and we are excited by the success of Cake Mania. By the time that article came out, it was pretty clear what direction Cake Mania was headed.

Would you call Cake Mania your flagship game? Was that THE game that got you guys going or was it a combination of everything?

It’s a combination. There are people here that love Cake Mania and there are people here that aren’t really crazy about it at Sandlot. We have a wide diversity of developers that like the games they develop, that is what makes a successful developer. Making sure whatever your guys are working on they like to build it themselves. In the case of the Westward team they are really crazy about Westward

When it came to developing Cake Mania 3 what did you guys do differently to make it stand out as its own title, as opposed to Cake Mania 2 with a couple enhancements or is this is a different game compared to the first two, this is something that is going to be a new experience?

Its definitely based on the principle of Cake Mania 1 and 2. It is definitely a time management game. Your still serving cakes, but there is quite a bit more, this is probably THE biggest evolutionary step in Cake Mania, yet, the one we took with Cake Mania 3. From customers that are specialized in every bakery. A customer like Napolean that keeps everybody from being served until he, himself, is served in revolutionary France in a location there. You’ve got customers in the Jurassic period that eat other customers when they are upset or turn other customers into Mummies that’s what the Anubis does in ancient Egypt. There’s very unique customer interactions and that makes you think about the game differently and really play the game differently. I think our audience, based on focus test results, really resonated with that.

You had Jill that ran her own cake shop in Cake Mania. In Cake Mania 2, Jill had to pick which friend to help what is her role in Cake Mania 3?

Really, Cake Mania the series is the story of Jill and, essentially, the story of her life. We don’t have her stand still. She just goes on and she lives. She grows up, obviously here she’s older, she’s getting married and on the eve of the wedding is when all this stuff happens. There’s chaos there. The time bender, which is a trophy you got in Cake Mania 2, breaks into a million pieces, actually five pieces. Her friends and family pick up a piece of the time bender and get sucked into a different time period.

Oh and that is how you bring in, almost, the fantasy style Jurassic and different style characters you meet?

Yeah and when you get there Jill can dress up in those costumes and you save those costumes in your costume shop and play them later. The one thing we are going to be doing is introducing new expansion packs you can download directly from the game, download and purchase. The first one is free, but you can download and purchase new ones. For example, we’ve got one coming out at the end of September that’s going to be a brand new location with brand new customers and brand new outfits for Jill.

Do you guys have a price, yet, for what the expansions will go for, besides the free one?

We are not sure, exactly, they are going to be bargain priced. They are going to be in the $4 to $6 range.

How much time do you get out of an expansion pack?

It’s a bakery. In essence, you’ve got five bakeries in Cake Mania 3 so it is an additional bakery.

So as you get these expansions you end up with what could be a 15 bakery game set? Is there a certain amount of expansion packs you guys are going to release or are you going to roll with it and if it is a success just keep doing it?

We will just keep doing it. We don’t have any plans to stop it, if it is going to be successful. It is really up to our fans to tell us if this is something they want or not.

Are there plans ahead for Cake Mania 3 to arrive on OS X? The Apple crowd seems to be growing, is there any more demand for OS X versions?

Yes, we are going to take our best selling games to OS X. You are going to soon see … there is a scoop for you, I don’t think I have told anyone yet so I’ll tell you. Westward II will likely make an appearance on the Mac.

When you were building this release of Cake Mania 3 is there anything you have seen you could do better on in future releases?

There is always a set of features that get into the bin that you want to see. I think what you are going to see in Cake Mania 4 is really more of an evolution of game play types something that you haven’t seen in Cake Mania 3. There is going to be evolution from an evolution perspective, Cake Mania 1 is a fish, Cake Mania 2 is, maybe, an amphibian, Cake Mania 3 is a mammal, Cake Mania 4 is a spirit creature. It is millions of years into the future from an evolutionary perspective. When I was trying to cram some of those features into Cake Mania 3,obviously, my team said, your crazy. You have to wait until the next release and I can tell you that the next release, Cake Mania 4, will be more interesting for our gamers because they are going to be able to really really see how this franchise evolves.

