Read the highlights from the live web chat on PlayStation.Blog with four minis developers.
Following on from the announcement that the minis category on PlayStation Store had reached the one million downloads mark, four minis developers recently took part in a live web chat at blog.eu.playstation.com.
Taking part were: Antonio Jos of StormBASIC Games (Tehra Dark Warrior and Dynogems); Paul Croft of Mediatonic (Monsters (probably) Stole My Princess); Joe Dixon of Tag Games (Car Jack Streets); and Martin Brouard of Frima Studio (Zombie Tycoon and Widgets Odyssey).
In what proved to be a lively discussion, these minis development representatives fielded questions live from the PlayStation community as well as from SCEE Blog manager James Gallagher.
On the subject of setting up development for minis, Paul Croft of Mediatonic explained that "we managed to get up and running pretty quick - we brought in an experienced developer to help us out as it was our first time. The development environment was new to us but the way [we] designed and built the artwork was very similar to games we had built in the past."
When commenting on how long it took to develop a minis title from start to finish, Martin Brouard of Frima Studio commented: "Zombie Tycoon and Young Thor being huge minis took around six months to develop."
Commenting on Tag Games' new title, Car Jack Streets, Joe Dixon said: "It's a top-down real time action game with a lot of shooting, driving, stealing and money-grabbing. Essentially the in-game clock is the same as the real world clock. And the missions themselves have a real time element too. For example, a mission may require you to steal a car and then pick someone up at 15:30 - if you don't make it on time, you'll fail the mission!"
In terms of advice for budding minis programmers, Antonio Jos of StormBASIC Games listed the following requirements: "A great game and some money, fill paperwork to be a licensed developer, purchase a development kit, [set up] a team to develop the game and [fill] paperwork for PEGI age classification of your game."
Read the full discussion at blog.eu.playstation.com and keep an eye on PlayStation.Blog for more live web chats in the coming weeks and months.
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