Did you guys hit any obstacles in the development of Cake Mania 3 that you overcame, but were memorable?

Yeah, in Cake Mania 3 we have a team working in St. Petersburg and we have producers that are in the States. There is always a suite of communication issues that are always kind of funny and interesting. Our team has grown quite a bit and with the first Cake Mania we had a lot of misunderstandings of what we wanted our team to do and they were too polite to ask us to please clarify. Now it is like we don’t get it could you please clarify for us.

Yeah, you grow into the roll and the flow?

Here is a story for you, in Cake Mania 1 we asked for a guy in a rabbit suit with a five o’ clock shadow. For a long time we didn’t get a response, for days. We were wondering is work going on on this thing or are you guys just stumped? What is going on here? Finally, we get a reply and it is a question A five o’ clock shadow, do you mean if the rabbit stands there and it is five o’ clock at night and he casts a shadow… so you know over coming these language barriers has always been a challenge, but, honestly, with Cake Mania 3 its been really really smooth. We have project management here we have project management there. We have leads there and leads here so it is really very very tight. We went over there twice during this course of the project to work with them, our producer was there in the trenches, scripting and working and it helps. You’ve got a very tight development team that is working together for a good couple of weeks and that really accelerates development. Traveling over there really helped a lot.

When somebody gets into Cake Mania 3 is there any need for them to go back to the other games or can somebody jump right into this game and get going?

It is both. I think you will have an easier time if you have played Cake Mania 1 and 2. You just get in and know exactly what to do and can skip the tutorials and all that stuff. But, if you have a certain way of doing things and that you are kind of use to, ok I am going to go ahead and leave a set of three money on the counter because you try and catch up. All of a sudden Robin Hood comes in in Medieval England and his shtick is he steals money off the counter. So you get challenged in the way that you play if you are use to playing a certain way. I know that our players really resonated with that. They love it and they hate it. They hate it because it is making them change the way they play. They love it because it is new and challenging and it is interesting. A new player doesn’t really have these preconceived notions of ways of playing. They haven’t trained themselves in Cake Mania 1 and 2, but at the same time they will have a longer ramp up time for the entire game.

Right it is almost like an inside joke. I have seen my wife do it too. I have such a hard time with time management games, but she’s just like you leave all this stuff here. But it is like there I want to get rid of it it is in my way. No, no, no, you leave them there and you collect them all and get bonus points. I get all confused.

And, actually, in Cake Mania 3 you do get benefit for three in a row of something. You essentially work up what is called a sugar rush meter. What happens if you do three in a row of any one action it builds up your sugar rush meter and once it hits high then, essentially, all your equipment makes stuff, cakes, frosting, toppings , instantaneously. It lasts for a short period of time, but during that period of time you can really rip through a bunch of customers.

Like a reward for doing it besides just points. A little something to help you and you go ahh alright I did it and gives you a reason to do it.

Yeah, exactly. It is definitely a rush when you do that and your like now I have to maximize the time I have to be able to serve as many customers as I can.

So you end up with strategy, which kind of leads me to this question I had about hard core gaming. Now casual gaming has a stereotypical role where people are looked at as less skilled, if you will. Now I have seen people play time management games and it seems to me that this is actually more hard core than Tic Tac Toe, right. Do you guys find anybody who’d actually be considered a hard core gamer that plays Cake Mania? Should that stereotype be broken?

Well, yeah, I think that stereotype is not there, honestly, I think that is an artificial constraint that we have put on gamers in general that the gamers tend to fall into the hard core audience or the casual audience. I think, in general, we have people that will launch our game and beat it in like days. It is hard for me to wrap my head around that. The fact that they call themselves casual gamers, but they stay up all night and play our game and finished it. Where as our QA takes days and days to finish it. Our QA is made up of hard core gamers. I think, in general, that is a misnomer or misrepresentation.

What is Sandlot Connect and does it have anything to do with the expansions you were talking about or is it something completely different?

It is about the expansions. It is about high score posting. It’s about all of the connected features of Cake Mania 3. By having Sandlot Connect, you, essentially expose Cake Mania 3 to potential infinitum via these expansion packs. Each expansion pack is not just new levels. It is a completely new location with new customers and new types of customers. That is really what is a lot of fun about it.

Is it more of a social networking style thing or is it really just a way to connect back and interactively purchase things and look at new stuff?

It will some day, also, be about social networking, in connecting to the community. Right now we are starting out as a way to let our users download more content and be able to post their high scores and communicate with the community that way and also through downloading new levels.

Is that restricted to Cake Mania or do you plan on expanding that through out your different franchises?

That is going to be to all of our franchises and as the feature set of Sandlot Connect expands into things like social networking, you are going to see our games make use of that as well.

The Time Management genre is big in the casual game realm, could you see Cake Mania going another direction in the future or is this always going to be a time management style game.

I am not going to say. By me not saying, I am also opening up the opportunity for speculation. Yes, it could be all kinds of different things.

Like a puzzle game and or different types of aspects?

Yeah, why not?

On the topic of casual games, how much, if at all, do you see the industry growing in the next five to ten years?

I think the idea, the term casual gaming is kind of a misnomer because it really is mainstream and will continue to be mainstream gaming and will become that for everybody. People will see gaming and will automatically associate it with, what we at this point call casual gaming and what in the future will be called mainstream gaming.

Especially when you have Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare. Every console system seems to be getting their own arcade style casual games.

Do you think there will be more indie companies coming in to compete on these levels?

If they are good games, yeah. I see a potential and an opportunity for them to do that, absolutely, but indie has always been plagued whether it is in the hard core gaming scene or casual gaming scene by a disdain of consumer interest. For indie games to really be mainstream games they really have to hit on what consumers really want. I think some of the XBLA games have done that in a big way.

And some of them might have just been an off chance. Whoa people actually like this.

Like geometry wars, right, that is one that just stands out and will always stand out. It is a game that seemed somewhat esoteric but it is really really fun. It made an indie game into a truly mainstream title.

Ok we don’t want to take up too much of your time. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us.

Thanks my pleasure.

She was interviewed by GameDaily about the effort, saying “the great thing about casual gaming is that it means different things to different people.” That, to me, is the key element that everyone in the industry (including analysts) need to understand: casual gaming is not a genre it’s a way of thinking.

“A middle aged woman is not playing on an Xbox 360 and doesn’t own a lot of these consoles that you’re talking about. But there absolutely is an opportunity to look at gaming models like Xbox Live Arcade or Xbox Live where we sell a game and continue to add on but it will be targeted towards people who own Xbox 360s and it will be casual kinds of things.”

Assuming EA and other casual game companies are already targetting the women casual gamers, it’s time for EA to turn its attention to the console gamers. Popcap Games says they’ve got something like 70% woman gamers and their titles are mainly PC and Macintosh based titles with a few showing themselves, lately, on Xbox Live Arcade.

EA has a large task ahead of itself, you can’t just pop a game on Xbox Live Arcade, call it casual and get a ton of buyers. You need a team that understands how to make a casual title not an FPS or RPG; casual game designs are not like other genres. Imagine making a ‘simple game’ that’s both addictive and contains hours of replay value for a shorter sized game. Cheap games don’t sell like good cheap games do.

Kathy Vrabeck has spent her five months building such a team of outside talent and getting them on board with the initiative. Xbox Live is a great place to start farming out their initial ideas and get some traction with the hardcore crowd. If you can create a big audience on Xbox Live you’ll not only make some money but you’ll turn an otherwise “hardcore console” into something broader and take a little market share away from that of Nintendo and its Wii power player.

Now, can EA do it?

(Thanks, Xboxer.tv)

If you’re striving to be an indy developer I suggest you take a bit of their advice as they’ve breached many boundaries (including the ocean) in order to complete the title. Gaming isn’t just a kids dream anymore.

CGC: What does Kayo Games mean? Is there any significance to the name?

Kayo is our last name.

CGC: How many people work at Kayo Games?

Tom and Sila Kayo.

CGC: What inspired you to create a Detective style game over a standard match-three, card, or a time management style title?

We wanted to do something new. And we were inspired by a popular TV show.

CGC: How many developers worked on the game and did you have any art/music department?

My brother is the only developer/programmer. We contracted two people for Art and Music, and I wrote the stories and the plots, designed the levels and oversaw the production.

CGC: How many hours did the development take from planning to completion?

I’d say an average of 6 to 20 hours a week depending on what needed to be done. But the whole development process took two years.

CGC: What was the most challenging aspect of the project?

My brother and I both have full time jobs, families and limited resources. He lives in Europe and I live in Arizona. There is a time difference of 10-hours between us. All that combined with other factors made it a little though.

CGC: Did you do all your testing internally or have any external game testers?

We test internally.

CGC: Are you planning to follow up PlayDetective Heart Breakers with a similar styled title or go a different direction?

Yes we have many ideas, and we are eventually planning on trying something else.

CGC: You mentioned, on www.playdetective.com, that you’ll be working on expansion packs, any estimation on a release date?

Hopefully by the holidays.

CGC: Do you have any plans to have competitive “online play” using online score boards or build a larger community around your games?

Not as of now.

CGC: You’re platform targets are fairly broad, any chance you’ll work on a Virtual Console game for the Wii with their new libraries or XNA on Microsoft’s Xbox 360?

It will depend on the success of the initial platforms.

CGC: PlayDetective: Heart Breakers would make an excellent PSP or DS game, have you considered that direction?

We are currently focusing on delivering a good product for PC, MAC and mobile platforms. After that why not?

CGC: Did you decide to go down the avenue of casual games because of the simplicity in development and cost, or are you ramping up for a boom in the casual game industry?

My brother has been making games for fun since he was a young teenager. As a student, he made a game (KatDoom) that did fairly well. That plus a potential boom in the industry and, as you mentioned the low development cost prompted us to go down the avenue.

CGC: What will expand the casual game industry to the next level? Online game portals, sheer number of games, the low-cost or the growing difference between a casual game and a typical multi-million dollar console game (i.e. Halo 3)?

Innovative games, better Art/music quality, in my opinion.

CGC: Does the internet and it’s ability to work around traditional publishers make it easier to create your own game? Have you tried going through traditional publishers for your PlayDetective: Heartbreakers?

The internet definitely made things easier. Our goal was to sell the game from our sites.

What is your opinion on mobile gaming? Where do you see it going now that everyone seems to have a mobile phone and smart phone costs are coming down on some brands?

In my opinion, mobile gaming is the next niche of opportunities for independent developers. There is an undeniable potential growth there. That’s the reason why PlayDetective: Heartbreakers was developed in a way that we could publish on various platforms, including the major mobile platforms.

CGC: What games inspired you to get into the independent game development scene?

My brother and I are avid players. As I said before, he used to create games for fun. Me, I was more business oriented and one day we just felt that we had what it took to get in the scene.

CGC: Given you’ve done what many independent game developers have the hardest time with, completion, is there any advice you could give to inspiring developers?

Have fun doing what you do, work as hard as you can, don’t expect to make millions of dollars after your first title, accept criticism with an open mind and consider the whole experience as a learning process that will enable you to do better next time. Again, have fun doing it and don’t ever give up!

I’d like to thank Kayo Games for answering a few of my questions! If you’d like to read the review of PlayDetective: HeartBreakers click your way over!